Share of Answer

Definition

Share of Answer measures how often an AI assistant names a brand when people ask questions in its category. It counts mentions, whether or not the answer links to the brand’s site — links are measured separately as citation rate.

It only means something for a fixed prompt set: the same questions, asked the same way, in the same market and language, over time.

Why it matters

Buyers increasingly ask assistants for shortlists. A brand that isn’t named never makes the shortlist, however well its pages rank. Share of Answer shows whether you are part of that conversation — and against whom.

How to measure it

• Fix a prompt set: the buying questions in your category, per market and language
• Run each prompt several times on each engine, on different days
• Record every answer with its date and the brands it names
• Divide answers that name the brand by all recorded answers — per engine and combined

Example

Common mistakes

• Changing the prompts between measurements, then comparing results
• Running each prompt once — answers vary between runs
• Mixing mentions and links into one number
• Reporting a percentage without the number of answers behind it