How B2B Brands Get Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini: A Practical Guide to AI Visibility
According to G2’s recent research, 61% of buyers say they have used or plan to use an AI chatbot during the buying process, and the majority say that chatbot guidance changes which vendor they end up choosing. As a result, a brand without good Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) can be the strongest option in its category and still lose the deal, simply because it never showed up in the answer.
But while the way people are searching is changing, optimization fundamentals still apply. You still have to know what the models are looking for, just like you need to know what Google wants to see. The difference is that there are a lot of models, and the type of content they prioritize may not be what you’re used to optimizing for.
What does all this mean for your brand? Let’s dig into it!
How do you get your brand mentioned or cited by ChatGPT and other AI tools?
First off, it’s important to note that AI answer engines don’t all work the same way. For instance, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews retrieve and cite live sources, which means visibility depends on structured, authoritative content that’s easy to extract cleanly. Meanwhile, ChatGPT and Claude lean more heavily on training data, which means visibility depends on consistent, credible mentions across the web built up over time, not a single optimized page.
Note two key terms in that paragraph: “authoritative content” and “across the web.” Translated, that means that when it comes to AI search, third-party mentions carry more weight than your own content. Also, earned coverage, analyst mentions, and reputable press references are more important than backlinks.
That is a little different from traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which historically has placed a big emphasis on backlinks and well-optimized content, wherever it resides. Which makes digital PR that gets your messages placed in different venues so important. In fact, building a steady cadence of earned media and analyst mentions that reinforce your category authority over time is vitally important, as is getting stories placed on reputable third-party media outlets.
That’s not to say that your owned content won’t get noticed. It will, provided that it’s structured in a certain way. As smart as they are, AI models need things spelled out pretty succinctly. That means the content you produce needs to be clear, concise, and able to answer a question quickly and directly. Specific, well-structured information performs better than dense marketing copy, and if an AI model can’t find the answer, it won’t use your content.
How do I measure my brand’s AI visibility?
You may have heard the term “share of model” and thought, “hmm, sounds familiar.” Indeed, it is essentially the AI counterpart to share of voice, but in this case, share of model is the percentage of AI-generated answers in your category that mention or recommend your brand relative to competitors. If a buyer asks an AI tool to compare vendors in your space, share of model tells you how often you’re one of the names that comes back, and how favorably.
To measure your share of model:
- Define a set of real buyer prompts for your category, including the questions people are actually asking, not just keywords you’d target in traditional SEO.
- Run those prompts consistently across the major AI tools rather than relying on a single platform to represent your visibility.
- Track when and how your brand appears over time, since a single snapshot won’t tell you much on its own.
How do I know if my brand’s AI visibility is doing well?
Share of model is a great way to get a feel for how well you’re showing up and showing out, but it’s also a useful metric to identify where you can make adjustments. And rest assured, just like with SEO, you’ll need to continually tweak your approach to remain in the AI limelight.
That’s because model training happens in cycles and retrieval authority builds gradually, which means AI visibility behaves more like brand equity than a campaign metric. It’s slow to build, which is why it needs a consistent, committed long-term strategy instead of a one-time push. In fact, optimizing for AI can be a full-time job in itself, potentially taking away all of those efficiency gains you’ve been making from using AI in the first place!
We’re here to help. We help our clients build digital PR and content strategies that get them noticed – not just by their customers, but by the search tools their customers are using. Contact us to find out how we can create an AI optimization strategy that gets your brand in front of your audience.
