Funnel Stage Analysis

How do AI models shift their source preferences across TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU questions? Align your content strategy with AI citation patterns.

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TOFU (Top of Funnel) = broad awareness questions. AI models here tend to cite educational, institutional, and media sources to inform and explain.
MOFU (Middle of Funnel) = comparison and evaluation questions. Expect more blog, review, and forum citations as users weigh options.
BOFU (Bottom of Funnel) = decision-stage questions ("best X for Y", purchase intent). Institutional and commercial sources appear more frequently alongside direct brand mentions.
Use a provider filter to see if ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini have different citation strategies across funnel stages — they often do.

Source Types by Funnel Stage

How AI responses reference different source types across TOFU (awareness), MOFU (consideration), and BOFU (decision) questions.

Full Breakdown

All source types ranked by citation count within each funnel stage.

#	Source Type	TOFU (Awareness)	MOFU (Consideration)	BOFU (Decision)
1	Commercial	53%	44%	53%
2	Media	17%	24%	16%
3	Institutional	8%	4%	2%
4	Other	7%	8%	11%
5	Educational	7%	7%	6%
6	Social	4%	6%	6%
7	Blog	3%	5%	4%
8	Forum	0%	1%	1%

Market Structure

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Turn These Insights Into Action

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