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How much paid media is AI visibility worth to you?

When ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Google's AI Overview recommend your brand, they route buyer intent you'd otherwise pay Google for. This calculator prices that visibility using the same Earned Media Value method marketers use to value organic reach against paid benchmarks.

Step 1 of 2

Tell us about your brand

Cost-per-click and search demand vary a lot by industry and market. We pre-set the calculator to the benchmarks that match yours.

Nothing is stored. This personalises the benchmarks on the next screen.

What is AI visibility worth?

As much as the ads you would have bought to get the same exposure. That is the whole idea behind Earned Media Value, and it is how marketers have priced organic reach for years. Applied to generative answers, the benchmark is Google Ads cost-per-click for the same buying questions.

The formula

monthly searches × avg CPC × your AI capture rate × 0.6 conservative factor

How the calculation works

  • Search volumes and cost-per-click come from Google’s own Keyword Planner data, the same numbers an advertiser sees when planning a campaign, not our estimates.
  • Your AI capture rate is measured, not assumed: it’s how often AI assistants actually name your brand in organic answers across the queries we test.
  • We apply a conservative 0.6 factor because an AI mention is strong exposure but not a guaranteed click — we’d rather under-count than oversell.
  • This mirrors Earned Media Value (EMV), the standard method marketers have used for years to price organic reach against paid-ad benchmarks — applied here to AI answers.

How to use the calculator

  1. 1Describe the brand. Name, domain, industry and target market. That sets the cost-per-click and demand benchmarks so the first number is in your ballpark rather than a generic one.
  2. 2Set your capture rate. How often assistants name you in unbranded category questions. If you do not know it, that is the point — start low, then measure it.
  3. 3Read the ad-equivalent value. What that visibility would have cost as Google Ads clicks, discounted by the conservative factor.
  4. 4Replace the estimate with a measurement. Run a scan and the guessed capture rate becomes a counted one, on live keyword data for your market.

What this number is not

  • Ad-equivalent estimate, not guaranteed savings — a directional benchmark for prioritisation.
  • Based on Google Ads benchmarks in USD; actual value depends on your conversion rates and intent match.

We would rather under-count than oversell. A figure you can defend in a budget meeting is worth more than a flattering one you cannot.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate the value of AI visibility?
Earned Media Value, applied to AI answers: monthly searches × avg CPC × your AI capture rate × 0.6 conservative factor. It prices the exposure you already earn in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity against what the same visibility would have cost as Google Ads clicks.
What is Earned Media Value?
EMV is the standard way marketers price organic reach: take the exposure you earned without paying, and value it at what the equivalent paid placement would have cost. It has been used for PR and social for years. Applied to generative answers, the paid benchmark is Google Ads cost-per-click for the same queries.
Why multiply by 0.6?
Because an AI mention is strong exposure but not a guaranteed click. The conservative factor discounts the raw ad-equivalent so the number under-counts rather than oversells. A figure you have to defend in a budget meeting is worth more than a flattering one.
Where do the cost-per-click numbers come from?
The presets are public Google Ads industry benchmarks, adjusted for your target market — directional, so the first number reads as yours rather than generic. A real analysis replaces them with Google Keyword Planner data for your actual queries, which is the same source an advertiser plans a campaign from.
What is an AI capture rate?
How often AI assistants name your brand in answers to unbranded buying questions in your category — "best CRM for small teams", not "what is Acme". In the calculator it is a slider you set. In a real scan it is measured across hundreds of prompts on every engine, which is usually the moment the estimate and the reality part company.
Is this a guarantee of savings?
No. It is an ad-equivalent estimate for prioritisation — a way to compare AI visibility against the ad spend it offsets, not money that appears in a bank account. Actual value depends on your conversion rates and how well the intent matches.

The estimate has one guess in it

Every input here is a benchmark except your capture rate, which you set yourself. Measure it instead and the whole number stops being an estimate — most brands find the real figure is lower than the one they moved the slider to.

Measure your capture rate free