According to the online ad network Chitika, three-word search queries drive the most traffic from search engines, at least for organic search traffic.

When it comes to paid clicks, however, “the highest ad click rates were for queries of 5, 6 and 4 words.”

Yet there is no further segmentation of the data. So the results will include commercial and non-commercial data, different user types and more – all merged into one.

Advanced searchers usually use more words in their query, so as to avoid having to drill-down further into their results. So if I was looking for my local Staples store, I might search for “Staples store locator UK“, rather than “find Staples store“.

Yet some basic users might ask longer questions like “how do I find my nearest Staples store“.

While the fact that there are longer queries for the ads is of some interest, I don’t think the study scratches the surface when it comes to establishing why. I wouldn’t recommend changing your PPC or SEO tactics as a result.