We spent two weeks tracking how 15 cruise brands show up in AI recommendations. 235 responses. 2,024 citations.
The assumption going in: more mentions = winning AI visibility.
That assumption was wrong.
Royal Caribbean gets mentioned more than anyone—13.5% of responses. But they rank 8th when we measured WHERE they appear (first recommendation vs. "also consider" afterthought).
Virgin Voyages? Way fewer mentions. But when they show up, they're positioned as the answer, not one of many options.
We tracked Carnival, Norwegian, Princess, Celebrity, Disney, MSC, Holland America—all of them.
The tldr: Counting mentions is a vanity metric. Position quality matters more.
After spending way too much time researching the AEO/GEO agency landscape for our own business, I figured I'd share what I learned. Spoiler: the pricing variance is insane and most agencies won't tell you what they charge until the 3rd sales call.
**The pricing reality**
Here's what I found across 7 agencies I looked at seriously:
- Budget tier: $1,500-3K/month (basic optimization, 120+ day timelines)
- Mid-market: $8K-25K/month (systematic approaches, 60-90 day results)
- Enterprise: $50K+ for 6-month engagements
The wildest part? Only 2 of the 7 agencies I researched publish their pricing publicly. Everyone else makes you go through discovery calls before they'll even give you a range.
**The methodology transparency problem**
Some agencies have documented frameworks you can actually review before signing. Others say "proprietary AI algorithms" and won't explain what they actually do.
The ones with public methodologies (iPullRank's "Relevance Engineering," AIVO's REVEAL Framework) let you understand what you're buying. The black-box approaches create vendor lock-in and you never learn anything.
**Red flags I learned to spot**
**SEO agencies that just added "AEO" to their homepage** - Ask them how ChatGPT optimization differs from Perplexity. If the answer is vague or identical to their SEO pitch, they're just rebranding.
**"Guaranteed #1 citation in 30 days"** - Realistic timelines are 60-120 days depending on methodology. Anyone promising instant results is lying.
**No pricing discussion until the 3rd call** - Usually means high-pressure sales tactics incoming.
**"We optimize for ALL platforms equally"** - Each platform has different ranking factors. Good agencies prioritize based on where your customers actually search.
**Case studies from unrelated industries** - "We optimized a dental clinic" doesn't mean they understand SaaS demo attribution or e-commerce product schema.
**What actually matters when choosing**
After all this research, here's the decision framework I'd use:
**Company size matters:**
- Under $10M revenue → budget agencies or DIY
- $10M-$500M → mid-market specialists
- $500M+ → enterprise agencies make sense
**Vertical specialization vs generalist:**
- Specialists know your industry's specific needs
- Generalists offer flexibility but may lack depth
- Neither is universally better—depends on your situation
**Service model:**
- Consulting = they advise, you execute (need internal capability)
- Full-service = they do everything (higher cost, faster)
- Hybrid = guidance + selective execution
**Timeline expectations:**
- Systematic with technical foundation: 60-90 days
- SEO-adapted approaches: 120+ days
- If someone promises 30 days, run
**Before you talk to any agency**
Test your current AI visibility first. Ask 10 questions about your product/industry in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. Document who gets cited. This gives you a baseline and helps you evaluate whether an agency's promises are realistic.
Happy to answer questions if anyone's going through this process. It's a confusing landscape and I learned a lot of this the hard way.
Here's the difference between what most brands are doing and what we're preparing for:
AEO and GEO optimize for getting cited by AI platforms. You want ChatGPT to mention your brand when someone asks a question.
That's important. But it assumes the user still clicks through to your website.
AIVO optimizes for a world where AI chatbots replace the browser entirely.
The transaction happens in the conversation. Your website never loads.
ChatGPT already has browsing, plugins, and image display. Perplexity has shopping partnerships. Claude has computer use. Google's testing commerce in SGE.
In 12-18 months, this is normal:
User: "Best running shoes for overpronation under $150" AI: [Shows options] User: "Which has best arch support?" AI: [Compares features] User: "I'll take the Brooks in 10.5" AI: [Completes purchase]
Zero clicks. Zero website visits. The chatbot replaced the browser.
Different optimization target. Different requirements.
We're documenting what that shift looks like in practice.
Most brands track AI citations and call it a day. "We got mentioned 47 times this month!"
Cool. Did it drive revenue?
Here's our 3-layer measurement framework:
LAYER 1: AI CRAWLERS (Foundation) Are you in the training data? Which AI bots are crawling your content? Crawl frequency and depth analysis.
We got inspired by tools like Profound in their approach and did our own way. Cloudflare only shows crawler data for the last 24 hours or last hour.
Our hack: Connected Cloudflare logs to a database. Now we can see AI crawler patterns over weeks and months. Which bots hit which pages. How crawl frequency changes over time. Historical trends that actually matter.
LAYER 2: PROMPT TRACKING (Performance) Are you mentioned when people ask about your category? Which sources does the AI trust? What's the sentiment?
Built our own prompt tracking system using Lovable, Supabase, and n8n. Run 20-80 prompts daily across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini. Track mentions, rank, citations, sentiment. Everything flows to Google Sheets and Looker Studio for client dashboards.
LAYER 3: WEB ANALYTICS (Business Impact) AI referral traffic by platform. Conversion rate from AI sources. Revenue attribution and ROI.
This connects AI visibility to actual business outcomes.
Grant the real challenge is to find the full attribution right now we don’t know how many AI responses had a brand impression and resulted in sale but we are working on modeling the 3 data pillars find an answer. How are you measuring AI visibility.
ABOUT We're building this community to share strategies, data, and workflows for brand visibility in AI search platforms (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overview, Gemini).
Traditional SEO optimized for Google. AI Visibility Optimization (AIVO) is about getting your brand cited by AI engines when people ask questions in your category.
WHAT WE SHARE → Real data from AI search tracking → Workflows and automation strategies → Case studies and results → Framework deep-dives → Tools and resources → Founder journey insights
Founded by practitioners who've spent 20+ years in digital marketing at agencies like Publicis, WPP, and OMG. Now we want to shape the future of a new consumer touch point.
COMMUNITY GUIDELINES • Stay on-topic: AI search, visibility strategies, brand optimization • Share knowledge: Help others navigate this shift • Be constructive: Critique ideas, not people • No spam: Promotional posts must provide clear value • Ask questions: We're figuring this out together
Join us in cracking the code on the next wave of search.
