AEO is the fastest-growing service category for SEO and content agencies. How to build, price, and deliver an AEO retainer clients pay for.
Every SEO client you work with has the same emerging problem: they are invisible to AI engines. Their Google rankings are intact but when buyers ask ChatGPT "what is the best tool for X?", they don't appear. They are losing deals at the research stage — before they ever get a chance to pitch.
This is a recurring problem that requires a recurring service. Unlike a one-time SEO audit, AEO requires ongoing scanning, content generation, and measurement. For agencies, that means retainer revenue.
Early-mover agencies are already charging $1,500–$4,000/month per client for AEO services with 90%+ gross margins. The window to establish an AEO practice before every agency offers it is closing.
A B2B AEO strategy starts with measurement, not content: run a baseline scan across a client's highest-intent buyer questions to see where they currently stand versus competitors, before writing anything. Without that baseline, it's impossible to tell whether new content actually moved the needle.
From there, the work is mostly closing specific gaps — publishing FAQ-formatted answers and structured schema for the prompts where a client's brand is missing entirely, then re-scanning to confirm the fix worked. TrueCite's Fix Generator automates the content-generation half of that loop from real scan data, so agencies can spend their time on strategy and client relationships instead of manual content production.
[Create your first client project](/sign-up) to see how a brand is being recommended by AI engines today — and where the gaps are.
Month 1: Baseline and audit. Run a full TrueCite baseline scan across the client's 20–30 target prompts. Identify the top 5 missed prompts with the highest commercial value. Deliver a MentionShare baseline report. Begin entity signal audit (G2 profile, Organization schema, sameAs links).
Month 2+: Scan, generate, publish. Weekly scans track MentionShare progress. Monthly [Fix Generator](/features/fix-generator) content batch generates FAQ blocks, JSON-LD schema, and answer paragraphs for the next 5 missed prompts. Client publishes content. You deliver a monthly report with score trend, competitor benchmarking, and next month's priority list.
Ongoing deliverables per month:
TrueCite's multi-project support is designed for agencies. Each client gets their own business profile — separate scan history, separate prompt library, separate competitors.
| Plan | Client projects | White-label PDF |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 3 clients | No |
| Pro | 10 clients | Yes |
| Enterprise | 20 clients | Yes |
Pro and Enterprise plans include white-label PDF reports with your agency logo and brand colors — no TrueCite branding. These are the deliverables you send to clients.
Add clients as Viewers in TrueCite so they can see their own data without accessing other clients' profiles or modifying settings. Learn more at [Solutions for Agencies](/solutions/agencies).
The most effective pitch starts with their data. Before the conversation, run a free TrueCite baseline scan for the client using 10 of their most important buyer-intent prompts. Then show them:
The hook: "When your buyer asks ChatGPT what tool to use — are you in the answer?" This question lands immediately with B2B marketing teams. Follow it with their competitor's score to create urgency.
Reference the ROI: AI-referred visitors convert at 3× the rate of organic traffic. Show the case study from [TrueCite Case Studies](/case-studies) to demonstrate what's achievable.
| Tier | Price/month | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | $1,500 | Monthly baseline scan, 10 Fix Generator content blocks, monthly report |
| Standard | $2,500 | Weekly scans, 20 content blocks, competitor monitoring, competitor report |
| Premium | $4,000 | Daily scans, all engines, bulk fix generation, white-label PDF reports |
TrueCite cost per client: $7–$19/month. At entry pricing, your margin exceeds 90%. Most agencies start clients at Standard and upsell to Premium once they see MentionShare improve.
Use [MentionShare](/features/mentionshare) as the headline metric — it moves, it's trackable, and clients immediately understand it. "Your AI visibility score rose from 12% to 28% this quarter" is a clear outcome statement.
Monthly report structure: MentionShare score trend (chart), top engine breakdown (which engines are improving), top competitors to watch, content published this month, MentionShare forecast for next month at current pace.
[Start building your agency AEO practice](/sign-up) — create your first client project free and run a baseline scan in under 5 minutes.
AEO retainers typically range from $1,500 to $4,000 per month per client depending on scan frequency, number of engines tracked, and deliverables included. Given TrueCite's pricing starts at $7/month per project, margins are extremely high — most agencies achieve 90%+ gross margin on AEO services.
Run a free TrueCite baseline scan for your client before the conversation. Present their MentionShare score (typically 5–15% for most brands) and show them the top 5 prompts their competitors are winning. The question "when your buyer asks ChatGPT what tool to use, are you in the answer?" resonates immediately with marketing teams.
Monthly deliverables include: MentionShare score trend report, Fix Generator content (FAQ blocks, JSON-LD schema, answer paragraphs) for missed prompts, competitor share-of-voice analysis, and recommendations for the following month. TrueCite generates the content automatically — your agency adds strategy and implementation.
Yes. TrueCite Pro and Enterprise plans include white-label PDF report export — your agency logo, your colors, no TrueCite branding. Suitable for sending directly to clients as part of your retainer deliverables.
Start by running a baseline scan across a client's highest-value buyer-intent prompts to see their current AI visibility, then prioritize the prompts where competitors are being recommended and the client isn't. TrueCite automates that tracking across AI engines so you can measure progress client by client instead of guessing.
AI assistants recommend brands based on content authority, how directly it answers the query, and third-party signals like reviews — not just brand awareness. Publishing FAQ-formatted content and structured schema that directly answers a client's target prompts is the most reliable lever; TrueCite's Fix Generator produces that content automatically from scan gaps.
SEO optimizes for ranking position in search results; AEO optimizes for being cited or recommended inside an AI-generated answer, which depends more on content clarity and authority signals than backlinks or keyword density. Agencies running both can reuse most of their content workflow — AEO just adds a measurement layer and a different content format.
Prioritize the engines a client's actual buyers use for research — for most B2B software categories that's ChatGPT and Perplexity first, with Gemini and Claude close behind. TrueCite tracks all of these plus Grok and DeepSeek, so agencies can see per-engine performance rather than assuming.
Track a MentionShare score — the percentage of scanned prompts where the brand is actually recommended — over time, broken down by engine and by prompt. TrueCite calculates this automatically from scheduled scans, which turns AEO into a reportable, recurring service rather than a one-off audit.
Content that directly and specifically answers a buyer's question — in FAQ format, with clear structured data — tends to get cited more than generic marketing copy, because it matches how AI engines extract answers. Reviewing which of a client's existing pages already earn AI mentions is the fastest way to find what's working before generating more.
Yes — AEO sits alongside SEO and paid as one more discovery channel to report on, not a replacement for either. Agencies already doing SEO reporting can usually fold in a MentionShare number without restructuring their existing client dashboards.
Using TrueCite? See the Setting up your business docs →