AI Visibility Pulse/Walkthrough

Walkthrough · AI Visibility

“How do we get ChatGPT to talk about our brand?”

Every agency is hearing that question. This is the walk that answers it with measurements — what you run, what each number means in a client meeting, and how every finding arrives with the recommended action already attached. The craft is included: how the numbers become conversations, and the conversations become retainers.

The whole walk · five stops

From the question to the signed work

Every AI visibility engagement follows the same five stops. The rest of this page walks them one at a time — what you run, what each number means, and how every finding becomes work a client signs off on.

1. Point it
the brand + 12 rivals
2. Run it
250 live answers
3. Read the numbers
the boardroom metrics
4. Open the sources
the five audit lanes
5. Land the work
report · pitch · retainer

It starts with fifty questions — the client's, not ours.

AI visibility isn't measured in keywords. It's measured in the questions real buyers ask, and what five different engines answer.

Step 1 · Point it at the brand

Fifty questions across five lanes

The pulse runs on a question pack: fifty real buyer questions in five lanes — category, brand, comparisons, use cases, reputation. There are two roads to a pack, and both end with you in control.

Bring your own questions
1.Download the Excel template — one column per lane
2.Fill it with the questions your team already approved
3.Upload it. Done — that's the pack.
The road for the agency with an approved question set — a media buyer's spreadsheet becomes a measurement instrument.
Or let the AI draft them
1.The AI drafts about fifty questions from the client's brand kit
2.You review and edit every single one before anything runs
3.Saving creates a new pack version — deltas always compare like with like
The road for a fast start — grounded in the kit's market, buyer, and product focus, never generic.
Then name the competition: up to twelve competitors tracked across every answer, plus the client's website address — so when an engine cites their own site, the pulse knows it's them and not someone else's version of them.
The questions are the client's buyers' questions — not keywords. Read the pack aloud in a kickoff meeting and the client will start adding their own. That's a good sign; the pack is versioned for exactly that.

Then you press run, and the engines answer for themselves.

Step 2 · The run

Fifty questions, five engines, 250 live answers

Every question is asked live, with web search on — the mode buyers actually use — pinned to the client's market. Each answer is kept whole, along with every source the engine cited.

The pack goes in
50
buyer questions · five lanes · asked identically to every engine
Live
GPTChatGPT50 answers · kept verbatim
PPerplexity50 answers · kept verbatim
GGemini50 answers · kept verbatim
CClaude50 answers · kept verbatim
AIOGoogle AI Overview50 answers · kept verbatim
250 answers per pulse — every one on the record

A few minutes later, you're reading deep insights — and exactly where action will create impact.

Not traffic. Not rankings. What the AI engines actually say when buyers ask about the client — measured, compared to competitors, and tracked month over month.

Step 3 · Read the numbers

Measurements your clients will value — each one opens a conversation

A few minutes after you press run, the dashboard fills. These aren't rankings borrowed from search — they're measurements of the AI answers themselves. And every one of them maps to a conversation you can have the same week.

Mention rate, per engine

Of fifty answers, how many named the brand at all — one rate per engine, side by side, lined up against how frequently each competitor is named. And behind every rate: the sentiment, and every source the engine used while forming its answer.

The conversation“When buyers ask AI what to buy, how often do you even exist?”
AI share of voice — the boardroom number

Across the unbranded category and use-case answers: what share of the mentions belong to the client, and what share to each rival. One brand can sit at 27% while the nearest rival holds 15 — or the other way around.

The conversationThe number the C-suite tracks quarter to quarter. It says who owns the AI shelf — and it moves.
Cites-your-site rate

When an engine mentions the client, is it reading their website — or someone else's version of them?

The conversation“The engines talk about you, but they're not reading you. Here's what feeds them instead.”
The lane × engine grid

Where the client shows up, by question type and engine — brand questions vs comparisons vs use cases — with a delta chip on every cell.

The conversation“You win every brand question and vanish on use cases. That's not a mystery — that's a content brief.”
Reputation, surfaced as intelligence

When engines quote complaint themes on “is it legit” questions, that's not an error to hide — it's what shoppers hear at the moment of purchase doubt, quoted verbatim.

The conversation“Here is exactly what a buyer hears when they double-check you. Let's answer it where the engines read.”
Deltas on everything

Every number carries its change since the last completed run of the same pack — the pulse re-measures, so improvement is visible, not asserted.

The conversation“Here's the same number, thirty days later.” The shortest slide in the deck.

And the numbers aren't even the deep part.

Step 4 · The answers, verbatim

Read the exact answer the buyer saw

Behind every number sits the answer itself. The answers browser holds all 250, verdict-tagged per engine per question — and one click opens the full text, exactly as a buyer received it.

One reputation question · five verdicts
“is the brand actually legit or a scam”
PnegativeGPTmentionedCnegativeGabsentAIOnegative

Four engines answered a trust question with complaint themes; one never named the brand at all. The verbatim answers — with every claim and every cited source — sit one click below the pills. Show the client the actual answer. Nothing you paraphrase will land harder than what the engine really said.

When answers used the web

The engines disclose the searches behind their answers — and the pulse keeps them. Whether each engine went to the web at all, and the exact queries it wrote for itself:

brand reviews ×4brand ingredients benefits ×2top rated in category 2024 ×3rival vs brand value ×2
Some searches carry a years-old date the buyer never typed — the engine added it, and it's reading old pages because of it.
Some searches name a competitor the buyer never asked about — the engine brought your client's rival into their own answer.

Step 5 · Open the sources

Every answer came from somewhere. That's the audit.

The pulse detects every page of citations behind the answers. Before anything else runs, you see the shape of the problem: which sources already name the client, which name a rival instead, and which name nobody — open ground. Then the audit opens the pages and reads them.

Discovery — the assistant chose who to name
Named your clientproof of what's already working
Named a rival insteadthe competitor gap
Named nobodyopen ground

The proof column matters as much as the gaps: the sources already naming the client are what's working — the audit shows what to defend, not just what to fix.

The crossover read

Every source carries its engine roster — which of the five cited it, and which didn't. A page used by two or more engines is consensus ground; a page all five lean on is load-bearing for the client's whole AI presence.

used by 2+ enginesused by all five
Why it mattersFix the page five engines share, and the fix echoes across every one of them.
This is the moment to slow down with a client: most tools stop at “here are your citations.” From here on, nothing arrives as a bare link — every source comes with what it says, who wrote it, how the client comes off, and what to do about it. Served on a platter.

This is where it stops being a report and becomes a work order.

Five lanes of sources, each analyzed for you — sentiment scored, crossovers counted, competitors flagged, and every recommended action tagged with who owns it.

Step 5 · The five lanes, worked one by one

Every lane arrives analyzed, with the moves already written

You choose which lanes to open, and how deep. Each one comes back the same way: an AI analysis of everything the lane read, action items tagged for who owns them — agency, client, or community — and every source carrying its verdict, its author, its date, and a realistic path to inclusion.

Competitor gapthe pages naming your rivals instead of you
The AI analysis — written for you

Most of this lane is round-ups — and the same rival cluster recurs across independent lists, a shelf your client sits outside. The split that matters: some pages include the client and pass them over; most never name them at all. Those are two different problems with two different fixes.

AGENCYSubmit the client to the testing programs behind the round-ups that never name them.
AGENCYPitch the named byline on the multi-engine-cited explainer with third-party evidence.
CLIENTPublish the transparency page that answers the objection keeping them off the lists.
on the page, not pickednot on the pagetop rival namedused by 2+ engines
“Best in category, tested” — a 13-item round-upon the page — not picked
editorial round-up · named byline · dated
→ Product submission or refresh for the next edition.
The work it becomesAn outreach list the engines wrote themselves — ranked by how many of them read each page.
News, editorial & listicleswhere the answers came from
The AI analysis — written for you

Every read records who wrote the page, when, and where the client sits on it — ranked first on one list is a different fact from twelfth of fifteen on another. Some negative framings turn out to be competitor-owned properties wearing an editorial costume; institutional explainers often name no brand at all — open ground.

AGENCYPitch the writers whose pages the engines already read — by name, with the client's evidence.
AGENCYSubmit for retesting where the client sits low on a single line.
CLIENTPublish the plain answer page for the pricing attack a rival's comparison is winning with.
who wrote itwhere you sit on the pagenegative framing flaggedcompetitor-owned flagged
“Do these products actually work?” — an institutional explainerdoesn't name them
editorial article · names no brand
→ The evidence pitch: category questions deserve a named answer.
The work it becomesPlacements to pitch — pre-qualified by the only editor that matters here: the engines' own reading list.
Reddit threadscommunity conversation, ranked by upvotes
The AI analysis — written for you

The threads the engines cite split three ways: threads that praise, threads that pile on, and threads where the client is absent while rivals fill the space unopposed. The heaviest-upvoted rooms are often the hostile ones — and a thread can be years old and still shaping this month's answers.

CLIENTPublish the transparent page answering the objections the top threads actually raise.
AGENCYTarget the absent threads' topics with credible expert placements naming the client's use case.
COMMUNITYHave named client experts answer questions openly, disclosed — never customer roleplay.
subreddit + upvotestop comment quotednegative shareabsent threads counted
“What's the best brand for this?” — a buyer asking the open webdoesn't name them
r/category · upvoted · client absent, two rivals named
→ Absence here is a rival's head start — the analysis names which threads matter most.
The work it becomesA community-presence plan with receipts — everything on the record, nothing astroturfed.
YouTube videosthe channels the answers drew on
The AI analysis — written for you

Presence usually isn't the problem — framing is. Solo-creator verdict videos from years back can still shape this month's answers. Every cited video's transcript is read in full, with the client and every rival highlighted at the exact timestamps where they're discussed — who said it, in what light, and what the video concluded.

AGENCYBrief and pitch the credible reviewers in the category with the angle no rival can match.
CLIENTPublish the direct answer to the objection the most-viewed negative video leads with.
AGENCYRe-engage the mixed reviewers — cited, credible, and one update away from a better verdict.
channel + views + lengthfull transcript readbrand & rivals highlightedtimestamped moments
“Is this category worth your money?” — a physician-hosted reviewtimestamped
video · transcript read in full · rivals named at 2:16
▶ 2:16“…but the brand takes a different approach here, while a rival leans on…” — every mention, highlighted at its timestamp, brand and rivals alike.
→ The exact moments to reference when you brief the creator conversation.
The work it becomesA creator conversation list — with the exact quotes and timestamps to open each one.
Reputation sourceswhat the web says when someone asks about you directly
The AI analysis — written for you

This lane is pure reputation ground: pages that are about the client, read and scored for sentiment. Recurring bylines emerge — the same dietitian or reviewer behind multiple cited pages — along with brand-safety flags the client may not know exist, sitting unanswered on pages the engines keep reading.

CLIENTPublish the citable page that answers the standing flag directly — testing results, policy fixes, documentation.
CLIENTFix and publicly document the flow the most-cited complaint describes.
AGENCYPitch the recurring bylines with the client's current data — they're already writing the story.
sentiment splitbrand-safety flagsmost-cited pagesrecurring bylines
The mixed review five engines sharenamed — mixed
review page · named — mixed · cited by all five
→ The single highest-leverage page in the lane: fix how this one reads, and every engine hears it.
The work it becomesThe brand-safety work order — what to answer, what to fix, and who to talk to, in priority order.
Walk a client through one lane per meeting if you want — each row above is a self-contained conversation: here's what the engines read, here's how you come off, here's who's named instead of you, and here's the move. The tags matter in the room: AGENCY moves are your scope, CLIENT moves are their homework, and the split keeps both sides accountable.

None of it asks you to go digging.

That's the difference this page exists to show: the finding, the evidence, and the move arrive together — and the move is billable.

Step 6 · The platter, priced into the retainer

Insight → move → next month's delta

This is the loop that turns a report into recurring work. Every insight carries a move; every move is measurable by the next pulse; every delta is the first slide of the next meeting.

The insight
written by the analysis
The tagged move
agency · client · community
Next month's delta
the pulse re-measures it
The insightwritten by the analysis
The tagged moveagency · client · community
Next month's deltathe pulse re-measures it
The loop closes monthly — the analysis is where the retainer writes itself: every move a line item, every line item measured by the next pulse.

And then you land the work — in whichever shape the moment calls for.

Step 7 · Land the work

Two ways this lands — the engagement, and the pitch

The same instrument serves both ends of the pipeline: keeping the clients you have, and winning the ones you want.

Shape one: the monthly engagement

The white-label client report carries the whole record — verdict, scoreboard, share of voice, the lanes, reputation, exhibits, the full citation audit, recommended actions, and appendices down to complete video transcripts. You choose which sections each report includes.

And the Pulse History keeps every run: reports regenerate from the stored answers — nothing goes stale, and deltas compare completed runs of the same pack. The month-two meeting opens with a number that moved.

Shape two: the new-business pitch

Run the pulse on a prospect before you've ever spoken. The report arrives wearing your agency's name and logo — and for the brand that isn't showing up, the gap is the pitch: here's who owns your AI shelf, and here's the plan to take it back.

This is the same over-the-top move from the Agency Lead Gen walkthrough — deliverable-grade value that shows you've done the homework, you want to help them grow, and you're the agency to do it.

The hand-off move
The report — one self-contained page
Dropped on your own website
The client opens one link

These reports run long — typically 200 to 250 pages — so nobody emails a PDF. Download the report as a single self-contained page, drop it on your own website, and send one link. What opens is deeper than anything they've seen, wearing your name, your logo, your domain.

The Attribution Read — the proof layerOPTIONAL

Connect the client's Google Analytics — one click, read-only, saved for that client only — and every run joins two sides of the story: the engines cite you, and the engines send you people — measured visits arriving from the AI engines, beside how often each one cites the brand.

Google Analytics 4
The Attribution Read
they cite you
they send you people
Google Analytics 4
The Attribution Read
they cite you
they send you people

The honesty is built in: visit counts are floors, engines with no measured sessions show as “watching” — never an invented zero — and it reads as directional evidence, because nobody can trace a single AI answer to a single sale. It's still the closest thing to demand-side proof this young channel honestly supports, and it's measured straight from the client's own Google Analytics.

The corrective llms.txt

One more deliverable falls straight out of the run: the AI reads the client's live site and writes a proposed llms.txt against the pulse's own gap map — so the questions the brand is losing get answered where the engines look.

## What the brand is and doeskept
## Products, sizing, where to buykept
+ ## The use-case questions the pulse found losingadded
+ ## Answers to the standing objections, sourcedadded

A found file is improved, never replaced — what's working is kept, the gaps the pulse measured get filled, and every change is listed for review before anything ships.

Fair note: the industry is still debating how much weight the engines give llms.txt. Until that settles, the file ships correct, current, and reviewed — whichever way the argument lands, your client is already covered.

Good to know
  • Single answers vary run to run — aggregates and deltas are the evidence, and deltas always compare completed runs of the same question pack.
  • “Not retrieved” is not “locked in” — engines update over time, and the pulse re-measures every run. Building the brand's record on the web is the long game.
  • The audit reads only what opens — pages that refuse automated readers are never counted against you, and you keep the links.
  • AI visit counts in the Attribution Read are floors — real measured sessions, never estimates.
The walk loops — next month's pulse is next month's meeting: the deltas are the story, and the story is the retainer.
Run your first pulse

Fifty questions, five engines, one client who finally has the answer.