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How Otherhalf traced 50% of its qualified August leads to AI search
Otherhalf, a senior-only Shopify design studio for DTC brands, had zero visibility in AI search. Six weeks into ChatFeatured, by the week of September 7, it had reached 4.5%. Founder Jamil says half of the studio's qualified leads in August came from AI search.
50%
Of all qualified inbound leads in August 2026 came from AI search, as reported by Jamil
2,342
Citations in AI answers since tracking began, starting with no AI mentions at all
4.5%
AI visibility in six weeks, up from zero
81.8
Average sentiment out of 100 across all AI mentions
Attribution is always a challenge, but the leads keep coming. When we ask how they heard about Otherhalf, they often say ChatGPT, Claude or Google AI. We keep sending other businesses we meet to ChatFeatured because we're seeing it work.
About Otherhalf Studio
Otherhalf is a creative boutique that creates brands from shelf to site focusing on consumer brands that drive sell-through, velocity and conversion rate. The studio custom designs and builds consumer powerhouses from branding, packaging all the way through to custom Shopify storefronts for DTC brands doing $5M to more than $200M in revenue. The work runs from strategy, positioning, branding, packaging, custom UX/UI and full-stack development through fully custom Liquid themes on Shopify's Horizon architecture. Every person on the team is senior, and the people who design a site are the same people who ship it.
Otherhalf started at zero in a crowded category
Hundreds of Shopify agencies all compete for the same DTC brands. Most of them have years of case studies and content that AI models already cite.
Otherhalf had the credentials to compete. The team comes from Shopify, Sharma Brands, Pointer, eHouse, and Domaine, and its clients are 7, 8, and 9-figure brands. When it started with ChatFeatured, though, it appeared in 0% of AI answers about Shopify design studios.
Otherhalf wrote for the buyers it already qualifies
With visibility at zero, every tracked prompt where a competitor appeared was a gap. Otherhalf leveraged ChatFeatured’s prompt tracking, article creation and understanding where LLMs were sourcing their information from.
The team built pages around the questions its target clients ask, using the same revenue ranges and verticals it uses to qualify leads. Two of its most-cited pages are "The Best Boutique Shopify Design Studios for $10M DTC Brands" and "Top Shopify Plus Partners for Food, Beverage and CPG Brands."
Visibility climbed from zero to 4.5% in 6 weeks
Third-party sources now cite Otherhalf too. The largest single source is a roundup of web development agencies, cited 1,117 times across 41 prompts. Shopify's own blog has also cited the studio.
Half of August's qualified leads came from AI search
- Five of Otherhalf's ten qualified leads in August named ChatGPT, Claude or Google AI when asked how they found the studio.
- Average sentiment across all AI mentions is 81.8 out of 100. LLMs view Otherhalf positively.
Why It Worked
Starting from zero, Otherhalf closed the gap by writing directly to the exact buyer questions its ideal clients ask, revenue range and vertical included, rather than competing on broad "Shopify agency" terms already owned by studios with years of head start. The lead numbers and the visibility numbers moved together, and Jamil is telling other DTC founders about it.
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