Dec 18, 2025
TicketSmarter 3×’d AI Visibility and Ranked above Ticketmaster
In three months, TicketSmarter increased AI visibility by 2.92×, saw up to 10× more AI mentions and 5.5× more citations — including wins against Ticketmaster. Backed by a GEO approach and machine‑readable fixes, results compounded across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity, then echoed in Google Search Console.
233%
Lift in Mentions
192%
Lift in Overall AI Visibility
182%
Lift in Citations
Faster AI recognition: citations and quotes added to priority guides are proven levers for AI selection
Higher authority density: venue and festival pages mapped to high‑intent queries with clearer entity and brand signals
Better machine readability: structured context and clean metadata improved snippet lift and cross‑agent extractability
Explore the methodology behind these outcomes on Crossfill and see repeatable performance in our related case study, How Cerebro Achieved over 15× Growth in Visibility.
Overview
TicketSmarter is a major U.S. ticketing marketplace serving fans across concerts, sports, festivals, and theater events nationwide. As more users began turning to conversational queries inside ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity, the team saw a clear shift in how event research was happening. Fans were asking these systems broad and highly popular questions that TicketSmarter already addressed within its guides, yet those guides were not appearing in the answers.
The team partnered with Crossfill to uncover where visibility was breaking down and to identify opportunities to strengthen recognition across the full discovery landscape. The goal was to ensure TicketSmarter appears wherever today’s event-goers begin planning their experiences.
AI selection increasingly favors sites with strong entity clarity, fresh content, and transparent sourcing. Research shows that pages with explicit citations and quotations tend to outperform comparable pages without them. Crossfill’s work emphasized these extractable elements while improving machine readability and topical alignment.
01
High‑value guides had limited search visibility
Crossfill found that several of TicketSmarter’s most important guides had little or no presence in search results. Without impressions or rankings, these pages also went unrecognized in the AI answer layer. Because both surfaces rely on similar relevance signals, Crossfill recommended strengthening the authority and machine readability of these assets so Google and AI systems could better interpret and surface them.
What changed:
Added explicit citations and concise quotations near the top for liftable facts
Clarified entity references so venues, neighborhoods, and events were unambiguous to AI parsers
Improved metadata and descriptive headings to match long‑tail, question‑based queries
These changes align with findings that citations and statistics materially improve AI visibility and that 65% of AI bot traffic targets content published within the past year; an industry analysis of thousands of URLs cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews found about 65% of AI “hits” targeted content published in the prior year, confirming strong recency effects in AI citation behavior (AI Brand Visibility and Content Recency).
02
AI systems weren’t recognizing TicketSmarter’s expertise
Although TicketSmarter had strong content around venues, festivals, and ticketing behavior, AI engines frequently cited major publishers or Ticketmaster instead. The issue wasn’t the content quality but how engines interpreted authority. Crossfill clarified these topical relationships so AI systems could map TicketSmarter’s guides to high‑intent queries more accurately and reinforce recognition across the discovery ecosystem.
What changed:
Reinforced brand and entity associations across guides, internal links, and references
Increased citation density from credible sources to strengthen knowledge‑graph trust
Ensured public accessibility, fixed broken links, and removed rendering obstacles that suppress agent extraction
These authority fixes support stronger brand‑topic associations, a leading predictor of AI visibility. Google’s guidance on structured data and machine‑readable content emphasizes using clear, indexable markup and visible page content to improve extractability and inclusion in AI answer surfaces; specifically, Google updated how FAQ and HowTo markup is treated and recommends valid schema plus visible HTML for rich features and AI extraction (Changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results).
How TicketSmarter Took Action
TicketSmarter applied Crossfill’s visibility guidance to its highest‑value guides. As optimization rolled out, AI engines began referencing the pages more consistently. Google Search Console soon echoed this shift, showing a parallel rise in impressions, clicks, and ranking strength.
Example 1: Madison Square Garden Event Guide
Using Crossfill’s GEO approach, TicketSmarter refined the guide to make venue navigation, event expectations, and ticketing behavior clearer for AI interpretation. As engines began recognizing the guide’s relevance, visibility increased across ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, and Perplexity for broad MSG‑related queries. Adding structured cues, clean FAQ blocks, and a short, liftable summary helped assistant models extract answers.
AI Performance
10×
Increase in Mentions
3.25×
Increase in Citations
3.62×
Lift in Overall AI Visibility
How AI Visibility Lifted SEO Visibility
Google Search Console showed the same pattern with the MSG guide moving above the fold. The page recorded:
4×
increase in total clicks
2x
Increase in Impressions
9.5 → 5.8
Average Position Improved
Broad generic queries such as “madison square garden seating chart” and “msg seating chart” also surged. The GSC graph below marks the republish date, with a clear and immediate lift that continued to grow.
Example 2: Outside Lands Festival Guide
The Outside Lands guide began with no measurable presence — zero impressions, zero clicks, and no rankings in either search or AI systems. After Crossfill’s optimization, the page started appearing across multiple AI platforms, including for competitive, non‑branded festival queries. Fresh content and extractable stats were added to match how AI assistants compose answers.
AI Performance
5.5x
Increase in Citations
3×
Increase in Mentions
5.5×
Lift in Overall AI Visibility
Google Search Console reflected the same acceleration almost immediately. Impressions rose from 0 to 6,820, and the page generated its first recorded clicks and rankings. As the lift stabilized, average position settled at 25.1, a substantial improvement from having no ranking at all.
Results: Outranking TicketMaster
A clear milestone came when TicketSmarter appeared above TicketMaster in Google’s AI Overview for the competitive query:
“Where to get verified seats for Lorde’s 2025 tour dates.”
Given the enormous search demand around major artist tours and TicketMaster’s long‑standing dominance, this was a breakthrough moment. Google chose TicketSmarter’s guide because it offered clearer explanations, stronger alignment with the query, and more authoritative guidance for the user. Below is the example showing TicketSmarter earning the top position above their largest competitor.
