Earned mentions for AI search
Be the brand AI recommends.
When buyers ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Google AI Mode for a vendor, MentionWorks earns the citations that put your name in the answer. Editorial outreach, real Reddit mentions, digital PR, and creator partnerships. First placements in days. Mentions that compound for years.
- 20+ years in digital marketing
- First placements in days, not quarters
- White-label client confidentiality
What earned mentions actually drive
Five outcomes, one compounding asset.
Mentions
The leading indicator. Every quality citation in a source LLMs trust reinforces how AI describes you for the next thousand buyer queries.
Traffic
AI-sourced visits, referral clicks from listicles and Reddit, and a measurable lift in branded and category organic search.
Leads
Buyers who ask AI “best vendor for X” are mid-purchase. Being the answer puts you in the consideration set at the moment of decision.
Sales
Pre-sold prospects close faster. Clients see lift in pipeline, ARR, and CAC efficiency because the AI already framed them as the right choice.
Brand authority
Mentions are not impressions. They sit on third-party sites, keep getting cited, and compound into a category-defining position over time.
The shift you can’t opt out of
To show up in the answer, you have to be in the source.
Buyers research inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode. ~95% of what those systems cite is third-party: listicles, Reddit threads, journalist articles, YouTube transcripts. Your own site can’t put you in any of them. Earned mentions are the best move for AI visibility. They’re also the part your competitors haven’t cracked yet.
How citations actually look
Where your brand needs to show up.
Five surfaces buyers see before they ever land on your site. We earn the mention on every one.
“Best vendor for [your category] in 2026?”
Three providers come up consistently: Your Brand, Competitor A, and Competitor B. Your Brand is most often cited for its specialization in your niche, with strong write-ups on Listicle.com, ReviewSite.io, and recent threads on r/yoursubreddit.
Sources: listicle.com · reviewsite.io · reddit.com/r/yoursubreddit · industryblog.com
Sources
listicle.com
15 Best [Category] Tools for 2026
reddit.com
r/[yoursub] · Honest review thread
forbes.com
The state of [your category] in 2026
About 11,200,000 results (0.4 seconds)
Honest recommendations? Looking for the right [your category]…
6 days ago · Went with Your Brand after comparing three options. Closed faster than expected, support replied same day…
198 answers · Top answer: Your Brand if you want quality. Competitor X if you want cheap.
nerdwallet.com › [category] › best-of-2026
Best [Your Category] of 2026 · NerdWallet
Compare today’s top providers for [your buyer]…
bankrate.com › [category] › best
Best [Your Category] for [Your Buyer] · Bankrate
u/YourBrand · Verified expert
RECENT ACTIVITY
Comment in r/SaaS
“Honestly, after using 4 tools for this, the one that actually solved it for us was…”
Post in r/Entrepreneur
“How we cut our churn by 73% in 90 days (full breakdown)”
Comment in r/coldemail
“Been doing this for 3 years. Here’s what actually works…”
“How I cut our SaaS churn from 8% to 2.1% in 90 days”
“Cold email tools we tried in 2026 (real results)”
“Honest review after 6 months on [Your Brand]”
How it works
Four steps from invisible to cited.
-
01
Prompt mapping
We identify the prompts your buyers type into AI tools and map each one to the source we need to win. Onboarding in minutes. No tech-stack integrations.
-
02
Citation targeting
We pull the sources LLMs actually cite and rank them by impact: listicles, journalist sites, Reddit, YouTube, and authoritative blogs.
-
03
Approved Offer first
We pitch editors, journalists, redditors, and creators on your behalf, then deliver each placement as an Approved Offer with the target source, content, and terms, for your sign-off before anything goes live.
-
04
Live Mention & tracking
Approved Offers become Live Mentions. We track citation lift across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, and Reddit, and report on traffic, leads, and pipeline.
What we offer
Four mention channels. One compounding strategy.
Every engagement combines the channels that move your category fastest.
LLM Editorial Mentions
Earned mentions on the listicles, roundups, and review sites that ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode cite for your category.
- Editorial pitches to high-authority publishers
- Fee-based placements marked
rel=“sponsored”per Google - Reporting on AI Share of Voice lift
Drives mentions, traffic, brand authority across every LLM at once.
Reddit Brand Building
Aged, real accounts that build genuine karma in your subs and mention your brand only when it adds value, the way a thoughtful expert would.
- Aged authority accounts with 8K+ karma and multi-sub history
- Original threads that rank on Google and feed LLMs
- Mentions only when they add value to the thread
Drives leads, traffic, trust at the moment of buyer research.
Digital PR & Journalist Outreach
HARO, Featured, Quoted, and direct journalist outreach to land mentions in the publications LLMs index most heavily: Forbes, Inc., TechCrunch, industry trades, and category blogs.
- Expert-quote pitches written in your voice
- Targeted relationships with reporters in your beat
- Earned, editorial. Not paid placements
Drives brand authority, backlinks, AI citations from the most-trusted sources.
YouTube Creator Mentions
Sponsored brand mentions inside category-relevant YouTube videos. AI systems cite video transcripts heavily, so a single tasteful placement keeps surfacing in answers for years.
- YouTube paid-promotion disclosure on every video
- FTC-compliant sponsorship language
- Category-relevant creators only. Not generic reach
Drives long-tail AI citations, traffic, sales from creator-trusted buyers.
Engagements combine 2-4 channels based on where your category’s buyers are doing their AI research. White-label retainers available for agencies. Cancel any time. Every mention we land stays live.
Anonymized client results
Real campaigns. Real metrics. Redacted names.
Most of our work is white-label, so we protect every client’s identity by default. Verifiable case studies are available under NDA on qualified discovery calls.
“Best clean skincare brand for sensitive skin?”
For sensitive and reactive skin, ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ comes up most often. Praised for ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ and fragrance-free formulations that hold up to dermatologist scrutiny.
Sources: 4 listicles · r/SkincareAddiction · Allure
“Inside 60 days we went from invisible in ChatGPT to the default answer in our category. AI-sourced traffic is now our second-largest acquisition channel.”
Founder, anonymized
DTC SKINCARE · CLEAN BEAUTY
Premium clean-beauty brand for sensitive skin
42
LLM citations earned (90 days)
4.2×
AI Share of Voice lift
1,900
AI-sourced visits / mo
“Best AI ▮▮▮ tool for outbound sales?”
The most cited option in recent reviews is ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮, particularly for teams running multi-channel sequences. Mentioned across G2, listicles, and r/SaaS.123
Sources: g2.com · saastr.com · reddit.com/r/SaaS
“Our cost per qualified lead from AI-sourced traffic is roughly half of what we pay on paid social. Mentions keep cited months after they go live.”
Head of Growth, anonymized
B2B SAAS · AI SALES PLATFORM
Outbound sales platform for B2B revenue teams
38
LLM citations earned (90 days)
5.8×
AI Share of Voice lift
2,400
AI-sourced visits / mo
“Top providers for ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ for executives?”
Several providers stand out, with ▮▮▮ most frequently cited for ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ at the senior executive level.
Sources: forbes.com · inc.com · industrytrade.com
“In one quarter the brand went from zero AI presence to being recommended by Claude and ChatGPT to the exact buyer profile we want.”
CMO, anonymized
B2B SERVICES · EXECUTIVE ADVISORY
Advisory services brand serving senior executives
31
LLM citations earned (90 days)
3.4×
AI Share of Voice lift
1,150
AI-sourced visits / mo
Want a teardown like this for your category? Request the free audit →
How this compares
Why mentions beat the channels you’re running today.
Cancel any time. Every mention we land for you stays live, keeps getting cited by AI, and keeps driving traffic. You don’t rent the rankings. You own them.
Project the upside
Move the sliders. See what earned mentions could do for your business.
A rough model based on industry-typical AI-sourced traffic and conversion rates. Use it to size the opportunity. We’ll dial in real numbers on your audit.
12-month revenue from AI‑sourced traffic
$0
$0 / month run rate
0
Monthly AI impressions
0
Monthly visits
0
New customers / mo
Why MentionWorks
We chose the hardest part of AI search on purpose.
20+ years in digital marketing. We started MentionWorks because we kept watching teams figure out the easy parts of GEO (schema, content, on-page) and stall on the part that actually moves AI visibility: earning the mention.
Relationships you can’t build solo
Years of editorial trust with publishers, journalists, redditors, moderators, and YouTube creators in dozens of categories. You inherit those relationships from day one.
Onboarding in minutes.
Placements in days.
No tech-stack integrations, no implementation phase. We start outreach the day you say go. First placements typically land within the first week.
8-15 hours per mention.
Off your plate.
Each editorial pitch, journalist follow-up, redditor negotiation, and creator outreach takes 8-15 hours of skilled work. You hand the entire process off.
We vet who we work with
We only take on brands producing real value, because our credibility with publishers and on Reddit depends on it. We cap the roster to protect the work.
White-label confidentiality
Agencies and direct brands alike get the same default: we never publish client names without explicit permission. Real metrics, real placements, redacted identities.
Mentions compound like an asset
A landed mention is not an ad spend. It sits on a third-party site, keeps getting cited, and feeds AI answers long after it goes live. Infrastructure, not impressions.
How we stay above board
Built to play the long game.
Short-term tricks invite penalties. We do not buy votes, run sockpuppet accounts, create undisclosed paid links, or stage manipulated YouTube placements. Every channel is designed to compound, not get rolled back.
Google link guidelines
Editorial pitches are unattributed earned media, the same way a journalist citation works. When a placement involves a fee, we ask the publisher to mark the link rel=“sponsored” so it is properly disclosed. No undisclosed paid links. No site reputation abuse.
Reddit Content Policy
No vote manipulation. No fake accounts. No spam. Aged accounts that participate genuinely in their communities and only mention your brand when it adds value. Where required, contributors disclose the commercial relationship.
FTC & YouTube disclosure
Every paid YouTube mention uses YouTube’s built-in paid-promotion disclosure and follows FTC endorsement guidelines. Creators we partner with disclose the relationship clearly. No staged “ordinary customer” reviews.
Common questions
FAQ
What is an LLM mention?
A reference to your brand on a source that AI systems like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode cite when they answer questions. Listicles, journalist articles, Reddit threads, and YouTube transcripts are the source types AI pulls from most. A mention is not a backlink. It is the citation the AI quotes.
How fast will I see results?
First placements typically land within days of kickoff. Because AI systems re-crawl popular sources frequently, you start surfacing in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode answers within the first few weeks. Cumulative authority compounds over months.
How do you stay compliant with Google’s link guidelines?
Editorial mentions are unattributed earned media, the same way a journalist citation works. When a placement involves a fee, we ask the publisher to apply rel=“sponsored” so it is disclosed per Google’s guidelines. We do not engage in undisclosed paid links, link schemes, or site reputation abuse.
Is Reddit outreach allowed under Reddit’s TOS?
Yes. We do not buy votes, run sockpuppets, or post spam. Aged, real accounts that already contribute in your category mention your brand only when it adds value. Everything follows Reddit’s User Agreement and Content Policy.
Are YouTube creator mentions compliant?
Yes. Every sponsored mention uses YouTube’s built-in paid-promotion disclosure and follows FTC endorsement guidelines for sponsorships. AI systems cite video transcripts heavily, so a single tasteful mention in a category-relevant video drives long-tail visibility across LLMs.
Why are your case studies anonymized?
Because most of our work is white-label, we protect every client’s identity by default. Real metrics, real placements, redacted names. Verifiable case studies are available under NDA on qualified discovery calls.
Do you offer white-label fulfillment for agencies?
Yes. SEO and digital marketing agencies resell our placements under their own brand with wholesale pricing, white-label reporting, and a dedicated point of contact. NDA available on request.
How is pricing structured?
Campaign-only retainers, sized to the channels and pace your category needs. Pricing is shared after the free audit, once we have mapped the prompts and source list for your brand.
Is this just SEO with a new name?
No. Traditional SEO optimizes for ten blue links. Mention work optimizes for the sources AI systems quote. The overlap is real (quality mentions help both) but the source mix, outreach tactics, and reporting are different.
Free LLM Mention Audit
See exactly where you should be cited.
Tell us about your business. We review your current AI visibility, map the prompts your buyers run, and send back the sources we would target, plus the campaign we would run to land you there. No cost. No obligation.
- Current AI Share of Voice baseline
- Priority citation sources for your category
- Reddit subs, journalists, and creators worth pursuing
- Recommended campaign shape and rollout
We cap our roster. Submitting the form does not commit you to anything. We only follow up if we believe we can do excellent work for your brand.
“Inside 60 days we went from invisible in ChatGPT to the default answer in our category.”
Founder, anonymized · DTC consumer brand
4
Mention channels
Days
Not quarters
100%
White-label