Is generative engine optimisation worth it, and what does it cost?

GEO is worth it when buyers in your category already ask AI who the best provider is and your name is not in the reply. It runs as a monthly programme scaled to your category and your distance from being named. Start with an audit to size the gap.

That answer holds for most regulated B2B companies, because the buying behaviour has already shifted. According to G2's 2026 buyer study, 51% of B2B buyers now start research with AI chatbots more often than with Google. Your buyers already ask AI for a shortlist, so the only open question is what being absent from it costs you each month the answer hardens around someone else.

How much do GEO services cost?

GEO services are priced as an ongoing monthly programme rather than a fixed project fee, because the work is continuous re-scoring and content response, not a one-time build. The figure scales with how many buyer questions you need to be named in and how competitive your category already is. Your existing stock of citable content moves it too.

A company in a category where no clear leader has emerged in AI answers needs less work to claim the space than one fighting an entrenched incumbent. A deep, well-structured content library starts you ahead of a thin site. So a single rate card number tells you very little. The gap that matters is between where you stand today and where being named consistently would put you, and you cannot price it until you have measured it.

A credible GEO programme begins with an audit rather than a retainer for that reason. The audit asks AI the questions your buyers ask and records exactly where you sit on each one, from the prompts that already name you to the ones still wide open. That picture sizes the work and the spend honestly, before any commitment.

What drives the cost up or down

Four factors move the figure. Each one is measurable on day one, which is why the audit comes first.

Cost driver	Pushes cost down	Pushes cost up
Category competition	No named leader yet in AI answers	An entrenched incumbent already cited everywhere
Question count	A handful of priority buyer questions	A broad category with many decision questions
Existing content	Deep, structured, authoritative library	Thin site, little citable material
Regulatory complexity	General B2B claims	Claims that must be evidenced and compliant

A regulated company in an open category with decent existing content sits at the lower end. The higher end is where you enter a crowded category from a standing start, with content that needs building from scratch. The audit places you on that range in the first conversation.

How do you judge whether GEO is worth it?

Judge GEO on two measures, and leave traffic out of it. The first is your named-in-answer rate: the share of priority buyer questions where AI names you, scored monthly. The second is pipeline that originates from AI search. If both climb while spend holds steady, the programme pays for itself.

Traffic no longer measures what matters, because the shortlist forms inside the chat before anyone clicks. According to Pew Research Center's 2025 data, people click through to a site just 8% of the time when an AI summary appears. Seer Interactive found in 2025 that organic click-through to the top result falls by around 60% once an AI answer sits above it. A buyer can decide who to call without ever landing on a page your analytics would record. The value sits upstream of the click, in whether you were the name the model handed back.

A UK healthcare compliance platform we work with shows the shape of the return. Its AI-sourced audience grew 36% month on month, and pipeline attributed to AI search moved from £240,000 to £645,000. Its single largest contract came through a ChatGPT recommendation. Those are confirmed figures from a live programme, and the client is not named by agreement. What matters is that the deals were real and the name that came back had done the work to be there.

The metric to track from month one

Named-in-answer rate is the figure that decides this. Build a question set of the prompts your buyers actually put to AI, run them across the main engines, and record how often your name appears. Re-run the same set every month. A programme that is working moves you from named in two of twelve questions to named in nine, and you can see the movement question by question rather than guessing from a traffic chart.

When is GEO not worth it yet?

GEO is not worth a full programme yet if your buyers do not research with AI or if you have no clear category to be named in. The same applies when your fundamentals are unbuilt. A company with no website worth citing and no defined buyer questions should fix those first. The honest test is the audit: if AI answers in your category show no demand and no competitors winning, there may be nothing to claim today.

That said, an empty category is usually the strongest reason to act. According to G2's 2026 buyer study, 33% of buyers bought from a vendor they had not previously heard of on the strength of AI guidance. When no one in your market is named yet, the cost of becoming the default is at its lowest, and the model settles harder on the first consistent name it sees. Waiting until a rival owns the answer makes the same position slower and more expensive to take.

The "we are too small" objection usually misreads the moment. The category sits open precisely because few companies are doing this work, which means a smaller player can claim answers that a larger, slower competitor has ignored. Timing decides this far more than budget does. Being early is the advantage.

Start with the audit, not the retainer

The way to resolve the value question without guessing is to measure your starting position before you spend anything on the programme itself. An audit shows you where you stand on each buyer question and gives you real numbers to decide on, rather than a forecast.

This is the approach Forge takes. We run generative engine optimisation as a monthly programme in four steps (for the fundamentals, see what generative engine optimisation is): audit where you stand, build the content the models draw on, earn the citations that teach the models to trust your name, then re-score every month so you can watch your position climb. The audit comes first, and on a discovery call it is free, so you size the gap before you decide whether to close it. For a fuller picture of the work, see the B2B GEO playbook, and if you are weighing providers, how to choose a GEO agency sets out the questions worth asking.

Book a discovery call / free AI-visibility audit

Book a discovery call and we will show you exactly what AI says about you today. Book a discovery call.

30 minutes. No pitch deck. We'll run your category live and show you exactly where you stand in the answers your buyers are reading.

FAQ

How much does GEO cost?

GEO is sold as a monthly programme, not a fixed project fee, because being named is continuous work rather than a one-time build. The price moves with your category's competitiveness, the number of buyer questions you need to win, and how much citable content you already hold. An audit sizes that range before you commit.

Is GEO worth it for a small B2B company?

Often more so than for a large one. The category usually sits open because few competitors are doing the work, so a smaller player can claim answers that bigger, slower rivals have ignored. Being early counts for a great deal here, since the model settles hardest on the first name it consistently sees.

How do I measure the ROI of GEO?

Track two figures rather than traffic. Your named-in-answer rate is the share of priority buyer questions where AI names you, scored monthly. Pipeline from AI search is the revenue that originates in those conversations. If both climb while spend holds steady, the programme is paying for itself.

When is GEO not worth it?

When your buyers do not research with AI, or when there is no defined category for you to be named in. The same holds while your website and content fundamentals are still unbuilt. The audit is the honest test: if AI answers in your category show no demand and no competitors winning, there may be nothing to claim yet.

Why start with an audit instead of a retainer?

Because you cannot judge value or price the work until you know where you stand. The audit asks AI the questions your buyers ask and records your position on each one. That gives you real numbers to decide on, rather than committing to a programme on a forecast.

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Forge Together runs generative engine optimisation programmes for regulated B2B companies. Reviewed against live programme data, June 2026.

Sources

• Seer Interactive, 2025: organic click-through to the top result falls around 60% once an AI answer sits above it.
• Pew Research Center, 2025: people click through to a site just 8% of the time when an AI summary shows.
• G2, 2026 buyer study (figures pending exact-figure verification against the published release): 51% of B2B buyers start research with AI chatbots more than Google; 33% bought from a previously-unknown vendor on AI guidance.