# Google Ads Competitor Research > Research competitor Google Ads activity — Auction Insights, keyword overlap, and public ad monitoring. Triggers on 'who am I competing against on Google Ads', 'Auction Insights review', 'what keywords are my competitors bidding on', or 'competitor Google Ads research'. Google Ads-specific competitive research — for cross-platform competitive positioning use competitive-intelligence. - Skill: `gmmh1/google-ads-competitor-research` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add gmmh1/google-ads-competitor-research` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/gmmh1/google-ads-competitor-research/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Marketing & Growth - Author: gmmh1 (https://skillmd.com/u/gmmh1) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/gmmh1/google-ads-competitor-research --- # Google Ads Competitor Research > **Currency & scope note (last reviewed 2026-07-19):** Platform mechanics referenced here (character limits, campaign-type names, feature availability, thresholds, benchmark figures, policy specifics) reflect general practice as of the review date above and are **not guaranteed current** — ad platforms change quickly. Verify anything mechanical against the platform's live documentation before relying on it for a real launch, real spend, or a compliance-sensitive decision. This is an independent, unofficial resource, not affiliated with or endorsed by any platform named in it, and nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice. ## Purpose Understand who else is competing for the same auctions, on what terms, and how — using Google's own Auction Insights data plus available public research — to inform strategy, bidding, and creative differentiation. ## Trigger Conditions - "Who's competing against me on Google Ads?" - "Review my Auction Insights" - "What keywords are competitors bidding on?" - "Research competitor Google Ads strategy" ## Required Inputs - Account access for Auction Insights data (impression share, overlap rate, position above rate, top-of-page rate by competitor domain) - Known or suspected competitors, if any - The specific campaigns/keyword themes to focus the research on (auction dynamics vary a lot by keyword theme) ## Core Capabilities ### Auction Insights Analysis - Impression share vs. named competitors — who's actually showing up in the same auctions, not just who the business considers a competitor - Overlap rate: how often a competitor's ad shows when yours does - Position above rate / top-of-page rate: whether competitors are consistently outranking on the terms that matter - Trend over time — a competitor's rising impression share signals increased investment worth monitoring ### Keyword & Category Intelligence - Inference of competitor keyword strategy from which search themes trigger the most auction overlap - Identifying keyword gaps: search themes with low competitor overlap may be underpriced opportunity, or may signal the term isn't converting for anyone ### Public Ad Monitoring - Reviewing competitor ad copy, offers, and landing pages directly (manually searching relevant terms, reviewing what competitors are actively running) - Tracking changes in competitor messaging/offers over time as a signal of what's working for them - Differentiation analysis: where competitor messaging clusters (price, speed, guarantee) vs. where there's a clear angle gap the business can own ### Strategic Interpretation - Translating raw overlap data into action: outbid where impression share is winnable and valuable, differentiate on message where outbidding isn't economical, avoid where competitor dominance + low differentiation makes the auction unprofitable - Distinguishing "we're losing because of bid/budget" (fixable via `google-ads-optimization`) from "we're losing because of weaker offer/creative" (fixable via `google-ads-copywriting`/positioning) ## Workflow 1. Pull Auction Insights for the relevant campaigns/keyword themes. 2. Identify the top overlapping competitors and their trend direction (gaining or losing impression share over time). 3. Review competitor ad copy/offers/landing pages directly for the overlapping search terms. 4. Diagnose whether underperformance vs. competitors is bid-driven, budget-driven, or creative/offer-driven. 5. Recommend where to compete harder, where to differentiate, and where the auction isn't worth contesting. ## Outputs - Auction Insights summary: top competitors, overlap rate, position/impression share trend - Competitor ad copy/offer/landing page findings - Differentiation opportunity map (where messaging clusters vs. where there's a gap) - Action recommendation per competitor/keyword theme: outbid, differentiate, or deprioritize ## Rules - Never recommend blindly outbidding a dominant competitor without checking whether the resulting CPA would be profitable at the required bid level. - Distinguish bid-driven losses from creative/offer-driven losses before recommending a fix — they route to different specialist skills. - Treat Auction Insights domain data as directional, not identity-confirmed — a domain shown may not map 1:1 to the brand the user expects (holding companies, multi-brand advertisers). - **Verification gate:** before this skill's output is used to spend real money, submit a compliance-sensitive claim, or go to a client as final, verify the mechanical specifics (limits, thresholds, policy rules) against current platform documentation and get explicit human sign-off — do not treat this skill's output as launch-ready without that check. ## Related Skills `google-ads-optimization` (bid/budget response to competitive pressure), `google-ads-copywriting` (differentiated messaging), `competitive-intelligence` (cross-platform competitive battlecards), `google-ads-strategy` (whether to contest a saturated auction at all).