Choosing an AEO or GEO marketing agency: What to check and which sources AI cites

Choose an AEO or GEO marketing agency by whether it provides the original measurement data for each round, where it gets its question set, and whether it counts traffic that comes via AI. AEO and GEO are usually the same work under different names, so compare what the agency actually does rather than what it calls it.

Search for AEO marketing, GEO marketing, or AEO GEO marketing and you get a mix of agency names and definition articles. PION repeatedly enters agency-recommendation questions into ChatGPT and Gemini in the same way and tallies the sources the answers cite by domain. This tally counts which kinds of pages get cited.

1. Are AEO marketing and GEO marketing the same work?

In most cases they are the same work under different names, and PION runs the two together as a single operation. AEO stands for answer engine optimization: getting a brand cited in the answers ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews produce. GEO, generative engine optimization, is a broader term that extends to how a brand is explained in the body of an answer and on what grounds. Some agencies lead with AEO and others with GEO, but open the proposal and you find the same sequence. The meaning of the terms and how they differ from SEO are covered in What are AEO and GEO? How they differ from SEO and where to start.

The 'AEO certified companies,' 'AEO authorized companies,' and 'AEO company lookup' that also show up in searches refer to the Korea Customs Service's Authorized Economic Operator program for import-export safety management. The spelling is the same, but it has nothing to do with marketing's AEO.

2. What an AEO/GEO marketing agency does

The work follows four stages: selecting questions, measuring answers, publishing pages, and tracking traffic. One PION team handles them in sequence. Each stage has a deliverable the brand should receive.

If any of these is missing from the proposal, the brand has to do that work itself. Publishing without measurement means you can't say how AI answers changed after publishing, and without traffic tracking, you can't connect your name appearing in AI answers to revenue.

3. Which sources does AI cite when recommending agencies?

Count the types of domains in the source list rather than the agency names in the body of the answer. PION repeats this tally for each agency-recommendation question and keeps the records.

To do it yourself, enter one question several times over a few days and count the source domains. That shows whether agencies' official pages or third-party articles get cited first. If an agency appears often in the answers, it means many third-party articles cover that agency, and whether those articles reflect real capability or visibility campaigns can't be determined from the answers alone.

4. What to check before hiring an AEO/GEO agency or consultant

Look in the proposal for three items: the original measurement data, the source of the question set, and traffic tracking. Case lists look similar from agency to agency, but these three items are either in the proposal or they aren't.

Do they provide the original measurement data? Instead of a single screenshot, you should receive the original answer text and cited URLs for each round. AI answers come out differently each time, even for the same question, so a screen captured once can't tell you whether anything changed. PION keeps the full answer text and source list for every round and shares them as they are.

Where do they get the question set? If you start from a generic question list the agency brings, it will diverge from what your customers actually ask. Look in the proposal for whether the questions were chosen from consultation and inquiry records, communities, and search terms with search volume, and whether they're finalized together with the brand.

Do they count traffic too? Your name appearing in an AI answer and customers actually arriving are separate things. Check whether they count visits from AI sources such as chatgpt.com and gemini.google.com separately in GA4, and whether their reports show if those visits led to inquiries.

AEO/GEO consulting covers question selection, measurement, and site review from this list, while the brand handles publishing itself. If you have someone in-house to write articles, consulting is enough; if not, choose a GEO/AEO agency that also handles publishing. The five items to put in the contract are in GEO agency recommendations: Why AI answers change and how to choose, and the line between consulting and full-service agency work is in Choosing a GEO agency: What to compare before hiring a consultant.

You can see how PION's AEO and GEO marketing is structured, along with its contract types, in the GEO agency service overview. To find out where your brand stands before you look into agencies, use the eight items in the AI answer visibility basics check.