DW Tips

Moving in and out of COVID lockdowns is a shock to any business, and in times of uncertainty it's natural to look at your discretionary spend to see where you can rein in your costs. An obvious area to focus on is your advertising spend, such as your Google Ads budget. But should you reduce your spend, and if so by how much?

A unique feature of the Google Ads platform is the Auction Insights Report, which provides a clear picture of how well your ads are performing vs companies bidding on the same keywords as you. Crucially, the report tells you your “Impression share”, which is the number of  times your ads were shown (i.e. 'impressions') divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive.

So the Auction Insights report gives a clear insight into whether your competitors are dropping their Google Ads budget, because if they are, then you'd expect to see their impression share drop relative to yours over time.  If that's the case, then you may feel confident to lower your budget, but we'd suggest doing so in small increments and keeping a close eye on your impression share. However, if the impression share of your competitors doesn't appear to be dropping during lockdown, then you would need to hold your budget to maintain your ad position.

If you need help with planning your Google Ads budget, then we'd love to talk to you.

Google Ads Auction Insights Report Example