AI models favor brand pages over community content in buyer research

Image credit: Search Engine Journal

Artificial intelligence models predominantly cite brand-owned content, especially product and comparison pages, over community platforms like Reddit and YouTube during buyer evaluation stages, a new study by Ten Speed reported.

The research, which analyzed how AI models reference URLs in responses to buyer queries, found that product pages alone accounted for 24.1 percent of all citations, making them the largest single category within the buyer evaluation process.

Conversely, community-driven platforms including Reddit, YouTube, forums, and other discussion threads collectively represented only 4.2 percent of citations. YouTube specifically barely reached 1 percent of all references, Ten Speed reported.

Nelson Brassell, a spokesperson for Ten Speed, said the findings indicate AI models prioritize information directly controlled by marketing teams. Brand-controllable content, defined as pages owned by marketing teams, constituted 88.3 percent of all AI model citations during buyer decision-making.

The study, which included AI models such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini, utilized 170 prompts designed to mimic common buyer questions when comparing vendors like HubSpot and Pipedrive. These prompts generated a total of 7,387 citation appearances.

Comparison content, despite making up 20 percent of the prompts used in the study, generated nearly 27 percent of all citations. This indicated a 1.33 times return on comparison-focused queries, according to the research.

Platforms like G2 and Capterra, which specialize in software reviews and comparisons, were frequently cited within the comparison content category.

The analysis by Ten Speed focused on understanding the sourcing preferences of AI models as consumers increasingly rely on them for product research and purchasing decisions.

The study’s methodology aimed to reflect real-world buyer behavior, particularly in business-to-business (B2B) contexts where evaluation of vendors is critical, Brassell said.

Peec AI, a marketing analytics firm, collaborated on the data collection and analysis for the study.

Source: Search Engine Journal