In this email, you’re going to learn how Audience Research company Sparktoro dominates AEO without trying to optimize for AI or SEO.

The New Rules of AI Visibility:

  1. Perception beats keywords. How AI perceives your brand matters more than what keywords you target.

  2. Off-site beats on-site. Your podcast appearances, research citations, and guest posts matter more than your blog.

  3. POV beats optimization. Content with a strong point of view gets referenced. Generic content gets ignored.

  4. Data beats opinions. Original research attracts customers, influencers, and journalists who spread your message, and train AI models.

  5. Fame beats content volume. Stop writing more blog posts. Start building authority.

First, I wanted to get a feel for how Sparktoro fairs in AEO.  So, I used the AI visibility tool Traqer.ai to see how visible tehy are in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AIO.

Sparktoro's AEO visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AIO

As you can see, Sparktoro dominates bottom of the funnel prompts in both Perplexity and Google AIO.

But digging deeper, I wanted to see for myself whether or not they showed up in ChatGPT.

For the prompt “Best audience research tool”, they were the first listing (for me).

Chat GPT Audience Research Tools Prompt

And for the prompt, “I’m looking for an audience research tool for my SaaS business, any recommendations?”, they were the third listing.

ChatGPT Market and Competitor audience Research Prompt

So really, their brand is mentioned in all the major AI players for a variety of Audience Research Tool prompts.

Which makes sense.  Because when I asked ChatGPT what Sparktoro is known for, here’s what it said:

Note:  Do this right now.  Ask ChatGPT or Google or Perplexity what your company is best known for.  Is it what you want to be known for?

Considering they dominate in AI SEO, I asked Rand how much he thinks about AEO and SEO. Here was his response:

Rand Fishkin does not care about SEO

The cool part is this.  Even though they don’t think about SEO at all, They still get quite a bit of traffic to their highest converting pages: their home page and their main product page.

Sparktoro Ahrefs Brand Results

And their product page is number 2 for Audience Research Tools

Best Audience Research Tool

Sparktoro's AEO Visibility Plan

How Sparktoro dominates AEO is done in four ways:

  1. They create blog content that is relevant to their audience, educational, strong point of view, and fun.

  2. They Create YouTube videos

  3. Rand Fishkin, the founder, has a strong social media presence

  4. Rand goes where he audience already is (on podcasts and YouTube channels that marketers consume)

Let’s start with the blog posts.

Sparktoro Blog Content Breakdown

Here’s a list of the last 10 blog posts that Sparktoro created.  I’ll let you scan through and then share what I think.

Here are the last 10 blog posts from SparkToro 

  1. NEW Research: AIs are highly inconsistent when recommending brands or products; marketers should take care when tracking AI visibility (January 27, 2026)
  1. Vibes Meet Facts: Write Like the Smart Human You Are, Not the LLM Making Stuff Up Again (January 22, 2026)
  1. Starting today anyone can analyze any (describable) audience in SparkToro (January 19, 2026)
  1. How to Overcome the "Link in Comments" Problem on LinkedIn and Other Social Platforms (January 17, 2026)
  1. Where Agency Revenue Is Heading: Fewer Big Retainers, More Mid-Market Retainers, and Longer Engagements (January 7, 2026)
  1. The 5 Big Trends that Will Dominate Marketing in 2026 (January 6, 2026)
  1. Our Top 5 Blog Posts in 2025 to Help You With Your Marketing in 2026 (December 16, 2025)
  1. Your Next Launch Will Fail Without an Amplifier Strategy (December 15, 2025)
  1. Never Ask an AI Tool How It Came Up with That Answer (December 10, 2025)
  1. The Best Damn Food & Drink Gift Guide 2025 (December 8, 2025)

First, there blog posts feature a ton of original research.

Littered throughout their blog, you’ll see research charts and graphs much like this:

Unique Brands Mentioned in AI Tool Responses

Either they’ve done the research themselves, or like in this case, they partner with another company to create their own analysis.

In a world where everyone is regurgitating posts at the top of the SERPs, you literally can’t find content like this.  It’s completely one of a kind.

Second thing I want to point out is the URL structure. Normally, in a post like this, I create anchor text for the URL.  But in this case, I want you to look at the URL structure.  

Remember when I said Rand doesn’t think much about SEO?  Well, his URL structure is the antithesis of everything that an SEO believes to be true.

As you can see by the title of these posts, there’s no real keyword research going on here.  

Third thing is they’re having fun.  Why would they write a food and drink guide on a marketing tool website?  Because that’s who they are. That’s the kind of thing they care about. And it’s fun.

Sparktoro’s YouTube Strategy

According to an October 2025 article in Search Engine Land, YouTube dominates AI search citations.

By platform. Here’s a breakdown of YouTube’s performance across engines:

  • Google AI Overviews: 29.5% citation share, #1 domain, average rank position 6.3.
  • Google AI Mode: 16.6% share, #1 domain, average position 9.7.
  • Perplexity: 9.7% share, #5 domain, 4.8% weekly growth.
  • ChatGPT: 0.2% share, growing fast, average position 5.2.

Sparktoro started creating YouTube videos back in 2022 with a segment they call Office Hours.  

This is well before the time of AEO.  But they now get to reap the rewards of all that content created.

Sparktoro Office Hours

Perplexity, Gemini, ChatGPT are all multi-modal.  So not only can they read text to generate answers, they can also watch videos and listen to podcasts to provide answers as well.

Rand’s LinkedIn Strategy

Social media platforms like LinkedIn and Reddit are often cited by LLMs.

I was doing an analysis for one of my clients and under the topic Email Verification Software, a LinkedIn post was cited as one of the sources.

Linkedin AEO Mention

Rand has been active on social media for a long time.  His LinkedIn posts constantly garner tons of likes and comments.

Rand LinkedIn Post

A few observations on Rand’s posts:

  1. Rand does not post every single day.  At a cursory glance, it appears as though he posts 2-3 times a week.

  2. But, his posts are insanely insightful.  They’re not some regurgitated formulaic type post the Gurus will lead you to believe you should post.  

    He usually takes data that he’s produced on the Sparktoro blog, or that others have researched, and provides in depth analysis.  Again, you can’t get this type of insight or knowledge anywhere else.

  3. Rand doesn’t even have a premium LinkedIn account! Just a real dude, making real connections, creating amazing content.

Be Where Your Audience Is (And Where AI Learns)

One of the biggest reasons SparkToro dominates AEO is Rand shows up where his audience already hangs out.

In 2025 alone, I found him on at least 28 podcasts, most of which have YouTube channels.

And as you’ve already seen, YouTube is vitally important for AI visibility.

When Rand appears on a podcast that also has a YouTube channel, AI models get:

  • Long-form context - A 45-minute interview gives AI way more understanding than a 1,500-word blog post
  • Automatic transcription - YouTube creates searchable text AI can parse
  • Visual context - Video understanding for multimodal AI
  • Engagement signals - Views, comments, likes all signal authority
  • Host endorsement - When a podcast host introduces Rand as "the founder of SparkToro, the leading/best audience research tool" that's structured data about his authority AND what he wants Sparktoro to be known for.

Cross-Platform Amplification

When Rand appears on a podcast, that episode typically shows up in:

  • The podcast feed (Apple, Spotify, etc.)
  • YouTube (with full transcription)
  • The podcast's blog (with show notes and key quotes)
  • LinkedIn posts from the host
  • Newsletter mentions

That's 5+ touchpoints where AI models encounter Rand discussing audience research. Each one reinforces his authority.

Here are just three recent examples:

1. Up Arrow Podcast with William Harris (July 29, 2025)

Topic: AI search, attribution, and the death of traditional marketing metrics

2. Marketing Dribble Podcast with Rob Boyle and Jonny Kenyon (June 25, 2025)

Topic: The future of marketing and why audience research matters more than ever

3. Content Disrupted Podcast with Dan Baptiste (June 13, 2025)

Topic: Building brand influence in a zero-click world

Rand doesn’t do fluff interviews.  These are deep dives about various topics from AEO to audience research to zero click marketing.

Each one teaches AI models (and humans) that when someone asks about audience research, marketing attribution, or zero-click strategies, Rand Fishkin is the authority.

The Takeaway

While most B2B SaaS companies trying to "optimize content for AI," Rand is doing the work that actually builds citation-worthy authority:

He, and the Sparktoro team, are creating fame and sharing their point of view on their platform and other people’s platforms.

They’re spending their time increasing their general visibility, and in turn, that helps them dominate AEO.