How to Choose an AI Visibility Partner: A CMO's Guide
LULuke NewquistIntroduction: The New Execution Challenge in AI Visibility
For marketing leaders, the conversation around AI's impact on search has fundamentally shifted. The initial question of 'what is AI visibility and why does it matter?' has been answered. Most CMOs now recognize that their brand's presence in AI-generated answers from models like ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, and Perplexity is a critical new battleground. The primary hurdle has moved from strategy to execution: not what to do, but how to get it done.
This challenge has created what we call the AI Visibility Execution Gap. It’s the chasm between knowing you need to optimize your brand's digital presence for AI and having the internal resources to implement the necessary changes. For many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), this gap is defined by constraints on time, technical expertise, and content creation capacity. A recent PwC survey found that 43% of CMOs cite resource constraints as a top challenge, with another 41% pointing to a lack of internal skills—a reality that makes tackling a new discipline like AI visibility feel daunting.
This article provides a clear framework for CMOs and marketing leaders to evaluate potential execution partners. It will help you navigate the emerging landscape, deconstruct the often-misleading 'full-service' label, and choose a model that avoids common pitfalls and aligns with your core business objectives of efficiency, accountability, and return on investment.
Deconstructing 'Full-Service': Two Competing Models for AI Visibility
In traditional marketing, 'full-service' implies a single agency handling everything from strategy to creative and media buying. But does this definition hold up for the highly specialized, data-intensive work of AI visibility? As the market matures, two dominant execution models are emerging, and the choice between them has significant long-term implications for your budget, agility, and ROI.
Model 1: The Traditional, Siloed Agency Retainer. This involves hiring a digital marketing, SEO, or PR agency to execute an AI visibility strategy, often based on insights generated by a separate software platform.
Model 2: The Modern, Integrated Platform-Plus-Service Model. This involves a specialized service layer provided by the same company that offers the core AI visibility analytics platform.
On the surface, both might appear to solve the execution problem. However, their underlying structures create vastly different outcomes. As marketing leaders face pressure to justify every dollar, understanding the operational and financial differences between these models is not just beneficial—it's essential for success. According to a report from the CMO Alliance, 84% of SMEs report revenue challenges due to the current economic climate, making efficient budget allocation more critical than ever.
Model 1: The Traditional Agency Retainer Trap
In this familiar model, a company subscribes to an AI visibility platform to gain insights and then hires a separate agency to act on them. While it seems logical to delegate to an existing agency partner, this approach is fraught with hidden costs and inefficiencies that can undermine your entire strategy.
First, the costs are often high and opaque. A typical digital marketing or SEO agency retainer can range from $1,500 to over $30,000 per month, depending on the scope [1]. When you add this to the cost of a separate analytics platform, the total investment can quickly escalate without a clear, unified measure of ROI.
Second, this model creates communication silos. The agency executing the work is disconnected from the platform generating the insights. This often results in a clumsy workflow where recommendations are exported into spreadsheets and passed between teams, leading to delays and misinterpretations. A Forrester study found that 72% of firms struggle to manage data silos, which directly impacts their ability to optimize campaigns. This disconnect between insight and action is a primary cause of the strategy-execution gap that plagues many marketing departments [2].
Finally, many agencies lack true AI visibility expertise. They often retrofit existing SEO or content teams, treating AI optimization as an extension of traditional search. However, AI visibility requires a deep understanding of how models synthesize information, not just how they rank pages. This calls for specialists, not generalists who are simply adding a new service to their menu [3].
Model 2: The Integrated Platform-Plus-Service Advantage
An integrated model offers a modern alternative where the AI visibility platform and the execution service come from a single, unified provider. This structure is designed to eliminate the friction, data silos, and accountability issues inherent in the traditional agency model.
The primary advantage is the perfect synergy between data and action. The execution team works directly within the platform, using real-time data to prioritize and implement changes. This creates a tight feedback loop where the impact of every technical fix or content update is immediately visible and measurable within the same system. This approach mirrors the core benefits of integrated marketing communications, where a cohesive strategy leads to greater efficiency and stronger results [4].
This model is also significantly more cost-efficient. Instead of paying for two separate services—a software license and a large agency retainer—you pay for one platform with a streamlined service add-on. This eliminates redundant overhead and ensures your budget is spent on execution, not on managing multiple vendors.
Furthermore, you gain access to true specialists. The experts implementing the changes are the same people who live and breathe the platform's data every day. They are not a retrofitted SEO team but dedicated AI visibility professionals who understand the nuances of influencing generative models. This leads to a single point of accountability for both insights and results, ensuring that your strategic goals are directly tied to the execution process.
A CMO's 4-Question Framework for Choosing a Partner
To cut through the sales pitches and identify the right partner, marketing leaders should use a simple evaluation framework. Before signing any contract, ask every potential partner these four critical questions.
1. What is the true cost and pricing model?
Ask for a complete breakdown of all costs. A traditional agency model often involves a large, opaque monthly retainer that can exceed $10,000, plus the separate cost of an analytics platform [5]. In contrast, an integrated model should offer a transparent service add-on at a fraction of that cost. For example, an integrated service can deliver the value of a full agency team for about 10% of the price because it leverages the efficiency of its own platform. You can see an example of this transparent pricing here.
2. How integrated are insights and execution?
Ask about the workflow. Does the execution team work directly within the data platform, or do they rely on exported spreadsheets, PDFs, and weekly status calls? The latter is a red flag for data silos and inefficiency. A truly integrated partner will have a seamless process where insights from the platform are converted directly into an action plan within the same ecosystem, ensuring nothing is lost in translation.
3. Who is actually doing the work?
Dig deeper than the title 'account manager.' Are you getting a generalist who coordinates between teams, or a dedicated AI visibility expert who is a true specialist? An integrated model should provide you with a named expert who becomes an extension of your team. This specialist should be responsible for both the analysis and the implementation, from technical website fixes to targeted content creation. This is a key value proposition detailed on our pricing page.
4. How is success measured?
Ask to see a sample report. If you're shown a list of completed tasks and vanity metrics like 'articles posted,' be wary. A strong partner measures success based on direct, measurable improvements in your AI visibility. They should be able to connect their activities directly to business outcomes, such as an increase in positive brand mentions for high-value customer questions. The goal is to demonstrate a clear return on investment, not just a record of activity [6].
Why Searchify Built an Integrated Service to Bridge the Gap
We created our optional full-service add-on for one simple reason: we saw that the AI Visibility Execution Gap was the single biggest obstacle preventing SMBs from succeeding in this new landscape. Our platform delivered the actionable insights, but many marketing teams, already stretched thin, lacked the specialized resources to implement them.
Instead of forcing our clients into the inefficient and expensive traditional agency model, we built a solution. Our integrated service provides a dedicated AI visibility expert who acts as a member of your team. They handle the full implementation of the platform's recommendations—from technical schema updates and site optimizations to writing and publishing expert content. Every action is tracked, quality-assured, and directly tied to the metrics in your Searchify dashboard.
This model delivers the expertise and output of a full agency retainer for what typically amounts to about 10% of the cost, as detailed on our pricing page. It is the most logical and cost-effective solution for SMBs that need expert execution without the enterprise-level price tag.
Your First Step: Establish a Baseline Before You Hire
Choosing the right partner model is as crucial as the AI visibility strategy itself. The wrong choice can lead to wasted budget, months of delays, and disappointing results. But before you evaluate any partner or commit any resources, the essential first step is to get a clear, data-driven understanding of where you stand today.
Without a baseline, you cannot effectively measure the impact of any new initiative or investment. As one expert notes, you need to measure where you are today before initiating new programs; otherwise, you won't be able to show how results have changed. A baseline provides the fixed reference point needed to justify your marketing plan and track progress accurately [7].
Start with data, not a sales call. Get your free, no-obligation AI Visibility One-Pager to see how AI models perceive your brand today. This report will give you the baseline you need to make an informed decision about your next steps.