Guest post by Ann Smarty.
Branding is going to be key for AI discovery because more and more people are starting to use generative AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini to get product and business recommendations.
Generative AI will not be able to recommend your brand or product unless it knows about them, so being a known brand is the only way to be surfaced by these platforms.
That’s where consumers turn back to Google: 99% of ChatGPT users still use Google to conduct additional research, so they are likely to search for brand names they discovered through AI answers. So far, based on the available statistics, AI platforms are not replacing Google search. ChatGPT and similar platforms are an additional discovery channel consumers use and those channels generate more branded searches in Google.
This trend is likely to grow: Based on the fast adoption rates, more people will likely use AI for product recommendations but many of them will still turn to Google to research further. This makes tracking branded searches very important.
So what should we monitor and how?
1. Branded search volume and variety
If your marketing and SEO strategies are working, you will see a growing interest in your brand. The easiest way to monitor your brand growth is by using available SEO data, i.e. your branded search.
There are a few ways to track and report if your branded search is growing, including:
Google Search Console
The Search Console Performance section allows you to track your brand queries and find positive or negative trends:
- Click “Add filter”
- Choose “Query”
- Type your business name
Here you will be able to see whether your name is searched and if there’s a positive trend:
Google Trends
Google Trends allows you to track your competitors’ brands as well. Simply type your or your competitor’s brand name and see if there’s an obvious trend there:
Additionally, Google Trends shows changes in related queries related to your business name:
Using a freemium Google Chrome extension called Glimpse, you can also overlay this data with important SEO data, like Search Volume, branded long-tail queries (sorted by search volume of each), and related brands:
Semrush
Inside the “Keyword overview” section of your Semrush dashboard, choose different months in the drop-down to see if your brand name was gaining or losing in interest:
2. Branded query impressions
Fewer and fewer searches result in clicks, so when it comes to brand visibility, search impressions are becoming an important metric to keep an eye on.
Basically, an impression for your branded search query stands for a number of people searching for your brand and looking at your site.
In other words, growing branded search impressions is a good metric to signal a growing interest in your brand. Use the Search Console “Query” filter to monitor branded search impressions.
3. Brand mentions
Monitoring brand mentions is a great way to become part of relevant conversations and turn unhappy customers into brand advocates. These days, it is also a good way to measure your PR and brand building efforts.
Buzzsumo is a great tool to set up brand monitoring. It checks multiple sources, offers advanced filters allowing you to include all brand name variations and sends email alerts of any conversations you need to keep a close eye on. It also allows you to evaluate your marketing and branding efforts by offering visualized reports of your brand name mentions.
When monitoring your brand, make sure to reply to negative comments. But also, make sure to broadcast your positive mentions:
- Add positive press to your Press Room, and share on official social media channels;
- Repurpose positive mentions into testimonials, reviews, and social media quotes;
- Add best mentions to your link-in-bio dashboard to give them a longer life; and
- Thank everyone who mentioned your brand (any interaction matters, no matter how big of a brand you are managing).
Key Takeaways:
- AI as a new discovery channel: More and more consumers turn to ChatGPT for brand and product recommendations.
- For a brand or product to be recommended by AI, it must be a known entity. Brand marketing is key to AI and search visibility.
- Actively monitoring branded search metrics is crucial for understanding brand growth and the effectiveness of marketing efforts.
- To track overall interest and growth in your brand by analyzing branded keywords (search volume and variety)
- Measure brand visibility and the number of people searching for you by tracking branded search impressions
- To amplify PR and brand-building efforts, engage in relevant conversations, and manage customer sentiment.
The rise of generative AI platforms brings a significant shift in how consumers discover brands and products. Far from replacing traditional search, AI acts as a powerful accelerator for branded search activity.
Strategic brand building is more critical than ever. Businesses must proactively monitor branded search metrics, including search volume, impressions, and mentions, to effectively measure brand growth, understand consumer interest, and adapt their marketing strategies.
Ignoring branded metrics in the age of AI discovery would be a missed opportunity to capitalize on a new, influential source of customer acquisition.
Ann Smarty is the founder of Smarty Marketing, a boutique SEO agency based in New York, and Viral Content Bee, a social media promotion tool. Ann’s search engine optimization career began in 2010. She is the former editor-in-chief of Search Engine Journal and contributor to prominent search and social blogs, including Small Business Trends and Mashable.