How much should agencies charge for AEO/GEO? A look at costs and margins

If you are wondering how much agencies should charge for AEO/GEO, you may start with an audit priced from $500, then add monthly retainers at $1,200 to $3,500 depending on scope, with fuller programs at $4,500 to $6,000. 

The section below explores where the margin sits, what the price must include, and how to answer a client who asks how the numbers were produced.

What do AEO/GEO audits and retainers cost?

In Mavlers Agency's read of the market, agencies selling this work fall into two camps: a few thousand dollars for a one-time strategy session, or content-heavy retainers that scale with output. The ranges below sit between them. They are ranges because price should move with prompts tested, competitors covered, industry complexity, and pages needing work.

Lead with the audit because AEO rests on a search foundation. Google Search Central states that no specific optimization is required for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that existing SEO fundamentals remain worthwhile. An audit confirms a client clears that bar before anyone designs a prompt strategy.

How much margin should an agency add?

Markup and margin are different numbers. A 50% markup on a $1,200 cost gives a $1,800 price and $600 of profit, a 33% margin on the sale. Across the table, 40% to 60% markups produce gross margins of 29% to 38%.

Delivery model matters. An illustrative in-house build of a $2,700 monthly package, with 27 hours across a specialist, writer, SEO lead, and account manager plus tools, costs about $1,040. That is roughly a 61% margin, but it assumes spare team capacity. Buying white-label delivery at a 40% to 60% markup lands margin in the 29% to 38% band, with no payroll waiting for work.

Test the low end of any range against your own cost. If delivery costs $1,200, a $1,300 add-on leaves $100 before account management time. Gross margin is not net, so cost your reporting and client calls before picking a percentage.

How do you defend the price to a buyer who already sells AEO/GEO?

Buyers who already sell AEO/GEO do not ask what it is. In a call with an agency that had been selling it for 6 to 10 months, the questions were about method, which tool produced the data, which AI platforms are tracked, how prompts are selected, and how much of each metric is assumed. The same buyer asked how to ascertain the effect of the work from the halo of a client that already leads its market.

Mavlers Agency tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews through an AI visibility platform. Specialists audit tracked prompts every 15 days, because an answer seen in the morning can disappear by evening, and map Search Console impressions and GA4 AI assistant traffic alongside.

A 3-layer report keeps the conversation honest. Layer one covers AI visibility, meaning mentions and citations split by branded and non-branded prompts. Layer two covers AI-assisted traffic from referral sessions. Layer three covers leads and revenue, reported only where attribution holds.

Leave revenue promises out of the proposal. The buyer who asked about revenue added that bold claims were unnecessary, and our delivery team reports that revenue has risen in some accounts without a direct line back to AI. Visibility and referral traffic are positions a client can verify.

What should the price include to protect the margin?

Scope controls margin more than markup does. In one retail engagement, tracked prompts showed no brand presence for the first two months. Visibility appeared after schema, metadata, and other technical fixes were implemented. Our turnaround on those fixes was one month, but the client's development queue stretched implementation to about two.

Write implementation ownership and turnaround into the proposal, or the retainer clock keeps running while work waits. Cover crawler access as well.

Build a re-audit into the retainer. When prompts show no movement after a quarter, the next step is an entity and authority gap audit, then work that fills the gaps it finds.

You might be interested in reading ~ How to price a GEO engagement. 

Should agencies sell AEO/GEO alone or bundled with SEO?

We recommend bundling by default. A first-page ranking no longer guarantees clicks when an AI answer sits above it, and AEO without SEO ignores the fundamentals Google says still apply. Choose one combined program when both need work, and an add-on when a healthy SEO retainer already runs.

Clients with local intent are a good fit, because local rankings still bring organic traffic while AI citations accumulate. On that note, we recommend reading ~ How to pitch GEO to an existing SEO client (Without it sounding like an upsell), How to bundle AEO, GEO, and SEO into one offer. 

How do you launch it without overselling?

Start with the two existing clients best suited to the offer, run their audits first, and price the retainer from what the audits find. Use the first 90 days to build evidence: month one fixes the biggest blockers, month two shows the team can act on findings, and month three plans the next phase.

Frequently asked questions

How much should an agency charge for an AEO/GEO audit?

Our partner rate for the audit starts at $500. Agencies report charging clients $1,500 to $3,500.

What margin is realistic on white-label AEO/GEO?

A 40% to 60% markup gives a 29% to 38% gross margin, before your own delivery time.

Can agencies promise revenue from AEO/GEO?

Not reliably. Report visibility and AI referral traffic, and add conversion data where it holds. Here’s another interesting read ~ How to prove GEO ROI in the first 90 days.

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