Most Google Ads accounts and PPC campaigns are paying for clicks from people who aren't ready to buy. They're researching: comparing options, checking prices, learning how something works. These clicks cost as much as buyers' clicks but rarely deliver conversions. You're renting visibility: stop paying or get outbid, and you lose that connection to the customer. The answer isn't to turn off your ads. It's to find those research searches, stop paying for the ones that don't earn their keep, and win them with content instead.
Here's how.
Why research clicks are creeping into your account
Very few searches are from someone ready to buy. In a study of 332 million Google searches, fewer than 1 in 100 were transactional. About one in seven were people researching products and services.
That creates pressure. Every advertiser in your market is bidding for the same small pool of buying searches, so costs rise. And as Google's automated bidding and broader match types reach for more volume, ads increasingly appear on looser, research-style searches too. These are the same research searches AI tools draw on to build their answers.
The result shows up in the numbers. Google Ads conversion rates fell year on year in 13 of 14 industries tracked in 2026, by 9.28% on average.
Step 1: Open your search terms report
In Google Ads, the search terms report shows the actual searches that triggered your ads, not just the keywords you chose. Look at the last 90 days, sorted by cost.
You're looking for research signals: searches that start with "how", "what", "why", "is it worth", "best", "vs", "ideas", "examples", "cost of" or "guide". These are people learning, not buying.
Step 2: Sort them into three groups
Not every research click is wasted. Some do convert, later. So sort, don't slash.
| Group | What it looks like | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Converting research | "Best X for small businesses" that does lead to enquiries | Keep it. It's earning its place |
| Expensive research | "How much does X cost", "X vs Y", lots of clicks, few or no conversions | Reduce bids or add negatives, and answer it with content |
| Pure information | "What is X", "how does X work", almost never converts | Add as negative keywords, and own it with content |
The middle and bottom groups are your opportunity. You're already paying to learn what buyers are asking. Now answer them properly.
Step 3: Check whether you're paying for your own name
Look at how much you spend on searches for your own brand. People searching for you by name were often coming anyway. There can be good reasons to bid on your brand, such as competitors bidding on it, but it's worth testing whether you need to.
Step 4: Turn the research searches into content
This is where the budget you save starts working harder.
Every expensive research search in your report is a question your buyers want answered. Group them into themes, then answer each theme properly:
- a short video that answers the question in the first few seconds
- an article on your own site, with the video embedded and a transcript
- cutdowns for LinkedIn, YouTube and social
- images that make the answer easy to share and quote
Why video? It's how people increasingly research, and it's what search engines and AI lean on. YouTube is the most-cited domain in Google's AI Overviews.
Why content beats ads for research searches
It doesn't stop when the budget does. A click costs money every time. A good answer keeps being found for months, even years, without paying again.
It's where the answer now appears. On many research searches, Google shows an AI summary above the ads. On those searches, paid click-through rates fell 68%. Content can be cited in that summary; an ad can't.
It can make your remaining ads work harder. Brands cited in Google's AI Overviews saw 91% higher paid click-through than brands that weren't. Being the trusted answer during research tends to lift the ads that follow.
It builds trust before the sale. Someone who has watched your video and read your guide arrives already knowing you. That's a warmer enquiry than any cold click.
Step 5: Measure both sides
Track what you saved on research clicks, and what the content brings back: organic visits, video views, enquiries that mention your guides, and whether your brand starts appearing in AI answers for those questions. Review it every quarter, and refresh the content that's working.
What this looks like in practice
You don't need dozens of separate shoots. One well-planned production shoot can answer ten research questions on video, with articles, cutdowns and images for each. That's the idea behind premium content: one production, turned into a library that wins the research searches your ads were paying for.
Keep the ads that sell. Let the content win the decisions.
Want a second pair of eyes?
Send us your top 20 research searches from your search terms report, and we'll show you which ones content could win, and what that content would look like. Email info@littleorchardmedia.com.
Not sure how to brief it? Start with our video brief template.
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