Growth Notes · AI search
How to get ChatGPT to recommend your brand
Your next customer might not Google you. They'll ask ChatGPT, and it will hand them a shortlist of a few brands. Here's how to see if yours is on it, and what gets you there.
By Monica Hacker, fractional CMO · Updated September 30, 2026
Shoppers used to search.
Then they scrolled.
Now they ask.
For years, shopping started on Google. Then social took over discovery. Now more shoppers skip both and ask an AI assistant what to buy.
40 to 55%
of beauty, wellness and apparel shoppers already use AI to help decide what to buy.
By February 2026, Evertune found that 87% of product questions in ChatGPT opened a shopping card, up from 8% in October 2025. The shortlist is being built in a chat window. Most brands haven't looked at it yet.
Sources: McKinsey, Aug 2025 · Evertune, Feb 2026
It doesn't show ten links. It gives you a shortlist.
Google gives you a page of results. ChatGPT gives you an answer. An analysis of 20,000 ChatGPT shopping responses by Visibility Labs found it names roughly five products per answer.
If your brand isn't in that answer, you're not in the running. Here's a real example. I asked ChatGPT:
What's the best vitamin C serum for sensitive skin under $50?
ChatGPT
- Vanicream Vitamin C Serum$17.99 · Target
- CeraVe Vitamin C Serum$21.74 · Ulta Beauty
- Cetaphil Vitamin C Serum$18.19 · Ulta Beauty
- La Roche-Posay Vitamin C12$35.24 · Ulta Beauty
The biggest budget doesn't win the answer.
ChatGPT isn't reading your Meta ads and deciding you deserve a spot. It's reading what the internet says about you: Reddit threads, reviews, comparison articles and roundups.
21%
In a 2026 analysis of more than 2 million ChatGPT citations, Reddit was the most cited outside source, about 21% across the top 50 domains.
That's the opening for smaller brands. You don't need the biggest media budget. You need to be the brand people talk about.
Step one
Check where your brand stands
Ask like a customer
Log out of ChatGPT and ask what your customers actually ask: "best [category] for [problem] under $[price]." Logged out matters, because your own history skews the answer.
Count who gets named
It names roughly five brands per answer. Are you one of them? Run three or four real customer questions, not just one.
Ask what it says about you
"Is [your brand] worth it?" Then: "What do people complain about?" Whatever it says is what every shopper who asks hears.
Ran this and didn't see your brand? That's exactly what I fix.Or DM me "CHECK" on LinkedIn.
Book a call →Step two
Get into the answer
Show up where people talk
Reddit threads and roundups in your category. What sits at the top of those threads is what ChatGPT repeats.
Get reviews that say something
"Faded my dark spots in two weeks" beats five stars and "love it." Specific results give it something to quote.
Clean your product feed
Price, reviews and stock are what show up on the shopping card. A wrong price or an out-of-stock listing loses the sale at the final step.
Is ChatGPT recommending you,
or your competitor?
Let's find out.
I'll run real customer questions for your category through ChatGPT and show you who gets named, who doesn't, and what I'd fix first.
Book a call →Or DM me "CHECK" on LinkedIn.
Monica Hacker, fractional CMO. I've built growth for Stitch Fix, Huggies and Summer Fridays. Now I help DTC, beauty and wellness, and healthcare brands get named in AI answers.
Questions founders ask me
How does ChatGPT decide which brands to recommend?
It pulls from what people say about a brand across the web: Reddit threads, reviews, comparison articles and roundups. Reddit is the outside source it cites most. It doesn't rank brands by ad budget, so the most talked about brand often beats the biggest spender.
How many brands does ChatGPT recommend in a shopping answer?
Roughly five. An analysis of 20,000 ChatGPT shopping responses by Visibility Labs found an average of about five products per answer. If you're not one of them, that shopper never sees you.
How do I check if ChatGPT recommends my brand?
Log out of ChatGPT and ask the way a customer would: best [category] for [problem] under $[price]. Count which brands get named. Then ask "Is [your brand] worth it?" and "What do people complain about?" to hear how it describes you.
How do I get my brand recommended by ChatGPT?
Show up where people talk about your category, especially Reddit threads and roundup articles. Get reviews that describe specific results, not just star ratings. And keep your product feed clean, because price, reviews and stock are what appear on ChatGPT's shopping cards.
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
Not in the answer itself. ChatGPT runs ads, but the recommendations in the answer are earned from what people say about you. That's why a smaller brand with better word of mouth can get named ahead of a bigger one.
Who is this for?
DTC, beauty and wellness, and healthcare brands that are already spending on growth and want to know where they stand in AI search. Written by Monica Hacker, a fractional CMO who helps brands get recommended in ChatGPT and other AI answers.
Want to know if ChatGPT is naming you?
Book a call →