Auction insights for brand campaigns: what each column meansAuction insights for brand campaigns: what each column means

Yourbrand's brand campaign has run quietly for years: its own ad first on its own name, average CPC around £0.20. In October the average climbs to £0.31 with no change in Change history. Auction insights on the campaign shows why, or at least who: a domain that wasn't there in August now shows in a quarter of the auctions, and above Yourbrand's ad in most of them.

Auction insights is the one Google Ads report that names other advertisers in your auctions. It's also easy to misread. This guide takes each column in turn, shows which segments are worth turning on for a brand campaign, works through an example, and lists the auctions it can't see.

What it covers

The report compares your performance with other advertisers taking part in the same auctions. It's available for Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns: for Search, from the Campaigns, Ad groups or Search keywords tables, and for Performance Max at account and campaign level, split into Search and Shopping. Each row is a display domain: the address shown on the other advertiser's ads. One row is your own.

A display domain isn't an advertiser. Two Google Ads accounts showing the same domain share a row, and the report never shows the name Google gives in About this advertiser. To get from a domain to a business, use the Ads Transparency Center.

The six columns, one by one

• Impression share: impressions received divided by the estimated impressions that could have been received. On your row, that's your impression share. On another domain's row, it's how often that domain showed in the auctions you also took part in.
• Overlap rate: how often the other domain's ad received an impression when yours did too.
• Position above rate: when both ads showed at the same time, how often the other domain's ad sat higher than yours.
• Top of page rate: how often an ad (yours on your row, theirs on theirs) showed at the top of the page, above the unpaid results.
• Absolute top of the page rate: how often it was the very first ad above the unpaid results.
• Outranking share: how often your ad ranked higher than the other domain's, counting the times yours showed and theirs didn't.

Shopping campaigns get three of these: impression share, overlap rate and outranking share. Google's help says the report doesn't show insights when impression share is under 10%, and its API reports any impression share or outranking share below 10% as 9.99%. Either way a small or occasional bidder's exact share is hidden, and one that only runs at night can sink below the line once a month is averaged.

A worked example

The sum: you showed in 96 of every 100 auctions, and it showed alongside you in a quarter of those, about 24. In 62% of those shared auctions it was above you, so roughly 15 in every 100. Your outranking share of 81% is still high, because it counts the 72 auctions where you showed and it didn't. A high outranking share can hide a domain sitting above you in a steady slice of auctions.

Now put it beside your own columns. If your Search abs. top IS has fallen, your Search lost IS (rank) has risen and your average CPC has climbed with no change on your side, the other domain's Ad Rank is a likely reason. Your actual CPC is the least you need to beat the ad ranked below yours, so a new bidder close behind you can raise your price without overtaking you at all. The guide to your brand campaign's impression share reads those columns one by one.

Segments worth turning on

• Week or month, over three to six months, to see when a domain arrived. A first appearance in a given week is a date you can take to your network.
• Device. A domain that shows on mobile and not on computers is easy to miss from an office desk.
• Day of week. A domain that appears or gains share only on Saturday and Sunday points to an ad schedule.

There's no hour of day. Your own campaign's Avg. CPC by Hour of day is the closest you'll get: a price that climbs every evening, with nothing changed on your side, is a lead. The guide to ads at night and at weekends maps the whole week, day by hour, from your Ad schedule page.

What it can't show

• Auctions your campaign didn't enter. If your brand campaign is exact match on [yourbrand], it usually doesn't enter “yourbrand discount code”, so nobody bidding there appears. If it switches off overnight, the night's auctions aren't there either.
• Who the advertiser is, what it bid, which keyword matched, what its ad said or where its click went.
• An exact share under 10%, or anything by hour.
• Search partners' sites. Google says they don't split ads into top and other positions, so they aren't included.

How to read it, step by step

1. In Google Ads, open Campaigns from the Campaigns menu, tick your brand campaign and select Auction insights. The same works from the Ad groups and Search keywords tables, for a narrower view.
2. Set the date range to the last 90 days. Note every domain and its impression share, overlap rate and position above rate.
3. Segment by week. Find the week each domain you don't recognise first appeared, and whether its share is growing.
4. Segment by device, then by day of week, and look for a domain that's strong on one device or only at weekends.
5. In the campaign view, add Search impr. share, Search lost IS (rank), Search top IS, Search abs. top IS and Avg. CPC, by week, beside Change history for the same weeks.
6. If you don't bid on the code searches, give them a phrase match ad group of their own for a few weeks, with a budget you're comfortable with, and read its Auction insights separately.
7. Look up each unfamiliar domain: search it, and your own address, in the Ads Transparency Center with the region set to the United Kingdom.
8. Match what you find against your agency, your resellers and your approved partners before asking anyone anything.

The ordinary explanations

• A reseller or marketplace seller, advertising your products under its own domain.
• A competitor bidding on your name, which Google's policies don't restrict.
• A voucher or cashback site advertising its page about you, which your terms may allow.
• A change in your own account: a keyword moved to broad match enters many more auctions, and the report fills with domains that were always there.
• Your own budget. A rising Search lost IS (budget) means you're dropping out of auctions, and others show in your place.
• A season or a sale: more searches for your name, and more advertisers interested in them.

If one turns out to be a PPC affiliate on searches your terms don't allow, the guide to paid-search rules covers the wording, and the network is the place to raise it.