Brand Visibility ‘Highly Concentrated’ Within AI Apps: How to Stand Out

0:00So, today we're joined by Baruch Tolando, VP and GM of Digital Marketing and Solutions at Similar Web. First and more on this Generative AI Brand Visibility Index, and really how brands right now are showing up inside of these AI-generated answers. So first and foremost, thank you so much for being with us today, but your report to show this pretty measurable shift in brand discovery, and so walk us through some of your recent findings. Thank you for having me, Jenny. So before I walk into the key finding, I would put some context. So basically, as a consumer, I'm increasingly using search through AI, like CharGPT and other Generative AI platforms, to search information, to get recommendation, and to actually solve some of the day-to-day problem, they are being now exposed into these new way of seeing those brands. So instead of actually scrolling through a list of results, users are now actually receiving a direct synthesized answer by these AI.

1:01And so where marketers and businesses are actually asking the question of, where am I actually ranking? It's no longer sufficient. The real question that they need to ask is basically, am I part of that answer? So basically, I was going to say, so you seem that you've guys have tried to mathematically plot this using your Gen AI visibility index, walk us through what you're measuring, and without giving away the secret sauce, what if you were can take away from the information? 100%. So what are we measuring? We are measuring actually those real user prompts and responses that people are getting. Of course, removing a lot of their PII information, by being able to really understand what are the key trending topics that are coming up and which of these brands are showing up in those answers. We're basically seeing few things. First of all, is that visibility is actually highly concentrated.

2:01There is a relatively small set of group of brands that are coming up in those AI answers that people are getting. So for example, Apple is coming up in consumer electronics, or we may be seeing Expedia quite a bit showing up when people are actually planning their trips, and Nike actually is dominating many of the answers related to apparel within the athletic industry. Now these brands are actually embedded in their answer. The second thing that we see is actually momentum is not really uneven and it changed quite rapidly, meaning that some organizations and brands that show up last year may experience actually a plateau or a decline this year in showing up. And then we see also at the same time a rise of other types of brands. For example, in consumer electronics, we have seen BNH Photo, which is a company here in New York, actually coming up and showing more frequently. And then the last piece I would say is sometimes authority matters more than actual demand.

3:06And so what we're seeing is that some brands that are not known are coming up in these answers. They tend to be more subject matter experts, they're bringing the expertise online with very well authoritative approach into what they bring, as well as structuring the content correctly so that these AI can use them as a good reference points, even without the mass brand recognition. Okay, and I think that's really interesting. And we also do know from just I've read this report so fascinating, but the finance travel and consumer electronics did show very different AI visibility dynamics. And so what industries right now are you seeing the most surprise in what industries are perhaps lagging or maybe doing a bit better than the rest? Yeah, so of course it really depends on the industries themselves. But definitely what we're seeing is the distribution between the top ranker and I would say the ones at the top 10, the distance between them. So what we've seen is actually news is an interesting venue, especially in the United States

4:07because in news, for example, companies are not always getting the fair exchange between the LLM and the actual news outlet where content is their primary product. And so what we're starting to see, yes, we see Reuters coming up at the top, but also companies like the Guardian who is mostly known in the UK, yes, they have a presence in the US are rising up to the top. Okay, so Bruce, we kind of tie this all together. I'm sure the biggest takeaway, if I'm a small business owner or any kind of business, how do I move up the rankings? How do I be coming out overachiever? And in the days of Google, it was paid a play. I don't think we're there yet. Maybe I'm wrong, but what can companies do to increase visibility? Alex, that's a great question. The very first thing we've got to make sure that we're coming up in the topics that we really care about showing up. And so first and foremost, it's no longer about ranking. It's about to mention, am I mentioned in those topics that I really care?

5:09What they can do is a variety of things. First of all, start measuring who is actually showing up against these topics, because those topics are the ones that they want to be known. Second is to understand who controls the conversation. If I'm a small business, of course I have to make sure I have the right content with it, but I also may be going off-site to go and take care of my own marketing. So responding sometimes to different types of user-generated content, like I read it, as a great way to go and participate in the conversation, or work with earned media to actually being featured within this particular type of topics that I really want to be known for. All these aspects that are familiar also from the world of regular search engine optimization are relevant also here in this generative AI, but also require more attention into the broader entire visibility of your digital footprint, and the more you are known on these particular topics you want, the better you will be. So on-site and off-site. Okay, and I thank you so much for bringing this conversation to our attention, and really

6:12some of this report, because it's so fascinating reading, I think, such a great way to understand broader AI. It's not just necessarily like an infrastructure play, it also is having real-time implications on some of these trends that you are, of course, following. And we really appreciate it, Baruch Tolandano, VP, and GM of digital marketing solutions, at similar web.