Key takeaways
- Google's own report covers how often links to your site are shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It is the right first measure, and it is a count of links shown.
- It does not record what an answer says about you, whether you were recommended, or which competitors were. For that, ask the buyer questions yourself, more than once.
- Measure Gemini as its own series, on a fixed set of questions, and report a count over a base, for example named in 5 of 8 answers.
A SaaS or technology company that wants to know how it shows up in Google's AI answers is really asking two questions. How often does Google put my pages in front of people in its AI features? And what do those AI answers, and Gemini, actually say about us when a buyer asks? Google's own tools answer the first. The second you have to measure yourself, or with a tool.
What Google's own documentation says
Google describes AI Overviews and AI Mode as AI features in Google Search. Its page on the subject says sites that appear in them are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console, in the Performance report under the Web search type. It also says a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet to be shown as a supporting link, and that there are no additional technical requirements. Read it at AI features and your website.
Search Console also has a dedicated report. Google's help page for the generative AI performance report says it shows how your site performs in generative AI features on Google Search, and lists impressions for AI Overviews and AI Mode. You can see how your impressions change over time, which pages get the most, and where they come from by device or country. The page says the report may not appear for a site that has not received enough impressions in those features, and that Google expects to update the list of features over time.
Last checkedWhat Search Console can and cannot show
The report counts how many times links to your site were shown in those features. That is a real and useful figure. Use it to see whether your pages are being surfaced, which pages, and whether that is rising or falling.
It is a count of links shown, so it does not tell you what an answer said. Three things sit outside it.
- Whether you were named or recommended. An answer can describe your category and recommend a competitor without linking to you, or name you without a link. Neither shows up as an impression for your site. Mention, citation and recommendation separates the three outcomes.
- Who else was named. The report is about your site only, so it cannot show a competitor recommended in your place.
- The Gemini assistant. The help page lists AI Overviews and AI Mode as what the report includes. It does not list the Gemini app, so an answer from Gemini is not something this report measures.
How to measure Gemini answers
Measure Gemini the way you would measure any assistant: with a fixed set of buyer questions, each asked more than once.
- Write the questions your buyers ask. Cover understanding the problem, comparing options and checking one vendor. Include questions that name no company. Building a buyer-question set covers how to freeze a list.
- Ask each question several times. Gemini's answers vary from run to run, so one answer is an anecdote. Two or three runs is the minimum.
- Record who is named, who is recommended and what is cited. Treat an answer you could not read as missing, not as zero.
- Report a count over a base. For example, your product named in 5 of 8 answers and recommended in 2 of 8 on one question. Keep Gemini as its own series and never add it to another assistant's figures.
- Repeat on the same questions. A change only means something if the questions stayed the same. The first ninety days sets out the order of the work around the figures.
What metrics should a B2B marketing team use defines the figures to report from that record.
Tools that measure this
You can do the method above by hand on a small question set. Past a few dozen questions, most teams use a tool for the repeated asking and counting. Tools measure; the work that changes the answers is done by people, in your team or at an agency. Some teams pair the two.
The lines below say only what each company's own page says it offers and who it says it serves, for tools whose pages say they cover Google's AI answers. They are not a ranking. Each carries the date its page was last checked.
Peec AIMeasurement tool
Its page says it lets you track your brand on Google Gemini: how often Gemini mentions the brand, which sources it cites, how it portrays the brand, and how visibility compares with competitors. A separate page describes tracking in Google AI Mode. Its site presents the product as AI search analytics for marketing teams.
Their pageLast checked
Ahrefs Brand RadarMeasurement tool
Its page says it measures how a brand appears across AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, with mentions, citations and share of voice, from prompts you define or from its own prompt index. Its page speaks to anyone who wants to track and grow a brand's visibility in AI answers, and presents the product as part of the wider Ahrefs marketing platform.
Their pageLast checked
ProfoundMeasurement tool
Its page says it tracks a brand across AI platforms that include Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Google Gemini, with visibility scores, citation analysis and competitor benchmarking. It lists solutions for AEO, content, and PR and brand teams, and for agencies.
Their pageLast checked
Answer Position is one option too. It is a UK agency for B2B technology brands, serving UK and EMEA vendors, that measures where AI assistants name and recommend a brand on its buyer questions, and does the marketing work that changes the answers. A free diagnostic looks at one question, and the Snapshot on our services page covers a fixed set of questions across three assistants.
