Chances are your CEO has asked you one of these questions in the past month:
- Why is organic traffic trending down?
- Why doesn’t our brand appear when I ask ChatGPT about our category?
The simple answer? How people search has completely changed in the past 24 months.
The use of large language models for product discovery is rapidly increasing—influencing buying decisions before prospects ever reach your site.
At the same time, AI Overviews now appear in over 60% of Google queries in the US, dragging down click-through rates by up to 58%.
As you search for experts to help navigate the shift, your problem isn't finding agencies claiming AI SEO expertise. There’s plenty. What’s important is separating genuine expertise from traditional SEO services with new acronyms bolted on.
To help you find the right fit, we created this guide evaluating agencies based on what matters for B2B brands:
- Proven AI SEO frameworks
- Documented impact on SQLs, pipeline, and revenue
- A strong understanding of B2B buying cycles
What separates real AI SEO expertise from rebranded services?
Real AI SEO expertise looks a lot like great traditional SEO expertise: a clear, experience-based understanding of how the system works.
That means knowing (and testing) how large language models retrieve information, what sources and content types they tend to cite, and the signals that influence software recommendations. There’s no button you press where “do X = guaranteed citations.” Just like Google, it’s pattern-driven, and the agencies that win here are the ones who’ve spent enough time inside these AI platforms to spot patterns and turn them into repeatable playbooks.
On top of AI SEO expertise, you also need an agency that understands B2B growth motions, longer sales cycles, and the metrics that actually matter: MRR impact, CAC, SQL volume, demo quality, and demo-to-close rates.
How we evaluated these 8 agencies (and why most didn't make the cut)
Every agency on this list met at least three of the four criteria:
- Exclusive or primary B2B focus
- Accountability to revenue metrics like pipeline and SQLs
- Documented AI visibility results
- A published AEO or GEO framework
Where agencies met three with documented strengths, we note this honestly.
We excluded agencies primarily serving B2C, those reporting visibility without business outcome metrics, and those treating "AI SEO" as traditional services with new acronyms. The eight remaining agencies demonstrate genuine methodology, not rebranding.
Full transparency: We run one of the agencies on this list
We run Exceed, which appears on this list. These agencies are NOT ranked. There's no single "best", the right choice depends on your goals, budget, and stage.
We've listed Exceed first and given it more depth because it's our expertise. But we've made a genuine effort to present the other seven fairly based on publicly documented capabilities and outcomes.
Use the comparison table and breakdowns to identify which approach aligns with what you're actually trying to achieve.
2026 AI SEO agencies comparison table
Here's a quick overview of all 8 agencies. We'll dive into detailed breakdowns below.
1. Exceed
Best for: B2B startups and scaleups that need to appear in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews for commercial intent searches
Exceed treats traffic as a vanity metric. The only numbers that matter tie directly to pipeline, demos, and SQLs. This revenue-first philosophy starts with deep customer intelligence, interviewing your sales, support, and customer success teams to understand what drives your best customers, then targeting the bottom-funnel searches where those buyers actively evaluate solutions.
Founded in 2023 by Eddie Johansson and Josef Essafi, the fully remote team operates from Málaga and Gothenburg, serving B2B startups and scaleups across Europe, the UK, and the US.
Customer research methodology that feeds LLM-friendly content
Exceed’s entire AI SEO framework begins with extracting unique insights from your best customers. At the start of each engagement, we interview your:
- Sales team
- Support team
- Customer success team
We read and listen through sales calls, transcripts, and support tickets to capture language patterns directly from real conversations.
The goal is to understand three things clearly:
- Who your best customers are (high LTV profiles)
- What matters to them (pain points, objections, desires)
- How they describe their problems in their own words
These insights drive the entire SEO strategy. We target topics that matter to your best customers at their highest point of intent, meeting them with content that addresses what they care about, written at their expertise level.
Bottom funnel keyword targeting that naturally produces AI visibility
Exceed builds your AI search presence by targeting searches where buyers are:
- Actively comparing solutions
- Evaluating alternatives to current tools
- Seeking answers to problems your product solves
This bottom-funnel approach works because comparison content matches how people and large language models naturally compare products. Ahrefs research analyzing over 750 unique prompts shows that product listicles represent 51% of AI citations for software recommendations.
This match between what buyers search and what AI cites makes bottom-funnel targeting the most reliable path to AI visibility.
This is where Exceed shines. The same content that captures high-intent Google searches becomes the source LLMs reference when recommending solutions in your category.
Getting mentioned in places that matter to large language models
Getting recommended by large language models requires more than creating content that gets cited. What you say about yourself matters, but what authoritative third parties say about you carries equal weight.
Exceed run targeted outreach to secure backlinks, brand mentions, and media coverage that make AI engines more likely to recommend your brand.
These campaigns focus on three outcomes:
- Backlinks from authoritative sources that strengthen domain credibility across both traditional search and AI engines
- Mentions in third-party roundups that are frequently cited for the prompts you want to show up for
- Featured media coverage that establishes your brand as a recognized voice worth citing
Over time, this builds the authority that keeps AI engines recommending your brand.
Founders lead strategy and execution (no bait and switch)
Founders Josef Essafi and Eddie Johansson lead strategy and execution directly on every engagement. No handoffs to junior account managers learning on your dime after the sales call ends.
A successful AI SEO campaign requires pattern recognition across multiple campaigns, understanding what influence LLM output versus what sounds plausible in a pitch deck. That experience stays in the room when founders stay hands-on.
The team includes skilled AI SEO specialists, content strategists, writers, editors, PR experts, and developers. But strategic direction and quality control sit with the people who built the methodology and stake their reputation on results.
Josef and Eddie constantly share what they're learning publicly with 10,000+ marketers on LinkedIn. Recent examples include:
- Making sure LLMs position your brand correctly
- The correlation between cited sources and brand recommendations
- Analyzing citations for 20,127+ AI responses
- The correlation between increased LLM visibility and branded searches
Exceed helped Awaio turn organic search into a predictable revenue stream
Awaio came to Exceed with 50 monthly organic visitors, 88 ranking keywords, and no organic pipeline.
11 months later:
- AI visibility grew 1,700%
- 2,400 monthly organic visitors from high-intent searches
- 1,600 ranking keywords
- A 3x increase in PR placements (backlinks, brand mentions, media coverage)
- 30 demos per month consistently from organic channels
In the first 11 months, a total of 171 demos were attributed to the SEO program.
"The quality of leads from AI search has been remarkable, these buyers come in already educated about our solution," says Niclas Eglinger, Co founder at Awaio.
Read the full Awaio case study for the complete breakdown.
Other case studies include:
- Yogaia (339 new users)
- Buildbite (€275K added ARR pipeline)
- Crono (347 organic SQLs)
Exceed is built exclusively for B2B brands
The founders of Exceed have spent their entire careers in B2B sales and marketing, from early-stage startups to enterprise giants (Oracle, HPE). This isn't a pivot from consumer marketing or a generalist agency adding B2B as a service line.
That experience means understanding how to engage ideal audiences through longer, more complex sales cycles where multiple stakeholders influence buying decisions and content must earn trust over months rather than moments.
The best-fit typically includes fast-growing startups and scaleups. Some notable clients:
- Willo - HR SaaS
- Chaser - B2B Fintech SaaS
- Credit Benchmark - B2B Finance
- Crono - B2B Sales SaaS
Pricing
Done-for-you engagements start at $5,000 per month. This includes strategy, content creation, and digital PR, everything required to build AI search visibility that connects to pipeline.
Rolling 30-day contracts with no lock in mean you're never locked into lengthy commitments while waiting to see results. The pricing reflects accessibility for startups and scaleups while maintaining the founder-led execution quality that drives documented outcomes.
2. Grow and Convert
Best for: Mid-market B2B SaaS companies ($10K+/month budget) that want content explicitly tied to demos and pipeline, not pageviews.
Grow and Convert pioneered Pain Point SEO in 2017, targeting bottom-funnel keywords where prospects actively search for solutions rather than awareness content.
Founded by Benji Hyam (grew ThinkApps blog 0→35K visitors) and Devesh Khanal (CRO specialist, Ph.D. Materials Science, UC Berkeley), they've extended this into Pain Point GEO for AI search.
All content is interview-based, written from conversations with client SMEs rather than self-researched. The boutique model limits each strategist to 2–4 accounts, producing roughly 3 articles monthly.
Service offering
- Interview-based content—writers work directly with your SMEs, not just keyword research
- Traqer.ai AI visibility tracking platform included at no extra cost
- Prioritized GEO framework across three tiers (owned content → citation outreach → technical)
- Pain Point SEO/GEO methodology targeting bottom-funnel keywords
- Conversion tracking that attributes leads to specific pages
- ~3 articles monthly due to boutique 2-4 accounts per strategist model
Their sweet spot
Serves B2B SaaS companies seeking content-led growth with measurable outcomes.
B2B case studies include:
- Leadfeeder (generated over 200 trial signups monthly)
- Geekbot (1,745 trial signups)
- Rainforest QA (ranked position 1,2 and 3 for over 26 buying intent keywords)
Current clients include Patreon, ServiceTitan, Vocal Video, and Smartlook.
Pricing
$9,000 per month promotional rate for year one, increasing to $10,000 monthly afterward. No required 6- or 12-month contracts—engagements run month-to-month.
Flat rate includes interviews, content creation, link building, conversion measurement, and Traqer.ai access.
3. Directive
Best for: Mid-market to enterprise B2B tech companies needing full-funnel performance marketing (SEO, paid, CRO, RevOps) aligned to pipeline
Directive is the largest independent performance marketing agency built specifically for B2B tech, with 200+ employees serving 420+ brands. Founded in 2014 by Garrett Mehrguth and Tanner Shaffer, their Customer Generation methodology replaces MQL-focused marketing with pipeline-aligned strategies using financial modeling and LTV:CAC optimization.
Service offering
- Full-funnel performance marketing beyond SEO (paid, CRO, RevOps, creative)
- Customer Generation methodology using LTV:CAC financial modeling
- Citation Share metrics via Semrush AI Visibility Index
- HubSpot implementation, attribution setup, lead scoring
- 200+ person team handling enterprise complexity
- $2.2M annual R&D investment in marketing innovation
Their sweet spot
Serves B2B tech and SaaS companies needing integrated performance marketing.
Case studies include:
- Arctic Wolf (59% pipeline increase QoQ, 109% closed/won revenue increase)
- SentinelOne (251% lead increase, 546% organic traffic value increase)
- AxisCare (70% traffic growth, 200% demo growth, net-new SQLs from AI-driven search)
Additional clients: Amazon, Uber Freight, Calendly, Adobe, ZoomInfo, Gong.
Pricing
Startup Package costs $6,500 monthly on month-to-month terms with no annual contract, including research/strategy, paid media, SEO, creative/CRO, and reporting..
4. Omniscient Digital
Best for: Well-funded B2B SaaS companies (growth-stage to enterprise) wanting organic search to become a measurable revenue channel, not a content factory.
Omniscient Digital was founded in 2019 by three ex-HubSpot leaders: Alex Birkett (Sr. Growth Marketing Manager, experimentation specialist), David Ly Khim (Growth PM, later Head of Growth at People.ai), and Allie Decker (Content Marketing Manager, later Sr. Content Manager at Shopify).
They differentiate through their Barbell Content Strategy—balancing safe, keyword-driven content with high-risk, high-reward thought leadership—and OmniscientX research framework blending qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Their GEO framework operates on three principles: be the source, influence the source, and replace the source.
Service offering
- Barbell Content Strategy mixing safe keyword content with high-risk thought leadership
- Focus on creating citation-worthy content (original research, strong POV, proprietary data)
- Link building exclusively targeting DR 50+ sites
- OmniscientX research framework (qualitative + quantitative)
- Analytics and reporting tied directly to pipeline and revenue
- Three-principle GEO framework: be the source, influence the source, replace the source
Their sweet spot
Serves exclusively B2B SaaS, from well-funded startups to enterprise. Strong in AI tools, MarTech, content management, project management, and HR tech.
Case studies include:
- Jasper (810% organic sessions growth, 400X product signups, $4M+ ARR attributed)
- AppSumo (843% organic traffic growth, 340% revenue increase)
- Smartling ($3.7M pipeline from organic, 352 new page-1 rankings)
Other notable clients: SAP, Loom, Adobe, Asana, Hotjar, TikTok Shop.
Pricing
$10,000 monthly minimum for full-service retainer. One-time strategy engagements start at $15,000. Recommended minimum engagement is 6 months.
5. Virayo
Best for: Series A+ B2B SaaS companies ($5M+ ARR) over-reliant on paid channels and seeking to reduce blended CAC through predictable organic pipeline.
Virayo recently repositioned as an AI Search Agency for B2B Brands, combining SEO, GEO, and AEO through their Integrated Discovery Framework that maximizes visibility across AI Overviews, organic listings, review platforms, listicles, and communities.
Originally founded around 2012 in Boise, Idaho, formally incorporated 2018. Co-founded by Robbie Richards (creator of The SEO Playbook training), Jarod Ferguson (CEO), and Ryan Fish (Operations).
Service offering
- Integrated Discovery Framework unifying organic + AI visibility reporting
- AI search audits identifying current gaps and opportunities
- LLM brand monitoring tracking how platforms reference you over time
- Listicle and review platform placement (high-citation formats)
- Combined dashboards eliminating siloed channel metrics
- Digital PR and citation building for authority signals
Their sweet spot
Serves exclusively B2B SaaS across cybersecurity, MarTech, logistics, fintech, SalesTech, HealthTech, and HR Tech.
Three client tiers by maturity: Foundation (Series A), Growth (Series A/B+, $5M+ ARR), Nurture (Series B+, publicly traded, or PE-backed).
Documented customer results include:
- SPOTIO (1,700+ demos, $2.8M new ARR)
- Cedreo (7x trial signups, 6K→70K monthly traffic)
- ForUsAll (6x qualified leads, 90% paid spend reduction)
Additional clients: Truckstop, CareAcademy, LexShares, Sprout Social.
Pricing
$6,000 monthly starting rate (older references cite $5,000—verify current rates directly). 6-month minimum commitment required, then continues month-to-month. Upper range reaches ~$30,000 monthly for enterprise/content-intensive strategies.
6. First Page Sage
Best for: Mid-market to enterprise B2B companies in complex, technical industries (SaaS, fintech, medtech, manufacturing) with high customer lifetime values needing expert-level thought leadership over 12+ months.
First Page Sage differentiates through Thought Leadership SEO—ghostwriting expert-level content by hiring subject-matter experts for each campaign.
Founded in 2009 by Evan Bailyn. Their Hub & Spoke content model and Corpus of Content methodology organize keyword strategies around building 50–200 high-value pages. Claims to be the largest SEO firm in U.S.
Approximately 65% B2B, 35% B2C. They've published heavily cited original research on CAC benchmarks and conversion rates driving substantial inbound authority.
Service offering
- Subject-matter expert ghostwriting (~80 pieces over 12 months)
- Six-element AI visibility methodology (list articles, databases, rankings, reviews, reputation, sentiment)
- Hub & Spoke and Corpus of Content keyword frameworks
- Quarterly proprietary GEO/AEO research studies
- Technical audits and conversion optimization
- Thought Leadership SEO as signature approach
Their sweet spot
Serves complex B2B verticals: SaaS, fintech, medtech, manufacturing, cybersecurity, law firms, logistics. Primarily midsized B2B companies with some enterprise clients.
Case studies include Cadence Design Systems (934% increase in keyword rankings) and iGPS (5x conversion rate improvement).
Listed clients: Salesforce, Logitech, Verisign, US Bank, SoFi, Verizon. Note: Scope and recency of enterprise engagements unclear—may have been limited consulting projects.
Pricing
Pricing not publicly disclosed. Third-party estimates suggest $8,000–$20,000+ monthly retainers. Their own SEO Agency Pricing Survey categorizes their tier (Tier 1 agencies) at $12,000+ monthly.
Typical engagement runs 12–24 month contracts (not month-to-month). Custom-quoted based on needs, competition level, and industry complexity.
7. Omnius
Best for: VC-backed B2B SaaS, Fintech, and AI companies (pre-seed through Series D) willing to wait for a spot in their 8-client-per-year roster.
Omnius is a boutique B2B SEO and LLMO agency serving exclusively SaaS, Fintech, and AI companies. Founded around 2022–2023 in London by Matija (Mat) Golubović (CEO) and Ana Pantić (COO). They practice Multi-engine SEO—treating traditional SEO and GEO as integrated, complementary disciplines rather than separate services. Key differentiator is Atomic AGI (atomicagi.com), their proprietary AI search tracking and analytics platform built in early 2024.
They accept a maximum of 8 clients annually (typically 2 per quarter), use only internal staff (no freelancers), and run a 12-week internal Academy for all team members. Their reversed funnel approach prioritizes BOFU content driving SQLs and signups first.
Service offering
- Proprietary Atomic AGI platform for LLM visibility tracking
- 22 documented GEO activities (crawler optimization, schema, citation engineering, etc.)
- Multi-channel authority building (Reddit, Quora, G2, Gartner, industry communities)
- Standalone AI Search Audits available
- Multi-engine SEO treating traditional + GEO as integrated disciplines
- All-internal team, no freelancers (8 clients per year maximum)
Their sweet spot
Exclusively serves SaaS, Fintech, and AI companies—no other industries accepted. Pre-seed through Series D startups and growth-stage companies.
Case studies include:
- TextCortex AI (0→2.73M organic clicks in 13 months)
- Anna Money (Deloitte UK Fast 50, $88M+ raised)
- Meniga (Series D, €55M raised, CNBC Top UK FinTechs)
- AuthoredUp (64% higher conversion, 110% organic growth in 6 months)
Additional clients: Native Teams, Signify, Glorify, Global App Testing.
Pricing
Pricing not publicly disclosed—custom quotes based on project scope, complexity, competitive landscape, and timeline. No rigid contract minimums stated. Engagement structured around 12-month KPI horizons with results timelines of 2–3 months for initial improvements, 6–12 months for significant results.
Given an 8-client annual cap, an all-internal team, and a funded startup client base, expect premium boutique pricing.
8. Rampiq
Best for: Data-driven B2B marketing teams wanting AI search visibility tied directly to CRM and pipeline reporting, not isolated visibility scores.
Rampiq is a data-driven B2B digital marketing agency building predictable growth engines for IT and SaaS companies.
Founded in 2011 by Liudmila Kiseleva (CEO; 15+ years in digital marketing). Clutch-certified women-owned business headquartered in Vienna/Arlington, Virginia with 20+ person team across 5 countries.
They differentiate through proprietary Vertology.ai LLM visibility audit tool and GEO Compliance Framework connecting reporting directly to CRM data and pipeline. Served 60+ companies and host B2B Tech Founders Lounge podcast.
Service offering
- Vertology.ai tool auditing LLM visibility from frozen memory + live search
- GEO Compliance Framework connecting AI visibility to CRM pipeline data
- AI Visibility Program with page-level briefs tied to revenue metrics
- Tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini
- Google AI Overviews visibility deep-dives
- Standalone AI Search + GEO Audit service available
Their sweet spot
Serves B2B SaaS and B2B IT/enterprise software from startups to mid-market, plus EdTech, e-commerce, and clean energy.
The Case IQ case study achieved 850+ keywords ranking in AI Overviews with 145% top-3 keyword growth.
Additional case studies:
- Webvizio (10x visibility in 4 weeks, 625% MoM organic traffic)
- AnalyticVue (562% organic user growth, 457 new organic keywords from zero)
- Petrosoft (4x qualified leads from paid, 2x reduction in disqualified leads)
Pricing
Pricing not publicly disclosed—custom-scoped engagements. Clutch minimum project size $5,000+. Average hourly rate $50–$99. Clutch reviews describe pricing as good value with flexible cost options. Free SEO audit and 30-minute consultation offered. AI Search and GEO Audit available as standalone one-time engagement—pricing requires direct inquiry.
What's the difference between AI SEO and traditional SEO?
Traditional SEO optimizes content for Google's ranking algorithms. You target keywords, build backlinks, improve page speed, and structure content so crawlers can index and rank it. Success means appearing on page one when someone searches your category.
AI SEO extends that foundation to language models. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews don't just index pages, they synthesize information across sources to generate direct answers. These systems evaluate content differently than traditional search crawlers. They prioritize authoritative sources, structured information, and content that directly answers specific questions without requiring users to click through.
The practical differences show up in three areas. First, content format matters more. Language models heavily cite listicles, comparison pages, and structured evaluations because these formats match how they process and present recommendations. Traditional SEO might rank a comprehensive guide, AI SEO requires content structured for extraction and citation.
Second, authority signals expand beyond backlinks. LLMs evaluate brand mentions across the web, third party recommendations, review site presence, and whether authoritative publications reference your company when discussing your category. A strong backlink profile helps, but AI systems also weigh whether independent sources name you as a credible option.
Third, measurement changes. Traditional SEO tracks rankings, organic traffic, and click through rates. AI SEO adds citation tracking, whether your brand appears when someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity about solutions in your space. You might rank well on Google but remain invisible in AI generated recommendations if your content lacks the structure and authority signals these systems prioritize.
The relationship between these approaches matters more than their differences. Strong bottom funnel traditional SEO creates the foundation AI visibility requires. Brands ranking in Google's top three appear in ChatGPT and Perplexity roughly 77% of the time. AI SEO builds on traditional SEO rather than replacing it.
Choose an agency based on what you're trying to achieve
The way B2B buyers research has fundamentally changed. They're using ChatGPT and Perplexity alongside Google, often before they ever reach your website. Your brand either appears in those AI generated recommendations or it doesn't.
AI SEO is flooded with rebranded services and manufactured urgency. Agencies slap new acronyms on existing deliverables while results stay unchanged. The best AI SEO strategy for B2B SaaS isn't a separate discipline requiring proprietary frameworks. It's excellent bottom funnel traditional SEO that targets commercial intent keywords where buyers actively evaluate solutions.
Focus your evaluation on agencies that prove business outcomes, SQLs, demos, pipeline, not just AI mentions or citation counts. For most B2B SaaS companies, you need an agency that understands your metrics, your buyer journey, and your competitive landscape. AI visibility follows naturally from that foundation.
This is exactly why we've built Exceed around bottom funnel SEO for B2B SaaS companies. Our clients see AI visibility as a byproduct of the conversion focused content strategy, not as a separate discipline requiring new tactics.
Use the comparison table above to identify which agency's approach aligns with your stage, budget, and specific needs.
Ready to drive pipeline from AI era search?
If you're a B2B SaaS company that needs SQLs and demos, not just traffic reports, from your SEO investment, we should talk. Let's discuss how Exceed's bottom funnel approach can drive qualified pipeline for your specific market.
Or explore our case studies to see documented results from companies like Awaio.
