The Attribution Problem in AI Ads: Crediting a Sponsored Recommendation

TL;DR →  The hard part of AI-ad attribution is not that conversions are difficult to track. It is that the decisive touch — the model naming you inside the answer — happens in a private conversation and leaves no click to tag. It is untrackable by design. →  Because only the ad click is instrumented, […]

Cost-Per-Citation: Pricing Earned Media Against AI Ad CPMs

TL;DR →  The number everyone quotes — “earned media costs £X per AI citation” set against a ~$25 ad CPM — is a category error. It prices a durable asset as if it were a flow cost, like quoting the cost-per-mile of a car before you know how far you’ll drive it. →  Earned and […]

How to Defend Your AI Citation Share Against Sponsored Competitors

TL;DR →  A sponsored competitor cannot buy its way into the answer that cites you. Paid content is 0.3% of all AI citations (Muck Rack); answer independence keeps the ad on a separate system. Your citation share is the one asset immune to their cheque. →  What their ad spend can do is toll-booth the […]

“Answer Independence” Under Scrutiny: Do Ads Bias the Organic Answer?

TL;DR  OpenAI’s promise that ads never influence ChatGPT’s answers is almost certainly true — and that is precisely the problem. “Answer independence” is a narrow technical guarantee being asked to do the persuasive work of a broad one. It fences off the single pathway commercial money doesn’t need — the ad auction — while leaving […]

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