A hybrid works most often: strategy and expert content stay in-house (you know your product best), while measurement methodology, the technical side, and digital PR get outsourced. Going fully in-house requires a dedicated person who keeps up with the platforms' monthly changes.
Below: which deliverables define the boundary between the two, where to start on a small budget, what monitoring tools cost, what share of the budget is reasonable, and how AEO connects to existing SEO, PR and social.
Updated 2026-07-14 · Websem, AEO questions base
At minimum: a per-platform visibility audit with a brand/non-brand split, a documented prompt set, a fair competitive benchmark, a prioritized content and technical plan, a monthly report with the same metrics comparable over time, and access to the raw data. Without verifiable raw data, a report is just a story.
The order with the best cost-to-impact ratio: one, an audit on 10–15 real purchase-intent prompts; two, fix whatever is technically blocking you (crawlers, schema); three, 5–7 decision guides on the questions where you have 0% visibility; four, Google Business reviews. Only after that, PR and paid monitoring.
The market has matured: Profound (enterprise, starting around USD 499/month), Peec AI (mid-market), Otterly (entry-level, starting around USD 29/month), plus modules inside SEO suites like Semrush and agencies with proprietary monitoring. To get started, a one-off audit plus monthly monitoring is enough; a dedicated platform earns its keep at scale.
A market benchmark: 10–30% of your search and content budget, more if your audience is early-adopter or the purchase decision requires heavy research. Test for one to two quarters, measure mentions, AI traffic, and conversions, then scale whatever proves out.
It isn't a new silo: SEO ensures indexability, PR builds the sources that get cited, and social feeds the communities models read. AEO adds a layer of orchestration — which questions we target, in which sources, in what format. Budget-wise it's a reallocation, not a parallel channel.
This question is part of a base of 124 answers about AEO across 12 categories — from how LLMs work to budget, measurement and deliverables.