The Auction Insights Visualizer can turn your data tables into useful charts

The Auction Insights Visualizer is a free third-party tool that enables advertisers to generate charts using their Google Ads auction insights reports. As this data is not currently available via API, the tool may help PPC experts visualize that data for stakeholders. It was developed by digital ad management platform Optmyzr and there is no registration necessary to use the tool.

Who built it and why. The Auction Insights Visualizer was developed by Shashank Tiwari, a senior engineer at Optmyzr. “Our customers and friends in the industry periodically ask us if we have any tools to work with auction insights and, rather than continuing to wait for Google to add the data in an API so we could build the perfect solution, we decided to build something now that solves at least some of the pain points,” said Frederick Vallaeys, co-founder and CEO of Optmyzr, adding that Tiwari wanted to build a tool in which users can drag-and-drop the data from Google and instantly turn it into a series of customizable charts that are suitable for sharing with a client or manager.

How it works. First, you must obtain the auction insights report you wish to visualize. Go to your Google Ads dashboard, then under the Campaigns menu in the left-hand navigation panel, click on Auction insights. Once there, click “Download” (towards the top-right corner of the window); a drop-down menu will appear. Click “More options” and add the desired segmentation options. Then, de-select “Title and date range” and click the Download button. Note: Multiple days must be included in your date range.

Next, go back to the Auction Insights Visualizer and upload the file you just downloaded from Google Ads and the Visualizer will generate the associated chart. Users who want to visualize this information on a regular basis can have Google Ads automatically generate reports by scheduling them in the download options. The reports are not stored, so users should print or download the charts before closing the page. For a more comprehensive walkthrough, view Optmyzr’s YouTube video.

Why we care. Auction Insights data helps you compare performance with other advertisers participating in the same auctions. The way that Google Ads presents that information, however, is through a data table, which may be more difficult to interpret than the chart that the Auction Insights Visualizer can generate.

Visualizing the data this way can also enable you to understand how competitor behavior has changed over time. And, while similar solutions (like Daniel Gilbert’s Auction Insights script) do exist, this one doesn’t require as much manual work every time you want to create a chart, which can also help improve your workflow.

UPDATE: Google has made Auction Insights data available in the Reports page. It has also been added to Data Studio. And, Optmyzr is currently working on an update that will enable their Auction Insights Visualizer to plot a metric from their own account on the same chart.

About The Author

George Nguyen

George Nguyen is an editor for Search Engine Land, covering organic search, podcasting and e-commerce. His background is in journalism and content marketing. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host and public school teacher.