How Auction Insights Works
The Auction Insights report in Google Ads shows you which other advertisers are competing in the same auctions as your campaigns, and how their performance compares to yours across six key metrics: Impression Share (% of eligible auctions where your ad showed), Overlap Rate (how often a competitor's ad showed in the same auction as yours), Position Above Rate (how often a competitor's ad was shown above yours when both appeared), Top of Page Rate (how often the ad appeared at the top of the SERP), Absolute Top of Page Rate (how often the ad appeared as the very first ad), and Outranking Share (how often your ad ranked above a competitor's, or your ad showed when theirs didn't). The report is available at campaign, ad group, and keyword levels.
Why Auction Insights Matters for B2B Marketing
For B2B advertisers, Auction Insights is the primary tool for competitive intelligence within Google Ads. It answers critical strategic questions: Which competitors are most aggressively bidding on your core terms? Are they gaining impression share while yours is declining? Are new competitors entering your auction landscape? Is a particular competitor dominating absolute top of page position, suggesting they have a higher Quality Score or bid strategy that's outpacing yours? This intelligence directly informs bid strategy adjustments, budget increases on contested keywords, and landing page quality improvement to boost Quality Scores.
Auction Insights: Best Practices & Strategic Application
Auction Insights interpretation and action: if your Impression Share is declining while a competitor's Outranking Share is increasing, check Budget Lost IS and Rank Lost IS to determine whether the issue is budget (add budget) or Quality Score/bid (improve ad relevance and landing page); if a new competitor appears with high Overlap Rate and Position Above Rate, analyze their ad copy and landing pages for messaging they're using to outperform; if your Top of Page Rate is below 50% for high-priority keywords, either increase bids, improve Quality Score, or both; and export Auction Insights data monthly to track competitive landscape changes over time.
Agency Perspective: Auction Insights in Practice
MV3 uses Auction Insights as a monthly competitive brief for each client — a structured snapshot of who's entering or exiting their auction landscape, which competitors are intensifying investment, and where our client has structural opportunities to improve position through Quality Score rather than simply outbidding. In several B2B accounts, Auction Insights analysis has revealed that competitors with consistently higher Position Above Rates are using RSA headlines that address specific pain points our clients hadn't covered — leading directly to creative strategy updates.
