- Definition
- Auction insights is a report in an advertiser's own account that compares its performance with other advertisers in the same auctions.
In plain words
Auction insights is a report inside Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising. It shows which other advertisers competed in the same auctions as you, and how often they showed above you or next to you.
It is about your own campaigns: advertisers you never met in an auction are not in it.
Why it matters for brand and paid search teams
PPC teams use it to see which competitors put pressure on their brand campaigns and how that changes over time. It is often the first place a new competitor shows up.
It is not a list of everyone on your brand searches. Searches you do not bid on, markets you do not target and hours your campaign is paused are outside it, which is where independent monitoring helps.
How it works
Google's report for Search campaigns includes six statistics: impression share, overlap rate, outranking share, position above rate, top of page rate and absolute top of page rate. Shopping campaigns get impression share, overlap rate and outranking share.
Google applies thresholds, so some rows do not show when activity is low. Microsoft Advertising exposes similar measures, such as overlap rate, above rate, top of page rate and outranking share, in its auction insight data.
The report shows how others performed in your auctions. It does not reveal their bids, keywords, budgets or settings. Google also notes that search partners are not broken down into top and other positions in this report.
Example
Northstar's auction insights for its brand campaign lists summit-outdoors.example with a 35% overlap rate. Monitoring of the same searches shows Summit Outdoors mostly on mobile in Austin and Atlanta, and a coupon site on northstar coupon, where Northstar does not bid.
The coupon site never appears in auction insights, because Northstar's campaign did not enter those auctions.
Fictional brands and domains, for illustration only.
Common mistakes and misconceptions
Auction insights lists every advertiser on my brand searches. It lists advertisers in auctions your campaigns entered, above its activity thresholds.
Overlap rate tells me the competitor's budget. It shows how often you both appeared, not what they spent.
Auction insights and monitoring should match. They sample different things. Keep them labeled separately and use each for its own question.
How to monitor it in Ads Lighthouse
Ads Lighthouse does not import auction insights. Its reports describe your monitored sample: who appeared on each checked search, with the ad, place, device and time.
Use both: auction insights for your own auctions, monitoring for searches, markets and moments your campaigns do not cover. Keep the two sources labeled separately.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get auction insights for a competitor's campaigns?
No. The report is available only for your own campaigns, and only describes auctions they entered.
Why is a competitor missing from my auction insights?
It may appear on searches, places or times your campaign does not cover, or fall below the report's thresholds.
How often should I read auction insights for brand campaigns?
Many teams check it weekly next to their monitoring report, and look closer whenever overlap rate or position above rate jumps for a competitor.
Official sources
- Google Ads Help: Use auction insights to compare performance
- Microsoft Advertising API: AuctionInsightKpi data object
Sources checked on .