Auction Insights: four rates, eight searches
Count overlap, position above, top-of-page and absolute top-of-page rates in one eight-search scene.
A competitor can have 50% overlap, 75% position above and 100% top-of-page rate in the same Search Auction Insights row. Nothing has gone wrong. The percentages are answering different questions.
Here are eight invented searches on which your ad appeared. One impression per advertiser per search; all belong to the same reporting scope. Count the appearances, then read the row they produce.
Start with your eight appearances. C joined you in searches 1, 2, 3, 4.
Keep only the four shared appearances. C was above you in searches 1, 2, 3.
Look at C’s four impressions here. All four were among top ads, including search 4, where you were above C.
Keep C’s four impressions. C was the first top ad in searches 1, 2. In search 3, another advertiser was first.
The two useful surprises are searches 3 and 4. In 3, C beats your position without taking absolute top. In 4, C earns a top impression without beating your position. “Above us,” “among top ads” and “first” describe three different things.
Back to the report
Here is the teaching example in familiar column order. These are selected columns from C’s row, not a live account report.
| Display URL | Overlap rate | Position above rate | Top of page rate | Abs. top of page rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| competitor-c.example | 50% | 75% | 100% | 50% |
You can read it aloud:
“They appeared alongside us in half our impressions. When we both appeared, they were above us three quarters of the time. All four of their impressions in this example were top ads; two were first.”
That is a description of appearances. It does not establish what C spent or which bidding strategy produced them.
Google’s Auction Insights definitions distinguish overlap and relative position from the placement rates belonging to the advertiser named in each row. Keep the reporting window in the sentence: the competitor’s whole account is not on display here.
The denominator you cannot count in the picture
Impression share adds estimated eligibility. If your eight impressions came from an estimated 20 eligible opportunities, your impression share would be 8 / 20 = 40%. The eight boxes do not establish that 20; it is an additional assumption, used only to illustrate the calculation.
Google estimates eligibility using factors including targeting, approval and quality. Your ad’s absence is not, by itself, proof of an eligible impression you lost. A competitor’s impression share in your report is likewise scoped to the competitive view, not a census of their business. How Google estimates impression share; Auction Insights scope.
Outranking share is a separate comparison. It counts occasions when you ranked above the other advertiser or showed while they did not. It is not the complement of their position above rate: that rate excludes the four searches here where C was absent.
Search 4 and searches 5–8 qualify, but dividing by eight would describe only the appearances shown here. Google’s metric reference uses your total eligible impressions as the denominator, including opportunities where your ad was eligible but did not show. This scene leaves those out and does not tell us how many, if any, there were. Google’s report definitions and metric reference.
A note on “top” and scope
Top ads are a Google placement category. They can appear below organic results for some queries, so “top” should not be translated into a universal line above all organic listings. Absolute top means the first ad among top ads. Google’s updated top-ad definitions; top and absolute top metrics.
Google’s public metric reference further specifies that the competitor’s top and absolute-top percentages consider auctions where your ad appeared. That is why this illustration starts with your eight appearances and keeps C’s other activity outside the frame. Metric scope.