"What is email marketing?" vs "What's the best email marketing tool for freelancers?"
Both are questions. Only one is from someone ready to pull out their credit card.
What makes a prompt "purchase intent"
A purchase intent prompt is a question asked to an AI tool that signals the person is actively looking to buy, hire, or use something. They're past the "learning about concepts" phase. They're in the "help me decide" phase.
These prompts typically include:
- "Best [product] for [situation]"
- "Which [service] should I use"
- "Compare [option A] vs [option B]"
- "[Product category] recommendations for [specific need]"
- "What tool do you recommend for [task]"
The intent is clear: they want a recommendation, not an explanation.
Why these prompts matter more
When someone asks ChatGPT "what is project management software," they might be writing a school paper. When they ask "what's the best project management tool for a solo consultant," they're probably about to sign up for something.
If you're tracking AI visibility, you want to focus on the prompts that lead to business. Being mentioned when someone asks a definitional question is nice. Being recommended when someone asks a buying question is valuable.
That's the difference between appearing in educational answers vs commercial answers. Both matter, but one drives revenue.
The challenge of tracking them
Here's the tricky part: you can't track every possible prompt. There are infinite ways to ask for recommendations.
The smart approach is to identify the core purchase intent prompts for your specific category and audience. What would your ideal customer ask ChatGPT before they buy something like yours?
For a coaching business: "best business coach for first-time founders" For a SaaS tool: "what's the best [category] for [target user]" For a service provider: "recommended [service type] in [location or niche]"
These are your money prompts. These are the ones worth tracking.
How to find your purchase intent prompts
Start by thinking about your customers. What problem do they have? How would they phrase a question to AI looking for a solution?
Talk to actual customers if you can. Ask them: "If you were asking ChatGPT to help you find a solution to [the problem you solve], how would you phrase that question?"
Look at your Google Search Console data. Which queries have high commercial intent? Those same queries are probably being asked to AI tools now.
Think about competitors. What prompts would include both you and your alternatives as possible recommendations?
The focus of AI visibility tracking
Generic visibility tracking might tell you "you were mentioned by ChatGPT 37 times this month." Cool, but what does that mean?
Purchase intent focused tracking tells you: "For the prompt 'best invoicing software for freelancers,' you were recommended by 3 out of 5 AI tools." That's actionable. That's connected to revenue.
Not all mentions are equal. Mentions on buying prompts are the ones that matter most.