Found for one specialty in one region. Almost nowhere else.
We audited a mid-sized marketing agency that serves hospitality and consumer brands from a Northeast city.
For hospitality help in its home region, AI mentioned the firm in about half the answers. For its other services: none.
Names and the city are left out.
Audits now test seven AI tools, three tries each. Each example shows the tools tested at the time.
An earlier edition of the audit, and what it could measure
This audit ran in May 2026, before the method reached its current form. The figures below count single answers and say so.
Four AI tools, one try each.
Mentioned and cited scored. Recommended not scored.
Six tools, three tries each.
All three results scored.
Beyond the answers
The audit also read:
- The firm's website and its structured data
- Its agency-directory profiles and its trade-press presence
- Its inquiry path
Three results for every question
Each answer is read for three results, counted separately. This edition of the audit measured the first two.
Mentioned
The answer names you among the places or firms it lists. AI cannot suggest a business it never brings up.
Cited
The answer links your own website as a source. The tool read your site, so your pages shaped what it said.
Recommended
The answer puts you forward as a choice, with a reason. This is the result that sends a buyer to you.
The firm's results, questions without its name
Answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Gemini's source links arrived as redirects that could no longer be opened, so citations count ChatGPT and Perplexity only.
The last row is questions that name the firm: every answer mentioned it, and about half linked its website.
Two Perplexity answers used the firm's own articles as sources without saying its name.
Where the mentions came from
17 of the firm's 18 mentions came from one kind of question: hospitality wording plus its home region.
The pattern is the finding. AI knew this firm as a local hospitality agency. A buyer asking a national question, or about its other specialties, met other firms.
The firm presents consumer goods as one of its three specialties. AI never connected it to that work.
One question, four tools
A buyer asks: "Top integrated marketing agencies for restaurant and hotel openings in [our region]." Here is what each tool did on May 3, 2026.
| AI tool | The answer | What it said |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Mentioned + cited | Listed the firm among several local agencies, with a line on its hospitality experience, and linked its website. |
| Perplexity | Mentioned + cited | Mentioned it in the first sentence as one of four top agencies for its hospitality expertise, and cited its site. |
| Gemini | Mentioned | Listed it second of eight, for strength in restaurant and hotel openings. Gemini's links could not be read. |
| Google AI Overviews | No answer captured | No text captured for any question in this audit. |
A win: mentioned by 3 of 3 tools that answered, cited by both tools whose links could be read.
The same day, asked for the best creative agencies in the city for hospitality and consumer brands, all three tools returned lists without the firm.
Where the firm came up, and who AI suggested instead
Real questions from the audit, with places replaced. Mentioned counts the three tools that answered. Cited counts the two whose links could be read.
| The question | Mentioned | Cited | Suggested instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top integrated marketing agencies for restaurant and hotel openings in [region] | 3 of 3 | 2 of 2 | Other local hospitality-specialist firms |
| Top integrated marketing agencies for hospitality brands in [city] and [region] | 2 of 3 | 2 of 2 | Larger local generalist and PR agencies |
| Best PR firm for a restaurant launch in [state] | 2 of 3 | 1 of 2 | Local restaurant PR boutiques |
| Outsourced marketing partner for a hospitality group near [city] | 2 of 3 | 1 of 2 | A local hospitality PR firm and a local digital agency |
| Best [city] creative agencies for hospitality and consumer brands, ranked | 0 of 3 | 0 of 2 | Larger generalist ad, design and experiential agencies |
| Best agencies for hospitality marketing and outsourced marketing for hotels | 0 of 3 | 0 of 2 | National travel marketing specialists and hotel technology vendors |
| Find a creative agency for a consumer-goods brand launch | 0 of 3 | 0 of 2 | Global brand-design networks and packaging studios |
Rivals are described by type. One try per tool, so each count is a single answer, not a two-of-three result.
What AI said that was wrong or missing
Each example was found in the saved answers and traced to the page or listing it came from.
Four answers gave the old address. One tool sourced it to an agency-directory page that still showed it.
The firm's own contact page shows no street address at all.
The same answer cited its work for a hotel group in that state, the likely source of the mix-up. Another tool listed its contact under a second wrong state.
The brand has its own website. One tool listed it as a rival twice, once in an answer where the firm itself did not appear.
Twenty-one answers placed the firm in two cities. The wording comes from the firm's own site, in the image description on 268 of the 319 pages we captured.
Whichever is true, the site is the source AI repeats, and the firm can settle it.
Two cities, in an image description on 268 of 319 pages.
Placed the firm in two cities.
What the firm's intake records.
The wording sits on almost every page.
What the audit found on the website and profiles
Each finding was checked against the pages the audit saved and against the live site in September 2026.
No main heading on the home page
The home page carries no main heading, the line that tells a reader and a machine what the page is about.
No street address on the contact page
The contact page gives a phone number and an email and no address. An agency directory filled the gap with an old one, and AI repeated it.
Service markup that points to the wrong pages
The site's hidden service list links each service to a single client project page.
None of its 67 case studies carries markup that tells AI it is a piece of work.
Thin agency-directory profiles
The main directory profile shows no reviews. The firm has no profile on four other agency directories.
AI cited those directories' city pages in six answers.
No national trade-press record
The audit found no coverage in four national advertising-trade outlets, the kind of source that could connect the firm to buyers outside its region.
What was already right
AI crawlers were not blocked, and the site publishes a file that points AI tools to its key pages.
Reaching the site was never the problem. The gaps were in what its pages say.
What the firm was asked to do first
The plan's first actions in order, plus one the September recount added. Every one is within the firm's control.
Add one main heading to the home page
Say what the firm is and whom it serves, in the words a buyer uses.
Who controls it: The firm, with its web developer
Publish the street address on the contact page
In visible text and in the hidden business details, so AI stops relying on an old directory entry.
Who controls it: The firm
Correct the address on the agency directory and the professional-network profile
Add a note to older posts that carry the previous address.
Who controls it: The firm, through its accounts on those platforms
Settle the one-office or two-office wording on the site
Added in the September recount. It is the most repeated conflicting fact in the answers, and the wording sits on almost every page.
Who controls it: The firm
Mark up the case studies and point the service list at the service pages
Each case study tagged as a piece of work, and each service linked to the page that describes it.
Who controls it: The firm, with its web developer
Build the off-site record
Complete the agency-directory profiles with client reviews. Pursue national trade-press coverage for the specialties AI never connected to the firm.
Who controls it: The firm; the outcome depends on the platforms and editors
Remove friction from the inquiry form
Make the phone field optional and leave the newsletter box unchecked.
Who controls it: The firm
What a professional services firm receives today
This firm received the earlier three-document edition. The current audit delivers the full set below, on seven AI platforms, with three tries each.
An executive summary
Your results and exactly five defining findings, each with the evidence, what it means and a pointer to the fix.
A full assessment
The evidence behind every finding, the questions you lose with the firms AI suggested instead, and the sources those answers relied on.
An implementation plan
Every action in order, with the finding it fixes, the effort, and who controls the change.
A content and channel playbook
What to publish, where, and in what form, so the facts buyers ask about exist in text AI can quote and on the directories it trusts.
What AI knows about your firm
Fact by fact: what AI says about your services, locations and credentials, against what is true.
A baseline and a re-test
Every question and answer saved, and the same questions asked again after the fixes, so you can see what moved.
Questions about these results
Why are these results counted differently from the other sector pages?
This audit ran on an earlier edition of the method: four tools, one try each, and no recommended score.
The restaurant and hotel pages use the current edition: six tools, three tries, all three results. Figures here are single answers, and the page says so.
Does AI visibility matter for a firm that wins work through referrals?
A referral increasingly ends in a search. A buyer who hears your name asks an AI tool what you do, and a buyer with no referral asks it who to call.
This audit showed a firm AI knew well by name and rarely suggested unasked outside one region.
Will my results look like these?
Your questions come from your buyers, your specialties and your market, so your numbers will be your own.
The format is the same: the three results, the tools, the questions you win and lose, what AI gets wrong, and the fixes in order.
See which firms AI suggests when buyers describe what you do.
An audit tests your buyers' questions on the AI tools they use and shows where another firm appears in your place.