SMS marketing software: AI search visibility ranking (2026)
How AI search engines rank sms marketing software by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. SMS marketing platforms used to send promotional texts, automate lifecycle messaging, run campaigns, and drive revenue through mobile-first customer engagement. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
Refreshed Jun 12, 2026Download this ranking as a PDF
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At a glance
What we observed in this categoryauto-generated
Attentive and SimpleTexting share the top position with identical visibility scores of 50.0% and citation rates of 25.0%, producing composite scores of 42.5 each. Klaviyo sits third at 37.5% visibility but matches their citation rate at 25.0%. The gap between these three and rank four (Omnisend at 25.0% visibility) is meaningful, but the drop from rank five onward is severe, with EZ Texting and six other brands all clustered at 12.5% visibility or below, far below the 11.2% category average in practical terms for the leaders.
Omnisend illustrates the sharpest divergence between visibility and citation in this dataset, appearing in 25.0% of AI responses but receiving zero citations, a 25-point gap. TextMagic, SlickText, Mailchimp, and ActiveCampaign show the same pattern at 12.5% visibility with 0.0% citation. EZ Texting is the only mid-tier brand where visibility and citation are equal at 12.5% each. This means several brands are named by AI Mode without their domains being surfaced as sources, limiting the trust signal they generate.
Google AI Mode is the dominant engine across all 20 brands in this audit, with no brand recording a different top engine. The most cited external sources include youtube.com, reddit.com, and zapier.com alongside brand-owned domains such as simpletexting.com, klaviyo.com, and attentive.com. The presence of reddit.com and youtube.com as top cited sources suggests AI Mode is anchoring on user-generated and review-style content rather than exclusively on vendor or analyst material when generating responses in this category.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
-
Attentive 12% → 50% · rank #0 → #1+38pp
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SimpleTexting 25% → 50% · rank #0 → #2+25pp
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Klaviyo 25% → 38% · rank #0 → #3+12pp
Biggest visibility fallers
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Postscript 12% → 0% · rank #0 → #10-12pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
attentive.com
|
50% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
Attentive leads with 50.0% visibility, 4.5 times the 11.2% category average, and its domain appears directly in the top cited sources list, reinforcing both name and citation presence. |
||||
| 2 |
simpletexting.com
|
50% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
SimpleTexting matches Attentive's composite score of 42.5 and is the only brand outside rank one to appear in both top cited sources and to have grown its citation rate by 12.5 points in the current period. |
||||
| 3 |
klaviyo.com
|
38% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
Klaviyo sits 12.5 visibility points behind the joint leaders at 37.5%, yet its 25.0% citation rate is equal to theirs, and its domain appears in the top cited sources list. |
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| 4 |
omnisend.com
|
25% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Omnisend reaches 25.0% visibility but records 0.0% citations, the largest visibility-to-citation gap in the top five, suggesting AI Mode names it without treating its domain as a reference source. |
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| 5 |
eztexting.com
|
12% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
EZ Texting sits at 12.5% visibility and 12.5% citation, the only brand in ranks five through nine where these two metrics are equal rather than citation lagging behind visibility. |
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| 6 |
textmagic.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
slicktext.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
mailchimp.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
activecampaign.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
postscript.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
iterable.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
braze.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
tatango.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
emotive.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
yotpo.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
podium.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
brevo.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
messagemedia.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
sendlane.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
drip.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on sms marketing software, 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.
How to read this 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.
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.
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.
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 30 days and refresh this page automatically.
Get your own sms marketing software brand audited
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same 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.
Frequently asked about sms marketing software AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in SMS marketing software?
Attentive and SimpleTexting share the top position with identical visibility scores of 50.0% and composite scores of 42.5, both running exclusively on Google AI Mode.
What is the average AI visibility score for SMS marketing software brands?
The category average visibility is 11.2% and the average citation rate is 4.4% across the 20 brands audited.
Which brands are named by AI but rarely cited as sources in this category?
Omnisend, TextMagic, SlickText, Mailchimp, and ActiveCampaign all record 0.0% citation rates despite appearing in AI responses, meaning they are named without their domains being surfaced as references.
What sources does Google AI Mode anchor on most for SMS marketing software queries?
The top cited sources include youtube.com, reddit.com, and zapier.com alongside brand-owned domains such as simpletexting.com, klaviyo.com, and attentive.com.
Which brand saw the biggest visibility gain in the latest audit period?
Attentive recorded the largest visibility delta at plus 37.5 points, rising from 12.5% to 50.0% visibility, though its citation delta remained at 0.0 for the same period.
Which brand lost the most AI visibility in this category?
Postscript dropped from 12.5% to 0.0% visibility, the only brand recorded as a faller in this audit, and it holds a 0.0% citation rate as well.