AEO pricing · what you get at each stage
What you get, and how we price it.
HelloWorld's AEO work follows one path in three stages: an AI Visibility Audit, a 90-day Implementation Programme, then a monthly AEO Retainer. This page sets out exactly what is in each one. The audit is a fixed fee. The programme and the retainer are quoted from what the audit finds, and we give you every figure on a short call.
Curious first? The free AI access check shows in about a minute whether AI assistants can read your site at all.
One path, three stages
How does the path work?
Every client starts with the audit, because it sets the baseline everything else is measured against. The programme does the work. The retainer keeps it moving and proves it every month.
AI Visibility Audit
Where you stand in ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Copilot, Perplexity and Claude, and a phased 90-day plan to change it.
- Standard: one brand, one market, 30 buyer prompts
- Extended: multi-brand, Ireland and UK, or ecommerce with feed review, 50 prompts
- Every prompt scored 0 to 3 across five AI assistants
- Technical, on-site and off-site baselines
- What not to spend money on
- A phased 90-day plan with owner, effort and metric
- Ten working days, readout call included
AEO Implementation Programme
We do the work the audit calls for, with prompt panel reruns and a scorecard at weeks 4, 8 and 12.
- Weeks 1 to 4: baseline and instrumentation, including what each AI assistant says about you today
- Weeks 1 to 2: foundations, from what your homepage says first to crawler and CDN fixes
- Weeks 2 to 8: proof and presence, led by the roundups AI already cites, with review platforms, trade press and YouTube
- Weeks 2 to 12: answer content, including an answer hub of 8 to 12 pages
- Account setup done for you, from Bing Webmaster Tools to review platforms
- Before-and-after write-up at week 13
AEO Retainer
Fresh answer content, review and roundup work, launch support and a monthly scorecard that shows what moved.
- Three tiers: Core, Growth and Scale
- AI visibility tracker included
- Monthly scorecard on 4-week rolling averages
- 3 to 10 content pieces a month, new or refreshed
- Launch support on every tier
Stages 2 and 3 are scoped and quoted from the audit, so the audit is the only decision in front of you today. Every figure is confirmed in writing before any work starts.
AEO Retainer tiers
Which retainer tier fits?
Every tier includes the AI visibility tracker, a monthly scorecard and a 6-month first term, then rolls monthly. The difference is scale: how many prompts we track, how much we publish and how much off-site work we run. We agree the tier with you at the audit readout, and quote the monthly fee then.
Core
One brand, one market.
- Monthly scorecard
- 3 content pieces a month, new or refreshed
- Review and roundup monitoring
- Ad hoc launch support
- Monthly call
Growth
Built for most mid-market companies.
- Monthly scorecard
- 6 content pieces a month, new or refreshed
- Roundup and trade-press outreach
- Review programme run for you
- Launch playbook for up to 1 launch a month
- Fortnightly call
- Quarterly strategy review
Scale
Multi-brand, multi-market, ecommerce with feeds, or regulated.
- Monthly scorecard
- 10 content pieces a month, plus feed work
- Full digital PR
- Per-branch listings
- Compliance workflow for regulated sectors
- Launch playbook as needed
- Weekly check-in and quarterly strategy review
The tracker subscription is included up to each tier's prompt allowance, so there is no separate tool bill. Every retainer starts from the baseline set in your AI Visibility Audit, and the monthly fee is agreed before the first month begins. See how the retainer works month to month, or book the audit and we will size the tier with you.
Everything in one table
What each stage includes.
Everything we sell, side by side. Scope and fee are both confirmed in writing before any work starts, and every figure we quote is in euro and excludes VAT.
| Service | What's included | How it is priced |
|---|---|---|
| AI Visibility AuditStandard | One brand, one market, 30 buyer prompts scored across five AI assistants. Technical, on-site and off-site baselines, and a phased 90-day plan. Ten working days, readout call included. | Fixed feeOne-off, credited in full against the programme |
| AI Visibility AuditExtended | Multi-brand, Ireland and UK, or ecommerce with feed review. 50 buyer prompts. Everything in the standard audit. | Fixed feeOne-off, credited in full against the programme |
| AEO Implementation Programme90 days | Baseline, foundations, proof and presence, and answer content, with account setup done for you. Panel reruns and scorecards at weeks 4, 8 and 12, and a write-up at week 13. A single B2B brand is the smallest version of the job, ecommerce with feeds or multiple branches the largest. | Quoted from the auditOne figure for the 90 days, in three monthly instalments |
| AEO RetainerCore | One brand, one market. About 50 tracked prompts, 3 content pieces a month, review and roundup monitoring, ad hoc launch support, monthly call. | Monthly6-month first term, then rolling monthly |
| AEO RetainerGrowth | About 100 tracked prompts, 6 content pieces a month, roundup and trade-press outreach, review programme, launch playbook for up to 1 launch a month, fortnightly call, quarterly strategy review. | Monthly6-month first term, then rolling monthly |
| AEO RetainerScale | Multi-brand, multi-market, ecommerce with feeds, or regulated. 150+ tracked prompts, 10 content pieces a month plus feed work, full digital PR, per-branch listings, compliance workflow, weekly check-in. | Monthly6-month first term, then rolling monthly |
The figures live in the proposal, not on the open web, and you get them on a 20-minute call with Bryan. VAT is added at 23% where it applies. The audit fee is credited in full against the Implementation Programme if you sign within 60 days. The AI visibility tracker is included in the programme and in every retainer tier. The AI access check is free and always will be.
What we won't charge you for
Five things you won't find on our invoice.
Some AEO packages are built from tactics with no evidence behind them. We leave them out, and we say so before you buy.
Google's own guidance says AEO “is still SEO”. We agree: the foundations are SEO. We do the parts a normal SEO retainer doesn't cover, which are reviews, roundups, PR, product feeds, entity work and measurement across several AI assistants. If you have an SEO agency, we work alongside it.
- llms.txt files. No measurable effect on AI citations across roughly 300,000 domains (SE Ranking, via Search Engine Journal).
- “Schema for AI”. Adding structured data showed no measurable lift in AI citations in Ahrefs' study. We keep your existing markup accurate and stop there.
- Rewriting your copy “for robots”. Google's AI optimisation guide, updated 10 July 2026, says no special rewriting or chunking is needed. Writing pages that answer your buyers' questions directly is a different thing, and worth doing.
- Wire press releases. 84% of AI citations come from earned media (Muck Rack, May 2026). We pitch real stories to trade press instead.
- Bought mentions. Paid media earns 0.3% of AI citations in the same analysis, and a bought mention is a reputational risk.
Pricing FAQ
Questions about pricing
Why are the numbers not on this page?
Because only one of them is the same for everybody. The AI Visibility Audit is a fixed fee, and we tell you what it is as soon as you ask. The Implementation Programme and the AEO Retainer are quoted from what the audit finds, because a single brand in one market and a multi-branch retailer with product feeds are not the same job. Book the audit and you get the numbers on a short call, in writing before anything starts.
How do we get a price?
Book an AI Visibility Audit and we will hold a 20-minute call first. We confirm the audit fee on that call, and you get it in writing before you commit to anything. Programme and retainer figures follow the audit readout, once we both know the size of the job. If you would rather see something before you talk to us, the free AI access check takes about a minute.
Are you the cheap option?
No. The fee pays for senior research, writing, outreach and measurement, not a software licence. It sits inside the published mid-market range for AEO work in the UK and US, and above the level one US agency pricing guide says is often rebranded SEO. We price the programme towards the lower end of that range while our first public case study is in progress.
Can we start with the audit only?
Yes. The audit is a complete piece of work on its own. You keep the report, the scored prompt panel and the 90-day plan, and your team can act on it without us. If you go ahead with the Implementation Programme within 60 days, the full audit fee is credited against it.
Is the AI visibility tracker included?
Yes. We set the tracker up in week 1 of the Implementation Programme, and every retainer tier includes the subscription up to the tier's prompt allowance. We use Peec AI by default, or HubSpot AEO if you already run HubSpot Marketing Hub. There is no separate tool bill.
What is the minimum term?
The audit is a one-off. The Implementation Programme runs for 90 days, paid in three monthly instalments. The AEO Retainer has a 6-month first term, then rolls monthly. Six months is roughly the shortest period in which the trend line means something: the first four weeks set the baseline, and first measurable movement typically appears around month three.
Do your fees include VAT?
No. Every figure we quote excludes VAT. Irish VAT at 23% is added to invoices where it applies, and it is shown separately on your proposal.
What changes the programme fee?
Scope, and nothing else. A single B2B brand in one market is the smallest version of the job. Ecommerce with product feeds, or a business with several branches, is the largest, because feed work and per-branch listings add real hours. The audit shows which one you are, and we confirm the figure in writing before any work starts.
We already have an SEO agency. Do we still need you?
We partner with your SEO agency; we don't replace it. Google's own guidance says AEO “is still SEO”, and we agree that the foundations are SEO. We do the parts a normal SEO retainer doesn't cover: reviews, roundups, PR, product feeds, entity work and measurement across several AI assistants.
Next step
Start with the audit.
A scored baseline across five AI assistants and a phased 90-day plan, in ten working days. One fixed fee, credited in full against the programme, and we give you the figure on the call.