On this page
Every offer to sell your software a spot on such a page has to be reviewed: its page, its price and its terms, then a decision. On our assumption that takes a marketer and an assistant about 14% of their week: about $27,776 a year at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ mean pay for the two roles, with benefits.
Tech Roundups Sit Under Most ChatGPT Answers; the Established Titles Under Fewer Than One in Five
Any tech media roundup sat under 59.38% of ChatGPT's software answers and 23.38% of Google AI Mode's, and a software or service company's own roundup under 56.88% and 73.38%. The established publications alone sat under fewer than one answer in five on either engine.
Software Companies' Own Roundups Rival the Tech Media; the Established Titles Trail on Both Engines
% of answers
View the data
| Label | ChatGPT | Google AI Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Any tech media roundup | 59.38% | 23.38% |
| An established publication's roundup | 13.75% | 15.58% |
| A software company's own roundup | 56.88% | 73.38% |
| A review marketplace's list | 11.88% | 14.94% |
On broad questions they sat under about one ChatGPT answer in five. Add one condition to the question (a team size, a budget, a tool it has to connect to) and the established publications fall away: from 20.00% to 7.50% of ChatGPT's answers.
One Constraint in the Question Shrinks the Established Titles' Share on Both Engines
% of answers
View the data
| Label | Broad question | With one constraint |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT: any tech media roundup | 70.00% | 48.75% |
| ChatGPT: established publication | 20.00% | 7.50% |
| Google AI Mode: any tech media roundup | 29.11% | 17.33% |
| Google AI Mode: established publication | 20.25% | 10.67% |
Whether the Offered Page Is Read
A roundup cited once is often gone when the buyer asks again, so the rule the agents run is simple: check whether the offered page appears repeatedly in answers to your buyers' questions, and skip pages cited in only one week of the three months. The answers must be recorded day after day to know which pages return.
What a Paid Row Costs
What the Agents Do With Each Offer
The agents we build read each forwarded offer against the recorded answers and your placement register, the list of what you bought and when, put the price beside how often each engine cites the page and the weeks it appeared, and write a one-page recommendation (buy, ask for evidence or skip) with a draft reply.
If an offer arrives once a quarter, a person with a spreadsheet and the recorded answers handles it, and the agents are more than the job needs. They earn their place when the offers come weekly, across several categories.
The calculator prices that review for a software company of about 250 people: a marketer and an assistant opening each offer, checking the page and the terms and drafting the decision, about 14% of the week each. At about $99,200 a year each, the two roles’ mean pay with benefits, that is about $27,776 a year.
With the agents taking about 70% of it, at about $200 a month to run (model use for each offer, hosting and upkeep), it costs about $10,733, saving about $17,043 a year and 408 hours; $10,000 of build pays back in about 7 months. The share of the week, the share the agents take and the running cost are our assumptions, to replace with your own.
It counts only the review work: a placement the agents advise against is money not spent, and the calculator leaves that out.
Placement-Offer Review ROI Calculator
What Reviewing Each Paid-Placement Offer That Arrives (The Page, The Price, The Terms) And Drafting The Decision And The Reply Costs You, And What An Agent Saves
Saved Per Year
$17,043
408 hours handed back, after $2,400 a year to run it
- Hours Handed Back
- 408 hours a year
- Agent Running Cost (Estimate)
- $200 a month
- Payback Per $10,000 Of Build
- 7 months
On these numbers, the agent saves $17,043 a year after its own running cost, and every $10,000 of the build is earned back in 7 months.
What Stays With Your Budget Owner
Whoever owns the marketing budget signs any purchase and sends any reply. The agents never write to a seller, never buy and never pay for a review. What the agents may read and do is set in a written agreement, your data is processed where that agreement says, and every action the agents take is logged.
Forward Us the Last Three Offers
Forward the last three offers and the answers you have recorded. First the agents read them beside your recorded answers; they run within two weeks once access is in place.
Frequently asked questions
Does getting onto a famous publication's list get my software into ChatGPT's answers?
Not by itself. ChatGPT and Google AI Mode cite different roundups, and in our October research the established publications were a small part of what either engine cited, smaller still once the buyer added a condition. Check which pages each engine returns to before you pitch or pay.
Which tech media sites does ChatGPT cite when buyers ask about software?
Comparison sites far more than the famous titles: in our October research ChatGPT spread its tech media citations across many more publishers than Google AI Mode did, and many of them were sites with a short record on the web. So the pages worth an offer differ by engine.
Do AI answers cite software companies' own best-of pages?
Yes, often on both engines, and on Google AI Mode far more often than any tech media roundup in our October research. Weigh each paid offer against that: the answers already read pages that vendors publish themselves.
How do I tell which roundups are worth pitching?
Ask your buyers' questions repeatedly on both engines and keep the pages cited for the same question more than once. Many cited roundups are gone on the second asking, more of them on ChatGPT than on Google AI Mode.
Can a software company pay to get into these roundups?
On some sites. Some comparison sites sell positions, from sponsored rows to paid reviews; none of the established publications offered vendors a route onto the list. Paid rows are advertising and should be labeled.
Why would a comparison site leave our product off its list?
Some comparison sites rank only prices printed on the vendor's own page. A product sold only by quote can be left off the list or described as quote-only.
If a roundup is cited, does the AI answer name the products on it?
A citation identifies a source, but does not establish that the answer names your product. In our study of cited lists, answers citing only someone else's list named the company no more often than answers citing none.
Should we use one pitch list for both AI engines?
Keep a separate list for each engine because the publishers they cite differ: ChatGPT spread its tech media citations across many more publishers than Google AI Mode in our October research; a familiar publication alone is not a reason to prioritize it.
What should we collect before evaluating sponsored placements?
Keep recorded answers to your buyers' questions on both engines, including the pages cited, alongside a register of placements and their terms. Give the budget owner those records so each offer can be assessed against the same history.
Should AI agents buy a placement automatically?
No. The agents prepare a recommendation and a draft reply; the budget owner approves any purchase and sends the response. They reject pages with unlabeled paid rows and ask a person to open pages that do not permit automated reading.
When is a spreadsheet enough for reviewing offers?
If a placement offer arrives only once a quarter, a person can check it against the recorded answers in a spreadsheet. Agents become worth considering when offers arrive weekly across several software categories, each with its own cited pages.
How do we judge a placement after buying it?
Compare how often answers citing the purchased page name your brand over the two months before and after the placement. Keep that comparison in the register as an observation; it does not prove that paying for the row caused a change.
What should our pricing page show before we pitch comparison sites?
Check whether it prints a dollar amount for the plan your target buyer needs and makes the billing period clear. Some comparison sites use published prices to decide what to include, so the owner needs to settle that choice before the team pitches them.
