New research from BrightEdge reveals a critical visibility gap in transactional AI search: major retailers are the "answer," while product brands remain just the "question."
When Google AI Overviews pulls lower-funnel social media data to guide buying decisions, major retailers are cited and recommended a staggering 85% of the time. Conversely, the actual product brands are mentioned just 3% to 4% of the time.
Additionally, Google’s AI favors local signals and availability (representing up to 14% of citations), whereas ChatGPT ignores them. Brands must optimize social posts with pricing, localized deals, and post-purchase content to capture these crucial AI citations.