Next steps · No. 02 / 11
What can you check before buying another tool?
Last updated
Inspect the platform reporting already available to your team. The measurement landscape has changed during 2026; a proposal built around older reporting limitations deserves another look.
| Existing evidence | What the current documentation supports | How to use it in the buying decision |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console: Generative AI performance report | Google announced dedicated reporting on 3 June 2026 and says the insights reached websites worldwide by 31 August 2026. The report provides impressions and page, country, device and date views for supported Google AI features; Google notes that insufficient impressions can explain a missing report. | Establish which owned pages receive Google AI exposure. Do not mistake page impressions for evidence that your company was recommended. (developers.google.com) |
| Bing Webmaster Tools: AI Performance | Microsoft documents citation activity, cited pages and grounding queries across supported experiences. Its documentation cautions that the data does not reveal individual answers or establish why a change occurred. | Identify cited pages and investigation priorities, while retaining a separate answer-level benchmark. (bing.com) |
| Google Analytics 4 | Google introduced an AI Assistant channel on 13 May 2026. Current channel documentation excludes Google AI Overviews and AI Mode from that channel and includes their non-ad traffic within Organic Search. | Inspect recognised assistant visits and associated key events, but do not label all organic traffic—or all missing referral traffic—as AI-driven. (support.google.com) |
Our inference: these sources can reduce unnecessary monitoring expenditure, but they do not replace a buyer-specific competitive recommendation test. Each reports a different part of the journey.
Sources cited on this page
- developers.google.com developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/06/gen-ai-performance-reports
- bing.com www.bing.com/webmasters/help/ai-performance-9f8e7d6c?utm_source=openai
- support.google.com support.google.com/analytics/answer/9164320