Top Of Funnel Content: Is It Dead In The AI Era?

About This Episode

Top of funnel content is not dead. In B2B SaaS it is being eaten by AI Overviews, and it was never reaching a mature buyer anyway.

In this episode of SEO On-Air, host Koa Kauwe sits down with Macy Myhill, Associate Director of SEO at Directive Consulting, to discuss which funnel stage still earns its budget now that AI answers the question first.

The panel explores an answer with a twist in it. Macy says AI Overviews are eating top of funnel queries in SaaS, with people getting their answer and stopping. But the sharper point is that nobody evaluating email marketing software was ever searching what is email marketing, so those queries were never reaching the buyer. Her fix is to start further down the funnel with comparisons and buyer’s guides, which is also the content LLMs reward, and her data shows someone arriving from an LLM converts around four times better.

They also discuss how to tell genuinely useful AI content from slop, the ethics of making numbers look good for a board, why keyword volume misleads in B2B, how her team tracks LLM traffic when the data is a black hole, why customers openly brag about finding you through ChatGPT, why persona data belongs inside prompt tracking, and what to check first when a content program starts declining.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

– Whether top of funnel content is dead or simply misdirected

– Why AI Overviews are eating top of funnel queries in SaaS

– Why LLM traffic converts around four times better

– Why to start at the middle of the funnel with mature buyers

– How to tell genuinely useful AI content from slop

– Why high volume keywords rarely match buyer intent

– How to track LLM traffic when the data is a black hole

– Why persona data belongs inside your prompt tracking

– What to check first when a content program declines

– Why a 50 volume keyword can be worth a million a year

Whether you’re an SEO professional, content strategist, SaaS marketer, or watching a content program lose ground, this episode provides actionable insights into choosing the right funnel stage, tracking what you cannot attribute, and building content that reaches buyers who already know they have a problem.

Because the traffic worth having won’t be the traffic with the biggest number next to it.

It will be the traffic that already decided it has a problem.

⏱️ Chapters

 00:00 Introduction to SEO On-Air & Meet Macy Myhill

01:30 Starting Out as a Link Builder for Mesothelioma Lawyers

07:18 The Ethics of Making Numbers Look Good for the Board

08:45 How to Tell Good AI Content From AI Slop

11:33 Is Top of Funnel Content Dead in the AI Era?

13:17 Navigating the Black Hole in LLM Data

14:54 Why Customers Brag About Finding You Through ChatGPT

17:45 Query Fan Out & How Prompts Behave Like Keywords

18:48 Why LLM Traffic Converts Four Times Better

25:37 What to Check First When a Content Program Declines

Seven years in SEO and the most valuable keyword she owns has almost no search volume.