How we measure what AI says, and what it sends you
Every number in Targetlytics comes from a method you can check. This page explains how each one is made, and where its limits are.
Written by Divyanshu Chaturvedi, Co-founder & CTO. Last updated October 7, 2026.
The short version
- 1.We ask each question many times. AI assistants give a different answer each time you ask. So we report how often you're named, for example "named in 60–75% of answers", instead of a single rank.
- 2.We ask the questions your buyers ask. They're built from the roles, needs and deals in your CRM, and asked the way a real buyer would, in their country and language.
- 3.We only count a visit as "from AI" when there's evidence. The browser's referrer, a link tag, or a landing page that AI quoted for that question. No evidence, no AI label.
- 4.We identify companies only with consent. Company names worldwide. Named people in the US only. Never individuals in the EU.
- 5.We tell you what we can't see. Some visits influenced by AI arrive with no trace. So our counts lean low: we'd rather miss a visit than claim one we can't back up.
How we check what AI says
AI assistants don't look up a fixed answer. They write a new one each time, so the same question can name you on Monday and leave you out on Tuesday. A single check tells you very little. Here is what we do instead.
Many answers, not one. Each question is asked several times on each assistant. You see how often you're named, how often your site is linked, and your usual position in the answer, with the range (for example "position 2.4, between 1 and 5").
Every major assistant. ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and more. Assistants often disagree, so you see each one separately.
Every day. Answers change when a model is updated, when a competitor publishes, or when you do. Daily checks show which way you're moving and what moved you.
Questions your buyers actually ask. We write questions for each buyer type you sell to, across four kinds:
| Kind of question | Example |
|---|---|
| Looking for options | "What tools help B2B teams track leads from ChatGPT?" |
| Comparing vendors | "Which is better for a 50-person SaaS team, A or B?" |
| About you by name | "Is Targetlytics worth the money?" |
| A real buying situation | "I run RevOps on HubSpot and need AI leads without duplicates. What should I use?" |
Each question is asked the way that buyer would ask it: as their role, from their country, in their language when your brand is local. Some continue into a follow-up question, the way people really talk to AI.
Built from your CRM. Connect HubSpot and we look at the deals you won in the last 90 days: who bought, what role they had, what they needed. Every month the questions are refreshed to match. Other CRMs are coming soon.
How we know a visit came from AI
Most visits from AI assistants show up in Google Analytics as "Direct", because many assistants don't tell the browser where the visitor came from. Our script, installed on your site, looks for evidence in this order:
- 1.The referrer. When the browser says the visit came from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai or another assistant. The most reliable signal.
- 2.A link tag. When the link carries a tag such as utm_source=chatgpt.com.
- 3.The landing page. When the page the visitor landed on is one AI quoted for a question we track. This is often the signal that finds AI visits Analytics misses, and it's possible because we already know which pages AI quotes.
- 4.The visit pattern. Timing and device signals that support one of the above. Never used on its own.
When none of these is present, we don't guess. The visit stays unlabelled.
How we identify companies
After a visitor accepts cookies, we match the visit to the company it came from. What you see depends on where the visitor is:
| Where the visitor is | What you see |
|---|---|
| United States | The company. For visitors who consented, their name, job title and work email. |
| EU / EEA | The company only. No personal data about any individual. We suggest the roles at that company that match the buyers you sell to, so your team knows who to look for. |
| Rest of the world | The company. |
What we never do: track visitors who decline cookies, use fingerprinting, or use storage tricks to get around consent. This means our identification rate can look lower than numbers you see elsewhere.
Identification is harder for very small companies, people on mobile networks, and people using a VPN. It gets better when a visitor returns.
How we score buying intent
A visit from AI is a start, not a lead. The intent score shows how close a company looks to buying, based on what its visitors do on your site.
| What the visitor does | Points |
|---|---|
| Arrives from an AI assistant for the first time | 20–25 to start |
| Comes back | +5 to +10 each time |
| Views your pricing page | +15 to +20 |
| Starts a signup or trial | +15 to +20 |
| Views your contact or demo page | +15 to +20 |
| Spends noticeably longer on the site | +5 |
| Views several of these pages | Points add up |
| No visit for 7 days or more | Score starts to drop |
| Score | Label | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 0–39 | Curious | Shown in Results |
| 40–74 | Warm | Sent to your CRM (default setting) |
| 75+ | Hot | Sent to your CRM, shown first in Results |
You choose the score at which companies are sent to your CRM.
Example: one company over four days
| Day | What happened | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asked ChatGPT to compare tools for B2B SEO teams, clicked through to your site | 25, Curious |
| 2 | Came back and read a feature page | 33, Curious |
| 3 | Viewed pricing | 50, Warm, sent to CRM |
| 4 | Viewed the contact page | 62, Warm |
Your sales team sees the company, the question it asked ChatGPT, the pages it read, and its score, all in the CRM record.
What the numbers mean
| Number | What it tells you | How it's worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Named | How often AI mentions you | Share of answers that include your brand, e.g. "named in 10 of every 100 answers" |
| Linked | How often AI links to your site | Share of answers that include a link to one of your pages |
| Range | How steady the answer is | Lowest and highest naming rate across repeated runs, e.g. "60–75%" |
| Position | Where you appear when named | Average place in the answer, with the range, e.g. "2.4, between 1 and 5" |
| You vs competitors | Who AI recommends instead | Each brand placed by how often it's named and how often it's linked |
| Trust check | Whether AI speaks well of you, and accurately | Once a month we ask "Is [brand] worth the money?", "Is it safe?", "Is it still supported?" and "What are the alternatives?", then check tone and facts |
| Visits from AI | People AI sent to your site | Visits with evidence from one of the four signals above |
| Identified | Which companies they came from | Company match after consent; named people in the US only |
| Buying intent | How close a company is to buying | The score above, 0–100+ |
| Revenue from AI | What AI-sourced visits turned into | Leads and closed deals in your CRM that started with a visit from AI |
What we can't measure
Every method has blind spots. These are ours.
- What people type into AI apps. No one outside OpenAI, Google or Anthropic can see real user questions. We see the answers to the questions we ask, which are built to match your buyers.
- Visits that leave no trace. If someone reads an AI answer, then types your address or searches your name on Google, the visit looks like any other. Our AI visit counts are lower than the true number.
- Visitors who decline cookies. They're not tracked or identified. In markets where many people decline, you'll see fewer companies.
- Proof that AI caused a deal. We show that a deal started with a visit from AI. We can't prove the AI answer was the reason the buyer chose you.
- Model updates. Assistants change without notice. A sudden shift in your numbers can come from an update, not from anything you or a competitor did.
How we check our numbers
- Spot checks. Our team regularly asks the same questions by hand and compares the answers with what we collected.
- Re-run it yourself. Any question in your dashboard can be run again on demand, so you can see the answers first-hand.
- Checked against your deals. With your CRM connected, we compare the companies we marked as "from AI" with the deals you actually won.
Privacy
- No tracking until a visitor accepts cookies, and none if they decline.
- Named individuals in the US only. Company-level data only in the EU and EEA.
- We don't sell visitor data.
- Any visitor record can be deleted on request.
- Your data is never used to train AI models.
- Collection from AI assistants uses their official access or follows their terms of use.
Read the full privacy policy and GDPR and visitor identification.
Questions we get asked
Because AI gives a different answer each time. A single rank would be true for one answer and wrong for the next. A rate across many answers is what holds up.
Several times per assistant, every day. The exact number depends on your plan; it's shown next to every result.
Many assistants don't pass on where the visitor came from, so Analytics files those visits under "Direct". We also use the landing page and link tags to recognise them.
We only identify visitors who accept cookies, and we never identify individuals in the EU. Fewer, but every one is collected with consent.
Yes. Every number in the dashboard opens to the answers and sources it came from, and you can re-run the question yourself.
No.
See these numbers for your brand.
We'll check what AI assistants say about you and send a report within 2 hours.
Written by Divyanshu Chaturvedi, Co-founder & CTO. Last updated October 7, 2026.