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. 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. 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. 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. 4.We identify companies only with consent. Company names worldwide. Named people in the US only. Never individuals in the EU.
  5. 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 questionExample
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. 1.The referrer. When the browser says the visit came from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai or another assistant. The most reliable signal.
  2. 2.A link tag. When the link carries a tag such as utm_source=chatgpt.com.
  3. 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. 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 isWhat you see
United StatesThe company. For visitors who consented, their name, job title and work email.
EU / EEAThe 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 worldThe 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 doesPoints
Arrives from an AI assistant for the first time20–25 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 pagesPoints add up
No visit for 7 days or moreScore starts to drop
ScoreLabelWhat happens
0–39CuriousShown in Results
40–74WarmSent to your CRM (default setting)
75+HotSent 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

DayWhat happenedScore
1Asked ChatGPT to compare tools for B2B SEO teams, clicked through to your site25, Curious
2Came back and read a feature page33, Curious
3Viewed pricing50, Warm, sent to CRM
4Viewed the contact page62, 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

NumberWhat it tells youHow it's worked out
NamedHow often AI mentions youShare of answers that include your brand, e.g. "named in 10 of every 100 answers"
LinkedHow often AI links to your siteShare of answers that include a link to one of your pages
RangeHow steady the answer isLowest and highest naming rate across repeated runs, e.g. "60–75%"
PositionWhere you appear when namedAverage place in the answer, with the range, e.g. "2.4, between 1 and 5"
You vs competitorsWho AI recommends insteadEach brand placed by how often it's named and how often it's linked
Trust checkWhether AI speaks well of you, and accuratelyOnce 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 AIPeople AI sent to your siteVisits with evidence from one of the four signals above
IdentifiedWhich companies they came fromCompany match after consent; named people in the US only
Buying intentHow close a company is to buyingThe score above, 0–100+
Revenue from AIWhat AI-sourced visits turned intoLeads 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Visitors who decline cookies. They're not tracked or identified. In markets where many people decline, you'll see fewer companies.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.