THE GHOST CITATION PROBLEM

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

AI search often uses brand content without naming the brand. 62% of citations are “ghost citations” where a link appears but no brand mention is included. Across 3,981 domains, 75% were cited but only 38% were mentioned, and just 13% achieved both outcomes. Different AI engines behave very differently, as Gemini mentions brands 83.7% of the time but rarely cites them, while ChatGPT cites 87.0% of the time but mentions only 20.7%. Strong consumer brands are frequently named in answers, while sources like Wikipedia are cited often but rarely mentioned.