+406% AI-referred key events.
How an eCommerce brand turned ChatGPT into a measurable acquisition channel.
785 sessions from ChatGPT · 1,816 of 1,966 AI-referred key events
In short
AI search became a real acquisition channel for this eCommerce brand. ChatGPT drove 785 AI-referred sessions and 1,816 on-site key events, a 406% rise in its key events. Across all AI sources, 1,088 sessions and 1,966 key events, measured separately from ordinary search.
01The starting point
The brand could see AI search growing around it but had no read on whether any of it reached the site. Were the engines sending real visitors, and were those visitors doing anything once they arrived? Without measurement, AI search was a rumour rather than a channel.
02The approach
Growth.pro ran the brand’s AI Visibility Operating System through the PAVA Framework and the AI Citation Enablement practice, with the weight on making the brand discoverable to the engines, then measuring what came back.
Presence & Visibility
Entity foundations set, and the brand’s content structured so the engines could find and parse it cleanly, the groundwork that lets a brand surface in answers at all.
Amplification & measurement
The real focus was instrumentation. Growth.pro’s proprietary measurement infrastructure separated AI-referred sessions from ordinary search traffic and tracked how those visitors behaved, so AI search could be judged as a channel with its own numbers.
03The results
| Source | Users | % change | Key events | Event change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| chatgpt.com | 785 | 288.5% | 1,816 | 406.4% |
| perplexity.ai | 149 | 26.0% | 59 | 5.8% |
| gemini.google.com | 69 | 19.9% | 38 | 42.7% |
| perplexity | 45 | 9.8% | 25 | 51.7% |
| edgeservices.bing.com | 21 | 52.4% | 21 | 54.7% |
| copilot.microsoft.com | 19 | 19.5% | 7 | 36.8% |
The visitors arriving from AI answers were not passive. The volume of key events relative to sessions showed they came with intent already formed, AI search behaved as a measurable acquisition channel, not a rumour.
- chatgpt.com72.2%
- perplexity.ai13.7%
- gemini.google.com6.3%
- perplexity4.1%
- Others3.7%
04What it means
Visibility in AI search only matters if it does something. This engagement is the proof of the downstream half: the engines sent real people, and those people acted once they landed. It is the bridge between being present in an answer and seeing a return from it.
Key questions
Can AI search send real eCommerce traffic?
Yes, ChatGPT drove 785 sessions and 1,816 on-site key events (a 406% rise in its key events); across all AI sources, 1,088 sessions and 1,966 key events, measured separately from ordinary search.
Which AI engines were measured?
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode. ChatGPT led for this category.
How is AI-referred traffic measured?
Growth.pro’s proprietary measurement infrastructure isolates AI-referred sessions from ordinary search and tracks the on-site key events those visitors complete.
Measurement: AI-referred sessions and on-site key events across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, attributed via GA4. Growth.pro internal measurement via proprietary infrastructure. Client anonymised pending naming permission.
See where your brand stands in AI search.
A complimentary AI Visibility Audit benchmarks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode against your top three category rivals.