Problem-first
“Our pipeline is flat and our marketing team is two people. Do we need an agency, and what kind?”
The moment of need, in the buyer’s own words. The agency that explains the choice honestly gets considered before any name is typed.
AEO, GEO and SEO for marketing, advertising and digital agencies
Founders ask AI which agency to hire.Make sure it names yours.
You sell visibility for a living, and your own is the first thing client work pushes aside. AI assistants now build the agency shortlist before a founder or CMO ever visits a site, and plenty of established agencies are not on it. We fix that, with SEO as the foundation, AI answers as the aim and outbound alongside when referrals run dry.
- For established agencies
- Specialism and proof first
- Written by people, approved by you
Free instant audit. See what AI says about you.
Rather have a person do it?Ask for a free manual audit
Built to get you named in
Google
ChatGPT
Gemini
Claude
Perplexity
Best B2B SaaS marketing agency for a Series B company that wants pipeline, not traffic?
AI answer
- Large national agency
- Agency-written top 10 list
- Agency directory listing
- Your agency is not named
Illustrative example
How agency buyers ask now
Your next client is asking who to hire, and whether to hire anyone
Agency buyers are founders, CMOs and marketing leads, and they are often asking two questions at once: do we need an agency, and which one. They put both to an AI assistant and read the shortlist it gives them. Each of these is a place your agency is either named or absent.
Comparison
“Agency or in-house marketing team for a 40-person B2B software company?”
A buyer weighing a model before a vendor. A fair answer, including when in-house is the better call, is rare and quotable.
Category
“Best B2B SaaS marketing agency for a Series B company”
A shortlist query. AI leans on directories, rankings and other agencies’ roundups, so a stated niche and third-party proof decide the list.
Category
“Which agencies actually do AEO and GEO, and how do I tell who is any good?”
A new service with no settled shortlist. Agencies that publish how they work, and are described the same way elsewhere, get named.
Comparison
“How do I choose a digital marketing agency, and what should I ask before I sign?”
Almost every buyer asks it. Agencies that answer it plainly, including what to be wary of, earn trust the pitch deck cannot.
Local
“PPC agency in Chicago for a multi-location healthcare group”
Sector, channel and place together. An agency that states all three consistently is far easier to place than one that says it serves everyone.
Examples of how buyers phrase these questions, not measured search volumes.
Why agencies go unnamed
You are good at this for clients. Your own agency is another matter.
Established agencies tend to assume reputation and referrals will carry them into AI answers too. They mostly do not.
“We do everything” cannot be placed
An agency that lists every channel for every sector looks like every other agency to a buyer and to an AI assistant. A named specialism, stated the same way everywhere, is what gets matched to a question.
Client work wins the hours, your own marketing waits
In our audit of 19 established agencies, the agency’s own website was only 2.2% of the sources AI cited, and 13 of the 19 had no citation of their own site at all. Referrals feel like proof that nothing needs fixing, until they slow down.
Directories and rankings decide the shortlist
Clutch, the Semrush agency directory, DesignRush, The CMO and GoodFirms together made up 49 of 760 citations in our audit. Yelp appeared on local queries. An agency absent or thin on these is hard to name.
Other agencies write the lists AI reads
The single most cited domain was another agency’s own site, Thrive Agency, with 28 of 760 citations, mostly city pages and best-of lists. Whoever publishes the comparison shapes the shortlist, and most agencies publish none.
Where AI looks
The places AI looks before it names an agency
These sources appeared most often in our audit of 19 established agencies. If you are not present and accurate on them, you are harder to name.
- TThrive Agencythriveagency.com
Yelpyelp.com- CClutchclutch.co
- SSemrush Agency Partnersagencies.semrush.com
Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org- DDesignRushdesignrush.com
- TThe CMOthecmo.com
- GGoodFirmsgoodfirms.co
Counted across 760 citations in our October 2026 audit. Thrive Agency is a competing agency’s own site, listed because it was the most cited domain. A source appearing here is not an endorsement, and we do not guarantee placement in any directory or ranking.
Our audit
We audited 19 established agencies. Even the experts were patchy.
We asked AI assistants five buyer questions per agency, with the agency’s name left out. Agencies fared better than most industries we have audited, which you would expect from people who sell visibility. Even so, results were uneven.
47.4%
Average AI visibility across 19 established agencies and 95 buyer queries
8 of 19
Named in two of five queries or fewer
5 of 19
Not named in a single query
2.2%
Of cited sources were the agency’s own website
Research
We audited 19 established marketing agencies for AI visibility
Every agency, every score, the full method and its limits. Free to read.
Read the full auditEstablished, mostly large and well-known agencies chosen by us rather than at random, so this likely flatters small and mid-size agencies. A few entries are off-category: a design consultancy, two holding companies and a marketing education blog. One run on one day, and AI answers change. Three agencies could not be scanned.
Positioning, tested against the question
The same agency can be described five ways. Only some can be placed.
A buyer asks AI for an agency in their own words, and the assistant matches that to how agencies describe themselves. The more specific and consistent the description, the easier the match. Here is how we read five common positions, and what we change first.
| How the agency describes itself | What the buyer asks AI | Why it is easy or hard to place | What we change first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-service digital agency | Who can run SEO, paid and content for a 60-person software company? | Every agency claims every channel, so nothing separates one from another | Choose the two or three things you are best at, lead with them and demote the rest |
| Channel specialist: SEO, paid search, content | Best paid search agency for lead generation | Clear on the service, crowded on the list, so proof and reviews do the deciding | Case studies with named clients and outcomes you can evidence, plus complete directory profiles |
| Industry specialist: home services, hospitality, software | Marketing agency that understands manufacturing buyers | Easy to place when the sector is stated consistently, but it also needs mentions from that sector’s own lists and media | Sector pages, sector-specific proof and presence in the lists and publications that sector reads |
| Stage or model specialist: Series A to C, ecommerce, enterprise | Agency for a funded B2B startup that needs pipeline, not traffic | Buyers describe their stage and model, so an agency that names them is matched quickly | Plain pages on who you suit and who you do not, with the pricing logic and what an engagement involves |
| Method or outcome specialist: ABM, AI search, lifecycle | Which agencies actually do AEO and GEO, and how do I tell who is good? | A newer discipline with no settled shortlist, so clear definitions and shown work stand out | Explain the method in public, show real work with permission and keep the description identical across profiles |
The programme
AEO and GEO first. SEO as the foundation underneath.
AI assistants and Google read the web the same way. They look for a clear entity, direct answers and agreement from sources they trust. We build all three, in the order that gets your agency named, and we do it for an agency the way you would want it done for a client.
01
Say what you are best at, once, everywhere
A named specialism, the clients and stage you suit and the work you will turn down, stated in the same words across your site, your profiles and your directory listings. We start with the claim, then make the site able to carry it.
- Positioning statement and service architecture built around one to three specialisms
- Agency and leadership entity profiles and structured data
- Technical fixes so AI crawlers can read every page
02
Turn client work into proof that can be quoted
A result with no client, scope or timeframe cannot be quoted. We help you build case studies and answer pages that name the client where you have permission, say what was done and over what period, and say how the outcome was measured.
- Case study pages with scope, period and measurement, cleared with the client
- Honest guides: agency or in-house, how to choose an agency, what to ask before you sign
- Pages that lead to a booked call, not just a read
03
Earn the lists and profiles buyers and AI read
Directories, review platforms and industry publications shape the shortlist. We audit where you appear, fix what is wrong and help you earn genuine reviews and mentions, openly. If you publish a best-agencies list that includes yourself, we say so on the page.
- Directory and review profile audit and clean-up
- Genuine client review requests, never incentivised for a particular rating
- Industry publication and podcast placements in your sector
04
Measure what AI says about you
We track how assistants describe your agency across the questions your buyers ask, including who gets named instead and which lists they come from, and report it next to search performance and pipeline.
- A baseline audit of AI answers for your specialisms
- Ongoing mention, rival and citation tracking
- Search impressions, enquiries and discovery calls booked
SEO is the foundation of all of this, and we run it properly: technical health, structure, content and links. The aim is the AI answer, because that is where the agency shortlist is forming. The work that gets an agency cited tends to strengthen classic search as well, but we do not promise rankings, citations or a number of enquiries.
Pick your lane
Hybrid is worth considering when you have named target accounts.
Answer four questions and see which lane fits an agency like yours. It is a starting point for the discovery call, not a quote.
Your recommendation
Answer the four questions to see which lane fits.
It takes about twenty seconds. The answer is a starting point for the discovery call, not a quote.
They find you
Inbound
$2,500 a month
Or $6,000 a quarter, or $18,000 a year, paid up front.
AEO, GEO and SEO programme with visitor identification and scoring, so the attention you earn is worked, not just counted.
How AEO and GEO workYou reach them
Outbound
$2,500 a month
Or $6,000 a quarter, or $18,000 a year, paid up front.
Managed outreach across calls, email and LinkedIn to the accounts you choose, timed by buying signals, with human approval before anything sends.
How signal-based outbound worksOur usual recommendation for Marketing, advertising and digital agencies
Both, as one system
Full Hybrid
$5,000 a month
Or $12,000 a quarter, or $36,000 a year, paid up front.
Inbound and Outbound together, synced to one file per prospect, so nothing falls between the two.
Compare the three lanesBilled monthly with no lock-in. We recommend around six months because search and AI citations compound, but it is a recommendation, not a minimum. Prices exclude taxes. Full pricing and Terms.
Is it worth it?
What is one new client worth to your agency?
No benchmarks and no promises. Enter your own figures and see what a few more qualified conversations from search and AI would be worth against the programme fee.
Your numbers, not ours
The figures pre-filled are placeholders, not benchmarks. Replace them with yours. If you do not have them yet, the manual audit estimates demand for you.
2.8
Discovery calls a month
0.7
New clients a month
$33,600
New client value a month
0.4
Months to cover six months of fees
Six months of the programme at monthly billing is $15,000. At $48,000 a client, one new client covers it.
Arithmetic on the figures you entered. It is not a forecast and not a promise of results, and it ignores churn, repeat work and cost of service.
Marketing claims
Built for how agencies should talk about results
Agencies are held to the standard they hold clients to. We write results, case studies and testimonials conservatively from the first draft, and your leadership approves everything, with the client’s sign-off where a client is named, before it goes live.
Results claims need evidence
The US Federal Trade Commission says advertisers need a reasonable basis for a claim before they make it. We write a result only where you hold the data, and we say what it measured and over what period.
Honest case studies
Named clients, logos and figures are used only with written permission. We include scope, timeframe and what else was happening, and we do not present an exceptional result as typical. The FTC’s Endorsement Guides say an ad should make clear the results generally expected if it cannot show an exceptional one is typical.
Testimonials and reviews are genuine
We never write or buy reviews. The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, in force since October 21, 2024, prohibits fake reviews, paying for a particular sentiment and suppressing negative reviews. The FTC’s own questions and answers do not say whether it reaches business-to-business reviews, so ask your counsel how it applies to you.
Lists, awards and rankings
If you publish a best-agencies list that includes yourself, we say so, explain how you chose and avoid unsupported claims such as “number one”. We also tell you which directory placements are paid before you decide.
Outbound is aimed at businesses
The CAN-SPAM Act makes no exception for business-to-business email. It requires accurate sender details, honest subject lines, a clear indication of an advertisement, a physical address and opt-outs honoured within 10 business days. Rules elsewhere differ, and we follow those that apply to you and the recipient.
General information, not legal advice. Advertising, review and email rules differ by country, and your own counsel should make the final call. The US Federal Trade Commission’s guidance on substantiation, endorsements and reviews, and its CAN-SPAM guide, are reference points, not a substitute for advice on your situation.
Free, two ways
Start with an audit. Pick who runs it.
Both are free. One is instant and automated. The other is a person doing the full job.
Option one: instant
Audit my site, now
Enter your domain and our AI visibility checker shows how assistants talk about your agency today and which pages they read to build the answer.
- How AI assistants currently describe you
- Which sources they cite instead of you
- Where your site falls short for AI readers
Option two: a real person
Ask for a manual audit
A member of our team reviews your business by hand. You get the findings and the data, free, whether or not you work with us.
- Full business and website audit
- Competitor research: who gets named and why
- Demand research: what your market actually asks
- The data presented to you, not locked behind a pitch
Free for established businesses auditing their own site. Please use your business email so we can match it to your domain, or email [email protected] confirming the site is yours. We do not run free audits for agencies working on behalf of clients. See white label AEO.
Honest fit
Who this is for, and who it is not for
A good fit
- Established agencies with a real client base, a defined offer and work you are proud to show
- Clients worth enough that one new one pays for the service, on retainer or on projects
- A founder or head of growth who can approve content and clear case studies with clients
- An agency ready to be specific about who it serves, and who it does not
Not a fit
- Brand-new agencies and freelancers with no client base or case work yet
- Agencies that cannot evidence any client outcome and do not want to
- Agencies wanting to resell AEO to their own clients, which is our white-label route, a separate service
- Anyone who wants guaranteed rankings, AI citations or a number of meetings
Works on whatever your website runs on
WordPress
Webflow
Shopify
Squarespace
Wix
Framer
Next.js
Questions
Marketing, advertising and digital agencies: AEO, GEO and SEO, answered
The questions we get asked first.
Why do AI assistants name other agencies and not mine?
Because AI names what is clearly described and widely corroborated. If your site describes you the way every other agency does, and the directories, rankings and roundups AI reads say little about you, you are hard to place, however strong your client work is.
We do SEO for a living. Why would we need this?
You may well be able to do it yourselves. What usually stops agencies is hours, not skill, because client work comes first. AEO and GEO aim to get you named inside the answer an assistant gives, while SEO earns a place in a list of links. They share foundations, so we run both, and you approve the work.
Does specialising really help us get named?
It is the lever we would pull first, though our audit does not prove it. Several agencies with a stated specialism were named often, but two specialist agencies were not named once, so a specialism seems to need independent corroboration from lists and publications to count. Only specialise where you have genuine experience.
Do Clutch and the other directories matter?
They can. Clutch, the Semrush agency directory, DesignRush, The CMO and GoodFirms were among the most cited sources in our audit. We audit where you appear, correct what is wrong and help you earn genuine reviews. We cannot see how AI weights paid placement, and we will tell you which listings are paid.
Should we publish our own best-agencies list?
Agency-written lists were heavily cited in our audit, so they clearly influence answers. If you publish one that includes yourself, say so, show your criteria and be fair to the others. We will not write a list that quietly crowns its publisher.
How do we show results without breaching client confidentiality?
With permission, and honestly. Name the client where you can, anonymise where you cannot, and always say what was done, over what period and how the outcome was measured. We help you ask clients for sign-off and we never invent or inflate a figure.
Can you also fill our pipeline with outbound?
Yes, and many agencies start there because referrals are uneven. We build a named list of target companies, reach founders, CMOs and marketing leads at those organisations and follow the email rules that apply. We have one published case study of an agency reducing referral dependency with managed outbound. It is a single client result, not a typical one.
We want to offer AEO to our own clients. Is this the same thing?
No. This page is about getting your own agency named. If you want to deliver AI visibility work to clients under your own brand, our white-label route is built for that and is a separate service.
Is the free audit really free?
Yes. The instant audit runs on our AI visibility checker. A manual audit is done by a person for agencies reviewing their own site, using a business email matched to your domain. We do not run free audits for client sites, so use it on your own agency and talk to us about white-label for client work.
What does it cost, and do you guarantee results?
Inbound is $2,500 a month on monthly billing with no long-term commitment, or $6,000 a quarter or $18,000 a year paid up front. Outbound is the same price and Full Hybrid is $5,000 a month. We recommend around six months, but you can cancel any time. We do not guarantee rankings, AI citations or a number of enquiries.
Be the agency AI names when your buyers ask.
Thirty minutes. We look at where you stand in AI answers and search, who is being named instead, and whether this programme makes sense for your business. If it does not, we will say so.
- A clear scope and price before any commitment
- A game plan you validate before work begins
- A free audit either way, instant or by a person
Pick a time that suits you
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Receipts
Where the numbers on this page come from
- 01
Deligatr AI visibility audit of 19 established marketing agencies
95 live grounded buyer queries and 760 citations, run in October 2026. Average visibility 47.4%. 8 of 19 agencies named in two of five queries or fewer. Three of 22 agencies could not be scanned.
- 02
US Federal Trade Commission, Advertising FAQs: A Guide for Small Business
Guidance that advertisers need a reasonable basis, meaning objective evidence, for claims before they make them.
- 03
US Federal Trade Commission, FTC’s Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking
Guidance on disclosing material connections and on making clear the generally expected results when an endorsement shows exceptional ones. The guides were revised in 2023.
- 04
US Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule: Questions and Answers
The rule, effective October 21, 2024, prohibits fake reviews, paying for a particular sentiment and review suppression.
- 05
US Federal Trade Commission, CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business
States that the law makes no exception for business-to-business email and sets out the main requirements, including honouring opt-outs within 10 business days.
Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and the other names and logos shown on this page are trademarks of their respective owners. They are shown to identify the search and AI platforms, website platforms and publications we refer to, and do not imply endorsement or affiliation. The AI answer mock-up and buyer questions are illustrative.