Why referral traffic is the wrong metric, and what to measure instead

AI assistants now answer the questions your customers used to type into Google. Most of those answers never send a click. So referral traffic tells you almost nothing about whether AI is recommending you. Mike and Andy will show you the metrics that do.

WhenTuesday 17 November · 3pm London / 10am New York

Length45 minutes, including live Q&A

WhereOnline · Free

Mike Logue & Andy Francos

Co-Founders, Obsero

AI recommended you. Your analytics saw nothing.

When ChatGPT, Gemini or Google AI Overviews recommend your brand, most people don't click through. They take the answer, then search your name, visit directly or buy later. None of that is logged as AI referral traffic.

So teams see a sliver of sessions, conclude AI search can wait, and miss the channel where the decision is now being made.

12%of AI Answers include an outbound link. If there's no link then a click isn't even a possibility Obsero Research of 10,000,000 AI Answers

What's the best savings account for someone new to investing?

Here are three strong options for beginners:

1.Your brand is the most recommended for low fees and an easy app.

2.Competitor A offers a higher rate with a minimum deposit.

3.Competitor B suits people who want ISA options.

RecommendedYes, ranked first

Referral sessions0

What you'll learn

Why referral traffic undercounts AI's real influence

Zero-click answers, dark attribution and the gap between being recommended and being visited.

The four metrics that actually track AI search

How to measure visibility, prominence, sentiment and citations, and benchmark them against competitors.

How to report AI search to your leadership team

Connect AI visibility to branded search, direct traffic and revenue in a report people act on.

VisibilityHow often AI mentions you across the prompts that matter

ProminenceWhere you appear in the answer: first pick or footnote

SentimentHow AI frames your brand when it does mention you

CitationsWhich sources AI trusts when it forms its answer

Your hosts

Mike and Andy met at IG Group in 2018. Watching AI assistants start answering the questions customers used to type into Google, they built Obsero.

Mike Logue

Co-Founder & CEO, Obsero

A statistician and accountant by training, Mike led global performance marketing at IG Group, managing a £50m media budget. He was then VP Growth at FinTech unicorn tastytrade in Chicago.

LinkedIn ↗

Andy Francos

Co-Founder & CPO, Obsero

A career SEO, Andy led the P&G account at Starcom and generated £252m in organic revenue for Cazoo in three years as its founding Head of Organic. At IG Group he ran a 20-strong team behind a £3m annual SEO investment.

LinkedIn ↗

See you there

Why referral traffic is the wrong metric for AI search

Tuesday 17 November · 3pm London / 10am New York · Free