Saw something this week that I can’t stop thinking about.
A new signup fills in “How did you hear about us?” and types: ChatGPT.
The tracking data on that same signup says Google. Paid ad, Brand search.
Both are true, ChatGPT made the recommendation, the buyer then googled the name, clicked the first thing they saw, and signed up. Last-click attribution gave Google all the credit and ChatGPT got nowt.
That’s the bit that worries me for a lot of businesses. The research is happening in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, where no pixel or UTM can follow. By the time someone lands on your site, they’ve already shortlisted you. So your report tells a tidy story:;Google Ads and organic doing all the work, AI contributing nothing.
Make budget decisions off that report and you could end up cutting the very thing that started the conversation.
AI isn’t usually the last click. It’s the shortlist.
A few things worth doing about it:
Ask “How did you hear about us?” on your enquiry forms.
Keep an eye on branded search. If it’s climbing and you can’t explain why, AI is a decent suspect.
Measure AI visibility directly by picking the questions your buyers would actually ask and check whether you show up in the answer, month on month.
And stop judging AI by last-click numbers. It’ll lose that fight every time, even when it’s doing the heavy lifting.
Anyone else starting to see “ChatGPT” turn up in their how-did-you-hear answers?
