In short: the Reports section answers the questions the campaigns table doesn't, and can email you the answer every week without you logging in. It also houses auction insights, the only place where Google shows you who you compete with and who is pushing: it doesn't reveal a rival's budget, but it does show their presence against yours.
The Campaigns tables answer the everyday questions. For more specific ones — or to get answers without even logging in — Google Ads has a Reports section (Campaigns → Insights and reports → Report editor / Reports). And inside it there is one that deserves a lesson of its own: auction insights, the only official window onto your competition.
Which ready-made reports does Google Ads include?
A collection of ready-built tables, grouped by topic: Basic (campaign, ad group, ad, keyword), Search terms, Time (day, hour), Locations, Devices, Assets, Conversions, Auction insights, Display/Video (placements where the ad showed)... Each one opens with a click, you adjust the date range and you can save it as your own report.
Three worth having to hand from day one:
- Search terms (Module 3): the reality of what you are paying for.
- Locations → User locations: where the people clicking actually are (as opposed to where you think you are targeting).
- Display/Video → Where ads showed: if you run Display or PMax, the list of websites and apps taking your money.
How do you build a custom report?
You drag rows (campaign, keyword, device, day...), columns (metrics) and filters, and choose a table or a chart. It is a pivot table inside Google Ads: it allows cross-references the normal screens do not show (campaign × device × day, for example). What you build is saved with a name and can be turned into a card on a dashboard with several reports at once.
Can you receive reports by email?
Any saved report can be scheduled: daily, weekly, monthly, in CSV/Excel/PDF, to your inbox or to any user with access. A weekly search terms report waiting in your inbox on Monday is the cheapest way not to forget the routine from Module 3.
What is auction insights and how do you read it?
For campaigns, ad groups or keywords with enough volume, it shows who else bid in the same auctions as you and how each of you did:
| Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Impression share | Of the auctions you took part in, how often each competitor appeared |
| Overlap rate | What percentage of your impressions coincided with theirs |
| Position above rate | How often they showed above you |
| Top of page rate / Abs. top of page rate | How often they showed right at the top |
| Outranking share | How often you did better than them (or you showed and they did not) |
How to read it:
- A competitor with high overlap and a high position above rate is the one beating you in the auctions: look at their ads, their page and their offer before you raise bids.
- A new name appearing out of nowhere with a large impression share explains CPC rises you could not understand.
- Segmented by time, it shows when each competitor comes in or drops out (seasonal campaigns, aggression during the sales).
- Your own impression share here is the same IS as in the columns: whatever you do not cover, someone else does.
What it does not say: how much the others bid or how much they spend. It is a snapshot of presence, not of budget.
💡 Ninja trick: auction insights is one of the few things Google Ads scripts cannot read in every account (the API exposes it with limitations). So it is worth scheduling it by email monthly and keeping the PDFs: in six months you will have the history of your competition that the interface only shows for the current date range.
What you should remember
- The predefined reports cover the usual questions; save the ones you use and schedule them by email.
- The editor allows multi-dimension cross-references and dashboards.
- Auction insights is the only window onto the competition: who, how much overlap, who shows above. Presence, not budget.
- A new competitor with a strong presence explains a lot of rising CPCs.