So after wasting several hours running search and replace queries using the “Better Search and Replace Plug-in”, I checked my live site to find out that none of the replacements took affect due to issues with the serialized data in the beaver-builder plug-in.
I then set up a staging site to test an alternative plug-in “WP Migrate Lite” and my frown turned upside down and it worked perfectly.
Surprisingly, both plug-ins are made by the same company, so I don’t know why “better search and replace” has an issue with serialized data while WP Migrate Lite does not, but all I care is that it worked great and will be my go to plug-in for search and replace functionality.
Hopefully this post saves some-one else hours of head-ache.