Most startups should start with a platform or a part-time specialist, and hire an AEO agency only when someone on the team can review the work. Published ranges run from about $1,000 to more than $25,000 a month, and each source sells related services. Google says optimizing for AI search is still SEO, so ask what an agency adds.
An AEO agency tries to get your brand named and cited in AI answers. MarketerHire, a marketing talent marketplace, lists these kinds of work: rewriting pages with answer-first openings and clear headings, adding structured data, earning mentions on the sites AI tools pull from, monitoring which engines cite you, and technical audits.
Much of that is ordinary SEO. Google's guide to generative AI search says that from Google Search's perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO. The same guide lists things you can ignore for Google Search: llms.txt files, breaking content into tiny pieces, writing in a special way for AI, chasing inauthentic mentions, and over-focusing on structured data.
So the first question for any agency is simple: which parts of the plan go beyond normal SEO, and why do they matter? Google's guide covers Google Search only. ChatGPT and other tools publish less, so a good agency should tell you what it knows, what it is testing, and what it is guessing.
We found no independent price survey for AEO. Every figure below comes from a company that sells AEO services or staffing, so read them as asking prices, not market data.
Scope is the hidden variable. Two quotes at the same price can mean different amounts of writing, technical work and reporting, so ask for the scope in writing.
In-house. Discovered Labs (source) estimates one in-house specialist at $108,000 to $121,000 a year for salary and benefits, and says one person leaves gaps in engineering and content. It is an agency, so it has a reason to make hiring look hard. Treat the number as a rough guide and check pay for your own region.
Platform. A platform swaps the retainer for a software fee. Mergeflo's pricing page lists a Free plan with 250 credits once and no credit card, Core at $329 a month and Growth at $999 a month. Yearly billing is 10% less. Other platforms price differently, so check each pricing page.
For the SEO version of this choice, see SEO retainer vs autonomous SEO vs in-house.
If those do not fit yet, a platform or a part-time specialist is the lower-risk start. Discovered Labs recommends a hybrid for most Series A to D B2B SaaS companies: product marketing in-house, with technical and off-site work outsourced. That is one vendor's view, but the idea is sound. Keep product knowledge and approvals close, and buy outside help for specific jobs.
Yes. The core is ordinary good SEO plus clear answers. A small team can run it in four steps.
Mergeflo is software, not an agency. It finds search gaps and buyer questions, writes briefs and drafts articles (SEO or AEO style) in your brand voice, adds FAQ schema when an article is published, and runs quality and claim checks before an article can publish. Every brief and draft is editable. It publishes to Webflow when a person presses Publish. Webflow is the only CMS it publishes to.
It tracks your Google clicks, impressions and positions through Search Console. On paid plans, a weekly scan asks ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude your buyer questions and records whether your brand is mentioned, cited or recommended. It does not check Perplexity or Google AI Overviews.
It does not replace a person who owns your strategy, and it does not guarantee rankings or AI citations. Its pricing page says so. You can also combine the two routes: use the platform for the weekly routine and bring in a specialist for a one-off audit.
Published figures from companies that sell the service run from about $1,000 to more than $25,000 a month, depending on scope and company stage. One marketplace puts retainers at $3,000 to $25,000 a month and one-time audits at $5,000 to $15,000. Ask for the scope in writing, because the same price can buy very different amounts of work.
It can be, if you have a clear point of view, someone who can review the work, and a need an agency can fill, such as senior strategy or off-site work. If your budget is small or your content is thin, a platform or a part-time specialist is usually the better first step. Either way, no one can guarantee citations.
The work overlaps a lot. Google says that optimizing for its generative AI search is still SEO, and it lists several AEO tactics it says you can ignore for Google Search. Ask any agency what it does beyond normal SEO and how it will show that the work paid off.
Yes. Write clear pages that answer your buyers' questions, keep your facts consistent, let search crawlers reach your site, and measure with Search Console and a fixed list of prompts. A platform can speed up the routine work, but a person still has to judge it.
No. Search engines and AI tools decide what to show, and Google says no third-party tool has access to its internal ranking or AI systems. Treat any guarantee as a warning sign. Mergeflo's own pricing page says it cannot guarantee rankings or AI citations.
