{
  "slug": "ctr-impact",
  "name": "CTR impact",
  "aliases": [
    "Expectation-gap impact",
    "Weighted CTR gap"
  ],
  "definition": "How material a row's expectation gap is, expressed in clicks: the size of the gap multiplied by the impressions it applies to.",
  "category": "Content opportunity",
  "type": "derived metric",
  "unit": "clicks over the window (modeled)",
  "direction": "neutral",
  "verification": "verified",
  "calculation": "impact = |actualCtr − expectedCtr| × impressions, rounded to two decimals. It is the ranking key for both the over-performer and the under-performer lists.",
  "aggregation": "Row-level, and deliberately unsigned, direction lives in the CTR delta, magnitude lives here.",
  "grain": "One keyword × one page × the window.",
  "dimensions": [
    "query",
    "page",
    "brand",
    "intent",
    "device"
  ],
  "requiredFilters": [
    "date range"
  ],
  "sources": [
    "search-console"
  ],
  "reports": [
    "ctr-opportunity-report"
  ],
  "skills": [
    "ctr-opportunity-audit"
  ],
  "verbs": [
    "ctr_curve_model"
  ],
  "rungs": [
    "R2"
  ],
  "levers": [
    "L3"
  ],
  "questions": [
    "Which CTR gaps are actually worth fixing?",
    "Rank our snippet opportunities by clicks at stake"
  ],
  "interpretation": "The reason the worklist is ordered the way it is: a large gap on a rarely-seen query is worth less than a small gap on a heavily-seen one. It sizes materiality, and it should never be read as clicks that were lost, the expectation is modeled, not observed.",
  "caveats": [
    "Absolute value: a large impact figure can belong to an over-performer, so it is only interpretable beside the sign of the gap.",
    "Modeled against a fitted expectation, so it inherits every caveat on that curve, including its non-stationarity.",
    "Holds impressions constant at their observed level, a rewrite that changes ranking changes the impressions too."
  ],
  "freshness": "1 to 2 days behind, Google's own reporting lag. Any answer touching the last 48 hours says so on the card.",
  "failureModes": [
    "Reporting the impact figure as clicks lost to a bad title.",
    "Summing impact across a worklist and presenting the total as a recoverable number."
  ],
  "notSameAs": [],
  "related": [
    "ctr-delta",
    "potential-clicks-raw"
  ],
  "workflows": [],
  "lastVerified": "2026-08-04"
}