Tracking Brand Visibility Across AI-Powered Search Channels

Understanding the challenges of tracking brand visibility on AI-driven search platforms is crucial. Businesses need to adapt their SEO and digital PR strategies to stay competitive in this evolving landscape.

Monitoring organic search performance is becoming increasingly complex. Over the past 18 months, Google has introduced a range of AI-powered features, including AI Overviews, AI Shopping, AI-Organised Local Results, AI-Organised Travel Results, and AI-Organised Informational Results. These developments raise concerns about the potential loss of visibility and traffic for many brands.

Simultaneously, the growing popularity of AI search tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Claude, and Gemini adds another layer of complexity. SEO professionals must decide whether these platforms warrant significant content investments or if it’s better to observe their progression for now.

While ChatGPT dominates this space, with 50 times more web traffic than Perplexity and Copilot, its numbers are still relatively small compared to Google’s. However, this does not account for ChatGPT’s app usage, which has skyrocketed over the past year. Its integration into platforms like Apple’s ecosystem suggests a long-term presence in the search market.

This presents a timely opportunity for brands to reassess and plan their content strategies. With ChatGPT’s partnerships with publishers and its growing competitive position, businesses need to prepare for its sustained impact on the organic search landscape. Staying proactive will be key to maintaining visibility across these new channels.

Using AI search for Black Friday and holiday shopping

Are people turning to AI search tools for shopping? Recent developments suggest the answer is yes. Google Shopping recently underwent a complete AI overhaul, ChatGPT introduced its search feature, and Perplexity added a purchase button for its Pro customers, allowing users to shop directly from search results.

Shopping for holiday gifts has changed dramatically over the years. It used to involve a family outing to the local mall, a bustling and often chaotic experience. People would queue as early as 5 a.m. outside their favourite stores, eager to snag the hottest electronics, clothing, or toys. There was an almost gladiatorial spirit to this tradition.

Today, the process is entirely different. With a few taps on a smartphone, we can find and purchase everything we need without leaving the comfort of our homes. AI search tools are poised to transform this experience even further. They could either strip shopping of its personal, human touch or make it more tailored and meaningful than ever before.

Imagine running an AI-powered search armed with your best friend’s interests, a set budget, and insight into current trends. In moments, you’d receive a curated list of thoughtful gift suggestions guaranteed to make your friend feel loved and appreciated. What once seemed like the dream of the lazy gift-giver is fast becoming a reality.

However, for brands, these advancements bring new challenges. They must not only adapt to these AI-driven shopping behaviours but also ensure their visibility in search results. Tracking performance and finding ways to integrate into AI search platforms will be vital for staying competitive in this evolving retail landscape.

Tracking brand mentions AI search channels

If we assume that an increasing number of people are using AI search tools to find gifts—though concrete data is still unavailable—marketers face an important question: how can they effectively track their brand’s visibility in these complex and often opaque AI-driven search environments?

The first step is accepting that traditional search volume metrics and keyword tracking methods are not equipped to handle the intricacies of conversational search. Unlike conventional search engines, AI tools are designed to provide personalised and contextually rich responses based on user queries, which makes monitoring and analysis far more challenging. At this point, tracking visibility in these emerging channels remains an unresolved issue.

One of the significant shifts brought about by conversational search is the way users phrase their queries. Instead of typing isolated keywords, people are more likely to use natural, conversational language. These queries tend to be longer and more specific, reflecting how individuals might speak rather than type. In turn, the results they receive are tailored to personal preferences, contexts, and even past behaviours, making it increasingly difficult to rely on traditional methods for assessing search performance.

This evolution in search also raises concerns about bias in conversational search algorithms. AI systems, including Google’s AI-organised search results, are designed to curate content in specific ways, which can inadvertently favour certain brands or sources over others. I explored this challenge of bias in depth during a recent virtual presentation, discussing how these algorithms influence brand visibility and potentially skew the playing field.

For marketers, these developments underline the importance of adjusting their strategies to remain competitive in this rapidly changing landscape. Visibility in AI-powered search platforms is no longer just about ranking for the right keywords—it’s about understanding how users interact with conversational AI and ensuring your brand appears in these tailored results.

As these tools grow more mainstream, marketers must adopt new methods to measure performance and adapt their content strategies. While tracking brand visibility in conversational search may still be a work in progress, taking proactive steps now can position brands for long-term success in this evolving space. For those who act early, this could represent a significant opportunity to capture attention in an increasingly fragmented digital market.

Using topics for search instead of keywords

The use of topic clusters has become a cornerstone of modern SEO strategies. By systematically covering every facet of a subject, many websites aim to meet the diverse search needs of their audience. This approach not only provides comprehensive coverage of a topic but also positions your brand as a trusted authority in its field.

A well-organised portfolio of content, carefully aligned with the search journey, is a powerful tool for building credibility. When combined with a robust backlink profile, this strategy significantly enhances your ability to dominate your market and gain visibility in competitive spaces.

Analysing topic clusters also reveals overarching themes that naturally emerge from these efforts. Tools like Profound are particularly useful in this regard, offering insights into broader contexts surrounding key subjects. Profound allows marketers to track performance across several AI-driven search platforms, including ChatGPT-4o Search, ChatGPT-4o-mini Search, Perplexity, and Microsoft’s Copilot.

For those who don’t yet have a clearly defined list of topics to target, several SEO tools can help generate a roadmap. Popular platforms such as Semrush, Ahrefs, Keyword Insights, thruuu, and Moz are excellent resources for identifying topics aligned with your audience’s interests and search behaviours.

This systematic methodology represents the future of tracking brand performance in AI-powered search channels. By leveraging topic clusters and advanced tracking tools, businesses can stay ahead of the curve and better understand their audience’s needs in this evolving digital landscape.

To illustrate this, consider a recent experiment where we analysed publications and brands visible for a set of Black Friday-related topics. This case study highlighted how comprehensive topic tracking and strategic content creation can position brands for success in AI-enhanced search environments.

Digital PR and content strategy for AI search

AI search tools produce dynamic and ever-changing outputs. These results are influenced by multiple factors, including how the search is phrased, personalised adjustments based on individual interactions, and the continuously updated content available on the web. This makes AI search a constantly moving target, requiring marketers to adapt to its inherent volatility.

By monitoring citation changes over time, the shifting dynamics of AI search become clear. For instance, Tinybeans has emerged as a significant leader in toy-related content, with an impressive 5,823 citations – over 30% higher than Amazon, which holds second place with 4,460 citations. This dominance indicates that AI search models view Tinybeans as a primary authority in this space. Interestingly, the top 10 cited sources include a diverse mix of traditional media outlets, ecommerce giants like Amazon and Target, manufacturers such as LEGO, and social platforms like Reddit. This mix reflects the broad range of content types that AI search tools consider authoritative.

Notably, Tinybeans has strengthened its position further, with its top two pages now commanding 35.2% of all citations, up from 33%. Seasonal content also plays a crucial role, as evidenced by the Black Friday deals page, which gained 3 percentage points in citation share, rising from 8% to 11%. This shift highlights how AI models place significant weight on seasonal relevance when selecting citations. In contrast, generalist sources like Forbes saw a sharp decline, losing 4.8 percentage points in combined citations. This could be due to AI tools prioritising specialised, category-specific content over broader gift guides or possibly due to manual adjustments, such as Bing or Google demoting sites like Forbes for past reputation issues.

For brands like Fisher-Price, this dynamic creates opportunities. Collaborating with highly cited sources like Tinybeans, Parents.com, or WeAreTeachers.com could help ensure their products are prominently featured in AI-generated search results. Profound, an analytics tool, is already beginning to highlight such strategic insights, enabling brands to optimise their content strategies accordingly.

The good news is that AI search offers brands the potential to see immediate visibility gains if their digital PR efforts are effective. Unlike traditional search engines, brands do not need to establish long-term authority to appear in AI search results. However, these wins are fragile and could be easily displaced by competitors, publishers, or unexpected changes in the AI search algorithms. This duality presents both opportunities and challenges, making it a double-edged sword.

Looking ahead, organisations should consider establishing dedicated AI search teams that work closely with SEO, digital PR, and content creation departments. These teams would monitor brand performance using tools like Profound to track visibility across key topics and citations. The focus should be on building a flexible and creative team capable of adapting to the rapid evolution of AI search tools and user behaviours.

As AI-powered search tools continue to evolve, so too will the strategies required to succeed in this space. Users are likely to become more comfortable with conversational search, resulting in longer, more natural queries that fully utilise the capabilities of these tools. While this shift won’t happen overnight, it is expected to unfold much faster than anticipated. Brands that invest in agility, creativity, and strategic partnerships today will be better positioned to thrive in the AI-driven search landscape of tomorrow.