Buyer criteria analysis shows how AI models evaluate your brand across the factors that influence purchase decisions. It reveals where you lead, where competitors outperform you, and which topics most influence how your brand is recommended in AI-generated answers.
Where do I find it?
You can open Buyer criteria analysis in two ways:
- From the left sidebar of your Visibility Audit (formerly known as a report), click "Buyer criteria analysis" in the Monitor section.
- From your Audit Dashboard, go to the Brand reach section and click the "View buyer criteria analysis" button on the Topic visibility card.
What will I see?
At the top of the page, a highlighted alert tells you if any competitors outrank you in the topics where competitors are mentioned. This is a quick signal for where competitive pressure is highest.
Below that, a Topics table shows your visibility score, competitive rank, and wins/losses for each topic tracked in your Visibility Audit. You can view this data in three ways:
- List shows your rank and win/loss record across each topic, with the option to expand any topic to see which prompts are included and how competitors stack up in that specific area.
- Radar displays a visual comparison of your brand against each competitor across all topics at once, making it easy to spot patterns in where you consistently win or lose.
- Heatmap gives you a side-by-side percentage comparison across all topics and all tracked competitors in a single table, so you can quickly identify which combinations need the most attention.
For more on how wins, ties, and losses are calculated, see our article on how wins, ties, and losses work in Buyer criteria analysis.
How do I use it?
Use Buyer criteria analysis to prioritize your content and messaging strategy. Topics where you rank 3rd or lower, or where a competitor consistently outranks you, are the best candidates for targeted optimization. The prompt examples inside each expanded topic show the specific questions AI is answering in that area, giving you a direct starting point for content improvements.
If a competitor appears in the top alert, focus first on the topics where their advantage is widest. Small visibility gaps in high-volume topics have an outsized effect on how often your brand gets recommended.