AI Search Engines Love Press Releases - How We Boosted Our Brand Mentions on ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and AI Overviews - Otterly.AI Blog - Best AI Search Monitoring Solution

In our AI Search Study conducted earlier this year, we demonstrated that media coverage and strong editorial content play a crucial role in being discovered and recommended on ChatGPT and other AI search platforms. These emerging AI search tools actively favor high-quality editorial material, frequently citing and referencing publisher websites of all sizes.

Hence, PR & Communications has become more crucial than ever. In fact, I’d argue there’s a direct link between how often your brand appears online and how frequently it gets recommended on ChatGPT.

This got me thinking. Why not conduct some PR experiments ourselves to demonstrate the significance of public relations?

While I’m no PR expert, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with top-tier PR and communications professionals and agencies in the past. Fortunately, some of our agency partners at OtterlyAI include exceptional PR firms, and I made it a point to learn as much as I can from them.

I realize this may be a bit of a shortcut, but here’s my understanding:

1) Meaningful Outreach: We need to engage in targeted outreach to journalists, influencers, and bloggers within our industry to effectively share our story.

2) Press Release Distribution: Additionally, it’s important to ensure our press release is distributed through a PR service to reach various media outlets, helping us secure quality backlinks and media mentions.

For this experiment, I focused on (2) Press Release Distribution. We created two press releases (links below) and distributed them using a press release service.

As a result, the press releases were also featured on finance.yahoo.com, businessinsider.com, and several smaller websites. A few days later, I decided to check whether these websites were being cited on platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and other AI search engines. Additionally, I wanted to see if this had influenced our brand mentions.

To do this, I logged into our OtterlyAI account, where we monitor the brand and website performance of OtterlyAI as a brand and otterly.ai as a website. Naturally, our objective was to increase brand mentions and verify if these sites were being referenced.

The results: Press Release cited within 2 days of publication

Our press release on markets.businessinsider.com was cited on September 18th – just two days after publication – quickly earning a place among the top 10 most-cited websites across all AI search engines (AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode, Copilot, Perplexity).

More excitingly, as of the same day, OtterlyAI has become the most mentioned brand across all AI Search Engines. Previously ranked in the top 3, the brand has now claimed the number 1 spot as the most referenced brand in AI Search. Fantastic work, team!

Breakdown of Citations per AI Search Engine

I was curious to see which AI search engine would be the first to pick up these press citations and how many unique URLs would appear in our AI Search Citation Report. Below are the findings:

Here is a list of domains that featured our two press releases and were referenced across various AI search engines:

Tips to Get Your Press Release Cited

Here are some important tips to boost your press release visibility:

  • Work with a Distribution Provider that is AI ready: We distributed our press releases via Press Ranger and their AI Wire proved to be super helpful. It’s all about the metadata, specific wire info, and behind the scenes formatting they pass to the frontend is what makes AI Search Engines index this content fast and this well.
  • Optimize Your Press Release Title: To rank for specific keywords like “best CRM for startups,” include them directly in your title. For example, we went for titles such as “Best AI Search Monitoring Tool for SEO Professionals” or “Award-Winning AI Search Monitoring Tool“. Disclaimer: There are very stringent rules on when and how “Best _” words can be used in a headline for a press release with it still able to meet editorial guidelines.
  • Start Monitoring Early: To measure the impact of your PR efforts, use a reliable AI Search Monitoring tool (like OtterlyAI) before your campaign goes live. This helps you track your current brand performance and monitor changes after your PR launch.
  • Focus on Press Release Copywriting: If you’re unsure how to create an effective press release, collaborate with a professional. It’s a worth the investment. We also work with PR agencies as part of our agency program, such as Press Ranger. Explore more options in our Partner Agency listing.

Learning: AI Search Engines reference Press Releases

In summary, the experiment validated that Press Release Distributors are an excellent tool for boosting your visibility on AI search platforms. Although it has only been two weeks since the first press release from this experiment was published, we’ve already observed an increase in mentions of our brand. I can confidently confirm that our press release has been referenced multiple times by AI engines like ChatGPT, Copilot, and others. Notably, platforms such as businessinsider.com and finance.yahoo.com appear to be highly effective for gaining citations.

Related Posts:

In our AI Search Study conducted earlier this year, we demonstrated that media coverage and strong editorial content play a crucial role in being discovered and recommended on ChatGPT and other AI search platforms. These emerging AI search tools actively favor high-quality editorial material, frequently citing and referencing publisher websites of all sizes.

Hence, PR & Communications has become more crucial than ever. In fact, I’d argue there’s a direct link between how often your brand appears online and how frequently it gets recommended on ChatGPT.

This got me thinking. Why not conduct some PR experiments ourselves to demonstrate the significance of public relations?

While I’m no PR expert, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with top-tier PR and communications professionals and agencies in the past. Fortunately, some of our agency partners at OtterlyAI include exceptional PR firms, and I made it a point to learn as much as I can from them.

I realize this may be a bit of a shortcut, but here’s my understanding:

1) Meaningful Outreach: We need to engage in targeted outreach to journalists, influencers, and bloggers within our industry to effectively share our story.

2) Press Release Distribution: Additionally, it’s important to ensure our press release is distributed through a PR service to reach various media outlets, helping us secure quality backlinks and media mentions.

For this experiment, I focused on (2) Press Release Distribution. We created two press releases (links below) and distributed them using a press release service.

As a result, the press releases were also featured on finance.yahoo.com, businessinsider.com, and several smaller websites. A few days later, I decided to check whether these websites were being cited on platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and other AI search engines. Additionally, I wanted to see if this had influenced our brand mentions.

To do this, I logged into our OtterlyAI account, where we monitor the brand and website performance of OtterlyAI as a brand and otterly.ai as a website. Naturally, our objective was to increase brand mentions and verify if these sites were being referenced.

The results: Press Release cited within 2 days of publication

Our press release on markets.businessinsider.com was cited on September 18th – just two days after publication – quickly earning a place among the top 10 most-cited websites across all AI search engines (AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode, Copilot, Perplexity).

More excitingly, as of the same day, OtterlyAI has become the most mentioned brand across all AI Search Engines. Previously ranked in the top 3, the brand has now claimed the number 1 spot as the most referenced brand in AI Search. Fantastic work, team!

Breakdown of Citations per AI Search Engine

I was curious to see which AI search engine would be the first to pick up these press citations and how many unique URLs would appear in our AI Search Citation Report. Below are the findings:

Here is a list of domains that featured our two press releases and were referenced across various AI search engines:

Tips to Get Your Press Release Cited

Here are some important tips to boost your press release visibility:

  • Work with a Distribution Provider that is AI ready: We distributed our press releases via Press Ranger and their AI Wire proved to be super helpful. It’s all about the metadata, specific wire info, and behind the scenes formatting they pass to the frontend is what makes AI Search Engines index this content fast and this well.
  • Optimize Your Press Release Title: To rank for specific keywords like “best CRM for startups,” include them directly in your title. For example, we went for titles such as “Best AI Search Monitoring Tool for SEO Professionals” or “Award-Winning AI Search Monitoring Tool“. Disclaimer: There are very stringent rules on when and how “Best _” words can be used in a headline for a press release with it still able to meet editorial guidelines.
  • Start Monitoring Early: To measure the impact of your PR efforts, use a reliable AI Search Monitoring tool (like OtterlyAI) before your campaign goes live. This helps you track your current brand performance and monitor changes after your PR launch.
  • Focus on Press Release Copywriting: If you’re unsure how to create an effective press release, collaborate with a professional. It’s a worth the investment. We also work with PR agencies as part of our agency program, such as Press Ranger. Explore more options in our Partner Agency listing.

Learning: AI Search Engines reference Press Releases

In summary, the experiment validated that Press Release Distributors are an excellent tool for boosting your visibility on AI search platforms. Although it has only been two weeks since the first press release from this experiment was published, we’ve already observed an increase in mentions of our brand. I can confidently confirm that our press release has been referenced multiple times by AI engines like ChatGPT, Copilot, and others. Notably, platforms such as businessinsider.com and finance.yahoo.com appear to be highly effective for gaining citations.

Related Posts: