Questions before working with a ChatGPT marketing agency

Why the first meeting is a diagnostic test

Before signing anything with a ChatGPT marketing agency, treat the first conversation as a test of whether they've actually done this work before, not a sales pitch to sit through politely. The questions below are ones a genuinely capable agency answers specifically; a generic agency answers vaguely or changes the subject.

It helps to write these questions down and bring them to every call with every agency you're evaluating, rather than relying on memory, since sales conversations are designed to move quickly past uncomfortable specifics if you let them.

Ten questions worth asking directly

Bring these into the first call.

• "Can you show me right now how ChatGPT and Perplexity answer [my category]'s comparison prompts?"
• "Who specifically runs paid ChatGPT Ads campaigns versus organic GEO — are these different people?"
• "How do you verify factual claims before they go into content, especially anything regulatory?"
• "What happens if a model states something false or outdated about my brand?"
• "What crawler access checks do you run for OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User and PerplexityBot?"
• "What do you report monthly, and does it include named-competitor comparison?"
• "What's your timeline for a measurable citation shift, realistically?"
• "Do you guarantee any specific AI ranking or position?" (The honest answer is no.)
• "How is pricing scoped — flat package or based on an audit of my specific gaps?"
• "Can you show a real (not invented) example of the kind of gap you typically find?"

Pay attention not just to what an agency says in response but how quickly and specifically they say it. A team that's actually run this kind of engagement before answers the crawler-access question in one sentence; a team that hasn't will often pivot to a broader, vaguer answer about 'AI optimization.'

It's worth asking these same ten questions of more than one agency even if you already have a favorite, since comparing specific answers side by side is often the fastest way to notice when a seemingly strong pitch is actually thinner than it sounded in isolation.

What good answers sound like

A strong answer to the first question is a live screen-share of actual prompt results, not a slide describing the concept of GEO. A strong answer on regulatory claims includes a verification step before publishing, not an assumption that client-provided copy is accurate. A strong answer on guarantees is an honest "no one controls model output, but here's how we improve the odds" — anyone promising a fixed ranking is either inexperienced or overselling.

It's also fair to ask what happens if the engagement isn't working after a few months — what's the actual off-ramp, and what will you own (content, reports, documented findings) versus what stays with the agency if you part ways.

It's also fine to bring a colleague or advisor to these conversations who's evaluated a services vendor before, since a second set of ears often catches an evasive answer that's easy to miss when you're the one asking all ten questions in sequence.

Worked example: what these questions reveal for a forex broker

Ask a forex broker's prospective agency the crawler-access question specifically, and you'll quickly learn whether they understand the category. A broker's regulatory status changes; if OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot can't crawl updated license pages promptly, or if the agency never checks, AI engines keep citing stale regulatory information — a real compliance risk, not just a marketing gap.

The same due diligence applies to a B2B software company being asked about security certifications, or a legal firm being asked about jurisdictional scope. Any factual claim that changes over time needs a verification process, not a one-time content push.

Don't skip asking about team continuity either. GEO is still a young enough discipline that a lot of the actual expertise sits with a small number of individual practitioners rather than institutionalized processes, so ask who specifically will be doing the work, not just who's on the sales call.

It's fair to push back if an agency seems irritated by direct questions this early — genuine expertise in a young discipline like this one is usually paired with comfort discussing specifics candidly, since there's little to hide when the process is sound.

What to expect once you've asked these

A capable agency should be comfortable being asked all ten questions in one sitting and should welcome them, since it's the fastest way to separate real GEO expertise from repackaged content marketing. Expect the first substantive deliverable to be a diagnostic — an audit — not a proposal document, and expect monthly reporting to include citation share against named competitors, not just your own brand's mention count.

Suggesting.ai's free 48-hour audit is built to answer most of these questions before the first call even happens.

Finally, ask how they'd handle a scenario where an AI engine gets a fact about your brand wrong in a way that could mislead a buyer — the answer reveals whether they think of this as a marketing channel alone or also as a trust and accuracy responsibility.

Keep a written record of every answer given in these early conversations too — it becomes useful later if the actual engagement drifts from what was originally promised, and a credible agency won't mind that you're keeping notes.

Suggesting.ai welcomes this kind of scrutiny specifically because the free audit already answers most of it directly with real data, rather than asking a prospective client to take any of these commitments on faith.