AI Search Engines Favor Product Content, Dismissing Blogs and PR Materials, New Study Reveals

According to a new study of 768,000 citations on AI search engines conducted by XFunnel, product-related content dominates and makes up 46-70% of all sources on references by AI. This shows that AI platforms prefer content that references products like product comparisons, product specs, and product lists. The type of content that doesn't get cited often on AI search engines is blog content (3-6%), affiliate content (about 10%), PR materials (less than 2%), and news and research articles (5-16%).

AI platforms also cite content types according to the stage of buyers. In the unbranded top-of-the-funnel stage, product content was led at 56%, with 13-15% being news and research. The next stage is the unbranded middle of the funnel stage with product citations dropping to 46%, with 14% of reviews and affiliate content. The bottom of the funnel is where product content peaks at 70%, while all other content types are below 10%.

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The study also found that there are big differences between the queries of consumers and buyers. 56% of the citations on B2B queries are for product pages, followed by 13% of affiliate content and 11% of user reviews. There was more variety seen in B2C queries, with 35% of citations being product content, followed by 18% of affiliate content, 15% of user reviews, and news each.

Charts: xFunnel.

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