How Earned Media Can Win AI Citations for Your Business
Generative AI is changing the way people get their information. Search-equipped large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are now collectively processing well over one billion queries per day, while more than 13%—and counting—of Google’s 8.5 billion daily search results are headed by an AI Overview. The recent launch of the search titan’s AI Mode further cements its commitment to an LLM-centered future of search.
This shift adds an entirely new set of rules to determine what information a brand’s prospective customers will see and engage with. Compared to the keyword- and backlink-based rankings of traditional search engines, LLMs use more nuanced, context-based cues to evaluate the relevance and authority of a given source to a user query.
The quickest way for a brand to appease these context-sensitive LLMs is to convince authoritative third-party sources to relay their message in a direct, unbiased, and vendor-neutral way.
That is the role of earned media.
Earned media refers to any feature in an industry-trusted news site, social media post, blog, or interview that merits unpaid placement—and it provides precisely the kind of reputation signal that LLMs are looking for.
Below is a brief overview of what earned media means for AI visibility and how brands can make it work for them.
How Does Earned Media Help AI Visibility?
To understand the role of earned media in the future of brand visibility, one must first understand how web-searching LLMs differ from traditional search engines. Traditional engines tend to measure simple attributes like the number of backlinks that route to the site and keywords that align with the search. As a result, it is relatively straightforward for businesses to tick the necessary boxes by aggregating backlinks to their website or paying for placements on authoritative domains while optimizing their content with keywords.
Search-augmented LLMs, however, obtain information in two ways: first from their training data, and second from external channels like real-time web searches. Domain authority remains a significant factor for selection in either case, meaning that LLM citations often correlate with the rankings found on a search-engine results page. Instead of keywords and rankings, however, these LLMs are programmed to evaluate sources comprehensively—much like a human would. LLMs therefore tend to devalue sources that are overly promotional simply because promotion is a signal of biased content.
Conversely, research by Aggarwal et al. has demonstrated that LLMs favor well-written content that cites other sources, includes statistics, and incorporates credible quotes.
Earned media meets these requirements almost by default. This is because outlets like Forbes and The Wall Street Journal must already ensure that their content is clear and professional, cites third parties, includes hard numbers, and quotes reputable sources just to maintain their reputations and their high domain authorities.
Being the source that such an outlet quotes or providing the numbers it cites signals to LLMs and those who train them that the information—and its source—has earned that place. Such content joins the limited corpora that are considered first and foremost by an LLM.
How to Take Advantage of Earned Media
Whether a brand is making its first foray into the world of earned media or looking to incorporate AI visibility into an existing strategy, an effective effort begins with assessment.
How often—if at all—is the brand and its message being featured in top-tier media? Are those placements being cited in AI responses to questions relevant to prospective customers? If not, which outlets, experts, and stories are being cited? Such an audit can provide a company with a detailed picture of what it should be working toward and how close it is to getting there.
Then the brand must actually earn media placements, which requires two things. The first prerequisite is having genuinely valuable knowledge to share: a unique perspective, unprecedented industry knowledge, or exclusive data. Such content becomes especially valuable when LLMs face knowledge gaps or need to verify outdated training data.
The second task is to get those offerings placed in the outlets that LLMs cite and readers trust. Hiring an experienced public relations firm with an existing network of media contacts is by far the simplest way to do so, although persistent internal teams can build their own networks in time.
Conclusion
As LLMs grow their share of the information market, being included in stories by credible third-party publications will only become more crucial to a brand’s online visibility. Building an earned-media presence takes time, however, and there’s little time to lose. The businesses that start investing now in meaningful media coverage will establish themselves as authorities that LLMs—and their users—can count on for years to come.
Be sure to check out our other blogs on useful and interesting public relations topics, like how media strategy can maximize the impact of your trade show presentation.
