Brand Recommendation is the Genezio metric that measures how frequently answer engines recommend your brand when users ask for a solution. It is the percentage of the conversations that show your brand in which the answer engine also recommends your brand. The metric answers the most important question for a marketing team: When users ask an answer engine to recommend a product or a service in your category, how frequently does the answer engine recommend your brand?

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What Brand Recommendation represents

Genezio runs conversations that simulate users who look for recommendations. In these conversations, the answer engine recommends your brand or does not recommend it. Examples of a recommendation:
  • The answer engine names your brand as a top choice.
  • The answer engine puts your brand in its list of recommended solutions.
  • The answer engine tells the user that your brand is a good fit for the specific needs of the user.
If the answer recommends the brand, the conversation counts as a recommendation. If the answer does not recommend the brand, the conversation does not count. This is also true if the answer only mentions the brand.

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How Genezio calculates Brand Recommendation

Genezio uses this formula:
The denominator is not all the conversations. It is only the conversations in which your brand shows. Thus, Brand Recommendation measures your conversion rate from visibility to recommendation.

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Worked example

Genezio runs 200 conversations for your topics:
  • Your brand shows in 80 of them. AI Visibility = 80 / 200 = 40%.
  • In 48 of these 80 visible conversations, the answer engine recommends your brand. AI Recommendation = 48 / 80 = 60%.
This means:
  • Your brand shows in 40% of all the conversations (Visibility).
  • When your brand shows, the answer engine recommends it 60% of the time (Recommendation).
  • In the other 40% of the visible conversations, the answer engine mentions your brand but does not recommend it.
The denominator is the visible conversations, not all the conversations. Thus, Recommendation % measures your conversion rate from a mention to the recommended choice.

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Which conversations Genezio uses

Brand Recommendation is a metric at the brand level. Genezio calculates it from the conversations in which the answer engine selects the brands to recommend. The answer engine makes this decision from the needs of the user. Genezio uses the conversations of the Recommender Agent for this metric. These conversations start from a scenario and have many steps. In them, a persona asks the answer engine for a recommendation that agrees with the specific situation of the persona. Example:
User query: Recommend CRM tools for early-stage startups with a small sales team.
The answer engine replies with its own choices. If your brand is in the choices, the conversation is a recommendation. If your brand is not in the choices, you lost that opportunity.

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The other agent types

  • Prompter Agent: Its conversations count for AI Visibility (the answer mentions the brand). The Prompter Agent does not ask for a recommendation. Thus, Genezio does not use it for AI Recommendations.
  • Introspector Agent: Genezio uses it for the analysis of the narrative and of the accuracy of claims. The question contains the name of your brand. Thus, the answer does not show a real recommendation decision.
  • Comparer Agent: This agent is a competitive analysis tool, not a measurement engine. It uses the recommendation data and the visibility data of your brand. With this data, it shows your performance in relation to specific competitors. It has no effect on the calculation of AI Recommendations or of AI Visibility.

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Why Brand Recommendation is important

Of all the metrics, Brand Recommendation is the nearest to a buying decision in AI search. A user asks an answer engine “What should I use?”. If the answer engine recommends your brand, it is the same as when a trusted advisor sends a buyer to you. A higher recommendation score means:
  • Answer engines trust your brand as a good match for the needs of users.
  • Answer engines recommend your brand before your competitors.
  • Answer engines send to you the users who use them for purchase decisions.
A lower score means that answer engines recommend your competitors. You lose deals before the buyer goes to your website.

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Brand Recommendation and Brand Visibility compared

These two metrics work together, but they measure different things: A brand can have a high visibility (many mentions) and a low recommendation rate (few recommendations). This difference is your priority. It means that answer engines know about you, but they do not trust you enough to recommend you.

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Brand Recommendation over time

Genezio monitors Brand Recommendation continuously when it runs new conversations. Thus, teams can see trends such as:
  • More recommendations after you publish better comparison content
  • Competitors that get or lose a share of the recommendations
  • Changes in how answer engines compare your brand with the alternatives
When you monitor the recommendations over time, you see the direct effect of your marketing work on the purchase decisions that answer engines influence.

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Next steps

  • For the wider metric of how frequently your brand shows in the answers, refer to Brand Visibility.
  • To compare the recommendation rates of your competitors, refer to Share of Voice.
  • For all the metrics in one place, refer to Your KPIs explained.

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Brand Recommendation in the public API

To read the recommendation data, refer to Recommendation over time and Recommendation by topic.