25% of Our Revenue Comes from AI Search: What Works, What Doesn't, and What We Learned Getting There

A quarter of OtterlyAI's revenue now comes from ChatGPT and Claude — and according to GA4, that channel barely exists. In this talk I'll open our books: how we discovered the gap between last-touch attribution (0.1% from Claude) and self-reported attribution (10.6%), why users from Claude actually spend more than users from Google, and how we rebuilt our reporting around an AI search funnel. Then the practical part: the tactics that got us cited — YouTube optimization, active Reddit communities, guide content, press distribution — and the ones that did nothing, from llms.txt to schema markup for ChatGPT. Everything backed by 30+ experiments and 200M analyzed AI citations, so you leave with evidence, not opinions.

Transcript

1. 25% of Our Revenue Comes from AI Search: What Works, What Doesn't, and What We Learned Getting There Thomas Peham OtterlyAI @thomas.peham
2. BrightonSEO UK 25% of Our Revenue Comes from AI Search: What Works, What Doesn't, and What We Learned Getting There
3. Hello. I’m Thomas Peham, CEO & Co-Founder at > ex-VP Marketing > in B2B SaaS since 2014 > in Marketing since 2010 Otterly.AI 2
4. Doing SEO since 2010 Otterly.AI 3
5. OtterlyAI is the Intelligence Platform for AI Search Trent Kennelly Otterly.AI 4
6. We Analyzed 200M Websites. And we Publish Everything We Learned About AI Search & GEO. Otterly.AI 6
7. And sometimes our GEO Experiments go viral. (SEOs are very passionate people) Otterly.AI 7
8. Otterly.AI 8
9. We are all trying to make sense of this complexity Otterly.AI 9
10. Measurement of Success has already changed Otterly.AI 10
11. On Page AI Search The AI Search Funnel Brand Coverage (supported by Website Citations) AI Bot/Agent Traffic (Human) Referral Traffic Branded + Direct Traffic (indirect) Conversions Self-reported + web analytics Otterly.AI 11
12. The funnel has changed. But did our reporting too? Otterly.AI 12
13. GA4- Last Touch Attribution According to Web Analytics, 0.1% of conversions from Claude Otterly.AI 13
14. Where did you hear about us Form Submits Otterly.AI 14
15. But it’s 10.6% according to self-reported Attribution Otterly.AI 15
16. Self-reported Attribution 25% of our revenue comes from Claude + ChatGPT Otterly.AI 16
17. Self-reported Attribution Claude is outperforming Google & ChatGPT Otterly.AI 17
18. Self-reported Attribution MoM Changes in Conversion Rate: Signup - Paid Otterly.AI 18
19. Self-reported Attribution The average user from Google spends 15% less than the user from Claude Otterly.AI 19
20. Self-reported Attribution Revenue Distribution (L3M) Otterly.AI 20
21. TL;DR AI Search is primarily a BRAND channel that’s also driving REVENUE Otterly.AI 21
22. AI Search is a Revenue Channel • We cannot only rely on GA4 and Web Analytics • There is no single AI Search - it’s a variety of channels • Focus where your audience is Otterly.AI 22
23. On Page AI Search The AI Search Funnel Brand Coverage (supported by Website Citations) AI Bot/Agent Traffic (Human) Referral Traffic Branded + Direct Traffic (indirect) Conversions Self-reported + web analytics Otterly.AI 23
24. GEO Experiments Inside OtterlyAI’s GEO Research Otterly.AI 24
25. Get All GEO Experiments Free GEO Sheet: Send me a LinkedIn DM or email (thomas@otterly.ai) - I’ll send you our GEO Experimentation Spreadsheet Otterly.AI 25
26. Form a Hypothesis OtterlyAI Experiment Methodology What GEO tactics & myths are we testing, and what result do we expect it to produce? Feedback Community Publish Results Measure Relentlessly Did our experiment move the needle, and what can other GEO practitioners learn from it? Are we tracking AI bot visits, brand mentions, and AI citation rates over a fixed time window? Otterly.AI 26
27. What works in AI Search right now • • • • • • • • • • • Press Release Distribution Local + EN Content Duo On-Page Schema Markup for Google AIO Youtube Video Optimization Wikipedia Presence Reddit Brand Visibility on “active” communities (with replies) Linkedin Pulse articles External Listicles Industry Recognition (awards, analysts) Individual “Features” Pages AI-assisted content generation • • • • • • • Clean structured URLs Blog / Editorial Articles for TOFU discovery Product Page & Category Page for Product evaluation & BOFU Documentation, Guides for Product Research Alternative vs pages AI memory Injection AI videos in YouTube What doesn’t • • • • • • • • AI Slop Llms.txt File Markdown Files as variants Schema Markup doesn’t work for ChatGPT, Gemini Image alt tags & file names for AI Search URL structure & length doesn’t matter Beautiful design of content LinkedIn regular feed posts (works less than Pulse) Otterly.AI 27
28. AI SEARCH INDUSTRY INDEX Thousands of AI search prompts tracked every day AI Search 6.1M Industry Index 107K AI citations analyzed ChatGPT ads captured 15K Shopping cards logged Source: OtterlyAI AI Search Industry Index, Jul–Aug 2026 Otterly.AI 28
29. Over half of all AI citations go to brand-owned sites Source: OtterlyAI AI Search Index, Jul to Aug 2026 Otterly.AI 29
30. Citations per Industries Otterly.AI 30
31. ChatGPT Citation Changes in August Otterly.AI 31
32. ChatGPT Citation Changes in August Otterly.AI 32
33. ChatGPT tripled social & video citations in August Otterly.AI 33
34. ChatGPT Ads Presence Otterly.AI 34
35. AI Search Industry Index • There is no single AI Search • Journalism dependence varies 7.3x across 17 sectors • Company owned pages are the largest surface, at 53.7% overall • Some sectors run on a completely different web. • ChatGPT rewired itself twice in August, halving journalism and cutting forums by four fifths Otterly.AI 35
36. On-Page Content Factors tested Otterly.AI 36
37. Summary of On-Page Experiments Learning Google AI Search Schema Schema lifted Google AIO 1,500% but ChatGPT citations dropped 👍 ❌ URL length URL Optimization doesn’t matter for AI Search 👍 ❌ Page Types Guides, Blogs, Help, Home Page as most favorable page types 👍 👍 Images No impact on AI Search Filenames hallucinated 👍 ❌ Alt Tags Only processed by ChatGPT, no other AI Search 👍 partially-👍 Markdown No measurable impact ❌ ❌ FAQ Proven results both on Google + AI search engines 👍 👍 Otterly.AI 37
38. Schema Markup Does it influence Citations? Otterly.AI 38
39. Schema lifted Google AIO 1,500% but ChatGPT citations dropped Otterly.AI 39
40. Schema is relevant in…a greater Scheme of things? Schema translates your content into a format machines can interpret. For AI search, that lets us make relationships clear: • • • • • Who is this brand? What does it offer? Where does it operate? Which pages belong to the same entity? How are services, products, people, and locations connected? USE WHAT FITS — SAAS EXAMPLE Organization WebSite SoftwareApplication Use the schema that accurately describes the entity. Nothing more. Otterly.AI 40
41. Schema is relevant in…a greater Scheme of things? THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ORGANIZATION SCHEMA sameAs One property does more for a new brand’s entity than almost anything else. "sameAs": [ "Google Business Profile", "LinkedIn", "Crunchbase", "Social profiles", "Industry directories", "Verified brand profiles" ] “This website, this profile, this listing, and these mentions all refer to the same entity.” For brands starting with almost no authority, that consistency can be extremely valuable. Otterly.AI 41
42. capybaraverse.com AI Slop Experiment 2,000 Blogs 1 Click capybara-world.com VS Otterly.AI 42
43. Version A (Control) = 1000 Blogs Version B (Treatment) = 1000 Blogs + Author + Author box Otterly.AI 43
44. Four Data Layers 1. Google Data (GSC) 2. Bing Data (BWT) 3. AI Citations (OtterlyAI) 4. Agent Analytics (OtterlyAI) Otterly.AI 44
45. capybaraverse.com Dead after 90 days A Died 3 months later 1000 AI Blogs with 1 click. 1. Google Data Dead after 14 days capybara-world.com Died 2 weeks later B Otterly.AI 45
46. capybaraverse.com A 1. 2. 3. Died 3 months later Google Data Bing Data AI Citations capybara-world.com Died 2 weeks later B Otterly.AI 46
47. capybara-world.com The “Dead” website (B) Had more AI Citations (Dead Citations effect) Otterly.AI 47
48. A AI Agent Page Visits Over Time Died 2 weeks later Agent Analytics (OtterlyAI) lets you view 4. AI Crawler Bots AI Agent Page Visits Over Time B Otterly.AI 48
49. capybaraverse.com A Died 3 months later ChatGPT crawls but citations = 0 • AI Citations capybara-world.com Died 2 weeks later B Otterly.AI 49
50. • Not every AI Search Engine treated it equally ◦ Only works on: Perplexity, Copilot, Claude • Bing vs ChatGPT vs Copilot ◦ Bing still indexes our AI-generated content. ◦ Copilot still cites our AI-generated content. ◦ ChatGPT not so much, rarely. • Agent Crawls vs Citations: Just because it gets crawled, doesn’t mean it gets cited • Google's own ecosystem seems to be inconsistent: AI Overviews cite it, Organic fully deindexed AI Slop Experiment Otterly.AI 50
51. Blog vs Youtube Otterly.AI 51
52. Video vs. Blog: We Published the Same Story in Both Formats. Here’s What AI Search Cited Otterly.AI 52
53. Video + Blog: We Sliced Daily LiveStreams Into 610 Videos. AI Citations Grew 3.4x Otterly.AI 53
54. AI Licensing Deal Study Otterly.AI 54
55. Do news publishers with deals get cited more? Otterly.AI 55
56. Example Deals Otterly.AI 56
57. Does a deal with a news publisher earn more AI citations per page? Otterly.AI 57
58. Which content types get cited the most? Otterly.AI 58
59. What gets cited more depends on your industry Otterly.AI 59
60. Trade media beats mainstream media in 15 of 16 industries Otterly.AI 60
61. Conclusion: What This Means for PR Teams • News Is 7.2% of All AI Citations (2nd biggest source on Claude) • Yes. News publishers with OpenAI Deals: +48% More Citations • However, you Do Not Need a Licensed Publisher to Get Cited • • Analyze the industry first!! Niche/Trade Media > Expensive Mainstream media Content Types cited the most: ◦ Top/Best listicles; ◦ How-to-guides; ◦ Problem-discovery; ◦ Product/service reviews Otterly.AI 61
62. Active Reddit Communities Get Cited x9 More Total AI citations tracked across 6 AI Search Engines for 30 Days. Identical Content. Identical Topics. Different Engagement Rates. (Variant B: +30% more upvotes & thread replies) Otterly.AI 62
63. PASSIVE Community Also impacted SEO results ACTIVE Community Otterly.AI 63
64. But then this happened Otterly.AI 64
65. The results of “automating” Reddit engagement Otterly.AI 65
66. What works in AI Search right now • • • • • • • • • • Schema Markup for Google AIO Youtube Video Optimization Wikipedia Presence Reddit Brand Visibility on “active” communities (with replies) Linkedin Pulse articles Local + EN Content Duo On-Page Press Release Distribution External Listicles Industry Recognition (awards, analysts) Individual “Features” Pages • • • • • • • Clean structured URLs Blog / Editorial Articles for TOFU discovery Product Page & Category Page for Product evaluation & BOFU Documentation, Guides for Product Research Alternative vs pages AI memory Injection AI videos in YouTube What doesn’t • • • • • • • • AI Slop Llms.txt File Markdown Files as variants Schema Markup doesn’t work for ChatGPT, Gemini Image alt tags & file names for AI Search URL structure & length doesn’t matter Beautiful design of content LinkedIn regular feed posts (works less than Pulse) Otterly.AI 66
67. Let’s connect Thanks! You’ve been an otterly amazing audience Thomas Peham, CEO & Co-Founder at Free GEO Sheet: Send me a LinkedIn DM or email (thomas@otterly.ai) - I’ll send you our GEO Experimentation Spreadsheet Otterly.AI 67