# AI Visibility Gap Analysis: Find Competitor Wins

> Run an AI visibility gap analysis to find prompts, engines and sources where competitors appear without you, then choose tools and assign the right fixes.

- Source: https://www.citlyze.com/blog/ai-visibility-gap-analysis
- Author: Mara Ellison
- Published: 2026-10-20
- Tags: Measurement, Tools

AI visibility gap analysis compares your brand with competitors across a fixed set of buyer questions. You record which answers omit you, which engines differ, which cited pages leave you out and which facts the answers get wrong. Then you assign each gap to a page update, a third-party source or a factual correction.

An absence alone gives you little to work with. A competitor's mention, the source beside it and the question that triggered it give you a starting point. Keep that evidence together so the person fixing the gap can check the answer.

The [guide to measuring AI presence](https://www.citlyze.com/blog/what-is-ai-visibility) explains the underlying metrics. Gap analysis adds the question a content plan needs: what should we change next?

## What are the four types of AI visibility gaps?

Use four labels in your spreadsheet or tracking tool. A single answer can carry several labels.

| Gap type | What you record | Example, for a fictional payroll brand |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Prompt gap | An answer names a competitor and omits your brand | A buyer asks for payroll software for Canadian contractors. The answer recommends two rivals. |
| Engine gap | Your brand appears in one engine and misses another on the same question | ChatGPT names you; Perplexity does not. |
| Source gap | A cited page mentions competitors and leaves you out | The answer cites a payroll comparison that excludes your product. |
| Fact gap | The answer states something false about your brand | It says you lack contractor payments, despite your published support for them. |

Separate brand mentions from citations. An engine can name your product without linking your site. It can cite your guide without recommending your product. Record both fields before calling either result a win.

An engine gap also needs matching conditions. Compare the same prompt, language and market over the same period. Comparing an English buying question in ChatGPT with a French support question in Gemini tells you little about engine coverage.

Treat the labels as diagnoses to investigate. A missing mention does not prove that your site needs a new page. Read the answer and its sources before deciding.

## How do you build a manual gap spreadsheet?

Start with a small set you can maintain. As a suggested first pass, choose 10 buyer questions and three direct competitors. Pull the questions from sales calls, support tickets and existing search queries. Use the [buyer-question research workflow](https://www.citlyze.com/blog/find-buyer-prompts-for-ai-search) to expand the set after the first review.

Include category questions and questions with a specific constraint. "Payroll software" gives you less direction than "Which payroll software supports Canadian contractors paid in US dollars?" Keep branded comparisons in a separate group, since naming a competitor in the prompt changes the task.

Create one row per saved answer with these columns:

| Column group | Fields |
| --- | --- |
| Conditions | Prompt ID, exact wording, intent, engine, date, language, market, search setting |
| Brand presence | Your brand present, competitor names present |
| Evidence | Saved answer, cited URLs, relevant passage from each source |
| Accuracy | Incorrect claim, approved fact, supporting URL |
| Next action | Gap labels, proposed fix, owner, review date |

Run each question in a fresh conversation. Keep search settings consistent within each engine and record them. Save the full answer so another person can verify your labels without recreating the search.

Repeat the same checks on separate days before treating an omission as persistent. Keep the original prompt set intact during the baseline; add new questions to a separate group.

Filter the sheet to answers where at least one tracked competitor appears and your brand does not. That gives you a prompt-gap list. Group those rows by engine, then inspect the cited URLs for source gaps. Review factual claims in answers that mention you, including positive answers.

For an illustrative result, suppose a competitor appears without you on six of ten questions in ChatGPT and two of ten in Perplexity. Keep those engine rows separate. An average would hide where you need to investigate. For the aggregate competitive metric, use the [share-of-voice calculation guide](https://www.citlyze.com/blog/ai-share-of-voice).

Label the spreadsheet with its scope. Your selected questions represent a sample of buying situations. They do not measure the whole market.

## How can Bing's opportunity queries help?

Bing Webmaster Tools offers another route to finding omissions. Open your site's AI Performance report and look for the Topics Portfolio view. Availability depends on whether Bing has enough data for your site.

Select a relevant topic and compare the queries where your site appears with the opportunities where other sites appear. Bing's [announcement of the Topics Portfolio](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2026/10/introducing-topics-portfolio-beta-in-ai-performance/) describes Opportunity Queries as queries where other sites appear and yours does not, with citation volumes shown as ranges. Top Opportunity Queries collects opportunities across the portfolio.

Copy relevant queries into your gap sheet and label their origin as Bing. Check their meaning before turning them into buyer prompts. A grounding query describes a search used to support an answer; it may differ from the user's original question.

Treat topic figures as estimates. Review branded opportunities too: a competitor's brand query may offer little value for your own content plan.

The report covers Microsoft's AI experiences, including Copilot and Bing answers. Keep your separate checks for ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Bing's citation opportunities do not establish whether those products mention your brand.

## Which tools identify gaps in AI search results?

Choose tools to identify AI search visibility gaps by the evidence you need to inspect. During a demo, bring a prompt from your spreadsheet. Ask the vendor to show the competing brands, the engine breakdown and the sources behind that answer.

Use the plan details below to shortlist tools, then check your own prompts during a demo.

### Citlyze

Citlyze fits marketers who want [competitor benchmarking](https://www.citlyze.com/use-cases/competitor-benchmarking) alongside citation and source tracking. Every plan tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, DeepSeek and ByteDance daily, plus Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Bing Copilot weekly. Prompts run several times per measurement window so one odd answer does not move the trend. Brand Perception adds sentiment and brand attributes. Starter costs $29 a month for five daily prompts and three competitors, so keep the first question set focused. Pro adds Grok and Brand FactCheck, which checks answers against facts you approve. Choose it when you need to investigate both missing mentions and incorrect claims; FactCheck requires Pro.

### Peec AI

[Peec AI](https://peec.ai/pricing) suits teams that want source-gap analysis and shared access: it includes unlimited users on every plan. Its listed gap analysis identifies sources that name competitors and omit your brand. Plans cost $95, $245 and $495 a month for 50, 150 and 350 prompts, with three selected engines. Peec also lists Brand Perception, fact-checking, crawl insights and AI referrals. Its source-gap focus makes it worth considering for an editorial or PR team. Check the three-engine selection against your manual sheet before buying; a larger prompt allowance will not cover an engine you leave out.

### Ahrefs Brand Radar

[Ahrefs Brand Radar](https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar) includes Custom Prompts with paid Ahrefs plans. Lite includes five prompts a day. The AI Visibility Index starts at $199 a month. Ahrefs also lists an "AI Mention Gap Analysis" skill. For an existing subscriber, the included prompts offer a way to move a narrow manual comparison into ongoing measurement. Keep the Custom Prompts allowance and the paid index separate when budgeting. Ask the vendor to demonstrate how the named skill handles your competitor set and preserves evidence for the tasks you plan to assign.

### Otterly.AI

[Otterly.AI](https://otterly.ai/pricing) fits a focused comparison across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, which its plans include. Prices are $29, $189 and $489 a month for 15, 100 and 400 prompts. Gemini and Google AI Mode require paid add-ons. The entry plan gives you room for a compact set of category and use-case questions. Include the add-on cost in your comparison if your spreadsheet shows an engine gap involving either Google product. Keep engine coverage beside prompt allowance when comparing its price with another vendor.

### Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit

[Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit](https://www.semrush.com/pricing/ai/) helps you measure brand visibility. Semrush lists ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Gemini for it. It costs $99 a month per domain, billed annually, for 25 prompts. Consider it for a defined domain and a question set that fits that allowance. The per-domain price adds up if you manage separate brands or client sites. Before choosing it for competitive analysis for AEO, map your buyer questions to those 25 slots and confirm which Google surfaces the relevant reports cover. You need comparable engine rows to investigate an engine gap.

## Which gaps can you fix on your own pages?

Start with the question and the evidence missing from your site. For the fictional payroll example, review the page about contractor payments. Does it state supported countries and currencies? Does it explain eligibility and link to current pricing?

If the page exists, update that page before creating another with the same purpose. Add the answer near the relevant heading, support the claim with documentation and remove conflicting statements elsewhere on your site.

For Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google's guidance states: ["There are no additional technical requirements."](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features) Check indexing and snippet eligibility as part of the review.

For an engine gap, compare the sources in the engine that names you with those in the engine that omits you. Look for a missing topic, an old product description or a source you can correct. The label alone does not establish the cause.

Write the assignment in terms someone can finish: "Update the contractor-payments page with supported currencies and eligibility, then recheck the saved prompts." "Improve AI visibility" gives the editor no acceptance criteria.

## Which gaps need third-party sources or fact corrections?

A source gap needs work on the cited page. If an independent comparison names your rivals and omits you, check its inclusion criteria. Your product may not qualify.

For a relevant omission, send the publisher verifiable information about the feature or market fit that warrants inclusion. Respect its review process. Record the source URL and the evidence you supplied. Publishing your own comparison does not update that publisher's article.

Use the [citation-source study and its scope notes](https://www.citlyze.com/blog/ai-citation-sources-study-q3-2026) as context for source research. Prioritize the pages cited in your own answer sample over a broad list of popular domains.

For fact gaps, save the false claim verbatim. Pair it with an approved fact and a current public source. Correct your own pages first, then request corrections from third-party publishers carrying the error.

Keep a status field: confirmed, correction requested, corrected at source, rechecked in answer. Mark an error as resolved after the follow-up answers support that judgment. A mention that returns with the same false claim still needs work.

## Start with one buying decision

Choose a buying question tied to a product you sell. Save the competitor answer and its cited sources, assign the gap type, then give one person a specific correction to make. Recheck the same question under the same conditions and retain the evidence from both periods.

Citlyze can keep that prompt set under scheduled measurement while you work through the gaps. Start with a [14-day free trial, no card](https://www.citlyze.com/pricing). The trial uses Starter limits; Brand FactCheck requires Pro.

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Canonical: https://www.citlyze.com/blog/ai-visibility-gap-analysis