Is your product actually showing up in ChatGPT recommendations? Here's how I'd measure it.

A question for SaaS founders: If someone asks ChatGPT, “What’s the best tool for [your category]?”, does your product show up?

And more importantly, do you know how often it does?

Most founders I talk to are investing in SEO, publishing blogs, and building backlinks. But there's another discovery channel emerging that is much harder to measure: AI-generated recommendations.

Here's how I'd approach measuring it.

1. Don't just track your brand name.

Someone searching for your brand already knows you exist. The more interesting question is whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini recommends you when someone asks for the best tools in your category.

Build a list of 30–50 prompts your potential customers might actually use.

For example:

• What's the best [category] tool for startups?

• [Competitor A] vs [Competitor B] — which is better?

• What are some alternatives to [competitor]?

• Which tools solve [specific customer problem]?

2. Track recommendations, not just mentions.

A brand being mentioned in an AI answer doesn't necessarily mean it's being recommended.

Pay attention to whether you're listed among several alternatives, positioned as the best fit for a specific use case, or actually cited as the source of a recommendation.

These are very different outcomes.

3. Keep an eye on your competitors.

You might be getting mentioned in 20% of relevant answers, but your competitor could be appearing in 60%.

That's why share of voice matters more than looking at your mentions in isolation.

4. Look for patterns in the sources AI engines use.

Which websites, comparison pages, review platforms, and community discussions keep appearing in the answers?

These can offer clues about where you should build your presence and what content might be missing from your distribution strategy.

5. Measure consistently.

AI answers can vary depending on the prompt, model, context, and time. A single query isn't enough to establish a trend.

Track the same set of prompts periodically, compare results, and look for meaningful changes rather than treating every answer as a definitive ranking.

We've been exploring this space with MentionBird, and one thing that's becoming clear is that visibility in AI search needs its own measurement and distribution strategy. Traditional SEO metrics alone don't tell the whole story.

I'm curious about three things:

1. Are you actively tracking how often ChatGPT or Perplexity recommends your product?

2. Have you noticed a competitor consistently appearing in AI answers while your product gets left out?

3. If you could see exactly which prompts your product appears for, and which sources influence those recommendations, would that change how you approach content marketing?

Would love to hear what other founders are seeing. Especially if you've experimented with AEO beyond simply publishing more content.