Google wants advertisers to plan for 2027 around a simple premise: people open Search sooner in a decision and say more when they do. Search Engine Journal covered the Oct. 28 Ads Decoded episode, where Ginny Marvin, Google’s product liaison for Ads, and Shivani Mohan, a Search vice president who oversees data science and user research, described the shift. Everything in it is Google’s own characterization of user behavior.
Marvin’s LinkedIn recap lists three takeaways. Discovery is moving earlier in the funnel, as people use conversational search to brainstorm well before buying. Curiosity is widening, with AI Mode queries averaging triple the length of conventional ones and multimodal searches now making up a sixth of the total. Users also still want human perspectives, including podcasts, video reviews, and firsthand accounts. Search Engine Journal pointed out that the post never explains how the comparisons were defined or over what period they were measured.
The numbers deserve a closer look. Per Search Engine Journal, the three-times claim traces to a report on U.S. usage that Google released in May 2026, and it contrasts average query length. It does not account for differences in who uses AI Mode or what they search for. Longer queries carry more information about a need, but length alone does not prove greater purchase intent or higher conversion.
The multimodal statistic is looser still. Google’s report puts multimodal usage at slightly above a sixth of American AI Mode searches. That is a narrower claim than the phrasing in Marvin’s post, and it should not be applied to Google Search as a whole. A gap between a post and its own source is a reason to check footnotes before a stat reaches a planning deck.
Mohan wrote on LinkedIn that users appreciate AI summaries yet crave “the rich detail, lived experience, and earned authority of the open web,” pointing to forums, podcasts, and videos. She also referenced billions of clicks flowing to websites, without a timeframe or a comparison point, so the number cannot tell you whether volume is rising or how the visits are distributed. Her remarks point to appetite for lived experience. They do not promise that more videos or reviews will earn more Google traffic.
Two commenters on Marvin’s post asked how any of this translates into campaign management. Md Jihad wanted to know how small businesses should reshape their ads and landing pages for exploratory intent. Ana Trujillo Martin asked what retail teams should monitor, among them how to read impression and CTR shifts. Search Engine Journal reported that neither the posts nor the episode notes supply specific campaign settings.
The outlet offered four checks instead. Mine customer questions, sales calls, and query reports for problems that buyers describe before they know a product name. Check that landing pages address cost, fit, installation, and drawbacks. Link reviews, demonstrations, and customer stories to the decision they support. Finally, where measurement allows, track whether visitors to educational pages return and buy over the normal purchase timeline, because impressions, CTR, or engagement by themselves will not reveal business results.
Google has not published conversion benchmarks for this behavior, or breakdowns by industry and buying stage. Paid search teams should use the episode as a prompt to audit which customer questions their content leaves unanswered, and hold any budget shift until their own data shows exploratory visits turning into sales.
Based on reporting from Search Engine Journal, published October 29, 2026.
