A real answer engine optimisation agency must do four things: measure who the AI recommends today, diagnose why, fix it with your approval, and re-measure to prove the change. Most of what is sold as AEO in the UK today does one of the four. (And to clear up an acronym clash our own measurement keeps finding: this is AI search marketing, not Authorised Economic Operator, the HMRC customs status.)
The questions to demand of anyone selling AEO
- "How many measured answers is your baseline built on?" AI answers change between identical runs, 19% of the time in our own published data, so a screenshot proves nothing. If the answer isn't "hundreds, repeated", keep walking.
- "How will you prove your work caused any improvement?" The honest answer involves before-and-after measurement on the same questions, ideally with untouched control queries. "Rankings went up" is an SEO answer to an AEO question.
- "Which engines, exactly?" Engines disagree with each other on a third of questions. ChatGPT-only visibility says little about Google AI Overviews or Perplexity.
- "What happens if there's nothing worth fixing?" The right answer exists and costs nothing. Ours is: we tell you, free, before you have spent anything.
- "Is your pricing public?" Ours is: from £500 pilot, from £700 monthly. Opacity at the pricing stage predicts opacity at the reporting stage.
Red flags
- Guaranteed placements or promised booking volumes. Nobody controls the engines; the channel is young. Honest sellers prove movement, not miracles.
- A monitoring dashboard sold as a service. Tools like Scrunch and Otterly are good at watching (we compared them), but a dashboard plus "good luck" is not delivery.
- SEO retainers with the word AI added. Much overlaps, but if nothing in the proposal mentions measuring actual AI answers, it isn't AEO.
Common questions
What should an AEO agency actually deliver?
Four things: a measured baseline of who the AI recommends across engines (hundreds of answers, not screenshots), a diagnosis of why you lose where you lose, fixes shipped with your approval, and a re-measure that proves what moved, ideally against untouched control queries. If any of the four is missing, you are buying a dashboard or a promise.
How much do AEO agencies charge in the UK?
Traditional agencies charge £3,000 to £5,000 per month, and much of it is rebadged SEO. Monitoring tools cost £25 to £400+ per month but leave the work to you. Aeova Partners charges from £500 one-time for a pilot, then from £700 per month.
Is 'AEO' the same as the customs AEO?
No. Authorised Economic Operator is a UK customs status administered by HMRC. Answer Engine Optimisation is AI search marketing. The acronym clash is real enough that AI engines mix the two up in answers, so if you searched for customs help, this is not that.
Updated July 2026