How to build a 50-prompt AI visibility tracker in a spreadsheet.
Paid AI visibility tools are useful, but a fixed prompt panel in a spreadsheet answers the main question for free: are the assistants naming and citing you more this month than last?
You can't improve AI visibility you don't measure, and you don't need a subscription to start measuring it.
Step 1: write the prompts
Write prompts the way buyers ask, not the way you would like to rank. Pull them from sales calls, support tickets, Search Console queries phrased as questions, and "People also ask" boxes.
| Intent | Example | How many |
|---|---|---|
| Category | "Best ASO agency for Android apps in India" | 15 |
| Problem | "Why did my Google Play installs drop?" | 15 |
| Comparison | "AppTweak vs an ASO agency: which do I need?" | 10 |
| Brand | "What does Zeevron do?" / "Is Zeevron any good?" | 10 |
Freeze the list. Changing prompts every month destroys the trend line. Add new ones in a separate tab.
Step 2: set up the sheet
One row per prompt per assistant per month. Columns:
month | assistant | prompt_id | intent | prompt | mentioned (Y/N) | position (1st/2nd/…) | cited_url (ours) | competitors_named | sources_cited | notesRun in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, plus Google AI Mode if it is available in your market. Use a logged-out or fresh session, the same country, and note the date. Answers vary between runs, so for the ten most important prompts run each twice.
Step 3: score it
- Mention share = prompts where you are named ÷ total prompts, per assistant.
- Citation share = prompts where one of your URLs is cited ÷ total prompts.
- Competitor share = the same for your three closest competitors.
- Source list = the domains cited most often. These are the pages you need to be on, or to beat.
Step 4: act on it
The tracker is only useful if it changes your plan. Each month, pick the three prompts where a competitor is named and you aren't, look at what the assistant cited, and fix the gap: a missing page, a weak title, or an absent mention on a list that ranks. Our guide to how AI engines choose sources explains what usually decides it.
Add the free signals
- Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report: Copilot citations by page. See our checklist.
- GA4 AI traffic, using a custom channel group from our regex generator.
- Our AI crawler checker, run whenever mention share drops suddenly.
Be honest about sample size. Fifty prompts show direction, not precision. A move from 12% to 14% is noise; 12% to 30% over a quarter is real.
Questions people ask
How do I track my brand in ChatGPT for free?
Build a fixed list of real buyer prompts, run them monthly in ChatGPT and other assistants, and record in a spreadsheet whether you are mentioned and cited, and who else is.
How many prompts do I need to track AI visibility?
About 50 across category, problem, comparison and brand questions is enough to see the trend for most small and mid-size brands.
What is AI citation share?
The share of tracked prompts where an AI assistant cites one of your URLs as a source. Mention share is the share where it names your brand at all.
Want this mapped onto your product?
See how our GEO work runs, or send your store link and a founder will reply personally.
