Ahrefs Brand Radar is a market map that shows a brand’s share of AI answers across hundreds of millions of prompts modelled from real search queries; Recro is an insight agency that simulates, by persona, the B2B decision questions that never appear on that map because they have no volume, yet decide the shortlist. Brand Radar answers “who does AI talk about in our category?” with broad data. Recro answers “why are we missing when the person making the buying decision asks?” For market share and competitor trends, Brand Radar is the right tool; for questions close to the sale, Recro.
Recro wrote this comparison, so we’re a party to it. We took Ahrefs’ features from its own product pages and press release. Figures on Ahrefs’ pages change as they update; details are current as of October 2026.
How does Ahrefs Brand Radar work?
Ahrefs built Brand Radar on a ready-made database. According to the company’s AI visibility index page, it holds more than 473 million prompts across six AI indexes, each modelled from real user searches in Ahrefs’ keyword database. Without writing a single prompt, a user can immediately see category-level visibility and historical trends for their own brand and competitors.
In January 2026 Ahrefs added custom prompts. The company’s press release describes the difference plainly: Brand Radar’s native tracking focuses on prompts derived from popular, high-volume topics, while custom prompts let teams monitor the long tail, their own buyer questions. Custom prompts come as an add-on, and each check consumes credits per platform, location and update.
Why doesn’t the B2B decision appear on volume lists?
A prompt database modelled from search data captures what people ask often. In consumer categories, that’s very close to a true picture of the market.
In B2B, the decision is made elsewhere. A marine supply firm’s technical manager asks AI: “Which class-approved suppliers can deliver spare parts to Mediterranean ports within 48 hours?” That sentence has no search volume; no volume database models it. Yet that month’s order is placed on the strength of the answer.
In Recro’s simulations, brands appeared in 33% of answers when asked about by name, and in 5.5% of decision questions that didn’t name them. There can be a wide gap between category-level visibility and visibility in the buyer’s decision question. We examined that gap in Found when asked by name, missing when asked by category.
Don’t custom prompts close that gap?
Partly. Custom prompts make it possible to track long-tail questions, and Ahrefs is building tools to help generate prompts. But the question still has to come from the team: who asks, under which conditions, at which stage of the buying journey?
At Recro, answering that is the first pillar of the work. Personas are built with a dedicated persona builder module grounded in an established buyer-insight model. Persona attributes and occasions become questions. The goal isn’t visibility in high-volume questions but presence everywhere a high-intent buyer looks.
Who sees what on the source side?
Ahrefs’ traditional strength is its web index: which site links to whom, where a brand is mentioned. That’s a valuable base for mapping the sites that feed AI answers at scale.
Recro reads sources in the context of the decision question. In one marine simulation, one of the sources that carried a competitor onto the shortlist was the competitor’s company profile on a careers site. In other simulations, catalogues uploaded years ago to document-sharing sites stood out. In link-profile analysis these sources may look trivial; they decide outcomes because they answer the buyer’s question. Details are in signals beyond your website.
Comparison table
| Dimension | Ahrefs Brand Radar | Recro Insight Model |
|---|---|---|
| Data foundation | Ready-made prompt database modelled from search data; custom prompts as an add-on | Decision questions generated from brand-specific personas and occasions |
| Focus | Category share and trends on high-volume topics | Zero-volume questions asked by high-intent buyers |
| Source analysis | Broad web index and mention data | Sources that carry competitors onto the shortlist, read per decision question |
| Output | Market map, share of voice, historical trends | Specific, local findings, GAP classification, action list and a progress dashboard |
| Operating model | Self-serve module inside an SEO platform | Agency service: brand representative, regular meetings, infrastructure optimised for each brand |
| Best fit | SEO teams using Ahrefs to track market and competitor trends | B2B brands that want to know why they lose questions close to the sale |
Which one fits which situation?
For a team that wants the overall picture of its category, wants to follow competitors’ share of AI answers over time and manage it alongside SEO in one place, Brand Radar is a very strong starting point. The ready-made database delivers a first view without writing a prompt.
When the category picture doesn’t match what the sales team experiences, when the line is “we’re visible in the market but we don’t reach the proposal stage”, Recro comes in. Recro isn’t a software module but an agency service: the brand gets a representative who follows it, and findings are reviewed together in meetings.
How does Recro make this gap visible?
The Recro Insight Model starts where the volume list ends: with the questions the people who drive the brand’s revenue ask, under their own conditions.
One simulation · 4 key pillars · 90+ steps
What sets Recro apart is four pillars built from scratch for each brand. Together they form a single simulation of 90+ steps, with each pillar producing the input for the next.
- Persona builder: Decision-maker profiles that represent the brand’s real buyers, specific to its sector and sales structure.
- Question builder: The brand-specific decision questions these people ask AI along their buying journey.
- Report builder: A report that reads the answers against the brand’s goals and competitors, together with the sources behind them.
- Action recommendation builder: A prioritized list of actions that closes the sector-specific signal gaps.
- The persona and question builders bring questions with no search volume, but which decide the outcome, into measurement.
- The report builder shows the source that moved a competitor ahead, in the context of the decision question.
- The action recommendation builder classifies the finding as a Communication, Content or Authority GAP and turns it into a sector-specific action.
Results aren’t templates; they’re specific, local findings for the brand’s sector and market. The infrastructure is optimised regularly for each brand. As GAPs close, progress is tracked in the dashboard and reviewed with the brand’s representative in regular meetings.
We asked the same question about other tools: Recro compared with Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Profound, Otterly.AI and Peec AI.
Executive summary
- Ahrefs Brand Radar builds a category-level AI market map from hundreds of millions of prompts modelled from search data.
- The questions that decide B2B deals often have no volume and don’t show up in volume databases.
- Recro generates those questions from persona, occasion and buying intent, and follows the cause and the action through with a representative.
Frequently asked questions
Where do Ahrefs Brand Radar’s prompts come from?
According to Ahrefs, each prompt in the native database is modelled from real user searches in its keyword database. Custom prompts are questions the user adds.
Is Brand Radar meaningful for B2B brands?
For category share and competitor trends, yes. To see zero-volume decision questions that decide the shortlist, you need custom prompts and a buyer map that builds those questions correctly.
Why doesn’t Recro start with high-volume questions?
Because the few decision-makers behind B2B revenue ask questions too specific to show up on volume lists. Recro’s focus isn’t volume but everywhere a high-intent buyer looks.
Why are Recro’s results “local”?
The same category produces different answers in different markets and languages. Recro produces findings for the brand’s target market, language and buying group; it doesn’t use template reports.
Can the two be used together?
Yes. Brand Radar provides the category picture and competitor trends; Recro provides the cause and the action for questions close to the sale.
You show up on the market map, but are you in the answer when the person making the buying decision asks? Recro shows it with personas and decision questions specific to your brand.
Request a demo insight report →
Sources
- Ahrefs · AI visibility index
- Ahrefs · Brand Radar
- Business Wire · Ahrefs launches custom AI prompt tracking for brand visibility (2026)
This article was prepared with AI assistance and published under the review of Mehmet Semih İpek.
