120answers from ChatGPT and Claude to twenty buyer questions, three times each
39%of the companies ChatGPT had just named are replaced when the same question is asked a second time; Claude 45%
The short answer
We asked ChatGPT and Claude the twenty questions a US buyer types when looking for a marketing agency. Three times each, within one hour, on 19 October 2026: 120 answers.
They named 419 companies and put 239 of them forward as providers a buyer could hire. Directive tops both lists, but not in the same way: Claude recommended it 45 times, far ahead of anything else it said, while ChatGPT recommended it 25 times, level with Ironpaper. Each assistant leans hard on its own short list — ChatGPT’s ten most recommended carry 163 of its 349 recommendations, Claude’s ten carry 212 of its 738.
57of the 239 recommended companies are recommended by both assistants
48×median gap in branded search between recommended companies and their matched controls
In this issue
- 1Directive tops both lists, and below the leaders they part
- 2The recommendations do not hold still
- 3What the answers link to: a directory first, then the agencies themselves
- 4What the site checks showed
- 5What we are watching next week
- 6Where these numbers stop
- 7Measure this for your own market
- 8Appendices: the protocol, the method, technical tables, the twenty questions, the 37 matched pairs and the studies we reviewed