Learn · 2026-09-30 · 2 min read
How do you track brand mentions in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode?
To track brand mentions in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, run your customers' questions in Google on a schedule, record whether the AI summary names your brand or a competitor and which sources it cites, and compare over time. Google gives no per-brand report for either surface; Search Console folds AI Overview impressions into ordinary search data. helloAISearch does not track AI Overviews or AI Mode today; it tracks Gemini, which draws on the same Google index, along with ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. AI Overviews and AI Mode are on our roadmap.
Free 3-day trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime
Three Google surfaces, and how they differ
| Surface | What it is | Where mentions appear | Tracked by helloAISearch |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Overviews | AI summary at the top of a results page | Inside the summary, with source links | Not yet (roadmap) |
| AI Mode | Conversational search tab | In the generated answer and follow-ups | Not yet (roadmap) |
| Gemini | Google's standalone assistant | In the answer, sometimes with sources | Yes, on every plan |
The three share an index and a model family but are separate products with separate behaviour. Being named in Gemini is a good sign for the other two and not a guarantee. We state that plainly because a tool that implied otherwise would be measuring the wrong thing for you.
See what the engines say about your brand.
Ten of your prompts on ChatGPT and Gemini, twice, with the actual answers and your brand highlighted.
The manual method
- List 10 to 20 questions your customers ask, in the shapes Google actually sees: "best [category] for [audience]", "[brand] vs [competitor]", "is [brand] worth it".
- Search each one in a signed-out browser window, in the country you sell to. AI Overviews are personalised and regional.
- Record three things per query: did an AI Overview appear, which brands it named, and which sources it cited. Then open AI Mode and repeat.
- Log the sentence where you or a competitor was named. The sentence is what you act on.
- Repeat weekly. AI Overviews change composition between weeks; a single check is not a measurement.
What to do with the gaps
A query where the AI Overview names two competitors and cites neither of your pages is a page you have not written. The fix is the same as for any answer engine: a plain page that answers that query in its first sentence, a comparison page if the query is a comparison, and consistent facts about your company on every site that mentions you.
Write a comparison page for “alternatives to Competitor A”
This prompt came up 4× this week and Competitor A took every mention. A direct comparison page closes a 9-point Share of Voice gap. About an hour.
helloAISearch turns the gaps it finds on the four engines it tracks into one move per day. If Gemini names a competitor and not you, the move is usually the page that would fix AI Overviews too, because both draw on the same index.
What we track today, and what we do not
- Tracked on every plan: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini.
- Tracked on Studio and up: Perplexity.
- Not tracked yet, on the roadmap: Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, Grok.
Until AI Overviews and AI Mode are in our scans, the manual method above is how to see them. We would rather say that than sell coverage we do not have.