Search Engine Land reported that CPC inflation is still a live issue, but the more interesting detail is that conversion rates are rising in many sectors at the same time. The article points to WordStream data showing that about 65 percent of industries saw stronger conversion rates despite higher click costs. The explanation is logical: the traffic that still clicks through is often more advanced in the buying journey.  

For media buyers and affiliate teams, this changes the search playbook. Chasing cheap informational clicks is getting weaker, especially when AI-heavy SERPs eat top-funnel traffic. The safer move is shifting budget toward tighter, more transactional intent where click quality is higher and the user is closer to conversion. In other words, expensive traffic is not automatically bad traffic. Bad query selection is usually the bigger problem.