The rate of change in AI citations for your brand over time. Increasing velocity = your AEO program is working; decreasing velocity = competitors are catching up.
Citation velocity measures the trend in AI citation frequency over rolling time windows (weekly, monthly, quarterly). Positive velocity means your brand is being cited more often this week than last week; negative velocity means the opposite. Velocity is more useful than static share-of-voice for tracking AEO program health because it surfaces directional changes early. Most AEO dashboards show citation velocity as a trend line.
Static SOV says where you are; citation velocity says where you're going. A 15% SOV that's growing 20% week-over-week is healthier than a 25% SOV that's declining 10%. CMOs and boards care about trajectory more than current state.
Lantern's monthly ROI report includes a citation velocity chart: week 1 of the month had 45 citations across tracked prompts; week 4 had 73 citations. Velocity is +62% week-over-week. The CMO can confidently report to the board 'AEO program is accelerating.'
The terms in this glossary aren't theoretical — they're what Lantern's product calculates and reports every month for B2B SaaS teams. See yours in 7 days. 14-day free trial.
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