AI is changing the way people discover information, brands and products. Search journeys that once moved through results pages, publisher articles, product reviews and brand websites are increasingly shaped by AI-generated answers.
For consumers, this makes discovery faster and more convenient. For brands, publishers and content owners, it creates a new AI attribution challenge: how do we recognise and reward the content that influences a purchase when that influence may happen before the click - or without a click at all?
The non-profit organisation OpenAttribution is working to make this contribution more visible, and we are excited to share that Tradedoubler has joined as a member.
In this article, we explore the attribution challenge in AI-driven discovery, what OpenAttribution is building, and how Tradedoubler is working to create a clearer understanding of AI visibility and influence.
The Attribution Challenge In AI-Driven Discovery
For many years, digital attribution has been built around measurable actions: impressions, clicks, conversions and tracked customer journeys. These signals are still important, but AI-driven discovery is adding a new layer of complexity.
When someone asks an AI tool for a recommendation, the answer may be shaped by many different sources, from publisher articles and expert reviews to product pages, buying guides, forums and brand content. Some may be visible through citations. Others may influence the answer without being clearly shown to the user.
This creates a challenge for the wider partner marketing ecosystem. Publishers and content owners need to understand when their work contributes to AI-generated answers and commercial outcomes. Brands need to understand how they appear in those answers, which sources influence that visibility, and whether the information presented is accurate.
As AI becomes a bigger part of the customer journey, the industry needs better ways to understand how content contributes to discovery and decision-making before the final click.
What OpenAttribution Is Working On
OpenAttribution is a non-profit organisation developing open standards to help identify how content is used, cited and valued in AI-generated answers.
This matters because AI systems can use content in different ways. A source may be retrieved to inform an answer, used to ground a recommendation, cited in a response or contribute to a customer’s decision without being visible in a traditional click path. OpenAttribution is working to make these contributions easier to identify and measure.
By creating open standards for AI attribution, OpenAttribution aims to support a more transparent ecosystem for publishers, content owners, brands and technology platforms. For the partner marketing industry, this is an important step towards recognising the value content creates in AI-driven discovery and commerce.
Why Tradedoubler Is Joining OpenAttribution
As a partner marketing network, Tradedoubler has always worked where content, influence and commercial outcomes meet. We see AI-driven discovery as an important shift for our industry because it changes how consumers make purchase decisions — and how the content behind those decisions is recognised.
As Corin Ward, Director of AI at Tradedoubler, explains:
“For years, the open web has worked because publishers and content owners could make their content available and monetise it through traffic, advertising, or partnerships. AI-driven discovery changes that value exchange. If content helps inform an AI-generated answer, but the user never reaches the original source, we need better ways to recognise and reward that contribution. As a network connecting brands and publishers, Tradedoubler wants to support open standards that make this ecosystem more transparent and sustainable. That is why joining OpenAttribution is an important step for us.”
Understanding Visibility And Influence Before The Click
AI visibility is becoming part of the attribution conversation because brands need to understand not only whether they appear in AI-generated answers, but also what content helped create that visibility.
In traditional search, visibility was often easier to identify: a brand appeared in search results, a user clicked a link, and that journey could be tracked. In AI-driven discovery, the path is less direct. A consumer may ask for a recommendation and receive an AI-generated answer shaped by multiple sources.
Through Emna.ai, Tradedoubler is working to help brands gain better insights into what influences their AI visibility. Emna.ai shows a brand’s share of voice across AI-generated answers, which domains and articles are being cited, how often they appear and how relevant those sources are. It also helps identify opportunities to improve visibility through content creation and publisher activation.
OpenAttribution approaches the challenge from the standards side, while Emna.ai focuses on insight and action for brands. Together, they point to the same shift: discovery is changing, and measurement needs to evolve with it.
Towards More Transparent AI-Driven Commerce
By joining OpenAttribution, Tradedoubler is supporting the development of open standards that can help make AI-driven discovery more transparent. For publishers and content owners, this means working towards clearer recognition of the value their content creates. For brands, it means building a better understanding of how visibility is earned and influenced before the click.
We are proud to support OpenAttribution’s work and help shape a more measurable future for AI-driven commerce.
If you are joining the OpenAttribution & Martech Record event on June 17, we would love to exchange ideas with you on the future of attribution, content visibility and AI-driven discovery.