Related: AI Visibility Audits (pillar) · Citation Share Audit Checklist — 35 Prompts · Audit for Nonprofits
You can't improve what you haven't measured. That's the foundational principle of every effective marketing program — and it applies with equal force to AI visibility. Before a brand can improve its Citation Share, it needs to know what that share currently is.
Most brands haven't measured it. Most don't know where they stand inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, or Google AI Overviews. The audit described here changes that — five steps, two to four hours, a baseline measurement that drives everything that follows.
Step 1: Build Your Prompt Inventory
The prompt inventory is the foundation of an AI visibility audit. It's a structured set of queries that represent the questions buyers in your category actually ask AI engines — not branded queries, but category and problem queries.
Start with 60 to 80 prompts across three buckets:
Category queries. "What are the leading [category] firms?" "Who are the best [discipline] agencies?" These surface which brands the engine sees as category leaders.
Problem/solution queries. "How do I [solve specific problem]?" "Which brands are known for [capability]?" These surface which brands are associated with expertise in buyer pain points.
Comparative queries. "[Brand A] vs [Brand B]" "What's the difference between [approach X] and [approach Y]?" These reveal how engines characterize your brand relative to competitors.
Step 2: Run the Prompts Across All Five Platforms
Run your full prompt inventory across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini. Record results in a spreadsheet: platform, prompt, brands mentioned, your brand mentioned (Y/N), characterization of your brand, and sources cited.
The answers diverge significantly across platforms. A brand that dominates in Perplexity may be absent in ChatGPT. Google AI Overviews pulls from a different source mix than Claude. The composite view across all five is what matters for strategy.
Step 3: Calculate Your Baseline Citation Share
Citation Share = (number of prompts where your brand is mentioned) / (total prompts run) × 100.
Run this by platform, by query category, and overall. The per-platform breakdown is often more useful than the aggregate — it tells you where you have strength and where the biggest gaps are.
For context on what competitive Citation Share looks like in your category, the AI Platform Citation Source Index 2026 maps which sources drive citation across 50 domains. The Who Controls AI Answers franchise tracks Citation Share by category. For the publication-side companion view — which trade publications the engines actually retrieve when generating those answers — see the Citation Share Index Series: Alcohol & Spirits, Cannabis, and Crisis Communications. The Index for your category tells you which placements will move the audit number.
Step 4: Audit the Source Attribution
For every prompt where your brand appears, note which sources the engine cites. Sources that appear frequently are your current retrieval anchors. Sources that should be driving retrieval but aren't indicate gaps in coverage quality or source authority.
For every prompt where your brand doesn't appear, note which brands do appear and which sources drive their citations. This competitor source map is the starting brief for your next earned media program. If your category has a published Citation Share Index, the Index's Tier 1 publications are the highest-leverage targets for that program.
Step 5: Map the Characterization Accuracy
For every prompt where your brand appears, assess three dimensions: category positioning (is the engine describing you correctly?), capability representation (are your capabilities accurately represented?), and sentiment (are you presented as a leader, niche player, or historical reference?).
What to Do with the Results
A completed audit produces three outputs: a baseline Citation Share by platform and query category; a source attribution map; and a characterization accuracy assessment. These define the first 90 days of any AI Communications program. Run it quarterly. The brands that do are building compounding AI visibility advantage. The ones that don't are guessing.
Citation Share is the percentage of relevant AI-generated answers where your brand is mentioned, cited, or recommended. It is calculated as: (prompts where brand appears) / (total prompts run) × 100. Measured across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
How long does an AI visibility audit take?
A full 60-80 prompt audit across five platforms takes two to four hours. A 25-prompt subset audit can be completed in under an hour. The audit should be run quarterly to track Citation Share changes over time.
What do I do with AI audit results?
An AI visibility audit produces three outputs: a baseline Citation Share by platform and query category, a source attribution map showing which placements drive citation, and a characterization accuracy assessment. These three outputs define the first 90 days of an AI Communications program.
How is an AI visibility audit different from a Citation Share Index?
The audit measures the brand inside AI answers. The Citation Share Index measures the publications the engines pull from to generate those answers. Brand-side and publication-side. Run together, they form the full category picture — the audit shows you the gap, the Index shows you where the placement work moves the number.
Related: AI Visibility Audits (pillar) · What Is AI Communications? · Citation Share: The Metric That Replaced Share of Voice · What Is a Retrieval Anchor? · Why Most Brands Are Invisible Inside ChatGPT · AI Communications & GEO: The Practitioner's Guide · Citation Share Index Series: Alcohol & Spirits · Cannabis · Crisis Communications · Everything-PR Research: The Complete Index
