How to measure whether AI-search visibility produces actual property inquiries
AI search inflates impressions and hides clicks. Kirill Samarits shows how to measure whether ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews visibility turns into property inquiries, with Pew, Google and first-party data.
To measure whether AI-search visibility produces property inquiries, track four things together: how often your company is named across a fixed set of buyer questions, visits from AI assistants in analytics, inquiries that mention AI in a "how did you hear about us" field, and the ratio of search impressions to clicks on long, question-style queries. No single tool shows the whole picture. AI answers create a lot of visibility that never becomes a click, so impressions alone will flatter you and clicks alone will undersell you.
I'm Kirill Samarits, Founder & CEO of TERAMOK and founder of BUY GREECE. Both companies now appear in AI answers for real estate searches, so we've had to work out what that visibility is actually worth. Here's the method, and the first-party data behind it.
Why AI search breaks normal reporting
Figure 1. Clicks on Google results with and without an AI summary. Source: Pew Research Center, July 2025.
Google's AI Overviews had over 2.5 billion monthly users by May 2026, and AI Mode passed 1 billion, according to Google. When an AI summary appears, people click less. Pew Research Center tracked 68,879 real Google searches by 900 US adults: users clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits with an AI summary, against 15% without one, and clicked a link inside the summary in just 1% of visits.
So your company can be recommended in an answer that thousands of buyers read, and your analytics will show almost nothing.
The fingerprint of AI search in your own data
Figure 2. BUY GREECE top 1,000 queries, 27 March to 26 September 2026. Source: BUY GREECE Google Search Console.
Here is something I haven't seen published elsewhere. On BUY GREECE, queries of eight words or more took 54% of all impressions in the top 1,000 queries over six months. They ranked well, at an average position of 4.1, yet their click-through rate was 0.03%. Short queries of four words or fewer took only 18% of impressions but earned a 1.85% click-through rate, sixty times higher.
The long queries don't read like people. They read like machines: "greece law 5100/2024 golden visa thresholds €800000 €400000 single property official", or "airbnb booking.com greece long term rental over 60 days legal compliance". The largest of them generated around 12,000 impressions each, with no clicks. My reading is that AI systems search the web on a user's behalf, often several times per question, and those machine searches show up in Search Console as impressions. Google doesn't label them, so treat this as an interpretation of the pattern, not a confirmed mechanism. But if you see the same pattern in your data, you're very likely being read by AI systems.
Visibility can rise fast
Figure 3. teramok.us monthly Google impressions. Source: TERAMOK Google Search Console (September 2026 covers 1 to 26 September).
teramok.us went from 957 Google impressions in April 2026 to 33,414 in September, about 35 times more. Over the same period TERAMOK began appearing as a leading recommendation in recorded Google, Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude searches for real estate development marketing in Chicago, Miami and New York, as documented in our case study. Clicks grew too, from 9 to 134 a month, but far more slowly than impressions. That gap is the AI-search effect, and it's why clicks alone can't tell you whether this is working.
A measurement system that works
Signal | How to measure it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
AI mentions | Run the same 20 to 40 buyer questions monthly in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews. Record whether you're named, where, and how accurately. | Share of voice where buyers ask |
AI assistant visits | In Google Analytics 4, the default AI Assistant channel (added in 2026) groups referrals from ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and others. It excludes AI Overviews and AI Mode, which stay in Organic Search. | Buyers who clicked through from an assistant |
Self-reported source | Add "ChatGPT or another AI assistant" as an option in "How did you hear about us?" on every form and in sales call notes. | Inquiries that started in AI but arrived by typing your name |
Branded search | Track searches for your company and project names in Search Console. | Buyers who saw you in an answer and searched you later |
Long-query impressions | Filter Search Console for queries of 8+ words and watch impressions against clicks. | Whether AI systems are reading your pages |
Inquiries and reservations | Tag every inquiry by source in the CRM and follow it to reservation. | Whether any of the above is worth money |
Table 1. The AI-search measurement stack TERAMOK uses.
Expect small traffic and better visitors
AI referrals are still small. Similarweb's analysis across industries describes them as a low single-digit percentage of most sites' total traffic. But the visitors can be valuable. Adobe's data, reported by Digital Commerce 360, showed AI-referred visitors to US retail sites converting 54% better than visitors from other sources in May 2026. On its own site, Ahrefs found that 0.5% of visits came from AI search but produced 12.1% of signups. These are retail and software examples rather than real estate, and each has limits, but the pattern is consistent: fewer visitors, further along in their decision.
Some AI visits are also invisible. In-app browsers and copied links often strip the referrer, so a buyer who found you in ChatGPT can appear as direct traffic. That's why the self-reported source question matters so much.
What to do next
Write your question set. 20 to 40 questions a buyer would really ask, by project type, city and stage.
Take a baseline. Run them across the main assistants and record the answers with dates and screenshots.
Turn on the AI Assistant channel in GA4 and add AI as a source option on every form.
Segment Search Console by query length and branded terms.
Report monthly on mentions, accuracy, AI visits, AI-sourced inquiries and reservations, in that order.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my company appears in ChatGPT answers?
Test it. Write 20 to 40 questions your buyers would ask, run them in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews each month, and record whether you're named, where in the answer, and whether the description is accurate.
Why are my impressions up but clicks flat?
Often because of AI search. Pew found users click a result in 8% of Google visits with an AI summary, against 15% without. On BUY GREECE, queries of 8+ words took 54% of impressions but had a 0.03% click-through rate, a pattern consistent with AI systems searching on users' behalf.
Can Google Analytics track ChatGPT traffic?
Yes. GA4's default AI Assistant channel groups referrals from assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. It excludes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, which remain in Organic Search, and some AI visits appear as direct traffic because the referrer is stripped.
Do visitors from AI search convert better?
Evidence so far suggests they can. Adobe reported AI-referred retail visitors converting 54% better than other traffic in May 2026, and Ahrefs found 0.5% of its visits from AI search produced 12.1% of signups. There isn't yet published real estate data at that scale.
Sources
Pew Research Center, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results, July 22, 2025.
Google, Sundar Pichai at I/O 2026 (AI Overviews and AI Mode users).
Google Analytics Help, Default channel group and What's new in Google Analytics.
Digital Commerce 360, Adobe: AI-referred traffic to retail sites doubles in a year, June 2026.
Ahrefs, AI search traffic conversions, June 2025.
Similarweb, AI referral traffic by industry.
BUY GREECE and TERAMOK Google Search Console, first-party data. BUY GREECE and TERAMOK are Kirill Samarits' own companies.
Kirill Samarits is a real estate marketing executive and entrepreneur based in Chicago and Athens, Founder & CEO of TERAMOK and founder of BUY GREECE and FOS AI. More about Kirill · AI search consultant