How do you make the business case for GEO investment to leadership? They still think SEO is enough

I’ve been on both sides of this conversation. Here’s what worked:

Don’t lead with “GEO” - lead with the problem.

Executives don’t care about optimization methodologies. They care about:

• Revenue risk
• Competitive position
• Market share

The framing that worked for me:

“Our customers are increasingly using AI to make purchasing decisions. When they ask ChatGPT ‘what’s the best [our category]?’, our competitors are mentioned but we’re not. This is a growing channel where we have zero presence.”

The demo that sealed it:

I did a live demo in the executive meeting:

1. Asked ChatGPT our most important buying question
2. Competitors were cited, we weren’t
3. Asked Perplexity - same result
4. Asked Google AI Overview - same result

Seeing it in real-time made the problem tangible. The abstract became concrete.

The close:

“This channel is growing 30%+ annually. We can address it now at lower cost, or scramble later when competitors have entrenched positions.”

Data points that resonated with our executives:

1. Market shift data:

• “60%+ of Google searches now trigger AI Overviews”
• “Gartner: 50% of organic traffic will shift to AI by 2028”
• “25% of search traffic predicted to move to AI chatbots by 2026”

2. Current state visibility:

• Our citation rate: 12%
• Top competitor: 45%
• Gap: 33 percentage points

3. Risk quantification:

• If AI captures 25% of search traffic, and we’re invisible in AI…
• We lose access to 25% of our addressable market
• At current revenue of $X, that’s $Y at risk

4. Investment vs risk:

• GEO investment: $Z/year
• Revenue at risk: $Y/year
• Insurance ratio: very favorable

Executives understand insurance against risk. Frame it that way.

The competitive angle works best when you make it specific.

Generic (doesn’t work): “AI search is growing and we need to optimize.”

Specific (works): “When prospects ask ChatGPT about [our category], Company X is recommended first 65% of the time. We’re mentioned 12% of the time. That’s influencing decisions before prospects even visit our site.”

Make it a screenshot:

• Capture the actual AI response
• Highlight competitor mentions
• Show this in the presentation

Add the “what if”: “What if a journalist writing about our industry asks AI for recommendations? What if a consultant advising on vendor selection uses AI research? This is how buying decisions start now.”

The more concrete and visual you make competitor advantage, the more urgency you create.

This is great. Let me draft my presentation outline:

Slide 1: The Shift

• AI search growth statistics
• How this changes buyer research behavior

Slide 2: Live Demo

• Ask AI our top 3 buying questions
• Show who gets cited (competitors, not us)

Slide 3: The Gap

• Our citation rate vs competitors
• Share of voice comparison

Slide 4: Risk Quantification

• Traffic shift projections
• Revenue at risk calculation

Slide 5: The Ask

• Investment required
• Expected outcomes
• Timeline

Question: What’s a reasonable budget ask for initial GEO investment? And what outcomes should I commit to?

Budget guidance based on company size:

Small company (under $10M revenue):

• Initial investment: $2,000-5,000/month
• Focus: Content restructuring, monitoring setup, one writer dedicated to GEO
• Expected outcome: 20-30% citation rate improvement in 6 months

Mid-market ($10M-100M):

• Initial investment: $5,000-15,000/month
• Focus: Dedicated GEO resource, monitoring tools, authority building
• Expected outcome: 30-50% citation rate improvement in 6 months

Enterprise ($100M+):

• Initial investment: $15,000-50,000/month
• Focus: Full team, comprehensive monitoring, external authority campaigns
• Expected outcome: Competitive parity or advantage in 6-12 months

Outcomes to commit to (realistic):

• Citation rate improvement (measurable)
• Share of voice change (measurable)
• Content published with GEO optimization (activity metric)

Don’t commit to revenue impact directly - too many variables. Commit to visibility metrics you can control.

Common executive objections and how to handle them:

“SEO is already working.” Response: “SEO addresses traditional search. AI search is a different channel growing 30%+ annually. We’re invisible there. This isn’t replacing SEO - it’s addressing a new channel.”

“Let’s wait and see.” Response: “Early movers are establishing authority signals now. The longer we wait, the more entrenched competitors become and the harder it is to catch up. Cost to act increases over time.”

“What’s the ROI?” Response: “Conservative estimate: [risk quantification]. But more importantly, this is brand insurance. What’s the cost of being invisible when competitors are visible?”

“This feels like a fad.” Response: “ChatGPT has 200 million weekly users. Perplexity is growing rapidly. Google’s AI Overviews appear in 60%+ of searches. This isn’t a fad - it’s how people research now.”

“Our customers don’t use AI.” Response: “Your customers’ researchers do. Consultants do. Analysts do. Even if end buyers don’t ask AI directly, influencers in the buying process do.”

Tip: Start with a pilot, not a full program.

What I pitched: “Let me run a 3-month pilot with minimal investment. If it works, we expand. If not, we learned something.”

The pilot:

• $3,000 total budget
• Am I Cited subscription ($300/month)
• 10 hours/week of existing team time
• 10 pages optimized for AI

The result after 3 months:

• Citation rate for pilot pages: 8% to 35%
• Clear data on what works
• Leadership could see tangible results

Then the ask was easy: “The pilot worked. Here’s what we could do at scale.”

Small proven wins beat big untested asks.

Translation guide for executive audiences:

Instead of: “We need to optimize for AI answer engines” Say: “We need to ensure our brand is visible when customers research through AI”

Instead of: “Citation frequency” Say: “Brand presence in AI recommendations”

Instead of: “GEO strategy” Say: “AI visibility program”

Instead of: “Content extraction optimization” Say: “Making our content AI-friendly”

Instead of: “Answer-first structure” Say: “Clear, direct content that AI can summarize accurately”

Executives don’t need to understand the methodology. They need to understand the business problem and solution.

Keep technical jargon out of the boardroom.

This is exactly what I needed. Final presentation plan:

The pitch (executive language):

“Our customers are increasingly using AI to research and make purchasing decisions. When they ask AI about our category, competitors are recommended and we’re not. This is a growing channel where we have zero presence.

I’m proposing a 3-month pilot to establish visibility in AI recommendations. For $X investment, we’ll optimize our top 10 pages and measure impact. If it works, we expand. If not, we’ve learned something important about how our customers research.”

The demo:

• Live AI queries in the meeting
• Show competitor visibility
• Show our gap

The data:

• Current citation gap vs competitors
• Market shift projections
• Risk quantification

The ask:

• 3-month pilot
• Specific budget
• Clear success metrics (citation rate improvement)

Follow-up:

• Monthly progress reports
• 3-month review with expansion proposal

Thanks everyone - this feels much more executable now.

One last tip: timing matters.

The best time to make this case is when:

• A competitor just launched something that’s getting cited
• Leadership sees a competitor mentioned in an AI answer firsthand
• There’s strategic planning or budget season
• A major industry report mentions AI search impact

Create the presentation now, then deploy it when the moment is right. Sometimes the same pitch that gets rejected in March gets approved in September because the context changed.

And document everything. If they say no now, you can come back with “remember when I proposed this?” when conditions change.