The question that most clearly separates a real AEO agency from a rebranded SEO shop is this: ‘What is your strategy for earned media?’. A confident agency will detail a plan to get your brand cited by trusted third parties. A weak one will pivot back to the comfortable territory of on-page SEO and schema markup. The distinction matters, because the way B2B buyers discover and choose vendors has fundamentally changed.
A Semrush survey of 622 US B2B professionals, published in July 2026, found that 75% trust AI vendor recommendations and 97% say AI has helped them discover a new vendor. If you are not named in those AI-generated answers, you are invisible to a huge and growing share of your market. This shift makes a new specialism, Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO, or getting the robot to name you before it names anyone else), non-negotiable.
What Defines a True AEO Agency
AEO is not just SEO with a new acronym. Traditional SEO focuses on getting your own website to rank in a list of blue links. AEO focuses on getting your brand's name and value proposition woven into the fabric of a synthesised, conversational answer. This is a different problem that requires a different solution, because AI visibility correlates most with third-party mentions, not on-page work, as research from Ahrefs shows.
This means an agency focusing its efforts on your own website is working on the wrong problem, because the AI is listening more to what others say about you. The data on what AI engines actually cite makes this distinction stark, showing a clear preference for third-party validation over brand-owned content.
Why the work is off your own site
75%
of B2B buyers trust AI vendor recommendations
Source: Semrush survey, July 2026
40.1%
of AI citations come from Reddit, the single most-cited source
Source: Semrush
90%
of 177 brands analysed had no mentions in AI answers
Source: Instant Press
Reddit alone accounts for 40.1% of AI citations, according to Semrush, which sends a clear message: your company blog and product pages are not where the answers are sourced. The AI is listening to what reviewers, forum users and journalists say about you. With a clear majority of buyers trusting these answers, being part of that consensus is no longer a nice-to-have, it is a primary commercial channel.
The Litmus Test: On-Page vs. Off-Page Strategy
This is why an agency’s obsession with on-page factors is a red flag. While technical health and structured data are table stakes for being understood by crawlers, they do not build the authority that earns a recommendation. An agency that leads with schema markup is like a political candidate focusing on the font of their flyers. It misses the point entirely. Think of it less as technical SEO and more as digital public relations; the goal is to win influence, not just crawlability.
The difference in approach becomes clear when you compare their core strategies side-by-side. A rebranded SEO shop sells a technical process; a true AEO agency sells a strategic outcome based on influence.
| Focus Area | Rebranded SEO Agency's Pitch | True AEO Agency's Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Sourcing | "We'll optimise your site with schema so AIs can read it." | "We'll secure you coverage and citations in the sources AIs already trust." |
| Tactics | "We'll write AI-friendly content for your blog." | "We'll run digital PR campaigns to place your experts in third-party content." |
| Metrics | "We'll track your 'rank' for a few keywords in ChatGPT." | "We'll measure your Share of Voice across multiple models and key buyer questions." |
| Deliverables | Monthly reports on your website's technical score. | A growing portfolio of earned media mentions and a rising citation count. |
Seven Questions to Ask Any Potential AEO Agency
To cut through the noise and find a partner who understands the new landscape, you need to ask questions that test their strategic depth, not their technical checklist. These seven questions are designed to expose an agency that is merely talking the AEO talk.
1. What is your strategy for earned media and digital PR? This is the most important question. A strong answer will involve identifying influential publications, creating data-backed stories, and conducting targeted outreach. A weak answer will deflect back to on-site content.
A vague response about 'creating great content' is a major red flag. A competent agency should instead speak in terms of campaigns, target publications, and data-driven narratives, explaining exactly how they turn your internal expertise into stories that journalists want to cover. That is the raw material for AI citations.
2. How do you measure AEO success beyond volatile spot-checks? Any agency can run a few queries and send a screenshot. A real partner will talk about methodologies for measuring share of voice at scale and tracking sentiment over time, acknowledging that spot-checking can be an unreliable indicator of performance.
Want to get recommended by AI?
Check your AI search visibility, then let the Honeyb agent write, fix, and earn what gets you recommended. Free to start.
Their answer reveals their technical maturity. A sophisticated agency will discuss using APIs to query models at scale, acknowledging that one-off manual searches are highly variable. As SparkToro data shows, the same AI query changes its answer around 70% of the time. This means a single screenshot of a good result is meaningless; you need to measure consistently to know if you are truly visible over time.
3. Which specific third-party sources are most influential for our industry, and why? This tests whether they have a generic playbook or a tailored approach. They should be able to name specific review sites, trade journals, or forums relevant to your niche and explain why they matter to the AI's knowledge base.
Their answer reveals if they have done their homework. For a B2B SaaS company, they should mention specific subreddits, industry analyst reports, and high-authority software review sites, not just recite a generic script. For instance, with Reddit being the single most-cited source in AI answers at 40.1% of all citations (according to Semrush), a strategy that ignores it is not just incomplete, it is deliberately ignoring the single biggest lever.
4. **Can you show us a case study where you measurably increased a client's *citations*, not just their website traffic?** Ask for proof that they have successfully influenced AI answers before. Look for evidence of new, positive mentions appearing in engine responses after their engagement began.
You should pay close attention to the metrics they present, because a case study focused on vanity 'impressions' is less convincing than one showing new citations for commercially important queries. The best proof is a clear before-and-after snapshot of AI responses, demonstrating a tangible shift in the brand's visibility.
5. How do you differentiate between on-page signals and off-page authority in your methodology? A good answer will acknowledge that on-page work is foundational for crawlability, but that off-page authority from citations is what actually drives recommendations. They might say something like, 'We'll ensure your site is technically perfect so AI crawlers can understand it, but most of our effort will go on earning you mentions in places like industry reports and high-authority blogs, because that's what gets you named in answers.' This shows they understand what AI visibility is and how to achieve it.
6. What is your process for analysing the competitor citation landscape? Before they can win you citations, they need to know who is already winning them and from where. They should describe a clear process for auditing competitor mentions and identifying the sources that confer authority in your space.
Their process should involve tools for scraping AI answers to identify the domains cited most often. This creates a data-driven view of which publications confer authority for your competitors, forming the basis of a targeted outreach list, rather than a vague promise to 'look at their backlinks'.
7. What deliverables should we expect beyond a monthly report? The output of an AEO engagement should be tangible assets: new articles in trade publications, positive mentions on review sites, and inclusion in influential listicles. The report should track the impact of these assets, not be the deliverable itself. A good agency will provide a clear picture of the AEO services they provide.
The goal is to acquire assets that have a life of their own and continue to build your authority long after a campaign ends. An agency focused on outputs, not just reports, understands that their job is to build your brand's permanent presence in the places AI models go for information. This is a fundamental shift from SEO's focus on ephemeral rankings.
How Do You Measure the ROI of an AEO Engagement?
The ultimate goal of AEO is not just to be mentioned, but to acquire customers. The ROI is measured by tracking the journey from citation to conversion. This begins with establishing a baseline for your AI Share of Voice and monitoring its growth. As your brand appears in more answers, you should see a corresponding lift in direct and referral traffic, branded search, and leads who say they 'heard about you' in new places.
Given that an analysis of 177 brands across eight AI platforms, cited by Instant Press, found about 90% of them had no mentions at all, simply getting on the board is a significant competitive advantage.
Hiring the right AEO agency is now one of the larger marketing decisions a B2B company makes. The wrong partner will waste your budget on outdated tactics, while the right one will secure your place in the primary discovery channel for the next decade. The first step is to get an honest assessment of where you stand today.
Find out how visible your brand is in the answers your customers see. Run a free audit with our AI Visibility Checker to get your baseline score in minutes.
