What are branded vs unbranded prompts?
branded prompts, non-branded prompts, category prompts
Branded vs unbranded prompts is the split between AI questions that name your company and questions that only describe a need. A branded prompt asks "Is Flatpay good for small shops?". An unbranded prompt asks "best card terminal for a small shop". Branded prompts test how AI describes you. Unbranded prompts test whether AI recommends you to new buyers.
Branded prompts name your company and show how AI engines describe and judge you.
Unbranded prompts describe a need and show whether AI recommends you to new buyers.
Track both types separately, because they answer different questions and move for different reasons.
How branded and unbranded prompts differ
Branded and unbranded prompts differ in one thing: whether the user already knows your name. A branded prompt includes your company or product name, so the AI engine will almost always mention you. The useful signal is what it says: accuracy, tone and which sources it leans on. An unbranded prompt (also called a non-branded or category prompt) describes a problem or category, so the engine decides which brands to include.
Branded: "Is Flatpay reliable?", "Flatpay vs SumUp", "Flatpay fees".
Unbranded: "best card terminal for a café", "cheapest way to take card payments at markets".
Comparison prompts that name you and a rival sit in between. They are branded, but the engine still picks a winner, which makes them useful for competitor gap analysis.
Why unbranded prompts matter for growth
Unbranded prompts matter because they capture buyers who have not chosen a brand yet. When someone asks an AI assistant for "the best CRM for a ten-person agency", the brands in that answer get considered and the rest do not. Branded visibility mostly reflects demand you already created. Unbranded visibility shows whether AI engines put you in front of new demand.
For that reason, an AI visibility score built only on branded prompts looks flattering and says little. A brand can appear in 100% of branded answers and in almost none of the unbranded ones. The unbranded share is usually lower, harder to move and closer to revenue, so most teams treat it as the headline number and branded results as a health check.
How to build a balanced prompt set
A balanced prompt set covers the questions real buyers ask at each stage, with most of the weight on unbranded prompts. A practical starting mix for prompt tracking:
Unbranded category prompts (about 60 to 70%): "best X for Y", "top X tools", "how to choose X".
Unbranded problem prompts: questions about the pain your product solves, without naming a product type.
Comparison prompts: "you vs competitor" and "alternatives to competitor".
Branded prompts: reviews, pricing, reliability and "is X legit" questions.
Tag each prompt by type so you can report them separately. Mixing them into one average hides whether a change came from new recommendations or from how AI describes you to people who already searched your name.
How KIME tracks branded and unbranded prompts
KIME lets you tag every tracked prompt, so branded, unbranded and comparison prompts can be reported as separate groups. For each group you see visibility, share of voice, average position and sentiment across ten AI engines, by country and language. That makes it easy to see whether you are winning new recommendations or only defending your own name. Set this up in Track & Analyze.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of my tracked prompts should be unbranded?
Most teams put around 60 to 70 percent of tracked prompts into unbranded category and problem questions, because that is where AI engines choose which brands new buyers hear about. The rest covers comparison prompts and branded prompts about reviews, pricing and reliability. Adjust the mix if your brand is already well known and branded accuracy is a bigger concern.
Is a comparison prompt like "Brand A vs Brand B" branded or unbranded?
A comparison prompt that names your brand is branded, because the user already knows you. It still behaves like a competitive test, since the AI engine has to pick a winner or explain trade-offs. Many teams track comparison prompts as their own group so the results do not inflate branded visibility or distort unbranded share of voice.
Why does my brand show up for branded prompts but not unbranded ones?
A brand usually appears for branded prompts because the user named it, so the AI engine has to talk about it. Unbranded prompts require the engine to choose you on its own, which depends on how often trusted third-party sources, reviews and comparison pages mention you for that category. Low unbranded visibility usually points to gaps in earned media and category content.