Measurement

Citation share

source share · AI citation share

Definition

Citation share is your slice of the source list in a generative-answer sample: citations pointing at you (owned or earned-about-you) divided by all citations in that prompt set, on one engine, in one period. It is more granular than share of model, which often counts answers that merely name you.

Fix the rules: does a competitor recap of your study count as yours, theirs, or both? Write it down.

How it works

Collect source URLs. Classify: owned, earned-about-you, earned-other, competitor, generic. Citation share_owned = owned / all. Citation share_earned = (owned + earned-about-you) / all. Do not mix engines.

Worked example

Perplexity, 50 prompts, 540 source slots. Owned 22, earned-about-you 15, rest other. Owned share 4.1%, earned-about-you 2.8%. ChatGPT’s smaller lists are a separate table.

How it differs

Share of model counts answers. Share of voice counts journalism or search. An AI citation is one pointer. Citation share is the ratio.

Common errors

Averaging engines. Counting every non-owned URL as a journalism win. Using one prompt as the base.

Sources