Questions to compare different AI search marketing agencies

Why comparing agencies is harder than comparing SEO vendors

SEO proposals are relatively easy to compare — keyword lists, ranking targets, backlink counts. AI search marketing proposals are messier because the discipline is new, terminology varies wildly (GEO, AEO, LLM SEO, AI visibility), and outputs can't be independently verified the way a Google ranking can. That's exactly why a fixed question set, asked identically of every agency, matters more here than in a traditional pitch process.

Terminology confusion alone can waste an entire evaluation cycle if not addressed directly — ask each agency to define GEO, AEO and LLM SEO in their own words early in the conversation to see whether they're using the terms precisely or interchangeably as marketing filler.

It also helps to time all the pitches within the same two-week window, since AI engine behavior can shift enough between longer gaps that an early pitch and a later one aren't really being judged under the same conditions.

The core questions to ask every agency

Run through the same list with each vendor and score the answers side by side rather than judging each pitch in isolation.

• "Can you run live prompts about our brand right now and show us the actual output?"
• "How do you price GEO versus ChatGPT Ads management — separately or bundled?"
• "What exactly appears in a monthly report, and can we see a sample?"
• "Do you check crawler access for OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended?"
• "Will you guarantee any specific ranking or AI output?" (the honest answer is no)

An agency that dodges the live-prompt question or gets vague about pricing structure has already told you something.

It's also worth asking directly what happens in month one versus month six of an engagement, since agencies that can only describe an initial audit but go vague on ongoing work likely don't have a mature retainer process.

Comparing pricing and scope fairly

Market pricing for GEO retainers generally ranges from roughly $2,000/month for a single-market program to $10,000+/month for enterprise engagements that include digital PR. If one quote is dramatically below another, ask exactly what's excluded — often it's the audit depth, the number of prompt clusters tracked, or paid campaign management.

Suggesting.ai never quotes a price before running the free audit, because scope should follow what the audit finds, not a generic package tier.

Ask, too, how each agency would handle a sudden citation drop after a model update — a rehearsed monitoring and response plan is a much stronger signal than a vague promise to "keep an eye on things."

Worked example: comparing agencies for a fintech brand

A fintech founder comparing three agencies should ask each to test the same prompt: "best trading platform for beginners with low fees." Compare not just whether each agency's audit surfaces the client's brand, but whether the regulatory and fee data each one flags is accurate — an agency that catches a factual error unprompted is showing real domain understanding, not just a templated process.

This is the same worked-example discipline Suggesting.ai applies across its finance-sector clients: accuracy first, visibility second.

Ask each agency what they'd flag as a compliance or accuracy risk in your current content before you tell them anything about your industry — a strong answer here reveals real domain understanding rather than a rehearsed pitch.

What good reporting looks like across candidates

Every agency you compare should be able to describe reporting on citation frequency by engine, share of voice against named competitors, and — where paid runs — cost per click through OpenAI's Ads Manager. Studies on AI referral traffic report meaningfully higher conversion than average organic Google traffic, so ask whether referral quality, not just citation count, shows up in reports.

If two agencies score similarly on questions but one has already run your audit for free, that's a practical tiebreaker.

Finally, ask what a bad month looks like in their reporting and how they'd explain it to you. An agency comfortable narrating a rough month with a clear next step is more trustworthy than one that has never had one.

How to score answers without bias

Build a simple scorecard before the calls start, weighting the live-prompt-test question and the pricing-transparency question most heavily, since those two questions expose the biggest gaps between credible and inflated pitches. Score immediately after each call while details are fresh, rather than trying to compare from memory a week later after four separate pitches blur together.

Bring the same internal stakeholder to every call. Comparing notes across different interviewers, each with their own read on tone and confidence, introduces bias that a consistent scorecard is specifically meant to remove.

Treat the question list itself as a living document — add a question whenever a pitch surprises you, since the next round of comparisons will only get sharper with more real conversations behind it.

Red flags that should end the conversation early

If an agency can't articulate the difference between GEO and traditional SEO in plain language, or gets defensive when asked to run a live prompt test, that's usually enough signal to move on without further questions. Similarly, any agency that quotes a price before seeing your brand's actual current AI visibility is pricing blind, which rarely ends well once the real scope becomes clear.

Whichever agency you choose, keep the comparison notes on file — they make an excellent baseline for re-evaluating the relationship a year later against whichever new agencies have entered the market by then.