First, I wanted to get a feel for how Sparktoro fairs in AEO. So, I used the AI visibility tool Traqer.ai<\/a> to see how visible they are in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AIO.<\/p>\n As you can see, Sparktoro dominates bottom of the funnel prompts in both Perplexity and Google AIO.<\/p>\n They’re consistently the top 1 or 2 brand recommended for topics around “best audience research tool”.<\/p>\n But digging deeper, I wanted to see for myself whether or not they showed up in ChatGPT.<\/p>\n For the prompt \u201cBest audience research tool\u201d, they were the first listing (for me).<\/p>\n And for the prompt, \u201cI\u2019m looking for an audience research tool for my SaaS business, any recommendations?\u201d, they were the third listing.<\/p>\n So really, their brand is mentioned in all the major AI players for a variety of Audience Research Tool prompts.<\/p>\n Which makes sense. Because when I asked ChatGPT what Sparktoro is known for, here\u2019s what it said:<\/p>\n 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?<\/strong><\/p>\n Considering they dominate in AI SEO, I asked Rand how much he thinks about AEO and SEO. Here was his response:<\/p>\n The cool part is this. Even though they don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n And their product page is number 2 for Audience Research Tools<\/p>\n How Sparktoro dominates AEO is done in four ways:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with the blog posts.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a list of the last 10 blog posts that Sparktoro created. I\u2019ll let you scan through and then share what I think.<\/p>\n Here are the last 10 blog posts from SparkToro <\/p>\n First, there blog posts feature a ton of original research.<\/p>\n Littered throughout their blog, you\u2019ll see research charts and graphs much like this:<\/p>\n Either they\u2019ve done the research themselves, or like in this case, they partner with another company to create their own analysis.<\/p>\n In a world where everyone is regurgitating posts at the top of the SERPs, you literally can\u2019t find content like this. It\u2019s completely one of a kind.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t think much about SEO? Well, his URL structure is the antithesis of everything that an SEO believes to be true.<\/p>\n As you can see by the title of these posts, there\u2019s no real keyword research going on here. <\/p>\n Third thing is they\u2019re having fun. Why would they write a food and drink guide on a marketing tool website? Because that\u2019s who they are. That\u2019s the kind of thing they care about. And it\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n According to an October 2025 article in Search Engine Land<\/a>, YouTube dominates AI search citations.<\/p>\n By platform. Here\u2019s a breakdown of YouTube\u2019s performance across engines:<\/p>\n Sparktoro started creating YouTube videos back in 2022 with a segment they call Office Hours<\/a>. <\/p>\n This is well before the time of AEO. But they now get to reap the rewards of all that content created.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Social media platforms like LinkedIn and Reddit are often cited by LLMs.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Rand has been active on social media for a long time. His LinkedIn<\/a> posts<\/a> constantly garner tons of likes and comments.<\/p>\n A few observations on Rand\u2019s posts:<\/p>\n One of the biggest reasons SparkToro dominates AEO is Rand shows up where his audience already hangs out.<\/p>\n In 2025 alone, I found him on at least 28 podcasts, most of which have YouTube channels.<\/p>\n And as you\u2019ve already seen, YouTube is vitally important for AI visibility.<\/p>\n When Rand appears on a podcast that also has a YouTube channel, AI models get:<\/p>\n Cross-Platform Amplification<\/p>\n When Rand appears on a podcast, that episode typically shows up in:<\/p>\n That’s 5+ touchpoints where AI models encounter Rand discussing audience research. Each one reinforces his authority.<\/p>\n Here are just three recent examples:<\/p>\n 1. Up Arrow Podcast with William Harris (July 29, 2025)<\/p>\n Topic: AI search, attribution, and the death of traditional marketing metrics<\/p>\n 2. Marketing Dribble Podcast with Rob Boyle and Jonny Kenyon (June 25, 2025)<\/p>\n Topic: The future of marketing and why audience research matters more than ever<\/p>\n 3. Content Disrupted Podcast with Dan Baptiste (June 13, 2025)<\/p>\n Topic: Building brand influence in a zero-click world<\/p>\n Rand doesn\u2019t do fluff interviews. These are deep dives about various topics from AEO to audience research to zero click marketing.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n While most B2B SaaS companies trying to “optimize content for AI,” Rand is doing the work that actually builds citation-worthy authority:<\/p>\n He, and the Sparktoro team, are creating fame and sharing their point of view on their platform and other people\u2019s platforms.<\/p>\n They\u2019re spending their time increasing their general visibility, and in turn, that helps them dominate AEO.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this post, you\u2019re going to learn how Audience Research company Sparktoro dominates AEO without trying to optimize for AI or SEO. The New Rules of AI Visibility: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saas-seo","post_format-post-format-aside"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Sparktoro's](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sparktoro-AEO-Visibility.png\" "\\"Sparktoro")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Chat](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chat-GPT-Audience-Research-Tools-Prompt.png\" "\\"Chat")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"ChatGPT](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ChatGPT-Market-and-Competitor-audience-Research-Prompt.png\" "\\"ChatGPT")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ChatGPT-Brand-Question.png\" "\\"ChatGPT")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Rand](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Rand-Fishkin-does-not-care-about-SEO.png\" "\\"Rand")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Sparktoro](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sparktoro-Ahrefs-Brand-Results.png\" "\\"Sparktoro")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Best](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Best-Audience-Research-Tool.png\" "\\"Best")
<\/span><\/p>\nSparktoro’s AEO Visibility Plan<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Sparktoro Blog Content Breakdown<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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![\"Unique](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Unique-Brands-Mentioned-in-AI-Tool-Responses.png\" "\\"Unique")
<\/span><\/p>\nSparktoro\u2019s YouTube Strategy<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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![\"Sparktoro](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sparktoro-Office-Hours.png\" "\\"Sparktoro")
<\/span><\/p>\nRand\u2019s LinkedIn Strategy<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Linkedin](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Linkedin-AEO-Mention.png\" "\\"Linkedin")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Rand](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Rand-LinkedIn-Post.png\" "\\"Rand")
<\/span>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Rand-Linkedin-Post-2.png\" "\\"Rand")
<\/span><\/p>\n\n
Be Where Your Audience Is (And Where AI Learns)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/contentguppy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Rand-Podcast-Guest-Appearances.png\" "\\"Rand")
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The Takeaway<\/strong><\/h2>\n