Making the Case for More GEO Budget and Stakeholder Buy-In

AI answer engines now sit between your buyers and your brand. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google a question relevant to your industry, they get a curated answer with only a handful of links cited. If your content doesn't show up in those summaries, you lose the brand mentions and clicks.

Generative engine optimization (GEO) has quickly evolved from an experimental strategy to a core pillar of digital visibility. Shaping your content so that AI systems can find and cite it is just as important as SEO and paid advertising — not a supplementary tactic you test when there's leftover budget.

Here's how to make the business case for a dedicated GEO budget by tying the investment to ROI and strategic value.

Read more about how businesses are feeling about GEO in our latest survey report.

What Is GEO and Why Does It Matter Now?

GEO means shaping your content and brand signals so large language models (LLMs) and AI-powered search platforms can find, understand, and cite it in generated answers. GEO focuses on answer engines (AI-powered tools that answer user questions directly), such as Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT's search features, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot in Bing. That shift requires new prioritization and a budget line of its own.

Google AI Overviews are rapidly growing in search results.

As of March 2025, 1 in 5 Google searches produces an AI summary. Users who encounter an AI summary click on a traditional search result link in 8% of all visits. Those who don't encounter an AI summary click on a search result nearly twice as often (15% of visits).

Search behavior also keeps evolving. In addition to traditional search engines like Google and Bing, people are now increasingly using AI answer engines. OpenAI, for example, claims to have 700 million weekly active ChatGPT users, and 77% of U.S. users use it as a search engine. Perplexity processes over 780 million queries monthly.

The usage pattern is consistent. People ask a question and read a synthesized response, and if they want to dig deeper, they click through to one of the few sources listed. GEO helps you win a spot on that short list.

There are two implications of the rise of GEO. First, AI answers now narrow what people see to a handful of cited sources, so winning citations is how you capture demand at the top. It's just as important that those answers describe your brand facts correctly when users ask for them. GEO is the way you can guide what facts those AI tools pull.

The Role of GEO

GEO sits next to SEO and content strategy, not apart from them. It uses many of the same inputs — structured content, clear messaging, authoritative sources — that matter to search engines and LLMs.

The key to securing investment is translating that strategic overlap into clear ROI.

How To Quantify GEO's Value for Stakeholders and Frame the Budget Ask

Building a compelling business case starts with connecting GEO to measurable outcomes such as high-intent traffic and efficiency gains.

• High-intent traffic from AI platforms converts 5X higher than Google (based on analysis of 12 million website visits) because people do most of their research with the AI assistant before they click. They may ask follow-up questions on options or price. When your brand appears in those chats, the click often comes from someone who has already compared choices and is ready to take the next step.
• Efficiency gains provide another angle for ROI calculations. Studies show that about 52% of sources cited in AI Overviews also rank in the top 10 results for the query, meaning strong SEO fundamentals still increase the likelihood of appearing in AI results. This overlap means the same work supports GEO and SEO rather than duplicating efforts. Automation of certain workflows, such as bulk schema updates and standardized templates, can further improve efficiency across both workflows.

When framing your budget request, position GEO as the need for an evolving online business environment. The cost of not adapting as search behavior shifts could far exceed the investment required to maintain visibility.

Jack Oddy, managing director of Soap Media, explains the allocation approach: "As with all of our strategic partnerships, we allocate budget based on unique business needs and position. It's also important to note that GEO is not a replacement, but more of an advancement."

The market is already moving forward with GEO. Jacqueline Basulto, CEO of SeedX, outlines their commitment: "We are doubling our budget and allocating half to GEO and half to traditional SEO. We are recommending to our clients that they do the same."

This balanced approach acknowledges that both traditional search and AI-powered discovery will coexist, at least in the near term.

Your financial modeling should account for the full funnel (from first discovery to purchase). Start with a survey to estimate what share of your audience uses AI tools for research. Then, factor in the possible boost from GEO at each step. This way, you can project the revenue difference when your brand is absent from those answers versus cited in a set share of relevant queries.

GEO as a Competitive Advantage

GEO raises the odds that AI answers will pull from your verified sources and cite them. Do this by shaping product pages, documentation, guides, case studies, and PR so that answer engines can find and reuse clear facts. When models lift from those assets, it's likely that the wording and numbers match your brand. Over time, repeated citations build authority and increase how often you get mentioned in single-answer results, which becomes a real competitive edge.

Just as businesses optimize for SEO to rank higher on Google, GEO increases the frequency of brand mentions in AI-generated answer result pages. In a single-answer interface where only a select few brands get mentions, consistent visibility becomes a huge competitive advantage.

Practice Steps for Building a Business Case for GEO

Translate your GEO strategy into a plan with clear milestones. The steps below give you a simple sequence you can present, fund, and measure.

Audit Current Performance

Start with a baseline. Identify pages that already appear as sources for AI answers. You can do this with tools like Ahrefs. Then, group findings by topic cluster. For each cluster, document the current revenue contribution from organic search and the presence or absence of AI citations.

Identify Quick Wins

Go after changes that are quick to implement and could make a reasonable impact. For instance:

• Rewrite your top 10 informational pages to answer the core question clearly and concisely.
• Add FAQ pages that mirror common follow-ups people ask in ChatGPT Search and Perplexity.
• Mark up key facts with structured data (or schema markup) where relevant.

Also, consolidate overlapping pages so that one definitive resource carries the message you want to convey.

Model Budget Scenarios

Decision-makers need to see how GEO investment translates to results. Here's a sample budget scenario with clear expected outcomes:

• Base: Start on a small budget to prove impact with a short sprint on a few high-intent topics plus basic fixes like clean schema and clear FAQs.
• Moderate: If results are positive, expand the budget to cover more topics or product pages, and test regularly.
• Accelerated: For fastest growth, make GEO a part of the marketing (including SEO), publish many optimized pages, and test across major AI platforms.

Tie each scenario to specific KPIs (such as citation frequency, AI referral traffic, and conversion rates) so stakeholders see exactly what each GEO budget level will deliver.

Create a Compelling Narrative

Numbers matter, but so does the narrative. Connect the investment to your organization's broader business objectives.

If, for example, your company wants more brand mentions, track them on tools like Ahrefs, and show how the AI platform's visibility directly supports that goal. If the focus is on defending market share, demonstrate how competitors gaining AI visibility while you don't represents a real threat.

Then show them the proof. Pull up actual AI responses for queries in your space. The abstract concept of "AI search" becomes concrete when stakeholders see their own prospects getting competitor recommendations from AI platforms.

Finally, address likely objections proactively. If stakeholders worry about budget constraints, show how GEO can work alongside SEO to improve existing pages. If they question whether AI search will really matter, present the rise in the use of AI search engines, as we mentioned earlier.

Having clear responses to predictable pushback increases your odds of approval.

Making GEO a Budget Priority in 2026 and Beyond

The shift to AI search isn't a temporary trend. AI platforms already provide instant, synthesized answers that traditional search can't match for many queries. As these systems improve and more people discover them, adoption is already accelerating.

Building GEO capabilities now means developing organizational expertise that compounds over time. Teams that try to understand how AI systems select and cite sources, what content formats work best, and how to structure information for AI consumption will reap the benefits in the form of increased brand visibility across AI answers. Your 2026 budget for GEO is just the starting point.

Fund GEO Like Your Next Growth Channel

If your business relies on organic discovery, GEO isn't optional. Answer engines now decide which sources people see first. A dedicated GEO budget thus protects today’s demand and opens new opportunities as AI progresses further. To benefit from this fast-growing new traffic channel, build your case with a baseline audit, quick wins, realistic scenarios, and a clear narrative that links spend to revenue.

Want to accelerate your GEO strategy? Choose the right partner from Clutch's vetted list of top generative engine optimization companies.

About the Author

Anna Peck Content Marketing Manager at Clutch

Anna Peck is a content marketing manager at Clutch, where she crafts content on digital marketing, SEO, and public relations. In addition to editing and producing engaging B2B content, she plays a key role in Clutch’s awards program and contributed content efforts. Originally joining Clutch as part of the reviews team, she now focuses on developing SEO-driven content strategies that offer valuable insights to B2B buyers seeking the best service providers.

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