JULY 25, 2025 — Semrush included our brand awareness research in their recent post about how to improve brand visibility in LLMs, and we love to see it! As Semrush put it, "the new reality of search visibility is more complex than ranking in Google" — and we're in the trenches alongside them analyzing the most effective marketing strategies in the age of AI.
Our research showed that brand search volume has the second strongest correlation with AI mentions. In other words, our analysis suggests that the strength of your brand's presence online has a strong correlation to whether it will be cited by LLMs. This research looked at monthly search volume for each brand's name across a dataset of 10k LLM questions.
Our findings align with independent research from Ahrefs, which shows that branded search volume is one of the top three factors correlating with AIO brand visibility. Together, these data points suggest LLMs are calculating brand value and trustworthiness in part by looking at how frequently your brand is mentioned in searches and on other sites across the web.
A high MSV alone won’t guarantee your brand a place in AI-generated content. Instead, it works in tandem with other signals like backlinks, domain rank, and valuable content. As we continue exploring what drives visibility in AI-generated answers, one thing remains clear: building a recognizable, trusted brand still matters.
Our research also noted variations based on vertical: "Zooming in by industries, there was a clear trend: brand awareness aligns more strongly with AI mentions in certain verticals. Take Banking & Finance. If you ask ChatGPT about opening a checking account (even as it’s refining its local capabilities) at this point it's still more likely to suggest a national bank, like Bank of America, rather than the small community bank down the street. On the flip side, in categories like Collaboration & Communication tools, ChatGPT might highlight the product features that best match my needs rather than focusing solely on the awareness of the brand."
Check out the Semrush blog: AI Visibility: How to Track & Grow Your Brand Presence in LLMs
Read our original research: Does Brand Awareness Impact LLM Visibility?