AI Competitive Intelligence: How to Track What's Citing Your Competitors

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Vlad Pivnev has been doing digital marketing for 16 years. Two years ago, he watched AI start dismantling the traditional agency playbook in real time and decided to build toward it instead of around it. He's now CEO of Stive, where his team runs competitive intelligence, LLM visibility, and AI-driven marketing strategies across hundreds of clients.

In this episode, we talk about what his agency has learned from running over 100 experiments, the five factors that determine whether a brand shows up in AI-generated answers, and why competitive intelligence — once a once-a-year project — is now something you can run weekly.

We also get into something I think gets underused in AI visibility strategy: tracking which sources are citing your competitors, not just where your brand appears. 

In this episode:

• Why 90% of Vlad's experiments produce nothing (and why he runs them anyway)
• The five-factor framework his team uses to diagnose AI visibility
• Why LLMs prefer unlinked brand mentions over links to your website
• What brand clarity actually means when an LLM is reading about you
• How to use competitive citation data to find your next distribution move

If you're listening to this and thinking I need someone to lead this for me, that's what I do.

I'm an AI search visibility consultant and a fractional content strategist for startups and enterprise brands. If that sounds like the kind of help you're looking for, email me at cassie@cassieclarkmarketing.com. 

Or request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/

Let’s connect:

LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | AI Search Visibility Consultant
Website → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Hey, welcome back to Found in AI. I'm Cassie Clark, an AI Search Visibility Consultant and the host of this show where we talk about GEO, AEO, and what it actually takes to show up inside AI generated answers. Glad Pete Nave and I sat down and talked about what separates brands gaining visibility inside AI answers from the ones that aren't. He told me that 25% of his agency leads were coming from Chat DPT on roughly just 100 clicks. And I could keep telling you about that here in the intro, but let's just jump right into that conversation.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

And uh we integrate AI into marketing and sales in different businesses. So I've done how to say I've done uh I've been doing marketing for 16 years. Build a traditional tech digital agency. Uh we have we had like more than 300 different tech projects, different businesses. But about two years ago, we saw that AI was going to wipe out the traditional digital marketing playbook. So we decided to pivot maybe or to create an uh company who focus on AI. So and um this is what we do, and uh our like main goal and idea to increase leads, revenue, new customers through different AI solutions, so including visibility inside ChatGPT, Gemini, Cloud, and so on.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

And and so on. Okay, so what patterns are you seeing now that more traditional marketing agencies maybe should be paying attention to?

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Um so actually as a traditional marketing agency, so we see that um our forecast two years ago, so we see that um our methods were uh was right. So because I think you clearly understand that like today any LLM can help you to create a text, to create an image, uh, create a design for website, build a code, and so on. So that's why it's happening here and now. It means that all traditional things we've done before. I mean uh um different services and solutions we've we've done, I don't know, two years ago, four years ago. So now it's cost almost zero. You know, like I don't know, five years ago we we could sell, I don't know, create an article and charge, I don't know, 200 bucks for it for for this, okay. But now it's clear that with LLM it speed up the process, I don't know, five times more, ten times more. So that's why it's shifting. And uh but uh here we see a lot of possibilities to build um something new, something great, and we believe that uh if you work in digital so you need to build a AI native company, so it means that we need to increase the revenue per every employee in your company. So thanks to AI. It's not so easy because it's clear that everyone can create uh text, everyone can create an image, even code, even website. But the challenge is to convert it into profit, into new customers, into new leads, and so on.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

So, what is your strategy for using the LLMs for your marketing? Well, I mean, you don't have to give away the secret sauce, but like just in general, for using like AI for your marketing initiatives to get inside those AI answers.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

So I would say that we um we we try a lot of things like every week, because it's clear that every week we see some every week we have like new opportunities to uh in marketing, in sales. So and if you understand that it can bring us some value, so we just try it and see does it bring us does it bring us something or not? Because we I would say that in maybe in 90% we get nothing, or we just spend time because uh there are there are a lot of hype um about uh LLM, about AI, and uh you know, like if you if you read like XCOM, there are a lot of posts like uh okay, file your developers, file your designers, marketers, founders, everyone. But um in reality it's not. So and we try like different things, for example, I don't know, like um one year ago we realized that we need to push our businesses in LLM, in answers in LLM. And to be honest, like one year ago it wasn't so obvious. So, because today it seems that everyone, if you're talking about businesses, like almost everyone wants to be mentioned in LLM, especially for commercial requests. So, but one year ago it wasn't so obvious. Okay. Um, what else? For example, if you want to be to build uh AI competitive intelligence, for example, you want to know what your competitors do, like, and you want to to parse all information about your competitors in media, in blog, in social media to understand what's what others do. So every business does it like from time to time, but usually it's like uh one time per year because it's costly. So now you can do it like every week and be the first in your field. So uh and so on and so on. It could be, I don't know, ad optimization with AI, it could be analytics, it could be if you're talking about sales, so every sales department can speed up a lot of things, so they can uh get more more leads and so on. So that's why to um in simple terms, so we do everything, like maybe dozens or maybe more than 100 different tests. So and uh from 100 tests, we have maybe like 10 successful case studies.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

I really like how you're testing everything. Like that's been my entire premise over here. Let's just test it and see what works for gaining visibility inside those answers. So, across the brands that you're working with or you're watching, um, what separates the ones from who are gaining visibility inside these answers to the ones who are just kind of stalling out?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Uh, what do you mean exactly?

SPEAKER_02 8:19

So the ones that are like gaining visibility inside answers because they're doing all of these things, and the ones that are just not really like what separates the two? Is it their strategy? Is it their brand presence? Is it commenting on Reddit? What do you think?

SPEAKER_00 8:36

So if we're talking about AI visibility, uh we we work with five things. The first one is uh like uh uh it's like a technical crawlability, so that um I don't know, ChatGPT bot, um Gemini bot, cloud bot, they they can actually scan your your website. So it sounds like basic, but what we see that half the brands uh fail this, you know. So if everything is okay with like technical accrual abilities, then we work with we look and work with media mentions. So it means like either brand uh inside listicles, I don't know, top companies uh and so on. Let's imagine that yeah, yeah, top like top 10 companies in I don't know in the United States or something like this, or best company for something. So LLM love this listicles, especially with uh um is media, with uh like trust worth trust media. So the next one, and you mentioned like it's a forum presents, so like Reddit, Quora, Facebook discussions. So the model wants um like social proof, and you know, like it wasn't before. If you look at the traditional ACR, so it wasn't so important for for Google that your that your brand uh that people discuss uh about your brand on Reddit, you know. But for LLMs it's important. Um and uh moreover, LLMs, you know, like for example, organic traffic from Google, and Google likes when uh when there are a lot of links to your website. But if you're talking about LLMs, they prefer brand mentions without a link than uh then link to your website. So the next um the next step is like your brand position and clarity. Um when an LLM reads uh about you, uh is it clear what you do and uh who you serve? So it's easy to check. You you just can um type in your brand in any LLM and say um and ask some questions. How how do you see our brand, what we do, um like our pros and cons and so on, and see what what what what what we have like point A. Yeah, and the last one is uh reputation. I've seen um I've seen a case when Chat DPT uh adds notes like be aware with this brand because of negative reviews, and you know, like I think that that's a death sentence. I think so uh for for for for a brand. So that's why. So to sum up, it's like a technical cruel ability, it's like media mentions, forum presents, uh brand positioning and reputation, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

And reputation, okay. Yeah, I have seen the the negative mentions within those answers, and I also agree that it's a decident. Like I would not want my brand to be mentioned or you know, not that way. No, thank you. No, thank you. Have you worked with any brands that are trying to fix her reputation?

SPEAKER_00 12:33

So, yeah, it's not so yeah, definitely we do, and um it's like uh it's work with um uh on both sides. I mean on our side as an agency and on uh uh brand side as well. So because they need to integrate a system which can help to motivate people to leave reviews because you know, like if um if a customer bought something, so usually they don't go to uh review platforms and leave a review if they're happy. If they are not happy, yeah, basically they go to a platform with reviews and leave something negative. So that's why you need to motivate people to leave reviews to to um to help with social proofs for different brands. So yeah, but it takes time, I mean, to change the reputation from I don't know, from negative to normal or positive. And I in some cases it's hard work, but yeah, it's doable. And you know, you know, like it seems that now when I can pay time without LLM and with LLM, the difference is that let's say that five five years ago, you Casi could be, I don't know, um best specialist in ACO or pay traffic, and it was enough for some businesses, like because you you got leads, everything was okay, and so on. But now, if you want to be mentioned in LLM, you need to work on your business in different things and uh as a whole company, as a whole brand, you know, like you should work with a reputation, with ACO, with media, and so on. So it's more complex work, but at the end of the day, your brand or business will be more uh I would say like solid foundation.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

So question when you talk with brands about AI search optimization or GEO, like they're coming to you, what is the misconception that they're bringing that you're having to correct? And I ask this because I think from where I'm sitting, when most people hear AI search optimization, they immediately think SEO. And yeah, that's a part of it, but like you just said, it's the whole business organization working together to get you know your brand mentions, getting the media, the reputation just right. So, what's the misconceptions that you're seeing from from clients coming to you about this?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Um honestly, the way we I think about it, uh we see GEO or LLM visibility just as just another source of traffic uh you have to work with, not um replacement uh for CEO, just an addition. And um maybe the closest parallel, like you know, like 15 years ago, um I think that UCasi or other businesses, so we didn't have like an Instagram account, and nobody did. Um and today maybe even every brand has one, and uh it became like a the baseline. And uh four years ago, Gio didn't exist. Uh today some brands uh are already actively trying to get into LLM answers, and a lot of um are just starting to realize uh they have to. So in one year, I don't know, maybe in two years and three years, uh, being inside ChatGPT, Gemini, Cloud, or maybe other LLM, we don't know, is going to be, you know, like I think the same baseline as having like an Instagram account is today. So and if you work like if you're talking about digital marketing, we will we should work on social media marketing, ACO, PR, uh, and plus GU or LLM visibility. So we see it like additional additional channel for different businesses.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Okay, yeah, that's uh I think it's an additional additional layer on top of everything else that you're already doing, but every other layer just kind of feeds into that one. Is that how you think about it too?

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Um yes and no. So I would say that so uh you you know, like before you could work, I don't know, as I mentioned before, you you you can work on paid traffic and get leads, and you you can have a successful business. But for now, it seems that um there is a shift of uh people's behavior. It seems that more and more people uh ask uh LLM different answers, so different questions. So and it means that my prediction is that more and more businesses they will try to put it themselves into uh LLM's answers. So and if you want to do it, you should work on many, many different directions. So it means that um that um GO will be like additional source of traffic with their rules, like what they like, you know. Like, for example, LMs really like I don't know, Wikipedia. If you are mentioned in Wikipedia, it means that we should think how to um how to mention our our brand in Wikipedia. So the the GO LLMs like I don't know, Reddit. It means that we should think about okay, how we can push our brand in Reddit, discuss different things and so on. So that's why you know, like like before, if you want to work with any source of traffic in uh marketing, I don't know, you want to work with social media, so you need to think, okay, how to go viral with my posts, with my videos, and so on. So the same for GEO. It's rules to be mentioned in LLMs are different if we compare with ACO. So that's why, yeah, to sum up, we just one more source of traffic which can bring you a lot of um leads, clients, and so on. And by the way, you know, like uh maybe um six or eight months ago, uh, we've seen this shift uh in our agency as well, because when we looked at the um Google Analytics, we saw that a lot of leads, like almost like 25%, came from Chat GPT, and we saw it like wow, how it's possible, you know. But the traffic, it's it was it wasn't a lot of traffic, it was I would say it's like I don't know 100 clicks, but at the same time we had a lot of leads. It means that people really trust uh LLMs. If you're talking about to choose, especially in B2B businesses, because you know, like if you um uh how to how to explain? Let's say that uh Cassie, you you you want to choose a CRM system for for your business. It's clear that usually to choose a serum system, it's uh your decision to choose a CRM provider for not for one day, usually it's like you know, for one year, for two years, for five years. So and you should think a lot about it. Okay, who is the right, what is the right partner? So and LLMs, they can help you to to find the right partner. So that's the point, and people trust unsforcing LLMs.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

So one thing that Vlad mentioned that I think it's overlooked is that competitive intelligence used to be a once-a-year project, mostly because it was just so darn expensive and time consuming, but now with these AI tools, you can run it weekly. Here's how I'd apply that specifically to AI search. When you pull an AI visibility audit, you're not just looking at where your brand shows up. A good audit will show you which sources are citing your competitors. Make a list of those sources, then ask two questions. Is a source an independent publication that earns its citations? Or is it the kind of source that takes partnerships or contributed content? Because those are two very different places. One of them you can pursue, one of them you can't buy your way into, but you can earn it with those media mentions, and that's actually the more durable citation anyway. That's gonna be your starting point for all of this today. Figure out who's citing your competitors, figure out which doors are open, and then go knock on those open doors. If you want help pulling that picture together, that's exactly what an AI Search Visibility Audit covers. Head over to CassieClarkMarketing.com to get started. There's also more information in the show notes. I will see you on Thursday for a news update. Until then, stay visible.