To choose an answer engine optimization (AEO) agency, make it prove three things before you talk about price: that it will show you what AI tools say about the agency itself, that it will track a fixed list of your buyers’ questions across named engines and show you the logged answers every month, and that its fix list is mostly facts, profiles, reviews and content rather than technical files. Any agency that guarantees placement, reports only a score, or leads with llms.txt and “AI schema” should drop to the bottom of your list.
Below are 12 questions for the first call, with the answer you want and the answer that should worry you, then a red-flags list and a scorecard. The questions apply whether the service is sold as AEO, AI search optimization, generative engine optimization (GEO) or “getting found in ChatGPT.” For how the engines choose local businesses, read our guide to how AI search picks local businesses. For what the service tends to cost, see our AEO services cost guide.
Why vetting matters more here
AEO is new enough that there is no track record to check, nobody publishes a ranking formula, and answers change from run to run. The engines have still said enough to test an agency’s claims. Google’s Search Central documentation on AI features states there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode and no special optimizations necessary. OpenAI’s crawler documentation says sites that opt out of its OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, the one technical gate that matters. If a pitch contradicts those pages, you have your answer.
Proof and measurement
1. Show me your own AI visibility
An agency that sells AI visibility should have it. Ask them to open a logged-out ChatGPT, Google AI Mode or Perplexity session on the call and ask what their own customers would ask: “Which agency does AI search optimization in [their city]?”
A strong answer sounds like: “Here is the screen share, and here is the same prompt from our log the last two months.” Even “we are named in two of four engines and here is what we are doing about the others” is good, because it is honest and specific.
A weak answer sounds like: “Our clients are the proof, not us,” an undated screenshot, or a change of subject. If they cannot do it for themselves, with full control of their own site and profiles, ask why they can do it for you.
2. Which prompts will you track, and how often?
AI answers are built per question. “Best marketing agency Detroit” and “who should a Detroit restaurant hire for social media” can return different names. The agency should propose a fixed set of buyer prompts tied to the services you want named, agree it with you, and ask the same prompts on the same schedule.
A strong answer sounds like: “We start with 15 to 25 prompts written the way your customers talk, agree them with you, and ask each one to each engine every month. We do not quietly drop the ones you are losing.”
A weak answer sounds like: “We monitor your brand across AI.” Customers who already know your name do not need AI to find you.
3. Which engines, and how are you asking them?
ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity draw on different indexes, and their answers differ. The agency should name the engines it covers and say whether checks run logged out, in a clean session, from your market, because an account with history skews results.
A strong answer sounds like: “ChatGPT with search, Google AI Mode, Copilot and Perplexity, each asked in a fresh logged-out session from Metro Detroit, with the full answer saved.”
A weak answer sounds like: “All the major AI platforms,” with no list, or a tool name in place of a method.
4. How do you report?
The report is the product. It should show the prompt, the engine, the date, who was named and in what order, next to your Google positions and your Search Console data. Google’s documentation on how Search Console counts clicks and impressions says a click on a link in an AI Overview or in AI Mode counts as a click, reported within the Web search type, so the agency can show that trend too.
A strong answer sounds like: “Here is a sample report. Every prompt result is logged with a date. The summary shows how many prompts you won this month versus last, and the back pages show the actual answers.”
A weak answer sounds like: “You get an AI visibility score each month.” A score alone cannot be checked, cannot be compared across agencies, and moves when someone changes which prompts are counted.
Method and honesty
5. Do you guarantee placement?
The only correct answer is no. Engines change, answers vary by phrasing and by run, competitors work on the same signals, and no engine sells a slot in its recommendations. Google’s AI features documentation is explicit that there are no additional requirements and no special optimizations, which means there is no switch an agency can flip.
A strong answer sounds like: “No. We guarantee the work and the reporting. You will see exactly what each engine said every month.”
A weak answer sounds like: “We guarantee top-three placement in ChatGPT within 90 days.” Walk away.
6. What exactly do you change, and what do you sell as the fix?
This separates agencies doing the work from agencies selling a file. Ask for the fix list in writing. The substance of AEO is unglamorous: identical business facts everywhere; a complete Google Business Profile; real, recent reviews; listings on the directories and local lists each engine draws from; and pages that state who you are, what you do, where and for whom in the first paragraph, with FAQs in the words buyers use. Google’s May 2025 Search Central post on performing well in AI experiences makes the same points: unique content, a good page experience, structured data that matches the visible page, supporting images and video, and current Business Profile information.
Two items deserve a direct question. On llms.txt, a proposed text file for AI crawlers, Google’s documentation says you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or markup for its AI features. On “AI schema” sold as a product, the same page says there is no special schema.org structured data you need to add. Standard markup is good practice; a premium charge for it is not.
A strong answer sounds like: “Month one is facts and the Business Profile. Months two and three are citations and the review plan. Then we rewrite your service pages and add FAQs. Schema is part of the page work.”
A weak answer sounds like: A fix list that is mostly technical files, a one-time “AI optimization” of existing pages with no new content, or an agency that cannot say what it would change on your Business Profile.
7. Who produces the content and the photos?
Most of the fix list ends in content: service pages, FAQs, case results, and the photos and video that make them credible. An audit that tells you to produce all of that yourself is a report, not a service.
A strong answer sounds like: “Our writers draft the pages from interviews with you, our crew shoots the photos and video, and you approve everything before it goes live.”
A weak answer sounds like: “We will send you a content brief,” or pages generated by a tool with no interviews and no photos. Thin text written to sound like an answer is what every competitor can also produce.
8. Do you handle Google Business Profile and Yelp?
For local answers, the Business Profile is the biggest input to Google’s AI and map results, and review sites feed every engine. The agency should manage both and know the rules. Google’s Business Profile guidelines require the name to match how the business is represented in the real world. Google’s contribution policy allows asking for reviews but bans incentives, discouraging negative reviews and selectively soliciting positive ones. Yelp’s content guidelines say businesses should never ask customers to write reviews. Our guide to Business Profile photos and video covers the content side.
A strong answer sounds like: “Yes. We audit categories, services, products and photos, set up a review request flow that fits each platform’s rules, and respond to reviews in your voice with your approval.”
A weak answer sounds like: “The profile is yours to manage,” or any offer to “boost” reviews. The FTC’s 2024 rule bans fake and bought reviews, including AI-generated ones, and allows civil penalties against knowing violators.
Money and exit
9. How do you tie this to leads?
AI referrals are hard to measure because many answers send a customer to call or search for you rather than click. A good agency combines several imperfect signals: a “how did you hear about us” field on every form and phone script with an AI option, tracked links on the pages AI tools cite, referral sessions from AI domains in your analytics, and the Search Console trend above.
A strong answer sounds like: “We add a lead-source question to your forms and intake calls in week one, so from month two we can tell you how many leads named an AI tool.”
A weak answer sounds like: “AI traffic cannot be tracked,” which is an excuse, or “we report the visibility score,” which is not a lead.
10. What happens to our accounts and content if we leave?
Your Business Profile, website, domain, analytics, directory listings and review-site accounts should be owned by your business, with the agency added as a user. Google’s Business Profile roles documentation says owners have full control while managers can do nearly everything except add or remove users or remove the profile. Be the primary owner; give the agency manager access. Directory logins the agency creates should be in your name.
A strong answer sounds like: “You own everything. We work as a manager on your profile and a user on your site. The pages we write are yours, and the prompt log goes with you.”
A weak answer sounds like: “We set everything up under our agency account to keep it simple.” That simplicity costs you the profile if the relationship ends badly.
11. How long is the contract, and what does it take to leave?
Fact and profile fixes can change how an engine describes a business within weeks, but being recommended for competitive prompts depends on reviews and citations that build over months, so a term of several months is reasonable. A long term with no exit for missed work is not. Our guide to choosing a marketing agency in Detroit covers the contract clauses in detail.
A strong answer sounds like: “Deliverables are listed by month. You can end the agreement with notice if we miss them, and there is no automatic renewal you have to catch.”
A weak answer sounds like: A 12-month commitment paid up front, or a monthly fee with no written list of what it buys.
12. What does it cost, and what is excluded?
Pricing varies widely because scope does: how many services and markets you want named, how much content must be produced, and how much of the fix list you want done for you. The quote should list what is included and what is billed separately: shoots, directory fees, review software, ad spend, extra markets. Our AEO services cost guide covers the market ranges and what moves them.
A strong answer sounds like: “Here is a scope sheet. The retainer covers the audit, the profile, the citations, four pages and the monthly report. Shoots and paid listings are quoted separately.”
A weak answer sounds like: A package price with no scope, or a low entry price that covers an audit and nothing else.
How to score the call. Count the answers that include a prompt, an engine, a named profile field or a specific page on your site. If most do, the agency does this work for a living. If most are reassurance and acronyms, keep calling.
Red flags
- Guaranteed placement, rankings or a number of AI mentions
- Cannot or will not show its own AI visibility live
- Reports only a proprietary score with no prompt log
- Fix list led by llms.txt, “AI schema” or other files Google says it does not need
- No plan for your Business Profile or review sites, or offers to generate or “boost” reviews
- Content from a tool with no interviews, no photos and no approval step
- Accounts or listings set up under the agency’s name
- Claims that AI referrals cannot be measured
- A long prepaid term with no exit for missed deliverables
A simple scorecard
Score each agency from 1 to 5 on each line after the first call and the proposal.
| Criterion | What a 5 looks like |
|---|---|
| Own visibility | Named by some engines for its own services, shown live and in a dated log |
| Prompt set | Fixed, agreed buyer prompts, asked on a stated schedule |
| Engines and method | Named engines, logged-out sessions, full answers saved |
| Reporting | Prompt log plus Google positions and Search Console data |
| Guarantees | None, stated plainly, with the reasoning |
| Fix list | Facts, profile, reviews, citations and pages; files treated as routine |
| Content and photos | Produced by the agency’s own people, approved and owned by you |
| Profiles and reviews | Manages the Business Profile and review sites within platform rules |
| Lead tracking | Lead-source question, tracked links, referral and Search Console data |
| Ownership | You are primary owner everywhere; the agency is a manager or user |
| Contract | Deliverables by month, exit for missed work, no auto-renewal trap |
| Cost clarity | Scope sheet with inclusions and exclusions listed separately |
A low score on guarantees, fix list or ownership should end the conversation.
How we handle this at RAW Digital Group
RAW Digital Group offers AEO to Detroit and Michigan businesses. See our AI search optimization (AEO) service, or tell us what your customers should be asking AI.