Many know where to find the data in Google auction insights, but not how to translate it and make decisions off of it. During this session, we will demonstrate multiple ways to take complex, muddy auction data and turn it into clear, actionable graphs & visuals to help you quickly and easily identify what competitors are doing and what steps you can take to drive better PPC performance. In this session, you'll learn: How to quickly & easily identify historical competitor performance and trends in your account How to understand competitors’ bidding impact when you have 5-10+ competitors in auction The CPC and Impression volume changes since Google removed all right hand ads Which spying tools to use to get competitor alerts and gain insights on winning ads and landing page

1. Let’s Get Visual, Visual!
Turning Auction Insights
Into Actionable Data
Maddie Cary | @MaddieMarketer
Director of Paid Search | Point It

2. • Director of Paid Search at Point It
• Oversee $35M+ in Yearly Media
• Global SEM Program Lead
• 20 Account Managers
• 30 Languages
• 60 Markets
• 2015 US Search Award
“Young Search Professional”
@MaddieMarketer

3. @MaddieMarketer
Hi Jim! I did some searches for our
keywords and saw quite a few
competitors alongside our ads
What does our competitive
landscape look like in PPC?
Are we missing opportunities?
How has our performance been
impacted by our competitors?
Can you send me a report?
Jim gets an email from his boss:

4. @MaddieMarketer
SO EASY
I’ll just pull an
Auction Insights Report
from AdWords & send
a screenshot of the table
DONE!
Jim’s reaction

5. @MaddieMarketer
Uh, Jim…
WTF
does this table mean?
The boss’ reaction?

6. @MaddieMarketer
Oh, she doesn’t understand the metrics!
Impression Share
How often a competitor received an impression
as a proportion of auctions in which you were in
Overlap Rate
How often a competitor received an impression
when you did
Position Above Rate
How often a competitor was shown above you
Top of Page Rate
How often a competitor was shown at the
top of page
Outranking Share
How often you outranked a competitor

7. @MaddieMarketer
Get it together, Jim
I know what the
metrics mean.
I need your help to
understand the
TRENDS,
OPPORTUNITIES,
& STORY
Not quite…

8. @MaddieMarketer
Stop looking at competitor data like this

9. @MaddieMarketer
Or like this!

10. @MaddieMarketer
RAW AUCTION DATA VISUAL TRENDS ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS

11. @MaddieMarketer
Jim knows what he has to do
I need to go
Olivia Newton-John
on this thang

12. @MaddieMarketer
LET’S
GET
VISUAL,
VISUAL

13. @MaddieMarketer
• PIVOT
To get Avg Impr
Share & Avg CPC
per competitor
• =COUNTIF
To count number of
times competitor shows
up in the auction over
your given time period
DATA NEEDED TOOLS & FORMULAS
• SEGMENTED BY
TIME (Month, Quarter)
AUCTION
INSIGHTS REPORT
CAMPAIGN REPORT

14. @MaddieMarketer
Quarter Avg Impr Share Number of Competitors
Q1 2015 86% 8
Q2 2015 84% 8
Q3 2015 85% 7
Q4 2015 93% 4
Q1 2016 87% 8
Capitalized on opportunity to
grow impression share when
fewer competitors in auction

15. Quarter Avg CPC Number of Competitors
Q1 2015 $4.89 8
Q2 2015 $3.42 8
Q3 2015 $3.12 7
Q4 2015 $2.10 4
Q1 2016 $3.54 8
@MaddieMarketer
Lower CPCs during quarter
with fewer competitors +
maintained lower costs when
auction returned to 8

16. @MaddieMarketer
CRUSHED
IT

17. @MaddieMarketer
• =COUNTIF
To count number of days
competitors showed in
auction over X total days
• =AVERAGEIF
To get Avg Impr Share
per competitor over X total
days
• =IF(AND(
Conditional logic to define
your parameters for when
data indicates competitor is
a bigger threat
DATA NEEDED TOOLS & FORMULAS
• LONGER TIME RANGE:
• Last 30 days
• Last 60 days
• Last 90 days
• SEGMENTED BY
TIME (Days)
AUCTION
INSIGHTS REPORT

18. FORMULASS
@MaddieMarketer
Day Display url domain Impr. share Avg. position Overlap rate Position above rateTop of page rateOutranking share
1/1/2016 Competitor 1 83.87% 1 83.87% 0.00% 96.15% 100.00%
1/2/2016 Competitor 1 47.37% 2.2 49.54% 0.00% 64.81% 95.61%
1/3/2016 Competitor 2 50.66% 2.2 52.38% 1.30% 74.03% 96.05%
1/4/2016 Competitor 2 51.59% 2.2 53.74% 1.27% 59.26% 92.99%
1/5/2016 Competitor 2 44.03% 2.2 44.16% 0.00% 70.00% 96.86%
1/6/2016 Competitor 2 39.31% 2.6 39.58% 0.00% 70.18% 99.31%
1/7/2016 Competitor 3 44.44% 2.2 44.44% 0.00% 75.00% 100.00%
1/8/2016 Competitor 3 37.58% 2.3 37.58% 0.00% 66.07% 100.00%
1/9/2016 Competitor 3 43.75% 2.1 43.75% 0.00% 61.22% 100.00%
1/11/2016 Competitor 3 52.74% 2.1 53.10% 0.00% 70.13% 99.32%
1/12/2016 Competitor 3 48.65% 2.7 49.51% 0.00% 55.65% 86.97%
1/13/2016 Competitor 3 51.41% 2.7 52.49% 0.00% 55.26% 85.79% Days In Auction
=COUNTIF
(range,criteria)
Competitor
Frequency
= (Days In Auction/
Report Range)
Report Range
= 90 days

19. @MaddieMarketer
Competitor URL Days In Auction Competitor Frequency Average Impr Share Threat?
You 90 100% 89% -
Competitor 1 90 100% 34% Take Action
Competitor 2 84 93% 16% Monitor
Competitor 3 5 6% 16% Monitor
Competitor 4 5 6% 14% Monitor
Competitor 5 56 62% 13% Monitor
Conditional
Formatting
Conditional
Logic Formula
=IF(AND
EXAMPLE LOGIC:
Comp Frequency > 50%
AND
Avg Imp Share > 25%
IF TRUE = “Take Action”
IF FALSE = “Monitor”

20. @MaddieMarketer
LET ME
HEAR
THAT
DATA
TALK

21. @MaddieMarketer
• PIVOT
To get Avg Impr
Share & Avg Pos
per campaign
DATA NEEDED TOOLS & FORMULAS
• Pull by campaign and
then consolidated
together
AUCTION
INSIGHTS REPORT

22. Campaign Avg Impr Share Avg Pos
Branded 95% 1.1
Shoes 83% 3.4
Pants 80% 2.6
Shirts 68% 4.3
Socks 54% 5.5
Belts 47% 6.7
Scarves 36% 5.4
@MaddieMarketer
Could be worth bid testing
in campaigns with lower
Avg Impr Share & higher
Avg Positions

23. @MaddieMarketer
CAN’T
HANDLE
THIS
PPC
MUSCLE

24. @MaddieMarketer
• PIVOT
To get Avg Impr
Share trends
by device & time
DATA NEEDED TOOLS & FORMULAS
AUCTION
INSIGHTS REPORT
• SEGMENTED BY
DEVICE & TIME

25. @MaddieMarketer
Some of your competitors aren’t
bidding on mobile, which
may mean Impr Share
opportunity for you!
Competitor Computers Mobile Tablet
You 100% 98% 100%
Competitor 1 31% 49% 24%
Competitor 2 16% 12%
Competitor 3 14% 16%
Competitor 4 10% 16%
Competitor 5 12% 14% 11%
TOTAL 36% 55% 44%

26. @MaddieMarketer
AUCTION
GOT
NOTHIN’
ON
ME

27. @MaddieMarketer
AUCTION INSIGHT
SCRIPT
DATA NEEDED TOOLS & FORMULAS
• SEGMENTED BY
TIME
AUCTION
INSIGHTS REPORT
CAMPAIGN REPORT

28. @MaddieMarketer
• Copy/paste BrainLabs script into Google Sheet
• Pull segmented Campaign report
• Pull segmented Auction Insight report
• Throw both into Google Sheet
• Generates competitor charts alongside your trending CPC data
YOU
Can see where CPCs spiked when
competitors’ Impr Share rises

29. @MaddieMarketer
GO O.N.J. ON
THIS THANG
Use visual graphs &
tables to
• IDENTIFY TRENDS
• FIND OPPORTUNITIES
• TELL THE STORY!

30. still make you feel like this?
Check out my session recap blog post with
templates for all the visuals I showed today!
@MaddieMarketer

31. THANK YOU
Maddie Cary | @MaddieMarketer
Director of Paid Search | Point It