How to do competitor analysis using Google’s auction insights feature

Competition is an important attribute that helps you stay ahead in the Google rankings. Knowing all about your competitors is essential for improving the insights of your website so that you can expand the scope of improvement. Google’s auction insights feature is vital for obtaining a competitive analysis report for every business and agency. A detailed overview of the page or multiple pages is essential and necessary.

Google Ads have incorporated the exceptional auction insights feature for a better understanding of your standing as well as of your competition. When Google Adwords experts perform a search of the keywords, the search engine-Google executes a run of the auction report simultaneously while the ad is broadcasted. It determines the position, ranking, and optimization of the ad on the search engine results page.

Auction Insights Report

Source: SearchEngineLand

Generating an auction insights report is a simple and straightforward task. Initially, it would be best if you decided which level of the data needs to be analyzed and, subsequently, tracked. Navigate through the facets like AdWords, keywords, and campaigns so that you can pull the report for a specific parameter or for different levels.

After the selection is made, the auction insights report feature appears as a pop-up and can be clicked on to get the final verdict. Once you have selected the option – and the report is ready – you have a comprehensive analysis of our data, which can be checked for the presence of the competitor’s data as well.

Parameters of the report

Source: SearchEngineLand

Similarly, the presence of competitors helps you uncover details and the performance of paid Google Ads. To know more about the auction insights, you have to be aware of the various parameters involved. The major points covered in the report are as follows:

1. Outranking value: It is indicative of the ranking position of your ad in comparison to another advertiser. Further, it helps in knowing whether your ad reflects in the search or not.
2. Position above rate: At a time when both you and your competitor broadcast an advertisement, which of them is ranked at a higher position.
3. Top of the page rate: In the search engine results, the number of times your ad appears on the top of the page.
4. Impressions share: The value is calculated by dividing the number of impressions you recorded divided by an estimated value.
5. Overlap rate: The number of times another ad’s impressions coincided with your ad in an auction.

Utilization of the insights

Google’s auction insights maintains a fine balance between the efforts and time invested with the resulting performance of your ads. There are different ways through which the insights can be utilized. Some of them are enlisted below:

• Broadening the device knowledge of strategy

The response time and nature of different site pages varies significantly from one device to another. When you’re using the smartphone in comparison to the laptop/desktop, you can know the difference and the significance of data points as well.

Through the report, you can gain insights into the ranking and performance of your ads as well as that of your competition. With information about the competitor’s score, you can have an idea about how to enhance the elements and promote the strategy accordingly.

Insights about bidding are known through the values of the parameters obtained. Hence, you will know which channel can be used to launch an effective campaign and, in turn, outrank your competition.

• Evaluating the competitor’s budget

As far as resources go, the auction insights report is a very useful tool for knowing all about the competitor’s position. In terms of finance allocation, you can learn about the budget of the competitor through an analysis of the impressions percentage.

For instance, if the impressions percentage value of your competitor is 60% while yours is 40%. It provides an estimate of the competitor’s budget value by indicating that your competitor has spent considerably more than you.

• Popularity index

The auction report also gives you a glance at the trends and the rate at which they do so. There are certain advertisements that rank high initially, after which there is a significant dip observed in their performance.

The vice versa can also happen with a peak in the performance of the advertisement. Depending on the parameters involved and the values generated, you will be able to know whether there is a rise or decline in the growth statistics of the advertisement.

Auction insights: Fill gaps and field for opportunities  

The Google feature is crucial for various scenarios, one of which is filling in the gaps and fulfilling opportunities depending upon the scope available. After all, it is all about the research involved.

While competing with your competitor’s ad, the properties of the page and related content can help you know how the page is performing in terms of efficacy and creativity too.

Asking a whole lot of questions helps a great deal in knowing about the organic traffic and the target areas of focus. Thus, the auction data helps in better control of the competitive front.

Wrapping up

Most Google Adwords experts have developed expertise in analysis and reporting through which they can understand various factors about the performance of the advertisements. A point of consideration is that everyone works at a different pace and develops a level of understanding different from the other mindsets. Hence, what works for someone may not always work for you or not at all. Though comparisons don’t still help, in the domain of marketing and while handling a business, it forms a crux for establishing a framework of high-ranking advertisements while generating high yields too.

Drawing comparison charts helps you track your progress with respect to your efforts, and it doesn’t mean that you have to match their growth and engagement levels. The report should be used as a reference point and not as the final verdict. It will undoubtedly help you improve and further optimize your strategy for marketing campaigns.