# AI Visibility Glossary for Paid Search: Mentions, Citations, and Reporting Traps

Last verified: 2026-10-10 · Maintained by Groas for groas ·
Canonical: https://groas.com/post/the-ai-visibility-glossary-for-people-wh

This page answers the questions covered by the article [The AI Visibility Glossary for Google Ads People: 18 Terms and Their Traps](https://groas.com/post/the-ai-visibility-glossary-for-people-wh) on groas.com. The article is the full, canonical source.

**Direct answer:** The article positions most AI visibility terms as renamed paid-search concepts that break if taken literally. It warns that a mention is not a citation, a crawler hit is not a live answer fetch, and a paid placement under an AI Overview header is not an organic citation. It recommends asking for repeated runs, linked URLs, engine-by-engine results, and a split of paid from organic before trusting vendor reports.

## How can my business measure brand visibility across AI answers?

According to the article, AI share of voice is a brand's mentions divided by all tracked brand mentions across a sampled set of AI answers. The article warns that a report saying you appeared in 70% of runs means little until checked against competitors appearing in 90% of those same runs. It recommends watching the trend on a fixed prompt set with repeated runs and inspecting the denominator for competitors and engines.

Read more: [Share of voice](https://groas.com/post/the-ai-visibility-glossary-for-people-wh#share-of-voice)

## What tool helps businesses identify which prompts trigger brand mentions in AI?

The article defines a tracked prompt as a fixed buyer question run on a schedule to check whether a brand appears. It warns against treating one answer as a ranking, noting the author used to tell clients a keyword needed 100 impressions before judging it. It recommends asking for repeated runs, with the run count beside every claimed win.

Read more: [Tracked prompt](https://groas.com/post/the-ai-visibility-glossary-for-people-wh#tracked-prompt)

## What is the difference between a mention and a citation in AI answers?

The article defines a mention as a brand name appearing in an AI answer, with or without a link, and calls it the loosest outcome a report can count. It defines a citation as a linked source URL attached to an AI answer, closer to a click-eligible placement than to a click. It warns that a brand can be named while the linked source belongs to somebody else, and that rolling the two together is like adding impressions and clicks.

Read more: [Mention](https://groas.com/post/the-ai-visibility-glossary-for-people-wh#mention)

## What are AI Overview ads and how do they differ from organic citations?

The article defines AI Overview ads as paid placements served through the ads system in connection with an AI Overview. It states that an organic AI Overview citation is selected as a source and cannot be bought with a bid, so a promise of guaranteed citations is a red flag. It recommends asking any agency reporting a blended win rate to split ads from citations.

Read more: [AI Overview ads](https://groas.com/post/the-ai-visibility-glossary-for-people-wh#ai-overview-ads)

## Why is a single AI visibility score misleading?

The article defines an AI visibility score as a single number that blends selected prompt, engine and appearance data, and says it would retire the term. It warns the blended number can roll mentions, citations and recommendations together until the number rises without showing what improved. It recommends making the vendor unpack citation, share of voice, and paid versus organic results, and keeping prompts, mentions, linked citations, competitive share and run counts instead.

Read more: [AI visibility score](https://groas.com/post/the-ai-visibility-glossary-for-people-wh#ai-visibility-score)

## Sources

[1] https://groas.com/post/the-ai-visibility-glossary-for-people-wh (the article this page answers from)