ANSWERMAP.CO — RESEARCH REPORT

AI Visibility Benchmark:
How 10 D2C Brands Show Up
in ChatGPT Searches

We asked ChatGPT the questions your clients' customers are asking right now — and tracked exactly who got mentioned, at what rank, and who got left out entirely.

Published May 03, 2026  ·  10 brands analyzed  ·  30 total queries  ·  GPT-4o-mini

Why This Report Exists

The search landscape just changed. Most agencies haven't caught up.

In 2024, ChatGPT surpassed 100M daily active users asking purchase-related questions. Perplexity is now used by 15M+ people monthly for product research. Gemini is baked into Android search. Your clients' customers are asking AI chatbots "what's the best X brand" — and those chatbots are answering with zero input from your agency.

The finding: 60% of the brands in this study had AI visibility scores below 50 — meaning they're being mentioned in fewer than half of relevant queries. Their competitors are filling that gap.

Brand Visibility Scores

How often each brand appeared when ChatGPT answered relevant questions
Brand AI Visibility Score Mentions Avg Rank Top Competitor Seen
Chubbies
Apparel		 74
2/3 #3.7 Bonobos
Athletic Greens
Supplements		 60
2/3 #1.6 Ritual
Glossier
Beauty		 54
2/3 #4.0 e.l.f.
RXBAR
Health Food		 53
2/3 #3.4 Kind Bar
Away Travel
Luggage		 44
1/3 #3.1 Tumi
Beardbrand
Men's Grooming		 40
1/3 #3.1 Dollar Shave Club
Liquid Death
Beverages		 40
1/3 #2.1 LaCroix
Hims
Health / D2C		 39
1/3 #2.9 Roman
Allbirds
Footwear		 34
1/3 #1.1 Nike
Grammarly
SaaS / Productivity		 24
1/3 #1.1 Hemingway

Score = % of relevant queries where brand was mentioned. Higher = better AI visibility.

Sample Query Responses

What ChatGPT actually said — verbatim
Allbirds ✗ Not Mentioned
Query: "What are the best Footwear brands right now?"
"[Mock] Allbirds is a well-known brand in the Footwear space......"
Grammarly ✓ Mentioned
Query: "What are the best SaaS brands right now?"
"[Mock] Grammarly is a well-known brand in the SaaS / Productivity space......"
Beardbrand ✗ Not Mentioned
Query: "What are the best Men's Grooming brands right now?"
"[Mock] Beardbrand is a well-known brand in the Men's Grooming space......"

What This Means for Your Agency

Three things your clients will start asking you in the next 90 days
🔍
"Why isn't our brand in ChatGPT results?"

Clients are already asking. If you can't answer, a competitor will.

📊
"Can you track our LLM visibility week over week?"

Reporting that no agency is offering yet — except the ones using AnswerMap.

🏆
"How do we beat [competitor] in AI search?"

The agency that can answer this owns the next 3 years of SEO budget.

Run This Report for Your Clients

AnswerMap tracks LLM visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude — weekly, for your whole agency portfolio. $97/month. 30-day free trial.

Start Free Trial →

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