Google Ads pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns can be a cost-effective way to improve your online presence to your specific target audience, especially if you know how to create an effective PPC campaign strategy. Optimal keywords, page titles, and meta descriptions are driving factors in helping you get your leads. However, you need thorough research and analysis to determine what is optimal for your specific campaign.
What’s great about advertising on Google is that they have provided many useful tools to help in getting data from their search engine, including insight into campaign performances, high-performing keywords, and more. It is now easy for you to create an effective strategy based on the information provided by Google.
One of the tools Google has developed to help research your campaign’s performance and competitors’ performance are auction insights.
Check out how you can use them to tailor an effective PPC campaign strategy.
What Are Auction Insights In Google Ads
Auction insights in Google Ads allow you to compare your performance with other businesses bidding on the same keywords. They come with a downloadable sheet that enables you to identify where your ads are performing well and where they need more improvement. Using auction insights can help you make informed decisions about bidding and budgeting your Google Ads campaign.
Data available in auction insights include Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns with a minimum activity threshold. If you check Search campaigns, you will have a report that includes keywords, ad groups, and campaigns. With Shopping campaigns, the report consists of ad groups and campaigns. And lastly, Performance Max allows you to create a report for campaigns.
How do Google Ads auctions work?
The auction commences every time a user types a query on Google. The process will determine when, where, and which ads are eligible for the search engine results page. Here is how Google Ads auctions typically work:
- When the user provides a query on the search engine, the Google Ads system will identify all the ads whose keywords match that search.
- From those ads, the search engine will ignore ads that aren’t eligible, such as those that target a specific country or ads that violate Google’s policies.
- Eligible ads will only be the one that shows up on the search engine. What determines your ad rank is a combination of your bid, ad rank, ad rank threshold, the context of the person’s search, the expected impact of extensions, and other ad formats.
Why Are Auction Insights Important
If you want to invest in Google Ads to boost your online presence, then auction insights is an important tool for gathering your data on your campaign and your competitor’s campaign. The data you get from auction insights will then help you with the following:
1. Understand your competition
With auction insights, you can see who your competitors are in an auction and how you stack up against them. This data can help you adjust your bidding strategies to boost your ad’s visibility and performance.
2. Discover opportunities
When you analyse information on auction insights, you can identify new opportunities for targeting their ad campaigns on Google. One example would be seeing the keywords your competitors are bidding on and adjusting your keyword strategy accordingly. Another example would be to see what ad strategies you’ve used that are gaining more positive results and then maximise them to gain more leads.
3. Boost your ROI
By identifying the areas of your campaign where you need to improve, you can make more strategic decisions on allocating your advertising budget. As a result, you can optimise your bids and have a better return on investment (ROI).
4. Monitor campaign performance
Auction insights enable you to see how your ad is performing over time. You can track the changes in your Google ad’s position, impression share, and other metrics to analyse the trends and adjust your strategy based on your findings.
5. Gain an edge over your competitors
You can also make a good competitor analysis with auction insights by monitoring your competitor’s ad strategies and performance. Auction insights allows you to see your competitor’s ad formats and targeting methods, the keywords they bid on, and how often they win auctions. With this information, you can see how their strategy compares to yours and modify your strategy to get ahead.
How To Access Auction Insights
To check the data on your or your competitor’s Google Ads campaign, here’s how you can gain access to auction insights in just five easy steps:
Step 1: Sign in to your Google Ads account.
Step 2: Click the Campaigns, Ad groups, or Keywords page menu based on what should be in your report.
Step 3: Check the box next to each item to choose a specific campaign, ad group, or keyword. However, know that you can only select keywords on a single page at a time.
Step 4: Click on auction insights.
Step 5: After that, the auction insights report will appear. If you choose either only Search campaigns or Shopping campaigns, the data will be available on the report. However, if you select a mix of search and shopping results, you must click the corresponding radio button to switch between pages.
How to filter your auction insights
You can make a filter if you want to find keywords, ad groups, and campaigns with auction insights reports. The filter lets you see which of your keywords, ad groups, and campaigns have reports that can be viewed.
Step 1: Click the filter icon above the statistics table
Step 2: Choose one of the filters that appear to view a list of conditions
Step 3: Enter the condition, then click Apply. The table will then show you the keywords or ad groups with Auction Insights reports available.
What Are The Metrics In Auction Insights & How Do I Interpret It
Once you have access to your Auction Insight report from Google Ads and downloaded your report, you might be wondering what the numbers mean. Each campaign may present different metrics in your report.
For Google Search Campaigns, the metrics presented in the report include overlap rate, impression share, outranking share, top of page rate, position above rate, and absolute top of the page rate. On the other hand, Google Shopping campaign reports include impression share, overlap rate, and outranking share. Since Google Performance Max campaigns are ads across all of Google’s advertising channel, like YouTube, Search, Discover, and more, auction insights is segmented by Search and Shopping ads and is available to you at the account and campaign level.
If you are going through the auction insights report on your Search and Shopping campaigns, here is what you should know about each metric and how you can interpret this data:
Impression share
This is the number of impressions your campaign received divided by the potential total impressions that were available. For example, if your ad acquired 2000 impressions from an estimated total of 10,000 available, then you would have an impression share of 20%.
With this data, you can compare your impression share with the impression share of your competitor. Should your impression share be lower than your competitors, you can gauge whether you should increase your bids or improving your ad quality to boost your rank.
Overlap rate
If your competitor receives an impression at the same time as your ad, this is called an overlap. Overlap rate is measured by how often your and your competitor’s ads are visible on search results simultaneously. As such, if your competitor’s ads overlapped with yours three times in every ten impressions, the overlap rate would be 30%.
A high overlap rate with any of your competitors indicates that you and your competitor may be targeting the same keywords. Therefore, you can consider adjusting your keyword or bidding strategy.
Position above rate
This metric tells you how often a competitor’s ad was shown at a position higher than yours. However, this will only count if your ad and their ad appear at the same time. Should your number be lower than your competitors in this area, you may want to consider increasing your bids or improve your Google Ads strategy to improve your rank.
Outranking share
This statistic shows you how often your ad ranks higher than your competitors. It helps you understand how often your ad is winning auctions and how competitive your Google Ads strategy is compared to your competitors. This way, you can see the trend and identify what strategy is effective in your specific market when it comes to PPC campaigns.
Top of page rate
As the name suggests, this presents how often your ad appears at the top of the paid search rankings. A high number in this statistic indicates that your ad is appearing in the most visible positions in the search results. If you see that your rate is lower than your competitors, then you may have to modify your strategy to get ahead of the competition.
Absolute top of page rate
Similar to the Top of Page Rate, this refers to how often your ad was shown at the absolute top of the page ad and the first ad in the lineup. This metric shows how prominent your ad is on the search results and how likely it is visible to your target audience. Should this and your top-of-page rate be significantly lower, it could mean that your ad strategy may require areas of improvement.
Applying Insights To Your Campaigns
With this free tool from Google Ads, you will be able to have a look into what’s happening in your competition. Know that the reach and potential of your ad rely not only on your strategy but also your competitor’s strategy. Therefore, you also have to do a thorough analysis of their performance, so you can keep up.
The data on your auction insights report enables you to refine your PPC strategy on Google Ads, whether it is by adjusting your bids, keywords, or ad copies. Study your auction insights report regularly, so you can spot the trends and new opportunities that will help you achieve your KPIs.
Make The Most Out Of Google Ads With Auction Insights
Auction insights can be a powerful tool for any digital marketer or business that gives data on campaign performance, whether it’s your own campaign or your competitors’. With auction insights, you can make more strategic decisions on how you can go about your bids, keyword strategy, and ad copy so that you can improve your ROI. Use the information you’ve gathered to tailor your Google Ads campaign strategy and make the most of your advertising budget to boost your online presence.
If you need help with your PPC campaign, partner with First Page, a reputable Google Ads agency in Singapore. We’ve worked with numerous clients on developing Google Ads campaign strategies and other digital marketing services that are tailored to their specific industry and goals. With our expertise in the paid search landscape, we can help you maximise your budget, so you can boost your online presence and acquire more leads. Contact us today to learn more.
