All definitions reflect the exact meaning of these terms within Mentova. Each term links to relevant docs where applicable.

A

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)

A content strategy focused on making your brand the recommended answer to questions asked to AI assistants and answer engines like Perplexity. AEO overlaps with GEO but focuses specifically on question-answer formats where the user expects a direct answer rather than a list of links.

AI Overviews

AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google Search results pages, powered by Google Gemini. AI Overviews synthesize information from multiple web pages and display a direct answer before traditional blue links. Appearing in AI Overviews is a strong AI visibility signal on Google Search.

Avatar / Persona

A simulated user profile injected into AI prompts during a campaign to test how different audience segments influence brand recommendations. In Mentova, three preset avatars are available from the Starter plan (e.g., Alex, 25-year-old product manager); PRO_PLUS and above can create custom avatars. See Avatars.

C

Campaign

A scheduled or manual execution of a set of prompts across selected AI models to measure brand visibility at a given point in time. A campaign consumes credits proportionally to the number of prompts and the slot cost of the selected models. See Launch a Campaign.

Citation

A reference to a specific web source provided by an AI model alongside its response. Perplexity and Bing Copilot regularly cite sources. Being cited by an AI model drives direct referral traffic and is a strong AI visibility signal. See Citations.

Credit

The consumption unit allocated monthly by your Mentova plan. Credits are spent when you launch a campaign. Campaign cost is calculated as: number of prompts × sum of slots for all selected models. Bonus credits can be purchased separately and never reset. See Credits & Slots.

G

Gap

A topic or context in which your brand does not appear in AI responses while competitors are mentioned. Gaps are automatically detected by Mentova's opportunity analysis engine and represent concrete GEO improvement levers.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

The practice of optimizing content and online presence to appear in AI-generated responses. GEO is the evolution of SEO focused on being mentioned or recommended by large language models (LLMs) rather than ranked in traditional search results.

H

Head-to-Head

A comparative view in Mentova that places your brand against a specific competitor, prompt by prompt, to analyze where each brand is mentioned, ignored, or preferred by AI models. Accessible from the Competitors page.

L

LLM (Large Language Model)

An AI model trained on large amounts of text data to understand and generate human language. Examples include ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), and Mistral. LLMs are the technology behind AI assistants and chatbots. Mentova queries 50+ LLMs via OpenRouter.

llms.txt

A proposed standard file (analogous to robots.txt) that websites place at their root to help LLMs understand their content structure. It provides a concise summary of the site's purpose, key pages, and permissions for AI crawling and training.

M

Mention Rate

The percentage of AI prompts in which a specific brand is mentioned at least once. A mention rate of 40% means the brand was cited in 40 out of 100 prompts sent to an AI model on a given topic. See Mention Rate.

Model

An AI system capable of generating text in response to a prompt. In Mentova, the registry contains 57 models accessible via OpenRouter (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Mistral, Llama, etc.). Each model belongs to a class (free, cheap, production) and costs 1 or 3 slots per prompt. See Models.

Model Class

The quality and cost tier of an AI model: free, cheap, or production. Production-class models (GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet, Gemini Pro) cost 3 slots per prompt; standard models cost 1 slot. See Models.

O

Opportunity

A concrete GEO action identified by Mentova from visibility gaps detected in campaign results. Each opportunity includes a suggested content type, a target source, and a priority score. See Opportunities.

P

Prompt

A text input sent to an AI model to elicit a response. In AI visibility tracking, prompts are carefully crafted questions or requests that simulate how real users ask AI about brands, products, and categories. A topic contains multiple prompts.

R

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

A technique where an AI model retrieves relevant information from an external knowledge base before generating a response. RAG allows AI models to access up-to-date information beyond their training cutoff and is used by Perplexity and Bing Copilot.

S

Sentiment

The qualitative tone of a brand mention in an AI response: positive, neutral, or negative. Sentiment indicates whether the model recommends, factually cites, or expresses reservations about the brand. See Sentiment.

A read-only, token-protected URL that lets you share your brand's KPIs, charts, and competitor data with external stakeholders without giving them access to the dashboard. Available on PRO plans and above. See Sharing.

AI Share of Voice (AI SoV)

The percentage of AI-generated brand mentions that belong to your brand compared to all tracked competitors. If 5 brands are mentioned across 100 AI responses and yours appears 30 times, your AI SoV is 30%. See Share of Voice.

Slot

The cost multiplier associated with an AI model. Premium models (GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet, Gemini Pro) cost 3 slots; standard models cost 1 slot. The credit cost of a prompt equals the sum of slots across all selected models. See Credits & Slots.

Source

A web page, forum, article, or platform cited by an AI model in its responses. In Mentova, the Sources page lists sources mentioning your brand along with an influence score estimating their weight in AI outputs. See Sources.

T

Topic

A set of thematic prompts grouped around a market segment, use case, or product category. In Mentova, each topic is attached to a brand and contains the prompts used during campaigns to measure visibility in that specific context.

Training Data

The text corpus used to train an AI language model. LLMs learn brand associations, facts, and recommendations from their training data. Brands that appear frequently in high-quality training data sources tend to have better AI visibility.

W

White-Label

A Mentova feature (Agency plan) that lets you replace the Mentova logo and branding with your agency's own branding on shared pages and exports. See White-Label.