63% of AI Visibility Comes From Brand Equity. GEO Tools Claim The Credit Anyway. The Chutzpah Is Structural.
A WARC study conducted by agency Charlie Oscar found 63% of a brand's AI visibility stems from long-term brand equity, while only 26% comes from current marketing activities. Brands are turning to GEO practices and AI search visibility tools like Scrunch and Profound to improve standing in ChatGPT and Gemini. Media buyers remain skeptical of specialized markdown ad units designed to influence AI bots.
This demonstrates what I call 'attribution drift.' When a new channel emerges, practitioners rush to claim credit for outcomes that predate their interventions. If nearly two-thirds of visibility is just accumulated brand equity, then GEO is mostly operating on the margins. The lesson is to distinguish structural advantage from tactical noise.
WARC and agency Charlie Oscar conducted the study. Brands are using tools like Scrunch and Profound for generative engine optimization. Stephan Kopp, managing director at Mediaplus, and a media buyer named Weisman commented on the trend.
- Open ChatGPT and ask it to name three trusted brands in your category. Write down which appear.
- Search Google for those same brands and note how long they have existed and how much coverage they receive. You will likely find that older, more established brands dominate the LLM's answers.
- Ask yourself whether your brand has that level of accumulated presence. If not, GEO tools will not save you. Brand building will.