The working vocabulary.
The terms we use daily — for AI-ad platforms, mechanics, and metrics. Maintained, opinionated. If something here is wrong, email us.
- AEO
- Answer Engine Optimization. The discipline of structuring content to be cited inside answer engines.
- AIO
- Google AI Overviews. The AI-generated summary that now appears above ~50% of US Google Search results, citing 3–8 sources. Not paid (yet).
- Answer engine
- Any platform whose primary output is a synthesized answer rather than a list of links. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AIO are all answer engines.
- Brand-answer slot
- A paid placement inside an LLM’s organic answer body that flags a brand as a recommendation. Currently in private beta at Perplexity for selected verticals.
- Citation impression
- A surface-level event where an answer engine includes your brand or URL as a source. The leading indicator of AEO traction.
- Conversational ad unit
- A sponsored card formatted to read in the flow of an LLM answer. Headline + structured detail rows + destination URL.
- CPC + CPM
- Cost-per-click and cost-per-impression bidding. OpenAI Ads supports both natively.
- GEO
- Generative Engine Optimization. Distinct from SEO, focused on being cited inside generative engines (LLMs + AIO). Practically overlaps with AEO at 80%.
- Intent quality
- A model’s scoring of how well your ad satisfies the user’s prompt — factoring in CTR history, landing experience, and topical relevance. Analogous to Google’s Quality Score.
- LLM Visibility Score
- Cillex AI’s composite measure of a brand’s presence across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and AIO. Reported monthly inside engagements.
- MCP
- Model Context Protocol. An open spec for AI agents to discover and call tools and data sources. Cillex AI publishes an MCP server card at /.well-known/mcp.json so AI agents can call our public APIs.
- Multi-LLM
- A coordinated paid + organic strategy across multiple answer engines, run as one playbook.
- Negative prompt
- A prompt or prompt fragment excluded from your ad eligibility. The LLM-ads analogue of a negative keyword. Curated weekly.
- OpenAI Ads
- OpenAI’s self-serve advertising platform. GA since May 2026. Surfaces sponsored cards beneath ChatGPT answers.
- Prompt family
- A cluster of full-sentence requests with shared intent and category. The unit of targeting on OpenAI Ads — what keywords were on Google Search.
- SCAL
- The Cillex Operating System: Surface, Creative, Attribution, Loop. Our four-pillar methodology for AI-platform advertising.
- Server-side conversion tracking
- Sending conversion events from your server to the ad platform rather than via a browser pixel. More accurate, more durable to cookie loss.
- Topical authority
- A measurable property of a domain: how comprehensively and reliably it covers a topic. The strongest signal an answer engine uses to choose what to cite.