The Agency Owner’s Guide to Selling AI Search Optimization

This You’re pitching AI Search Optimization next week. Here’s the problem: your client’s buyers are already getting answers from AI search Engines, LLMs, and AI Modes before they ever see a blue link. If your brand isn’t present, cited, and inside that AI overview box, you’re invisible.

Now ask yourself one question you can’t dodge: when AI fires on your money keywords, are you present, cited, and clickable? If you can’t prove it with screenshots and numbers, you’ve got a gap the size of a quarter’s revenue.

Google’s AI Overviews reached massive scale in 2024 and kept expanding through 2025, while independent studies show clicks often drop on pages with AI summaries. That means your strategy has to shift from “rank under the box” to “earn a seat inside the AI Answer box.”

This post shows you how to sell that shift. You’ll get a productized AI Search Audit you can pitch in 10 minutes.

We’ll also frame everything from a business owner’s perspective, so the conversation moves from traffic to pipeline. By the end, you’ll have the talk track, the deliverables, and the numbers to close an add-on or a standalone engagement. Ready to make AI Search Optimization part of your services, not just your slide deck?

Why This Matters Now: “Search Isn’t Just Google Anymore”

Think about how you searched for something ten years ago. You typed a few words into Google, scanned a page full of blue links, and clicked the one that looked right. Fast forward to today, and the landscape has changed completely.

Now, your answer might come directly from an AI Overview before you even touch a website. And it’s not just Google doing this.

Four AI platforms are stealing your clients’ traffic:

• Google’s AI Overviews have rolled out globally, reaching over a billion people each month. When they appear, studies show people click fewer traditional links,  sometimes 30% fewer,  because the answer’s already on the screen.
• ChatGPT, with its browsing feature for Plus and Enterprise users, is pulling live web results into neatly packaged, conversational answers. It’s become a daily go-to for students, marketers, and business owners alike.
• Perplexity has quietly grown into one of the fastest-rising AI-native search tools, with tens of millions of active users each month. It’s known for showing its sources clearly, which is great news if you’re cited, and bad news if you’re not.
• Bing Copilot is baked into Microsoft’s browser and productivity tools, meaning your content can surface inside someone’s Word document or Teams chat before they even open a search engine tab.

The common thread? Buyers are no longer starting with a list of links. They’re reading synthesized, AI-generated answers, often without ever clicking through to the source.

In fact, research shows that when an AI summary appears, up to 80% of searches end without a click. That means your brand could be completely left out of the conversation if it’s not showing up in those AI answers.

And here’s the kicker: large language models like ChatGPT and Perplexity remember which sources they trust. If your business isn’t part of that source list now, it can be much harder to break in later.

Bottom line:

The new game isn’t just ranking in Google. It’s being present, cited, and clickable across every AI-driven search experience,  from Google’s AI Overviews to ChatGPT to Perplexity to Bing Copilot. That’s where Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) come in, and that’s exactly what we’ll unpack next.

What AI Search Optimization Actually Is

Use this one sentence everywhere, in emails, on calls, and in proposals.

AI search optimization means earning brand presence inside AI answers and AI-native engines, then capturing demand with answer-shaped content, schema, credible citations, and clear next steps. It has two core parts.

• AEO, Answer Engine Optimization
  You structure, cite, and clarify content so AI systems can extract it cleanly, summarize it accurately, and attribute it to you.
• GEO, Generative Engine Optimization
  You target AI-native platforms like ChatGPT, Bing Copilot and Perplexity by matching their preferred answer shapes and trusted sources.

The Simplest way to explain it: We make your best answers the easiest and safest for AI to cite. Then we track presence, citations, and assisted conversions.

The Productized Entry Point. Sell an AI Search Audit

This AI Search audit service is your foot in the door. It is low friction for the client, billable for you, and sets up the roadmap.

Scope

• 50 to 150 priority questions across the funnel
• Presence in Google AIO, Bing Copilot, Perplexity, and ChatGPT with browsing
• Citation count and link placement inside the AI answer
• Content format fit for AEO and GEO
• Entities and schema coverage, for example, Organization, FAQ, HowTo, Product, Review
• E-E-A-T signals, bylines, and freshness cadence

Deliverables

• AI Visibility Scorecard: Appearance rate by engine and by funnel stage, with screenshots
• Citations Map: Where you are named and linked, and where competitors are cited instead
• Top 10 Answer Gaps: The exact pages or sections to build next
• Schema and Entity Pack: Prioritized markup and canonical entity links
• 90-day action plan:  Tasks, owners, effort ranges, and a publishing calendar

Talk track you can say out loud

“Right now, your brand appears in X of Y AI answers for your revenue topics. Here are three quick wins to increase coverage in 30 to 60 days, with examples of the answer shapes we will ship.”

Build Answerable Pages AI Wants to Cite

This is how you execute AEO and GEO without jargon.

Answer shapes that perform

• One-sentence takeaway or definition at the top
• Ordered steps or a short checklist
• Pros and cons with one sentence proof points
• Comparison table with specs, pricing ranges, and use cases
• Plain-English FAQs that mirror real queries
• Three credible citations that are easy to parse

Implementation checklist

• Publish answer cards for each high-value question. Aim for 300 to 600 words, one table, three citations, and one next step
• Add a schema that clarifies the structure to LLM bots.
• Strengthen E-E-A-T with author credentials, last updated stamps, and conflict-free references
• Link to canonical entities like standards bodies or Wikipedia when appropriate
• Refresh winners every 60 to 90 days to maintain confidence and freshness

Why this matters

When AIO shows, many sessions end without a click. The pages that do win a click need to answer fast, build trust, and convert within one scroll.

Download the Free AI Guide for Digital Agencies

GEO Tactics for ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot

GEO is not about gaming a model. It is about being the easiest safe citation across AI-native answers.

• Use concise sections that models can quote without heavy editing
• Prefer primary sources, original charts, and data you own
• Add short “how to choose” frameworks and ballpark costs
• Include honest alternatives and who each option is best for
• Keep UX light, with a clear next step, because AI-referred visitors skim faster

Perplexity’s clear source boxes reward clean structure and credible references. With roughly 22 million active users in early 2025, it belongs in your baseline and monthly scorecard. 

Discovery Questions that Surface Money

Use these in your first call or audit kickoff.

• Which services have the highest margin and shortest sales cycle?
• Where do buyers get confused and stall?
• Which comparison X vs Y or best for use-case queries leads to real opportunities?
• What first-party data can we publish without legal risk?
• Who can approve the schema and bylines this week?

Close the section with a small ask. If we get five answer cards live in two weeks, can we run a 60-day pilot?

Two Packaging Routes: Standalone Project or Add-on

You can win new logos with a tidy project or upsell current retainers with an AI layer.

Option A: Sell it as a standalone

• AI Search Audit for the baseline and create the strategic plan
• Audit plus Implementation Sprint for five to ten answer cards, schema on five to ten URLs, entity linking, and one CRO pass on three pages
• Executive readout at day 30 or 45

Option B: Sell it as an AI SEO Service Add-On to your retainer

• Monthly presence tracking across Goofle AI Overview(AIO), ChatGPT with browsing, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot
• Two new or refreshed answer cards per month
• Quarterly schema and entity updates
• Competitor share-of-voice watchlist

Pricing You Can Say Out Loud on a First Call

Pick names that sound like products, list outcomes, and give a range. Keep it simple and predictable.

Start with the AI Search audit to know your baseline. Use the Implementation to prove movement. Keep momentum with the Add-On or step up to the Program once unit economics look good.

A 30-60-90 Plan That Your Team Can Actually Deliver

Foundation & Baseline: Days 1 – 30 

• Stakeholder intake and topic map
• Establish a 100-query baseline across Google AIO, Bing Copilot, Perplexity, and ChatGPT with browsing
• Deliver five answer cards and add schema to five core URLs
• Scorecard version one, executive readout, pilot go or no go

Expansion & Citations: Days 31 – 60

• Ship ten more answer cards
• Build two comparison tables for high-intent decisions
• Launch PR and digital relations for citations from associations or standards groups
• CRO pass on pages already receiving AIO impressions

Authority & Scale: Days 61 – 90

• Expand into problem-aware and solution-aware questions
• Publish a small first-party dataset or mini study to earn links and citations
• Executive brief and a six-month plan to scale

Objections You Will Hear, and the Answers That Land

“We only pay for traffic”

Acknowledge that traffic matters. Then show that when AI Overviews appear, click-through rates often fall and zero-click behavior rises, so visibility and assisted conversions deserve a seat next to traffic in your KPIs. 

“AI Overviews do not show much in our niche”

Coverage varies by market and query type. Your audit measures their terms, their country, and their funnel.

“This sounds like regular SEO”

Classic SEO still matters. AEO focuses on answer shape, structure, schema, and citations. GEO focuses on AI-native engines and how they select safe sources. Your measurement layer tracks presence, citations, and link position inside answers, which rank trackers miss.

“Will ChatGPT or Perplexity actually send visitors?”

Yes, and it is growing. Digiday reports ChatGPT referrals to publishers nearly doubled in 2025. This is one reason to add ChatGPT and Perplexity to your scorecard and dashboards. 

Measurement That Proves Progress without Overpromising

Track visibility and business outcomes side by side.

Visibility metrics

• Appearance rate in AI answers by engine and by funnel stage
• Citation count and whether the brand link is present
• Link placement inside the AI box or chat answer
• Competitor share of voice inside answers

Business metrics

• Assisted conversions from pages that fuel AI answers
• Branded search lift in markets where AIO shows often
• Lead quality from pages that win answer cards
• One survey prompt on thank you pages. Did you first see us in an AI answer?

Simple ROI model for your deck

• 100 target questions
• Current presence in AI answers. 10 percent
• Target after 90 days. 35 percent
• Incremental assisted conversions from pages tied to those questions. 40 per month
• Close rate from assisted conversions. 12 percent
• Average deal value. 3,000 dollars
• Added monthly revenue. 40 x 12 percent x 3,000 dollars equals 14,400 dollars
• Pilot cost. 12,000 dollars

Call it a planning model, not a guarantee. Commit to the inputs you control—production, structure, citations, and testing.

The Copy You Can Paste into Your Proposal

Problem slide

AI answers now appear on a meaningful share of queries. As a result, Independent data shows CTR often declines and zero-click behaviour increase when AIO appears. This means your brand needs visibility inside those answers, not just under them.

Solution slide

Baseline, build answerable assets, measure, and iterate. We target your top 100 questions, publish 15 answer cards, add schema, and track AI share of voice across Google AIO, ChatGPT with browsing, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot.

Offer slide

Pick the AI Search Audit for clarity, Audit plus Implementation for quick wins, or the AI SEO Add-On to fold AEO and GEO into your SEO program.

Owner lens

This is paid discovery with clear outputs. If the pilot shows improved presence and early assisted conversions, we will continue on a monthly add-on. If not, you still keep the assets and the scorecard.

Closing

Your buyers are reading AI answers before they ever see your site. Your job is to earn a seat inside those answers, prove it with an AI Visibility Scorecard, and translate that presence into assisted conversions and pipeline. Start with the AI Search Audit, ship the rest following the strategy.

Conclusion

AI search is reshaping how people find and choose businesses, and agencies that act now will have the edge. Having a clear plan and the right expertise behind you makes it far easier to sell and deliver these services with confidence.

That’s where E2M plugs in as your white-label AI SEO Service partner. First, We’ll prep a ready-to-sell AI Search Optimization audit(AISO), shape the plan, and produce the assets under your brand. While you stay in front of the client.

Contact us and ask for the “AI Search Audit” starter kit. We’ll help you pitch it this week!