Introducing Impact Score

Even if you have visibility into the sources that are influencing AI’s perception of your brand, how do you know which ones are most important? In a world where AI is reading hundreds of websites to tell users what the best luxury SUV is, how do you know where to focus your content strategy?

Our new metric - Impact Score - evaluates the sources to determine which ones have the most influence on AI’s perception of your brand and category. We do this by analyzing the content of each URL mentioned across three key dimensions:

1. Topic Relevance: How much content on this source relates to your category and topic? (e.g., luxury SUVs and reliability)
   
   
2. Brand + Topic Relevance: How much content specifically discusses your brand in this context? (e.g., BMW as a reliable luxury SUV)
   
   
3. Sentiment: Does the content speak positively or negatively about your category or brand? 

Finally, we evaluate how often AI uses this source in its answers. Does it favor this source and frequently use it, or is it only used sporadically? 

Impact Score often reveals influential sources that would surprise marketers. In a recent test for Nike, we discovered that a blog post on EatingWell.com was extremely influential in shaping AI’s answers about comfortable sneakers - but Nike was barely mentioned in that post. 

A Nike marketer would never think to target Eating Well's audience or consider it part of their content strategy, yet this site significantly shapes AI's understanding of which brands make comfortable sneakers. Meanwhile, a dedicated running site like RunRepeat.com, which would seem like an obvious target, had a much lower impact score on AI’s understanding of comfortable sneakers.

Impact Score helps marketers cut through the noise to understand not just where your brand is already strong (Strength URLs), but where untapped influence lies (Opportunity URLs) - sites that are shaping category perceptions but don't yet associate those benefits with your brand. Instead of guessing which content partnerships or placements will move the needle, you'll know exactly where to focus your efforts for maximum AI visibility impact.

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