Key points
- Semrush published a guide to tracking brand visibility in Google's Gemini app, using Asana as the worked example, with manual and tool-based workflows.
- Semrush's Ghost Citations study found Gemini mentions brands in 83.7% of appearances but cites them in 21.4%. ChatGPT cites in 87% and mentions in 20.7%.
- In Semrush's test of 20 buyer prompts, Gemini mentioned Asana in 14 answers but cited asana.com in only one.
- The AI Visibility Toolkit adds Gemini filters, with daily data in Visibility Overview and Prompt Tracking, and weekly data in Brand Performance.
Why it matters for marketers: If Gemini names brands far more than it links them, referral traffic and citation counts understate its influence, so teams need mention-based tracking and competitor benchmarks.
Semrush published a how-to guide on tracking brand visibility in Google's Gemini app. It argues that Gemini behaves differently from ChatGPT: it names brands in most of their appearances but links to them in far fewer. Citing its Ghost Citations study, Semrush puts Gemini's mention rate at 83.7% and its citation rate at 21.4%, the reverse of ChatGPT's pattern.
The guide uses Asana as a running example. In Semrush's own test of 20 buyer prompts, Gemini mentioned Asana in 14 answers but cited asana.com once. Semrush also notes that Gemini cited The Digital Project Manager in six answers, more than any brand's own site, and that it answered all five educational prompts without naming Asana.
For marketers, the takeaway is about measurement. A buyer who sees your name in a Gemini answer may later search for you or type your URL, which shows up as branded or direct traffic, not a Gemini referral. Judging the channel by referrals alone can hide both your reach and the answers where competitors are recommended instead.
Semrush describes a manual baseline: 20 to 50 realistic prompts, each run in a fresh chat with a consistent setup, logged in a spreadsheet. It then shows how its AI Visibility Toolkit scales that work with Gemini filters, topic and source opportunity reports, and Share of Voice benchmarking. Teams should note this is a vendor guide promoting its own product.
A practical next step is to run a small prompt set across funnel stages and compare mentions with citations. Then check which third-party sources Gemini leans on in your category, since those may be the better targets for outreach and content updates.
Sources
This brief is our own summary. Read the full reporting at the source.
