With the rise of AI platforms and zero-click search, brand visibility is increasingly shaped by what AI search surfaces and cites. Identifying where those citations come from and why, has become the focus for marketing and communication teams in 2026.
One of the core challenges facing brands when they attempt to measure LLM presence is that while they often have understanding of their owned contents’ presence across AI search, they have limited insight into how earned media wins translate to visibility. This gap matters because AI platforms overwhelmingly rely on third-party sources when generating responses.
In a recent study, Muck Rack found that more than 89% AI search citations came from earned media, underscoring the disproportionate role publishers, news outlets and third-party coverage play in shaping what AI search surfaces and cites. Yet, despite the brands’ massive share of voice coming from earned media, most brands lack a clear way to measure how offsite presence impacts AI visibility.
Stacker has partnered with Scrunch, a leading AI tracking and visibility platform, to close that gap and measure earned media impact at scale for the first time.
AI engines tend to cite answers from third-party coverage, often viewing it as more authoritative and trustworthy when compared to brand-owned content. Our partnership brings offsite AI search visibility tracking directly into the Stacker platform, providing brands a way to understand how earned media distribution translates into reach across AI search.
Functionally, this enables marketing teams investing in visibility to close the measurement gap and clearly see how visibility is showing up inside AI experiences across all channels.
Brands need a clear view into two things at the same time:
This partnership was made to connect those dots.
Stacker is the distribution engine. We help brands publish high quality editorial content and distribute them across our publisher network of over 3,000+ newsrooms, then track pickups and performance, helping brands compound their visibility and authority in the places that people already trust.
Scrunch provides AI search analytics, including monitoring prompts, brand mentions, and citations across AI experiences.
By integrating Scrunch into Stacker, we are creating a single place where customers can measure:
In other words, you will be able to understand how distribution turns into measurable authority, not just reach. Most importantly, they can use those insights to drive content strategy that impacts brand visibility across AI search.
This provides marketing teams with a more complete picture of their content ROI, equipping marketing and content teams with the tools needed to communicate their value and bring quality storytelling to new audiences.
As this rolls out, customers will be able to:
The result is a tighter feedback loop that teams can learn from and optimize. Here at Stacker, we are action-oriented, and our aim is to provide brands with data to make more informed decisions.
Earned visibility has become a direct input into discovery. Without a thoughtful earned media strategy, brands are missing out on critical opportunities to influence visibility in AI search and meet customers at the point of consideration.
This partnership is about helping brands build authority in the places AI already trusts, and finally giving teams the measurement layer they need to understand what's working.
If you are a Stacker customer, you will see this inside the product soon, with official rollout beginning in March 2026. As more features go live, we’ll provide updates about what’s included, how reporting works, and our best practices for using these insights to guide your strategy.
👉 And if you are not yet a Stacker customer and AI visibility is on your 2026 roadmap, let’s chat.
Tommy Gamba is the COO and a cofounder of Stacker. He’s spent his career building and scaling products at the intersection of media, marketplaces, and tech, with experiences at Airbnb, Amazon, HotelTonight (acquired by Airbnb), Graphiq (acquired by Amazon), Deloitte, and Google. An essential fixture of the Stacker team, Tommy resides in Florida with his family.
Photo Illustration by Stacker // Canva