Opportunity Gap

What this page is for

• The Opportunity Gap page is a weekly report, written for you by our AI based on your own data, about the keywords — the phrases people type into Google — where you can gain or save money: where people search and your site is not visible, and where you pay in Google Ads for visibility your site already has for free. It compares three sources: the keywords Google already shows your site for (Google Search Console), the keywords and search terms you pay for in Google Ads, and the monthly demand figures of the keyword list we built for you (the one on the Keyword Universe page).
• Why you need it: the Keyword Universe page gives you the full list and leaves the reading to you; this page does the reading. Every week it picks the keywords where the numbers show a clear opportunity, sorts them into four situations, and writes for each a finding: what the opportunity is, the numbers that prove it, and what to do this week.
• What you gain concretely by using this page every week: (1) money saved in Google Ads, by pausing or lowering the bids — what you pay per click — on keywords your site already ranks first for; (2) a short list of pages to write or improve, for keywords that already bring you paying customers through ads; (3) keywords to add to Google Ads, where Google shows your site but too low to get clicks; (4) new topics for pages or campaigns, where people search and you are nowhere.
• One table row = one finding; a finding groups up to 8 keywords that call for the same action. The figures cover the last 90 days of Search Console and Google Ads data; the demand figures are Google's monthly estimates. The page shows the latest report only; a new one replaces it every week, on your review day.

The filters at the top

The filters narrow the four tables below to the rows you care about. Combine as many as you like; to get the full report back, clear them all with the Reset button.

• priority — how urgent the finding is, 1 to 5: 1 = do this week, 5 = nice to have. Pick 1 and 2 to see only what matters this week.
• category — the situation the finding belongs to. Each of the four tables below is one category, so you rarely need this filter: picking one category empties the other three tables. The values are the codes of the four tables: 1_organic_strong_overpaid (Overspend), 2_paid_proven_organic_weak (Proven demand), 3_organic_weak_underpaid (Cheap coverage), 4_untapped_demand (Whitespace).
• action — the one thing to do about the finding: pause_ads, bid_down, seo_target, add_to_ads, create_content, investigate (each explained in the columns block below). Pick one to see every finding that needs the same kind of work — for example everything to be done in Google Ads.
• keywords — the search box: type a word or part of a word and the tables keep only the findings whose keywords contain it (for example "camp" or "ski").
• The date (the box on the right) — the date of the report you are reading: the day of the latest weekly run. You don't change it; the page always shows the latest report.

The four tables, in screen order

Each table is one category of opportunity, from the most certain money to the most speculative; that order is deliberate, and the priority column follows it. The four tables have the same columns, explained once in the next block. When a table shows a single row saying "Nothing to report in this category this week.", the report found nothing in that category — a normal result, not an error.

• Overspend — where are you paying for traffic you already own? — keywords for which your site is already among the first three results in Google (an average position of 3 or better, with at least 30 appearances in the last 90 days) and on which you also spent money in Google Ads in the same 90 days. People would click you without the ad. This is the only certain money in the report: the spend is already being paid, and the ranking is already earned. The recommendation is to pause the keyword in Google Ads, or to lower the bid when the keyword also converts in ads. You might find that your own brand name costs you money every month, or that a keyword you rank first for still runs in a campaign nobody has reviewed.
• Proven demand — what are you buying that you should own? — keywords on which your ads brought at least 20 clicks and at least 1.5 conversions (orders, forms, bookings — whatever you set as the goal in Google Ads; Google Ads splits a conversion between several clicks, which is why counts can be fractions) in the last 90 days, while in the free results your site is absent or on the second page or lower (an average position worse than 10). People searching this already buy from you, and you pay for every one of them. The recommendation is a page to write or improve, so that the free results bring these buyers too. You might find that your best-converting paid keyword has no page of its own on the site.
• Cheap coverage — where is organic weak with no ads behind it? — keywords for which Google shows your site often (at least 100 appearances in 90 days) but low — an average position worse than 8, the bottom of the first page or the second page, where almost nobody clicks — and on which you have almost no ads (fewer than 10 paid clicks in 90 days). The recommendation is usually to add the keyword to Google Ads, so you appear at the top now while the page's ranking is being improved. You might find a keyword with hundreds of appearances and almost no clicks, because you sit at position 12.
• Whitespace — what demand are you invisible for? — keywords from your keyword list (the Keyword Universe page) with at least 50 searches a month, for which your site is nowhere: fewer than 10 appearances in the free results and fewer than 10 in ads over 90 days. The recommendation is a new page, a group of pages, or a campaign. This is the most speculative table: it rests on estimated searches, not on your own data, and it is only as good as the keyword list. A keyword that is a competitor's name is never recommended as a page to write: that demand belongs to the competitor. You might find a whole topic your competitors cover and your site never mentions.

A keyword lands in one table only: when it matches several situations, it goes to the first one in this order. The AI reads the 25 keywords with the highest demand-and-value score of each category and groups them into findings — at most 15 findings per report. A keyword that does not appear in the report can still be an opportunity, only a smaller one; the full list, with the same figures, is on Market › Keyword Universe.

The table columns, in screen order

• priority — the order in which to act, 1 to 5: 1 = do this week, 5 = nice to have. Findings with certain money (Overspend) and with proven demand outrank estimates: at equal priority, read Overspend first, then Proven demand, Cheap coverage, Whitespace. Each table is sorted by priority when you open the page.
• issue — one sentence naming the opportunity: what is wrong or missing, and for which keywords.
• evidence — the numbers behind the finding, copied from your data with their units: the average organic position (1 is the first result; 1–10 the first page; 11–20 the second), the impressions (how many times your site appeared in Google's results), the clicks, the Google Ads cost, clicks and conversions, all over the last 90 days, and the estimated monthly searches. Every money figure carries its currency — your reporting currency, the same on every page. These are the same figures you see on Market › Keyword Universe, where you can check them keyword by keyword. Where the evidence mentions the conversion rate, the impression share, the CTR or the CPC, their definitions are at https://airdan.ai/blogs/kpi-definitions/cvr-conversion-rate, https://airdan.ai/blogs/kpi-definitions/impression-share-search, https://airdan.ai/blogs/kpi-definitions/ctr-click-through-rate and https://airdan.ai/blogs/kpi-definitions/cpc-cost-per-click.
• recommendation — what to do this week, written as a consultant would: which keyword to pause or bid down, which page to create or optimise and for which keywords, what to watch after the change. It stays on keyword visibility; what the report leaves out on purpose is listed in the Notes.
• action — the recommendation in one word, the single next step:
  • pause_ads — stop paying for the keyword in Google Ads.
  • bid_down — keep the keyword but pay less per click: a test, not a pause, for keywords that convert in ads (an ad and a free result on the same keyword can add up).
  • seo_target — write or improve a page on your site for these keywords.
  • add_to_ads — add the keywords to a Google Ads campaign.
  • create_content — write new pages (or start a campaign) for a topic you are invisible for.
  • investigate — the numbers point at something, but not at one clear action: look at the keywords yourself before deciding.
• keywords — the keywords the finding is about, up to 8, one per line. They are written in a tidied form — lowercase, without diacritics, punctuation replaced by spaces ("cafea macinata" for "Cafea măcinată") — so that the same phrase from Search Console, from Google Ads and from the keyword list counts as one keyword. When you look for one in Google Ads, search by its main words.

The weekly routine: what to look for and what to do

Go through the steps below once a week, on the day the new report arrives, in order. Each step tells you how to find the relevant rows and what to do with them. Write the findings you take on in a document or export them (see "Notes"); at the end you should have a short list of tasks, each with its keywords and the person who does it — not a report you read and close.

1. Read the whole report once, top to bottom. How to find: clear all filters and read the four tables in screen order, Overspend first. Each table is sorted by priority; the rows with priority 1 and 2 are this week's work, 3 to 5 can wait.

   • If a finding concerns keywords that have nothing to do with your business, or a competitor's name treated as a keyword of yours, tell us: we mark it and it stops appearing.
   • If a finding treats your own brand name as an ordinary keyword, tell us your brand names: the report then knows that a search for your name is already yours.
   • If a table shows "No data" while a filter is on, clear the filter: the row "Nothing to report in this category this week." has no priority and no action, so any filter hides it.

2. Stop paying for the keywords you already own. How to find: the Overspend table, or filter action = pause_ads or bid_down. Every row is money leaving your account each month for clicks the free results would bring anyway; the evidence gives the 90-day spend and the organic position.

   • If action = pause_ads, open the campaign in Google Ads, find the keyword, and pause it. After 30 days, check on Organic Search › Queries that the organic clicks for the keyword held or grew; if the total clicks (organic plus paid) dropped a lot, re-enable the keyword with a lower bid.
   • If action = bid_down, lower the keyword's maximum cost per click in Google Ads by about a third (a rule of thumb) for one month and watch whether the total clicks (organic plus paid) and the conversions stay the same. If they do, lower it again or pause; if they drop, go back to the previous bid: on this keyword the ad and the free result add up.
   • If the keyword is your brand name and the evidence shows no conversions, pause it without a test: a person who types your name finds you anyway.

3. Build the pages for the keywords that already bring you customers through ads. How to find: the Proven demand table, or filter action = seo_target. The evidence gives the paid clicks, the conversions and the cost of the last 90 days — what you are buying today — and the organic position, if there is one.

   • If your site has no page for the keyword, write one: the keyword at the start of the page title and in the first heading, and the text answering what the person wants — the page your ad sends to is the best starting point, because it already converts. One page per topic, not one page per spelling variant.
   • If the site already has a page for the keyword (the evidence shows an organic position, between 11 and 20), improve that page instead: the keyword at the start of the title, in the first paragraph and in a heading, and an internal link to it from your home page or menu. Check the position month by month on Organic Search › Queries.
   • Keep the ad running while the page climbs: a ranking usually takes two to three months to move; the finding is about owning the demand, not about stopping the ad today.

4. Cover now the keywords Google shows you too low for. How to find: the Cheap coverage table, or filter action = add_to_ads. The evidence gives the impressions, the clicks and the position; many impressions with few clicks is the typical row.

   • If action = add_to_ads, add the keywords to the Google Ads campaign closest in topic, with the phrase match type and a small budget, and check after 30 days: clicks, cost per click, conversions. Keep what converts, pause the rest.
   • If the recommendation says the keyword is informational (the person wants to learn, not to buy), weigh it lower: an ad on it will cost and rarely convert; improve the page instead, as in step 3, or leave it.
   • In parallel, improve the page Google already shows for the keyword, as in step 3: the ad covers you now, the page covers you for free later.

5. Decide what to create for the demand you are invisible for. How to find: the Whitespace table, or filter action = create_content. The evidence gives the estimated monthly searches, the trend (growing or falling against last month and against last year) and the price advertisers pay for a click at the top of the page — a measure of how commercial the keyword is.

   • If a finding groups several keywords of one topic, plan one page (or a small set of pages) for the topic, not one page per keyword; the recommendation names what to create.
   • If the estimated searches are high but you are not sure people want what you sell, test the demand with a small Google Ads campaign for one month before writing the pages: the search terms it brings you are real demand, the estimates are not.
   • If the keywords concern a product or service you do not offer, skip the finding and tell us, so we take them out of your keyword list.

6. Look into the findings marked investigate. How to find: filter action = investigate. The report found something worth a look but not one clear action — for example a keyword that converts in ads and ranks well in the free results at the same time, or a keyword with an ambiguous meaning.

   • Open Market › Keyword Universe and search for the keyword: the full figures (organic position and clicks, paid clicks, cost and conversions, estimated searches) are side by side, and the right action usually becomes obvious.
   • If it does not, write to us with the keyword and the finding.

7. Check next week what changed. How to find: on the next report, read the four tables again and compare them with the list you wrote down.

   • If a finding you acted on no longer appears, the change took effect.
   • If it still appears, first check that the change is live: in Google Ads, that the keyword itself shows the status Paused (not only the ad group); on the site, that the new page is published and Google has found it (Organic Search › Pages & Queries lists it once it has impressions).
   • A paused keyword can keep appearing in Overspend for up to 90 days: the spend of the weeks before the pause is still inside the window. What tells you the pause took effect is the cost in the evidence no longer growing from one week to the next — or Paid Search › Keywords showing no spend on it since the pause.

Notes

• Export any table. Hover over a table, click the three dots in its top-right corner and choose Export → Google Sheets with "Keep value formatting" ticked, or CSV. The export contains exactly the rows you see (with your filters), so you can mark in a spreadsheet who takes each finding and pass the list on to whoever runs your Google Ads or writes your pages.
• How the data updates. The report is written once a week, on your review day, early in the morning, from the data as of that morning; the page shows the latest report only, and the next one replaces it. The figures in the evidence cover the last 90 days up to the last day with data — the day before the run for Google Ads, two or three days earlier for Search Console, which publishes late; the current day is never included. The estimated monthly searches, the trend and the top-of-page bid are Google's monthly figures, refreshed on the 15th of each month; a keyword carries its latest month. The keyword list itself (which keywords are in it, which are your brand's, which a competitor's) is maintained by us: it changes when we run a new research round or when you send us suggestions.
• What the numbers don't say. The "estimated monthly value at stake" a finding may quote is a market-priced estimate — the searches you are missing multiplied by what advertisers pay for a click on the keyword — not revenue and not a forecast. The savings in Overspend are the opposite: the spend of the last 90 days, brought to one month — money you are actually paying. The organic position is an average weighted by impressions over 90 days; a keyword can be first one week and twelfth another. The estimated searches are Google's rounded estimates (a 0 can hide real demand — see the Keyword Universe help); clicks, cost and conversions are measurements. The organic figures count Google's web search only, not image search. The text of a finding is written by an AI from these figures: the numbers are copied from your data, never invented; the wording, the grouping and the priority are its judgment — read it as a senior consultant's proposal, and check the evidence when something looks surprising.
• What the report leaves out on purpose. It judges keyword visibility only. It says nothing about the quality of your landing pages, your ad texts, your Quality Score, the site's technical health or your budget. A category with no rows this week is a legitimate result: the report is told not to pad. Whitespace can be empty simply because your keyword list is short — send us suggestions and it fills.
• Related pages. The full keyword list, with the same figures per keyword and a monthly routine of its own, is on Market › Keyword Universe — the report reads from it. The daily organic position and clicks of a keyword are on Organic Search › Queries; the daily performance of your paid keywords is on Paid Search › Keywords, and the search terms people typed on Paid Search › Search Terms. Paid Search › Paid vs Organic asks the Overspend question for every keyword, without the report's selection. If your plan includes Conversion Gap (Insights menu), open it next: Opportunity Gap shows where the market's demand is, Conversion Gap where your site loses it. If it includes SEO Audit, that is where the site's technical problems are.

Remember!

• Priority 1 is the only certain money. Overspend findings are spend you already pay for clicks you already own; everything below it is an estimate, less certain with each table — act in that order.
• The report proposes, you decide. The numbers are yours and exact; the recommendation is a consultant's reading of them — check the evidence, then act or discard.
• One finding a week, taken to the end. One keyword paused, one page written, one keyword added — and checked the following week — beat fifteen findings read and closed.