Costs, returns and the business case.
What being named by AI assistants costs, how to measure whether it pays back, and how to put the case to a board that wants numbers, not promises.
At some point this year, someone in your business will ask whether the money spent on being found by AI assistants is working, and "it is early days" will not be an acceptable answer. Nor should it be. This is a sales channel, and it can be measured like one, provided you set it up to be measured from the start.
These guides are for the person who has to make that case and then defend it: the founder, the finance director who signs the invoices, and whoever reports to the board each month. They help you decide what to spend, how to track it and how to judge a provider.
Start with the baseline. How to find out whether ChatGPT is recommending your firm sets out the method: a fixed list of 20 to 50 buyer questions, asked several times a month in a clean session in the assistants your buyers use, counting a win only when it repeats, because answers vary from run to run. Without that baseline you cannot show change, and without change you cannot show a return. How to build a simple dashboard turns it into one page and a monthly report the board will read.
The standard tools have caught up a little. As Nice Looking Data reported, Google Analytics 4 added a default AI Assistant channel on 13 May 2026 covering ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Copilot and Grok, though not Claude or Perplexity, and clicks from AI Overviews still count as organic search. Google added Search Console reports for AI Overviews and AI Mode in June 2026 (Google Search Central, June 2026). Neither tells you how often you are named, so working out which leads came from ChatGPT still starts with asking every enquiry.
On money, what AI search optimisation costs in the UK sets out published market prices, what changes a quote and how to set your own budget from a new client's lifetime gross profit. How to get your board to approve the budget puts the argument in the order a board wants to hear it, with monthly measures, a twelve-month review and stop conditions agreed up front.
Other guides cover what inaction is costing you, benchmarking against named competitors, why cheap packages rarely get a firm named, how content, press and the website reinforce each other, and how to compare providers like for like. Guides on tracking tools, marketing and PR agency costs, agency red flags and how long each growth channel takes to work are being added over the coming weeks. Our own prices are on What it costs.
Last reviewed 24 September 2026. Rewritten for 2026: removed the Fortitude monthly price and guide count, fixed the renamed costs link, set tracking at 20 to 50 questions and folded monthly reviews into the dashboard guide.
Fractional CMO, agency or in-house: what does each cost in the UK?
A fractional CMO, an agency or your own hire: three routes with very different bills. What each costs in the UK, what you get for it, and how founder-led B2B firms combine them.
Read the guideAll 11 guides in this topic
How do I get my board to approve budget for AI search?
Your board will not approve money for AI search on the strength of a trend. It will approve evidence, a clear cost and a defined exit. Here is how to build that case in a week.
Can we just do content, or do we need PR and a better website too?
You have tried a content agency, a PR firm and a website rebuild, one at a time, and none of them moved the needle. Here is why the three work far better together than apart.
How can we tell which of our new leads came from ChatGPT?
A buyer asks ChatGPT, gets your name, then searches for you on Google, and GA4 credits Google. How to see the AI part of the journey and report it plainly to your board.
How do we build a simple dashboard to track AI recommendations?
The numbers that show whether ChatGPT is sending you work sit in five places. How to pull them into one simple dashboard, and a one-page monthly report your board will read.
How do we choose a firm to help us get recommended by ChatGPT?
Every agency now claims it can get you named by ChatGPT. The questions to ask, the red flags, what can fairly be guaranteed and what a report worth paying for looks like.
How do we find out whether ChatGPT is recommending our firm?
There is no Search Console for ChatGPT mentions. A 15-minute check, then a fixed list of buyer questions asked the same way every month, tells you whether you are named and why not.
How much does AI search optimisation (GEO) cost in the UK?
Three agencies, three very different quotes, and a finance director who wants a number. What UK providers charge for AI search, what each level buys, and how to set your own budget.
What is AI share of voice, and how do we compare with competitors?
Your sales team keeps hearing rival names you rarely meet in pitches. How to measure your AI share of voice, find the sites that name competitors and not you, and pick the questions to win first.
What is it costing us not to be recommended by ChatGPT?
The enquiries you lose when ChatGPT names a competitor never appear in any report. How to put a figure on them from your own numbers, with a cautious case and a calculator to copy.
Will a cheap AI search package get us recommended by ChatGPT?
The emails promise to get you recommended by ChatGPT for a few hundred pounds a month. What that fee actually buys, the red flags to watch for, and when a low-cost option is the right call.
Common questions.
How do we measure whether this is working?
Start with a baseline of 20 to 50 buyer questions. Ask each several times a month in a clean session in ChatGPT, Google, Copilot and Gemini, record who is named, and count a win only when it repeats. Add a required "How did you first hear about us?" question to every enquiry form and first call. Over a few months you should see mentions in answers and enquiries that cite an assistant move together.
What should we budget?
Set the budget from what a new client is worth to you, not from a supplier's price list. Work out the gross profit from one new client over their lifetime, decide how many extra clients a year would justify the spend, and plan for twelve months, because answers change as models update and live search moves. Our guide to UK costs sets out published market prices, and our own prices are on our What it costs page.
How do I put the case to a board that wants hard numbers?
Show the board what ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot say today when buyers ask for a firm like yours, and tie it to a number they already watch. Work out the break-even from your own gross profit per client. Ask for a fixed budget with monthly measures, a twelve-month review and stop conditions agreed in advance. Evidence and a capped downside win approval.
How do we know an enquiry came from an AI assistant?
Mostly by asking. Google Analytics 4 has had an AI Assistant channel since 13 May 2026, but it leaves out Claude and Perplexity, and clicks from AI Overviews count as organic search. Many buyers read an answer and then search for your name, which looks like a brand search. A required question on the form and on the first call, logged in your CRM, gives you a floor rather than a total.
Why do cheap AI search packages rarely work?
Because the work that moves the answers, such as clear pages, earned coverage and consistent facts across the web, takes skilled time. A low monthly fee usually buys monitoring and a report, which is useful for tracking but rarely gets a firm named. Ask any provider which firms it has helped get named, for which questions, and how it measured that.
Can a provider guarantee results?
Nobody can guarantee what an AI assistant will say. A provider can guarantee its effort, its reporting and outcomes it controls, such as meetings held. Be wary of anyone guaranteeing a place in ChatGPT's answers, and ask for a sample monthly report that repeats the same buyer questions.