A novel way to measure ad effectiveness in LLMs is "attention shift"—analyzing how much an ad pivots the conversation's topic toward the brand. This metric, derived from vector analysis of messages before and after an ad, captures influence beyond traditional clicks or impressions, reflecting deeper engagement.

To accurately measure brand performance, marketers should create a composite "brand health score." This involves weighting multiple metrics—such as PR, AI visibility, traffic, and social media engagement—into a single, holistic score that provides a more comprehensive view than any individual channel metric could.

To evaluate AI's role in building relationships, marketers must look beyond transactional KPIs. Leading indicators of success include sustained engagement, customers volunteering more information, and recommending the experience to others. These metrics quantify brand trust and empathy—proving the brand is earning belief, not just attention.

Brands with strong, consistent stories like Patagonia are excelling in AI visibility, proving brand matters more than ever. Consequently, once-soft metrics like 'share of voice' are being reframed as critical measures of 'digital brand visibility' and are now being reported to the board.

As AI devalues simple clicks, marketing focus must shift to building a strong brand that algorithms recognize as authoritative. High-quality, well-structured owned content (like blogs and reports) becomes more critical for discoverability than traditional performance marketing tactics.

For the first time, tools tracking "AI Visibility"—how often a brand is cited in LLM responses—can directly measure the impact of brand-building activities. This allows CMOs to finally prove the ROI of brand investments, treating brand as a quantifiable performance engine rather than an abstract concept.

AI models heavily weigh earned media from credible publications when determining brand authority. With 61% of AI brand mentions coming from editorial sources, PR is no longer just a brand-building exercise but a critical technical lever for GEO, directly influencing discoverability.

As AI agents and synthesized search become intermediaries, traditional channels are insufficient. The new imperative is ensuring your brand’s data is accessible to AI models as they reason and generate responses, directly influencing the outcome before it reaches the consumer.

The accessibility of AI tools means board members are now conducting their own queries to see how the company is perceived. This elevates a marketing tactic (like SEO) to a C-suite and board-level strategic imperative, demanding CMOs provide clear answers on the brand's visibility and narrative within AI models.