What percentage of your marketing budget goes to GEO vs traditional SEO? Trying to figure out the right split

Here’s our framework and the reasoning behind it:

Our current allocation:

Why 80/15/5:

SEO drives current results. Can’t sacrifice what’s working.

GEO is strategic investment. Not about today’s traffic - about tomorrow’s market position.

Experimental catches emerging platforms before competitors.

The overlap factor:

Here’s what people miss: most GEO investments ALSO improve SEO.

• Content structure → helps both
• Schema markup → helps both
• Authority building → helps both

So that 15% GEO allocation actually delivers ~50% SEO benefit too.

The real split is more like:

• 80% SEO-only investments (link building, technical, keyword optimization)
• 20% dual-purpose investments (content, schema, authority)
• 5% GEO-only (AI monitoring, platform-specific optimization)

Most of your “GEO budget” should be dual-purpose.

Similar stage to you (Series B). Here’s our journey:

Year 1: 95/5 SEO/GEO

• Focus: establish organic foundation
• GEO: just monitoring, no active optimization

Year 2: 85/15 SEO/GEO

• SEO foundation established
• Started GEO content optimization
• Began tracking AI citations

Year 3 (now): 75/25 SEO/GEO

• SEO generating consistent leads
• GEO showing real results
• AI traffic now 3% (from <1%)

What changed our allocation:

The growth-stage consideration:

At Series B, you need predictable growth. SEO provides that.

GEO is the strategic hedge against market shift.

Don’t sacrifice proven channels for emerging ones - but don’t ignore emerging ones either.

CFO perspective here. How I think about this for budget approvals:

The SEO case:

• Proven ROI (we have 3+ years of data)
• Predictable timeline (results in 3-6 months)
• Clear attribution (Google Analytics)
• Low risk, moderate reward

The GEO case:

• Emerging ROI (limited data)
• Uncertain timeline (market still forming)
• Harder attribution (multiple touchpoints)
• Higher risk, potentially higher reward

How I evaluate GEO budget requests:

1. What’s the strategic risk of NOT investing?

   • If competitors win AI visibility, can we catch up?
   • Answer: Harder to catch up than establish early

2. What’s the overlap with existing investments?

   • If GEO spend also improves SEO, risk is lower
   • 50%+ overlap = more acceptable

3. What are the learning objectives?

   • “Test and learn” budget is different from “scale” budget
   • 10-15% for learning is reasonable

My recommendation to boards:

10-20% GEO allocation as strategic insurance against market shift.

Frame it as risk management, not revenue prediction.

Agency perspective - we see budgets across 50+ clients.

Budget allocation by company stage:

Why early-stage gets more GEO:

• Less legacy SEO investment to protect
• Can establish AI presence before competitors
• Agility to shift if AI grows faster

Why mature companies get less GEO:

• Large SEO investment generating revenue
• More to lose from shifting too fast
• Can afford to be fast follower

The one exception:

If your industry is heavily discussed in AI (SaaS tools, technology, marketing), increase GEO allocation 5-10% regardless of stage.

AI visibility is more important in AI-relevant industries.

The ROI measurement challenge is real. Here’s how we handle it:

GEO metrics we track:

The attribution challenge:

AI citations don’t always drive direct clicks. Someone might:

1. Ask ChatGPT about our category
2. See our brand mentioned
3. Later Google our brand directly
4. Convert

Our solution:

• Track branded search volume
• Survey new customers: “How did you hear about us?”
• Monitor AI citations → brand search correlation
• Use incrementality testing when budget allows

What we’ve learned:

GEO ROI is real but indirect. Companies cited in AI see +15-30% branded search volume.

Let’s talk about the market trajectory.

Current state (2026):

• Google: ~50% of discovery traffic
• AI platforms: <2% of discovery traffic
• Most marketers: 80-90% SEO

Projected state (2028):

• Google: ~40% of discovery traffic
• AI platforms: ~15% of discovery traffic
• Smart marketers: 70/30 SEO/GEO

The inflection point:

When AI platforms hit 5-10% of your traffic, GEO becomes a core channel, not an experiment.

What the early adopters get:

The investment case:

Spending 15-20% now on GEO is cheaper than spending 40% later trying to catch up.

It’s not about today’s traffic. It’s about tomorrow’s market position.

Here’s our quarterly reallocation approach:

Fixed vs variable allocation:

How we allocate the variable 30%:

Review metrics quarterly:

• SEO ROI vs target → if over, keep allocation
• GEO ROI vs target → if over, increase allocation
• Traffic shift → if AI growing, shift toward GEO

Reallocation triggers:

• GEO citations up 25%+ QoQ → increase GEO 5%
• SEO ROI down 20%+ → investigate before reallocating
• New AI platform gains traction → test with experimental budget

Why this works:

• Core investments protected (60% SEO + 10% GEO)
• Flexibility to respond to market changes
• Data-driven reallocation, not guessing

Current split (after Q4 2025 reallocation):

SEO: 72% | GEO: 18% | Experimental: 10%

This discussion has given me a clear budget framework. Summary:

Recommended allocation for Series B:

Key insight: Focus on dual-purpose investments

Most effective use of GEO budget:

• Content optimization (serves both)
• Schema implementation (serves both)
• Authority building (serves both)
• AI monitoring (GEO-specific)

Board presentation framing:

1. SEO continues to drive current results
2. GEO investment is strategic insurance
3. Most GEO spend also improves SEO
4. We’ll track and adjust quarterly

Metrics to track:

• SEO: Rankings, organic traffic, conversions
• GEO: AI citations, visibility score, brand search lift
• Combined: Total organic share of voice

Quarterly review triggers:

• Increase GEO if citations grow 25%+
• Increase GEO if AI-referred traffic exceeds 3%
• Rebalance if SEO ROI significantly changes

Expected outcome:

Position for AI growth while protecting proven SEO investment.

Thanks everyone for the real numbers and frameworks.