AEO Rankings · Marketing

AEO for public affairs firms: AI search visibility ranking

By monitoraeo Last updated August 02, 2026 Refreshed every 90 days

How AI search engines rank public affairs firms by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured quarterly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Public affairs firms helping organizations shape policy narratives, stakeholder strategy, government engagement, media pressure, and reputation in regulated environments. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →

Avg visibility across category

Avg citation rate

20/20

Brands successfully audited

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When buyers ask AI engines about Public affairs firms, Mercury Public Affairs leads the conversation. The firm's visibility percentage is 12.5, significantly ahead of others in the category. Alongside Mercury, Ballard Partners and Edelman are frequently mentioned as top choices. Whether you're familiar with the industry or not, these brands often emerge as reliable options.

The rankings are shaped largely by the sources AI engines reference, including sites like odwyerpr.com, mercuryllc.com, and clutch.co. These sources often compile data from reviews or analysis, which influences AI responses. When such aggregator and review sites are heavily referenced, it underscores collective sentiment and available third-party information.

For a buyer, this ranking page offers a data-driven perspective enhanced by AI. Consider focusing on how often a brand is updated in recent reviews or cited for specific expertise. When choosing, prioritize brands recognized for third-party validation and topical authority. AI engines value these factors, recommending brands that consistently demonstrate such qualities.

At a glance

Category leader Mercury Public Affairs 12% visibility · named in 1 of 8 AI answers

Most cited brand Mercury Public Affairs 62% citation rate · the AI's most-trusted source brand in public affairs firms

Top cited domain odwyerpr.com Referenced by AI across the public affairs firms query set — the highest-leverage PR target in this category

Visibility spread 12pp Gap between top and bottom of the ranking · 19 brands at 0% (invisible to the AI)

What we observed in this category

Mercury Public Affairs holds the only meaningful AI visibility in this category, scoring 12.5% visibility and 62.5% citation against a category average of just 0.6% visibility and 3.8% citation. Its composite score of 27.5 dwarfs the nearest competitor, Ballard Partners, which sits at 3.8. This gap is not marginal. Every other named firm in the top 10, including large global players like Edelman, FleishmanHillard, and Weber Shandwick, registers zero visibility, making Mercury an extreme outlier rather than a moderate leader.

The data reveals a sharp divergence between brand recognition and AI citation in this category. Ballard Partners holds a rank of 2 and a citation rate of 12.5% despite zero visibility, meaning Google AI Mode references it without surfacing it prominently in responses. Edelman, formerly ranked 1, has dropped to rank 3 with zero visibility and zero citations, losing 12.5 percentage points of visibility since the previous period. Being a large or well-known firm offers no apparent protection against AI invisibility in this category.

Google AI Mode is the top engine for every brand in the dataset, indicating the audit is concentrated on that single surface. The top cited sources anchor heavily on trade and directory properties: odwyerpr.com appears first, followed by mercuryllc.com itself, then clutch.co, linkedin.com, and observer.com. The presence of shadow.inc and the-square.co alongside greenflagdigital.com suggests Google AI Mode is drawing from a broad mix of PR trade media, professional directories, and smaller editorial sites rather than from the firms' own domains alone.

Movers & shakers since last refresh

Biggest visibility risers

Mercury Public Affairs 0% → 12% · rank #16 → #1
+12pp

Biggest visibility fallers

Edelman 12% → 0% · rank #1 → #3
-12pp
FleishmanHillard 12% → 0% · rank #2 → #4
-12pp
Burson 12% → 0% · rank #3 → #5
-12pp

The AEO ranking

#	Brand	Visibility	Citation	Top engine
1	Mercury Public Affairs mercuryllc.com	12%	62%	Google AI Mode
Mercury leads with a composite score of 27.5 and a 62.5% citation rate, rising 15 rank positions and gaining 12.5 visibility points from a previous score of zero.
2	Ballard Partners ballardpartners.com	0%	12%	Google AI Mode
Ballard Partners is cited 12.5% of the time but holds zero visibility, placing it above the 3.8% category average on citations alone while generating no direct AI appearances.
3	Edelman edelman.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
Edelman fell from rank 1 to rank 3 after losing all 12.5 percentage points of previous visibility, now scoring zero on both visibility and citation despite its global profile.
4	FleishmanHillard fleishmanhillard.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
FleishmanHillard dropped two positions and lost 12.5 visibility points, matching Edelman and Burson at a composite score of zero with no citation activity recorded.
5	Burson bursonglobal.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
Burson fell from rank 3 to rank 5 with zero visibility and zero citations, mirroring the identical decline pattern seen in both Edelman and FleishmanHillard this period.
6	Weber Shandwick webershandwick.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
7	FGS Global fgsglobal.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
8	Brunswick Group brunswickgroup.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
9	APCO Worldwide apcoworldwide.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
10	Teneo teneo.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
11	Kekst CNC kekstcnc.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
12	Alpine Group alpinegrouppartners.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
13	BGR Group bgrdc.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
14	Dentons Global Advisors dentonsglobaladvisors.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
15	McLarty Associates mclartyassociates.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
16	Rasky Partners rasky.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
17	Seven Letter sevenletter.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
18	Public First publicfirst.co.uk	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
19	Hanover Communications hanovercomms.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
20	Grayling grayling.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode

Sources AI engines trust in this category

Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on public affairs firms, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.

odwyerpr.commercuryllc.comclutch.coshadow.incthe-square.cogreenflagdigital.comlinkedin.comobserver.com

How to read this AEO ranking

Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.

Visibility = being named

A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer. More on visibility →

Citation rate = being trusted

Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence, different from being named. More on citation rate →

Top engine differs by brand

The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps. How AI engines pick sources →

AEO rankings move month to month

AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 90 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →

Run an AEO audit on your own public affairs firms brand

The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same answer engine optimisation measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.

Audit your public affairs firms brand → Browse all AEO rankings Methodology →

Frequently asked about AEO for public affairs firms

Who leads AI visibility in the public affairs firms category?

Mercury Public Affairs leads with 12.5% visibility and a 62.5% citation rate, giving it a composite score of 27.5. Every other top-10 firm except Ballard Partners scores zero on both metrics.

What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for public affairs firms research?

The top cited sources are odwyerpr.com, mercuryllc.com, clutch.co, shadow.inc, the-square.co, greenflagdigital.com, linkedin.com, and observer.com, combining trade media, directories, and editorial sites.

How large is the gap between the top-ranked and second-ranked firm?

Mercury Public Affairs scores a composite of 27.5 versus Ballard Partners at 3.8, a gap of 23.7 points. All remaining top-10 firms score zero.

Which major brands lost AI visibility in the most recent period?

Edelman, FleishmanHillard, and Burson each lost 12.5 percentage points of visibility and dropped two rank positions, falling from the top three to ranks 3, 4, and 5 respectively.

Can a brand be cited by Google AI Mode without having measurable visibility?

Yes. Ballard Partners has a 12.5% citation rate but zero visibility, showing that Google AI Mode can reference a firm in responses without surfacing it as a prominent result.

How does the category average reflect overall AI adoption among public affairs firms?

The category average visibility is just 0.6% and average citation is 3.8%, indicating that AI-generated answers about public affairs firms almost entirely ignore the majority of the 20 brands audited.