The distinction matters
A paid AI advertising product has an identifiable seller, placement, eligibility route, charging method and reporting terms. GEO—generative engine optimization—is work intended to improve how clearly a brand or topic can be understood and cited in organic AI answers.
Paying an agency for GEO does not mean the agency buys a recommendation from a model.
Verify “AI ads” before buying
Ask for the exact product, official documentation, available regions, account requirements, placement behavior, pricing method and reporting access. Product availability can change. A vague promise to “place your brand inside AI” is not enough.
What GEO can reasonably do
GEO can improve core brand facts, answer important customer questions, strengthen sources, organize evidence and identify factual errors across a repeatable prompt set. These improvements also support users and traditional search.
How to measure without inventing certainty
Record the platform, exact model or mode, date, language, web-access state, prompt, repetitions, mention, citation URL and factual accuracy. Report a test-set result, not “share of all AI.”
AI answers vary and no provider can guarantee a mention or recommendation. Strong work makes your public information clearer and more verifiable, then reports observed outcomes honestly.
Avoid scaled answer-page spam
Publishing hundreds of near-identical pages for every prompt does not create authority. Build substantive service pages, comparisons, evidence and expert-reviewed answers that are useful even when no AI system reads them.