Datadog AEO Citation Intelligence Dashboard

AI Platform Visibility Analysis for Observability & Monitoring

25 Queries × 4 AI Platforms = 100 LLM Prompts Tested | November 14, 2024

What This Analysis Measures

Citations are the sources AI platforms reference when answering questions - they indicate which brands and websites AI considers authoritative and trustworthy.
When someone asks AI for recommendations, the brands that get cited are the ones that appear in the response - this is the new frontier for brand visibility.
This serves as a powerful PR measurement tool by tracking which media outlets and owned content successfully influence AI recommendations.
Unbranded queries (no brand names mentioned) reveal true organic discovery - when users search generically, does your brand naturally appear?
Think of this as SEO for AI - instead of ranking in Google search results, brands now need to be cited by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini.

🚨 Major PR & Analyst Relations Opportunity

📰 Press/Media Citations

0.88%

Only 7 of 798 total citations come from press/media sources (TheNewStack, Forbes, InfoWorld, TechTarget).

This represents a significant gap for the Datadog PR team - media coverage is barely influencing AI recommendations.

Compare to: New Relic's official site alone receives 5.26% of all citations (42 of 798). That means the top competitor's documentation is cited 6× more often than all press/media coverage combined.

📊 Analyst Firm Citations

1.13%

Only 9 of 798 total citations come from analyst firms (Gartner only - no Forrester, IDC, or others appearing).

This represents a major opportunity for the Datadog AR team - analyst content has minimal AI influence currently.

Compare to: The average top-3 competitor official site receives 4.60% of all citations. That means competitor documentation is cited 4× more often than all analyst coverage combined.

Bottom Line: AI platforms overwhelmingly prefer vendor documentation over traditional earned media channels. Combined press/media (0.88%) and analyst (1.13%) citations account for just 2.01% of all sources. Meanwhile, vendor official sites (Datadog + competitors combined) capture 50.63% of all citations. This reveals an untapped opportunity: if press and analyst coverage can be increased and optimized for AI discoverability, there's significant white space to influence AI recommendations through earned media.

Competitive Share of Voice in Unbranded Queries

How often each brand appears when users DON'T mention specific brand names (60 unbranded tests)

Citation Source Distribution

Where AI platforms find information about observability tools (798 total citations)

Key Finding: Press/Media (0.88%) and Analyst Firms (1.13%) together account for just 2.01% of all citations. AI platforms overwhelmingly prefer vendor documentation and OSS project sites over traditional earned media channels. The "Other" category has been broken out to show emerging vendors (10.28%), CNCF/OSS projects (5.76%), and cloud provider documentation (7.89%).

Query Category Performance Matrix

Performance breakdown by query intent category

Category	Tests Run	Datadog Mentioned	Win Rate	Top Competitor	Key Insight

Top Citations by Domain Type

Most frequently cited sources across all AI responses

Key Insight: Datadog's official domains (datadoghq.com, docs.datadoghq.com) lead with 192 total citations, demonstrating strong brand authority. Note the extremely low volume of press/media (7 citations) and analyst reports (9 citations) compared to competitor official sites (245 citations) - these represent major PR/AR opportunities.

Rank	Domain	Citations	% of Total	AI Platforms Using

Rank	Domain	Citations	% of Total	AI Platforms Using

Note: These are smaller/emerging observability vendors not in the primary competitor set

Rank	Domain	Citations	% of Total	AI Platforms Using

Note: CNCF projects and open-source observability tools

Rank	Domain	Citations	% of Total	AI Platforms Using

⚠️ PR Team Opportunity: Only 7 press/media citations out of 798 total (0.88%). New Relic's official site alone (42 citations, 5.26%) is cited 6× more often than all press/media coverage combined.

Rank	Domain	Citations	% of Total	Publication Type

⚠️ AR Team Opportunity: Only 9 analyst citations out of 798 total (1.13%). All from Gartner - no Forrester, IDC, or other analyst coverage appearing. Average top-3 competitor official site (36.7 citations, 4.60%) is cited 4× more than all analyst firms combined.

Rank	Domain	Citations	% of Total	Firm Type

Rank	Domain	Citations	% of Total	AI Platforms Using

Rank	Domain	Citations	% of Total	AI Platforms Using

Rank	Domain	Citations	% of Total	AI Platforms Using

Citation Matrix Strategic Insights

Owned Content Dominates: Brand official sites (Datadog + competitors) account for 50.63% of all citations - AI platforms strongly prefer vendor documentation over third-party sources
Emerging Vendor Noise: Smaller competitors (SigNoz, BetterStack, etc.) collectively get 10.28% of citations, creating competitive clutter
OSS Foundation: CNCF/OSS projects (OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, etc.) receive 5.76% of citations - strong technical authority signals
Critical Gap - Earned Media: Press/media (0.88%) and analysts (1.13%) combined = only 2.01% of citations. Traditional PR/AR channels have minimal AI influence
Review Platform Weakness: Only 1.00% from G2/Capterra/TrustRadius - enterprise buyer validation sources underrepresented

Strategic Recommendations

Interactive Query Appendix

Sample of 100 individual query tests with filters

Showing all tests

Query	Category	Platform	Datadog	Featured	Sample Citations