On this page
- What is Google Ads auction insights?
- How to access the auction insights report (2026)
- What the auction insights report tells you
- The 6 auction insights metrics explained
- Where auction insights is available by campaign type
- What’s changed in auction insights for 2026
- Common ways to use auction insights data
- Limitations of auction insights
- Frequently asked questions
- Win the profitable auctions, not every auction
The goal of your ad campaigns isn’t to win every auction. It’s to win the profitable ones.
Google Ads auction insights shows you exactly where you sit in the competitive landscape: which advertisers are bidding on the same queries in the Google Ads auction, how often they beat you in the search results, and where you beat them.
But the goal of your ad campaigns isn’t to win every auction. It’s to win the profitable ones. A low impression share on a low-margin term can be the right call. This guide explains the Google Ads auction insights report, the six metrics it shows, what’s changed in 2026, and the business decision each metric should drive.
- The auction insights report compares your performance against advertisers competing in the same Google Ads auctions, at the keyword, ad group and campaign level.
- It now covers Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns: the 2026 addition that restores competitive visibility into what used to be a black box.
- Since Google's April 2025 double-serving policy update, a competitor's impression share can rise (or yours can fall) without anyone changing a bid. Read the data with that in mind.
- The six metrics only matter when tied to a decision: win the profitable auctions, not all of them.
What is Google Ads auction insights?
Each time someone searches one of your keywords, Google runs an ad auction to decide which ads show and in what order. The auction insights report lets you compare your performance in that ads auction against the other advertisers competing for the same impressions.
It won’t show you anyone’s bids, budgets or ad copy. It’s aggregated and relative. What it does show is the shape of your competitive landscape: who you’re up against, how often your ad appears alongside another advertiser’s ad, and who tends to win.
You can run the auction insights report at three levels (campaign, ad groups, and individual keyword) and segment Search data by time and device. The six auction insights metrics are summarised in the table further down; first, here’s how to find the report in your Google Ads account.
How to access the auction insights report (2026)
The old “More menu” path is gone. In the current Google Ads account interface, you access auction insights by selecting the rows you want to analyse first:
- Open Campaigns, Ad groups, or Search keywords from the left-hand menu.
- Tick the box next to the specific campaign(s), ad group(s) or keyword(s) you want to analyse.
- Click the Auction insights button that appears in the page menu.
A newer addition to the auction insights report lets you compare auction trends across two custom time periods, which makes spotting a competitor’s move much faster. Running the report at the keyword level gives the sharpest read; campaign and ad groups level is best for a quick competitive overview across ad campaigns.
What the auction insights report tells you
Once you can read the auction insights data, it answers the questions that actually shape strategy:
- Who are your real Google Ads auction competitors, including ones you’d never consider rivals offline?
- How often are your ads showing versus theirs, and is that gap widening?
- Who is showing above you, and who is bidding on your brand name?
- Are new advertisers entering your ads auction?
To turn those answers into action, you need to understand each metric and the decision it should drive.
The 6 auction insights metrics explained
There are six auction insights metrics. The table below is the fast reference; the notes under it add the revenue lens: the decision each metric should drive.
| Metric | What it measures | Example | What “good” looks like | The decision it drives | Available in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Impression share | Impressions you got ÷ impressions you were eligible for | 20% = you showed in 2,000 of 10,000 eligible auctions | Higher on your priority, profitable terms | Raise budget or fix Quality Score (see IS Lost (Budget) vs (Rank)) | Search, Shopping, PMax |
| Overlap rate | How often a competitor got an impression when you did | 60% = you both showed 6 in 10 times | Identifies your true auction rivals | Research high-overlap rivals in the Ads Transparency Center | Search, Shopping, PMax |
| Outranking share | How often you ranked higher than them, or showed when they didn’t | 70% = you won position 7 in 10 | Trending up vs key rivals | Trend it monthly as your win-rate scorecard | Search, Shopping, PMax |
| Position above rate | How often they ranked above you when you both showed | 40% = they beat your position 4 in 10 | Lower vs rivals you want to beat | Outbid, or out-quality with better ad copy and landing pages | Search only |
| Top of page rate | How often your ad showed above the organic results | 80% = above organic 8 in 10 impressions | High on commercial-intent terms | Lift bids/quality if low on money keywords | Search only |
| Absolute top of page rate | How often your ad was the very first ad above organic | 30% = the first ad 3 in 10 times | Only as high as the margin justifies | Decide when position #1 isn’t worth the CPC at your CPA target | Search only |
Impression share is your visibility relative to your potential. Pair it with Impression Share Lost (Budget) versus Lost (Rank). If you’re losing to budget, more spend helps; if you’re losing to rank, the fix is Quality Score, ad relevance and bids, not just dollars. It reflects how often your ad appears across your eligible search campaigns.
Overlap rate is how you find your real competitors in the ads auction. A high overlap rate means a competitor’s ad keeps appearing in the same auctions as yours. Those are the advertisers whose ad copy and landing pages are worth studying in the Google Ads Transparency Center.
Outranking share is your head-to-head win rate: how often your ad ranked higher than a rival’s, or showed when their advertiser’s ad didn’t appear at all. Compare it against advertisers who spend similarly to you, and trend it month over month. A falling outranking share is an early warning.
Position above rate tells you how often another advertiser’s ad took a higher ad position than yours when you both appeared in the same auctions. A high position above rate from one rival is a prompt to decide: outbid them, or out-quality them with stronger ad copy and a better landing page experience.
Top of page rate is how often your ad appears above the organic search results; absolute top of page rate is how often you were the very first ad above the search results. A higher top of page rate is better on commercial-intent terms, but the absolute top of page rate is really a margin question, because the very first ad position costs the most. Sometimes the second or third slot, with a lower top of page rate, is the more profitable call.
Where auction insights is available by campaign type
Auction insights isn’t available everywhere, and the metrics differ by campaign type. It covers your search campaigns and shopping campaigns, and across search and shopping campaigns the available metrics differ, as the table shows. The big 2026 change is Performance Max: it now appears in the report, which restores competitive visibility advertisers lost when PMax launched.
| Campaign type | Available? | Metrics shown | Levels |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search | Yes | All 6 metrics | Keyword, ad group, campaign |
| Shopping | Yes | 3 (impression share, overlap rate, outranking share) | Ad group, campaign |
| Performance Max | Yes (new in 2026) | Overlapping businesses, segmented Search vs Shopping | Account, campaign |
| Demand Gen | No | – | – |
| Display / Video | No | – | – |
| AI Max for Search | Should inherit Search availability* | Reports through Search | As per Search |
*AI Max for Search is a Search campaign feature rather than a separate campaign type, so its auctions should report through Search auction insights. Google hasn’t published AI-Max-specific documentation, so treat this as expected behaviour rather than confirmed.
Performance Max auction insights work a little differently from Search: instead of the full six-metric breakdown, you see the businesses you overlap with for the search and shopping ads PMax serves, segmented into Search and Shopping, at the account and campaign level.
What’s changed in auction insights for 2026
A few developments change how you should read the auction insights data this year:
- Double-serving (April 2025). Google’s Unfair Advantage policy update lets a single advertiser show more than one ad on the same results page (in different locations). Our read of that change: a competitor’s impression share can climb, and yours can dip, without anyone changing a bid, simply because total eligible impressions grew. Compare impression share trends with that in mind rather than assuming every shift is a budget move.
- Performance Max is now included (see the availability table above): the single biggest visibility gain in the report for years.
- No API access. As of early 2026, the Google Ads API team hasn’t exposed auction insights data through the Google Ads API, and third-party BI/Looker Studio export was cut off around August 2024, so you’re working inside the Google Ads interface for this report.
- AI Overviews. On queries that trigger an AI Overview, even a “top of page” ad can sit below the AI answer, shrinking the premium real estate the top-of-page metrics describe.
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Common ways to use auction insights data
Here are the situations you’ll actually face, and how to act on the auction insights data:
The competitors listed aren't my real competitors. What does that mean?
Businesses of all sizes can land in your ads auction without being true rivals. If they’re irrelevant, your keywords are probably too broad. Check the search terms report and add negatives to tighten targeting.
A competitor's impression share is climbing. Should we match their spend?
They may be increasing budget, or just double-serving more. Weigh the value of those auctions to your business before matching spend, and test stronger ad copy or a sharper offer before simply bidding more.
Competitors are bidding on my brand name. How do I defend it?
Run brand as its own campaign, set the goal toward impression share, and aim to appear on nearly all brand searches for as little as possible. Use auction insights to see who’s encroaching and how aggressively.
I can't raise budget. What now?
This is where the profitable-auctions mindset earns its keep. Use outranking share and Impression Share Lost (Rank) to win efficiently rather than broadly: improve ad relevance and landing pages, use every relevant extension, and tighten targeting to a more qualified audience. That’s a competitive edge that doesn’t require more spend.
How we grew Hobbies Direct's revenue 77% while cutting ad spend 20%.
The same auction insights principles, applied across a full Google Ads rebuild for an Australian e-commerce client.
Read the case studyLimitations of auction insights
Auction insights is powerful, but it’s not the whole picture, and an honest read of its limits keeps you from over-trusting it:
- It only covers overlapping auctions on shared keywords, not your competitor’s full account or every battle you’re in.
- It shows no bid, budget, creative or dollar data. You can’t see a rival’s ad spend, only relative metrics.
- The 10% impression-share threshold means no data shows for an advertiser (or for you) below 10% share for the period, a blind spot exactly when you’re smallest.
- Data is aggregated across time and geography, so a regional or time-of-day battle can be hidden in the average.
- Search Partners are included but aren’t split out by position.
The fix is to pair auction insights with the data it lacks: your own conversion data, the search terms report, and the Ads Transparency Center for competitor creative.
Frequently asked questions
What is the auction insights report?
The auction insights report compares your Google Ads performance against other advertisers competing in the same auctions. It shows relative metrics like impression share, overlap rate and outranking share, but never competitors’ bids, budgets or ad copy. It’s available at the campaign, ad group and keyword level.
How do I access auction insights in 2026?
Open Campaigns, Ad groups or Search keywords, tick the box next to the campaign, ad group or keyword you want to analyse, then click the Auction insights button that appears. The old “More menu” path no longer applies in the current Google Ads interface.
Can you see auction insights for Performance Max campaigns?
Yes. As of 2026, Performance Max campaigns appear in auction insights at the account and campaign level, showing the businesses you overlap with, segmented into Search and Shopping. It’s not the full six-metric breakdown that Search gets, but it restores competitive visibility into PMax.
Is auction insights available for Display or Video campaigns?
No. Auction insights covers Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns only. Demand Gen, Display and Video campaigns don’t have an auction insights report.
Can competitors see my auction insights data?
They see the same shared, aggregated report about where your ads and theirs overlap, the same relative metrics you see about them. No advertiser can see another’s bids, budgets, conversions or ad copy through auction insights.
Why aren’t my auction insights showing?
Google only shows auction insights data for advertisers above a 10% impression share for the selected period. If your impression share is below that threshold, or you’ve selected too narrow a date range or too few impressions, the report may show no data.
Is auction insights available via the Google Ads API?
Not as of early 2026. Auction insights data isn’t exposed through the Google Ads API, and third-party BI/Looker Studio export was discontinued around August 2024, so you’ll work with this report inside the Google Ads interface.
How often should I check auction insights?
Monthly is enough for stable accounts; weekly during peak seasons or competitive pushes. The point isn’t to watch it constantly. It’s to catch a rival’s move (a rising impression share, a new entrant) early enough to make a profitable response.
Win the profitable auctions, not every auction
Auction insights is a decision tool, not a scoreboard. Used well, it tells you who you’re really competing against, where you’re losing ground, and, most importantly, which auctions are worth winning at your target return.
Chase impression share where the margin justifies it, defend your brand, and let the low-value auctions go. That’s the competitive edge, and it’s the bidding strategy that turns Google Ads into a profitable channel rather than an expensive one.
Want to see how your account stacks up? Start by seeing your competitors’ Google Ads for free, or talk to us about turning search into your most profitable channel.
