What should you look for when choosing an AEO agency?

Ask each agency for a page it published for a client, and read it the way a buyer would. Google's advice on hiring a search consultant puts examples of previous work at the top of its interview questions. Then ask the agency to walk you through the decisions that produced the page, because the page alone won't show them.

Begin with where the question came from. A good question is one your buyers ask before they buy, and the evidence for that sits in sales calls, CRM notes and search data. Lean Labs' AEO service page describes building its question set from a client's sales calls and CRM records in HubSpot, from Search Console data and from the prompts where competitors appear. You're looking for an answer that specific. An agency that can say which of your records it would read has a method you can check.

Next, look at what supports the answer. Read the claims on the sample page and see whether each one names its source or rests on the client's own facts, such as a price or a timeline. Hold the agency's advice to you to the same standard. Google's guidance on third-party advice says good advice about Google Search either presents a claim as opinion drawn from data or experience, or cites Google's official guidance. So when an agency tells you what assistants prefer, ask what that rests on.

Markup is a fair test. Google's guide to AI search says structured data isn't required for its generative AI features. It also says markup is worth keeping, because it helps pages qualify for rich results. An agency can sensibly include markup in its plan, and the reason it gives should match what the source says. We go into that in what role structured data plays in answer engine optimization.

Then ask how the page was deployed and how it gets edited. Lean Labs is a useful example of fit here. It says it runs its program inside HubSpot, with answers published in the CMS and reporting tied to contacts and deals in the CRM, and that the client's team can edit the answers itself. If your site and CRM are on HubSpot, that's the kind of match to ask about, and we describe the work in how AEO works with existing HubSpot content. If they're somewhere else, put the same question to an agency that knows your platform. You want to know who publishes the page and who can change it next year.

Last, ask what happened after the page went live. A mention or a citation in an assistant's answer is a visibility measure. A visit is a different count, and a contact or a deal is a third. A report that keeps them in separate columns is one you can reason from, and we describe that layout in how to track traffic and referrals from AI answer engines. Google's list also asks how a firm measures success, and that answer tells you which of those columns the agency plans to report.

Two agencies' prices can't be compared until you know what each price buys and for how long. Two of the packages Lean Labs lists make the point, because they're different kinds of purchase.

The two rows are priced on different terms, so adding up the listed payments is the first step. We do that across several providers in how much answer engine optimization services cost.

A price card is a summary, so the contract has to carry the detail. For recurring work, that means the number of articles each month and where they'll be published. A setup package needs the list of included pages and a statement of what the work costs after the included first year. Both need terms for ending the agreement, since a listed term doesn't tell you what you owe if you stop early.

Access and ownership belong in the same document. Google's advice is to give read-only Search Console access for an initial audit, and it tells site owners they're responsible for what a hired company does. We'd ask for the same clarity on every account, in writing. Ask that your CMS, analytics, Search Console property and review profiles be held in your company's name, with the agency added as a user. Ask what happens to the pages, the question list and the tracking history if the contract ends. We wouldn't assume any of it, so we'd want each point in the agreement.

Google's hiring page says no one can guarantee a first-place ranking in its results, and its third-party guidance says tools can't guarantee performance. We'd apply the same reasoning to a guaranteed citation or a guaranteed recommendation from an assistant. An agency controls the work it delivers, and an assistant chooses its own sources. So a promise about deliverables describes the agency's work, and a promise about answers describes someone else's decision.

Off-site work deserves a specific question, because you'll be accountable for it. Ask which publications the agency intends to approach, how it chooses them, and whether paid placements will be labeled as paid. An editor at another publication makes the final call, so ask which placements the contract commits to and which are attempts. Google's AI guide advises against seeking inauthentic mentions, and its hiring page warns about firms that won't say plainly what they plan to do. We go through which outside pages are worth having in what off-site signals matter for AEO.

Google's hiring page says a good consultant should want to know how your business differs from others, who you compete with and where your customers come from. That's worth watching for on the first call. An agency that asks to hear your sales calls before it proposes anything is already doing the first step of the work. Google also suggests calling past clients. Ask them what the agency delivered and what changed afterward, since those are the two things you kept apart in the sample.

The return is the last check, and it's one you set yourself. Work out how many additional customers the full cost has to produce, counting your own team's time and tools as well as the contract, using the method in what ROI you should expect from AEO. Then ask the agency whether its plan could reach that number in your market, and what it would need from you to get there.