Google AI Cites More Social, As Perplexity Pulls Back From Reddit

Citations, which influence consumer perception and drive purchases, are crucial in AI search queries because they act as digital footnotes by linking to source webpages and establishing the
credibility of AI-generated answers. They also drive a path to explore original content and verify information.

Amazon’s strongest citation share resides
in Microsoft Copilot results–21% share vs. 7% for Ulta, which accounted for 14% of citations in April compared with Amazon’s 2%, according to Tinuiti data released Wednesday.

Tinuiti
developed a method for tracking AI citations through the Profound platform, an independent AI tool. For this study, nine categories–including apparel, beauty, electronics, food and beverage, and
technology–were tracked through AI platforms ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Meta AI.

On ChatGPT, Amazon’s citation
share is below its multi-platform average, but Amazon still has a significant ecommerce presence across prompt categories.

For beauty prompts, Amazon accounted for just more than 1% of ChatGPT
citations in April, compared with 3.5% for leader Ulta. For electronics prompts, Best Buy led among ecommerce sites with 7% of ChatGPT citations in April, while Amazon accounted for 2%. For home and
garden prompts, Home Depot led with 7% of citations, while Amazon accounted for 2%.

The average share of citations attributed to social platforms was 33% higher in April…