AEO Sensor BETA

AEO Sensor is a free public dashboard that shows how answer engine behavior is shifting in real time. It monitors daily answer engine volatility, weekly AI-referred traffic, and weekly visibility and citation data per industry from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

Answer engines constantly change who they cite, what content they surface, and how often brands appear. AEO Sensor shows if the shifts are widespread across the industry. Marketers can use this data to better understand AEO trends.

No, AEO Sensor won’t show your brand’s visibility, but HubSpot AEO can.

AEO Sensor estimates visibility patterns across tracked industries. To analyze visibility for a specific brand, marketers can set up tracking with HubSpot AEO, plus get recommendations for immediately improving their visibility.

Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of improving how a brand appears in responses generated by answer engines. Instead of ranking webpages in search results, answer engines generate direct responses using information from multiple sources.

Answer Engine Volatility Tracker

Methodology: The Answer Engine Volatility Tracker chart calculates daily volatility in answer engine results based on mention rate, citation rate, citation type, and AI-referred traffic vs. rolling averages. The data set is comprised of anonymized HubSpot customer data and evaluates ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Daily volatility scores may fluctuate slightly for three days from the current day as final data rolls in.

Context: Model changes and behind the scenes updates from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity will alter the contents of AI results. For example, with one model you may see a lot of links to businesses (also known as citations), but once a new model update rolls out, you may see only one or two links. Changes like this within answer engine results is what the Answer Engine Volatility Tracker monitors. 

AI-Referred Traffic Trends

Methodology: The AI-Referred Traffic Trends chart showcases the aggregate of ChatGPT-, Gemini-, and Perplexity-referred traffic to HubSpot customers by week. The data set is comprised of anonymized HubSpot customer data.  

Context: This chart allows marketers to compare their own traffic performance to the wider industry. For example, when a marketer sees a traffic dip, their reflex is to audit their strategy. But, traffic declines aren’t always within marketers’ control – sometimes they’re a factor of an answer engine model change or AI usage behaviors shifting. 

AI Visibility Benchmarks by Industry

Methodology: The AI Visibility Benchmarks by Industry chart shows visibility and citation share of four representative companies within ten industries from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. The data that powers these calculations are estimates based on publicly available information – like a company’s top products, competitors, and assumed customer profiles.

Context: AI visibility and citation share for companies will vary by industry. This snapshot provides a benchmark for how companies typically perform within an industry.

Each product helps you understand AI visibility at a different level:

• AEO Sensor (free) gives you a high-level view of the AEO landscape, tracking shifts in citation and mention frequency, trends in AI-referred traffic, and estimated benchmarks by industry to show how AI answers are changing over time. It’s designed to help you spot patterns in the landscape, not measure a specific business.
• AEO Grader (free) gives you a scored snapshot of how ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini represent your brand today – covering sentiment, share of voice, brand recognition, and competitive positioning. It shows you how answer engines represent your brand and where your presence may need strengthening.
• HubSpot AEO ($50/month) is an AEO tool that allows you to track how your brand shows up across answer engines, analyze competitors, and get prioritized, plain-language recommendations to increase your visibility.
• AEO (included in Marketing Hub Pro and Enterprise) uses customer data to give you smarter recommendations from day one, tracks how your brand shows up across answer engines, compares you to competitors, and turns those insights into a prioritized list of actions you can take immediately using HubSpot’s marketing and content tools — all in one system.