In our article on Google Ads auction insights, we explored how this report works and the meaning of the various entries present.
Fortunately, Microsoft Advertising also offers its advertisers the same section, called “Auction Insights“!
Auction Insights: What It Is and What It’s For
By clicking on the “Competition” tab, you can view Auction Insights.
Thanks to this section of Microsoft Advertising, you can understand:
- Which competitors are bidding on the same keywords;
- Whether the budget you’re investing is suitable for achieving your goals;
- Where you can intervene, with the support of professionals, to optimize your campaigns.
Auction Insights: What Information Does It Contain
The “Auction Insights” report consists of:
- Impression Share
- Overlap Rate
- Outranking Share
- Top of Page Rate
- Absolute Top of Page Rate
- Top Rank Share
Let’s explore them together!
Impression Share: is the number of times an ad was displayed on the Microsoft search network divided by the total number of impressions available. It allows you to compare your share with that of competing advertisers.
Example: if your ad could have appeared 100 times but only appeared 30 times, then the impression share will be 30%. In this case, it means you’re missing out on 70% of impressions!
If a campaign is well optimized, the problem is most likely the budget, which is not sufficient to fully cover the search volume of the selected keywords.
Overlap Rate: indicates how often competitors’ ads were displayed on the search results page where your ad was also displayed.
Example: if this metric for one of the other advertisers shows a value of “20%”, it means that 2 out of 10 times your ad appeared simultaneously with a competitor’s ad.
This metric is useful for determining the competitiveness of other advertisers.
Outranking Share: indicates how often another advertiser’s ad participating in the same auction achieved a better position than yours, in cases where both ads were published simultaneously.
Example: if 20% is displayed in the “Outranking Share” column for a competitor, it means the competitor’s ad was displayed in a better position than your ad 20 out of 100 times when both ads were displayed simultaneously.
If this percentage is high, it means competitors’ ad positions are better than yours. A high rate could be due to a poor quality score or a low bid.
Top of Page Rate: indicates how often your ad (or another advertiser’s ad, depending on the row displayed) was published at the top of the search results page, above the organic search results.
Absolute Top of Page Rate: this percentage indicates how many times an ad appeared as the first result among paid ads.
Top Rank Share: percentage that expresses the number of times your ad was displayed on the search results page in a better position than competitors’ ads or was displayed unlike competitors’ ads.
Example: if a value of 30% appears in the “Top Rank Share” column for a particular advertiser, it means the ad in question achieved a better position than another advertiser’s ad in 30% of auctions where both were published simultaneously.
It’s a very generic metric—our advice is to focus mainly on the entries analyzed previously!
