Reading a band
Why every figure is a range with a run count, and how to quote one to a client.
Every figure in the product renders as a band: a range, with the number of observations behind it. Share of voice 28–36% · n=150 rather than Visibility 32.
What the range is
A binomial confidence interval over the runs in the period. It is the honest width of what 150 observations can tell you about an underlying rate — not a smoothing, not a min and max of daily values.
How to quote it
- Good: “Across 150 observations last fortnight, you appeared in 28–36% of answers — up from 19–26% the fortnight before.”
- Good: “On this prompt you appeared in 4 of 9 samples. It is contested, not lost.”
- Bad: “Your visibility score is 32.” It implies a precision the sample does not contain, and it is the exact claim a competitor's tool will contradict.
Why bands rather than a score out of 100
A 0–100 score is easier to put on a slide and impossible to defend when a second tool produces a different one. Bands make the disagreement legible: two tools whose bands overlap are not contradicting each other, they are both sampling. That conversation is winnable. “Your tool says 32 and theirs says 51” is not.
When two consecutive bands overlap, the honest read is “no detectable movement”. The product says so rather than drawing an arrow.
See it against your own client list
A working demo runs your prompts, in your market, on live engines — not a sandbox with seeded data. Bring one client brand and three competitors.