Why It Matters for CMOs
As a CMO, you need to demonstrate ROI on marketing investments. AI Citation Rate helps you citation rate directly impacts your brand visibility and authority. being cited means ai systems trust your content enough to reference it explicitly, which builds credibility with users and drives referral traffic.
How to Measure
Run test queries in Perplexity and count source citations
Monitor referral traffic from AI platforms in analytics
Track brand mentions with source attribution
Compare citations vs. competitors for key topics
Action Items for CMOs
Run test queries in Perplexity and count source citations
Monitor referral traffic from AI platforms in analytics
Add AI Citation Rate to your executive dashboard
Present quarterly trends to the leadership team
Set team OKRs around this metric
Industry Benchmarks
Industry leaders: Cited in 20%+ of relevant queries
Established brands: Cited in 10-20% of relevant queries
Growing brands: Cited in 5-10% of relevant queries
New entrants: Cited in <5% of relevant queries
Reporting Tips for CMOs
Track AI Citation Rate weekly to identify trends early
Benchmark against competitors to contextualize performance
Present trends over time, not just snapshots
Tie metric improvements to business outcomes
Include competitive context in executive reports
Improvement Strategies
Create original research with citable data points
Build domain authority through quality backlinks
Structure content for easy AI extraction
Develop comprehensive, definitive guides