Win more of the customers that matter—in every search.

Your Traffic Didn't Disappear—It Was Re-Routed. We’ll Help Bring It Back with AEO.

60% of searches now end without a click. Your buyers are asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity for vendor recommendations. SmartBug helps you optimize your brand’s visibility in the AI-driven buyer journey, integrated directly into your HubSpot portal.

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The discovery engine has shifted. We help you stay ahead of it.

Traditional search is changing, and organic clicks are in structural decline. Buyers are now using AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini to research and choose vendors. If your brand isn’t the one being cited in those answers, you’re invisible to high-intent customers.

SmartBug is your growth partner in winning and keeping the right customers through this new stage of the journey. We don't just run experiments; we provide strategy and specialists to ensure your brand is the chosen answer.

Measure Your AI Share of Voice

Brand Visibility Score: We track the percentage of prompts where your brand appears across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini to give you a clear "top-level scorecard."
Sentiment Analysis: We measure how positively or negatively AI describes your brand to address perception problems, not just visibility gaps.
Competitor Benchmarking: We show your Share of Voice (SoV) relative to competitors so you know who is winning the "answer engine" race.

From Insight to Published Content

CRM-Informed Recommendations: We use your HubSpot CRM data to suggest relevant prompts that reflect your actual customer journey—not generic industry questions.
Intentional Execution: Every AEO recommendation comes with a full content brief (title, summary, and keywords). We use HubSpot’s content tools to turn these gaps into live pages immediately.

AEO Launch

Diagnostic Audit: Get a baseline look at your brand visibility across 3 major AI engines.

Prompt Mapping: Identify the specific questions your buyers ask AI.

Competitor SoV: Take a detailed look at your Share of Voice vs. your top 3 competitors.

AEO Grow

Tier 1 + Content Execution: Turn AI recommendations into revenue-driving HubSpot content.

Ongoing Management: Maintain continuous prompt expansion and citation monitoring.

Performance Reporting: See monthly trends in visibility, sentiment, and intent.

AEO Authority

Full Funnel Influence: Manage your brand's presence on Reddit and niche forums.

Digital PR & Authority: Execute high-level strategy to earn 3rd-party citations and mentions.

Multi-Channel Engines: Optimize for TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn as search agents.

What is the difference between SEO and AEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is for ranking; answer engine optimization (AEO) is for answering. While SEO focuses on ranking higher in search results so buyers can find a list of links, AEO is the practice of improving how often and how accurately your brand appears in AI-generated answers. In an era where 60 percent of searches end in no clicks, AEO ensures you are discovery-ready.

Why shouldn’t I wait for AI search technology to mature?

Waiting leads to brand erosion. Early movers establish a first-mover advantage that compounds over time because brands that build visibility now influence how AI models represent them as they continue to train. With 42 percent of CRM prospects already using AI search to evaluate vendors, delaying your strategy means starting at a significant disadvantage.

How do we measure AEO success without traditional clicks?

We track visibility, sentiment, and citations.

Success is measured by your Brand Visibility score across major engines like ChatGPT and Gemini, your Share of Voice relative to competitors, and the frequency with which your website or earned media is cited as a source in AI responses.

We monitor Sentiment Analysis, measuring on a scale of -100 percent to +100 percent whether AI is describing your brand positively or negatively. And our team tracks Share of Voice (SoV) to see how prominently you appear relative to your actual competitors.

I already use Semrush or other SEO tools. Do I really need this?

Most SEO tools approach this from a keyword-centric lens focused on your own website.

SmartBug’s AEO service focuses on Brand Awareness: which engines recommend you, which third-party sources (like Reddit or review sites) are driving those answers, and what to do across all your marketing channels to influence them.

Our approach is intentional, not experimental. We lead with the problem and apply the right expertise to solve it.

Does this require a massive new budget for tools?

If you are on Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise, the AEO tools are already built into the platform you use every day.

For those not on Marketing Hub, we can start with a standalone AEO tool for as little as $50/month to get your baseline score.

We focus on specificity and clear direction that drives results, ensuring your investment is spent on what actually moves the needle.

How do I get started with SmartBug's AEO services?

Getting started is simple: Schedule an initial consultation. During this meeting, we’ll discuss your current AEO efforts or goals if those are in place, your CRM and tech stack, business objectives, and challenges. From there, we’ll provide a customized proposal outlining how we can help optimize or build your AEO initiatives to better serve your needs.