For agencies that grow D2C brands
How can an agency sell AI search services to its brands?
To sell AI search services, agree a fixed set of buying prompts with the brand, track how often ChatGPT and Perplexity name it and cite its pages, publish pages that answer those questions, and report the mention rate monthly under your agency's name. Sell the measurement and the work, never a guaranteed mention.
344k impressions in Google's AI results in three months · and 1 mention in 233 tracked AI assistant answers · MoolwanSearch Console · Generative AI features · 25 Jun–23 Sep 2026 · ai-dm · Sep 2026 · real data
What you'll see in 10 minutes
- Your first brand's report, built from its domain alone.
- How often ChatGPT and Perplexity name the brand for a first set of buying prompts, and which rivals they name instead.
- The pages the engines cite for rivals, as a list of pages to pitch the brand.
Why are brands asking their agencies about AI search?
Monday call. The founder asks, "Are we showing up when people ask ChatGPT?" Someone types one question, gets one answer and shares a screenshot. Next week the answer is different, and nobody can say whether that's progress.
An unanswered question is a service someone else sells. If your agency can't measure AI search, another agency will pitch the brand on it, and an agency that answers with a promise of rankings loses trust the first time the answer changes. Here's what a brand can honestly buy.
| Part of the service | What the brand gets | What you can honestly promise |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt tracking | A fixed set of buying questions checked in ChatGPT and Perplexity | An honest mention rate, the pages cited and the rivals named |
| New and improved pages | Pages that each answer one buying question, with images and schema | Better answers to the questions that matter, not a guaranteed mention |
| Search results | Impressions in Google's AI results, from the brand's Search Console | What Google reports; Google doesn't say why it picks a page |
| Reporting | A monthly report under your agency's name | The same prompts, measured the same way, every month |
How do you package and price an AI search service?
Fix what you measure, then sell the work. A service built on a fixed prompt set and a monthly page plan is easy to explain, easy to price and easy to renew, because the brand can see the same numbers move. Work through these six steps before you write the proposal.
Start with an audit
Run the brand's buying questions in ChatGPT and Perplexity before you pitch, and show where it's named, where rivals are named instead and which pages get cited. The gap is the sale.
Fix the prompt set
Agree a fixed list of buying prompts with the brand, by category, price point and city. A fixed set is what makes month-on-month numbers comparable.
Decide the monthly work
Set how many pages you'll publish or improve each month, each answering one prompt from the set, with images and schema.
Price from your own hours
Count the hours for tracking, writing and reporting, multiply by your cost of an hour and add your margin. Price the work, not a promised outcome.
Report the same way every month
Show the mention rate, the pages cited and the rivals named for the same prompts, plus impressions in Google's AI results from Search Console.
Review the prompt set each quarter
Add new buying questions as the brand's range and the market change, and retire the ones nobody asks any more.
Step 1 works best on your own agency first: audit your own agency's AI visibility free, then run the same check for a prospect. The prompt-by-prompt method for brands is set out on the page about how to track AI search visibility.
What should your agency charge for an AI search service?
Price it from your own numbers. Set the scope, enter your hours, your cost of an hour and the margin you need. The builder writes the package, works out the lowest monthly price that covers the work and drafts the opening paragraph of your proposal.
Build and price an AI search service
Every figure is yours to change. The starting values are an illustrative example, not a market rate.
The package
- 40 buying prompts tracked in ChatGPT and Perplexity, the same set every monthtracking
- 4 pages a month, each answering one prompt from the set, with images and schemapages
- A monthly report under your agency's name: mention rate, pages cited and rivals namedreport
- Impressions in Google's AI results, from the brand's Search Consolesearch
- A review of the prompt set every quarterreview
proposal openingFor Dewleaf Skincare, we'll track 40 buying prompts in ChatGPT and Perplexity and send a monthly report on how often the brand is named, which of its pages are cited and which rivals are named instead. Each month we'll publish 4 pages that answer one of those questions, with images and schema. We won't promise mentions, because no one can; we'll measure honestly and work on the gaps the answers show. The monthly fee is ₹35,000.
Free, no login. The price covers your hours at your margin; it isn't a benchmark for what agencies charge.
(login required) · ai-dm tracks the prompts, drafts the pages and builds the report, so your hours go further.
How does ai-dm help an agency deliver AI search services?
It does the tracking, drafts the pages and builds the report. ai-dm checks each brand's buying prompts in ChatGPT and Perplexity, counts how often the brand is named, which of its pages are cited and which rivals are named instead. It drafts the pages that answer those questions, so your team can publish articles and schema once they're approved, and it puts the month's numbers into a report under your agency's name.
mention rate 7.5% · up from 3.8% · rival still ahead · next month's pages target its prompts
In this illustrative example, Dewleaf Skincare is named in 6 of 80 answers across ChatGPT and Perplexity in month two, up from 3, while a rival is named in 31. The brand's pages are cited 9 times, up from 4, after four new pages. The month's report waits for the agency's approval before it goes to the brand.
On our own brand, the honest version. Moolwan's pages were shown 344,000 times in Google's AI results in three months, led by two how-to guides on TV placement by Vastu (8,479 impressions) and feng shui colours (7,853) (Search Console · Generative AI features · 25 Jun–23 Sep 2026), and 368 new users arrived from chatgpt.com (GA4 · First user source · 29 Jun–26 Sep 2026). Yet Moolwan is named in just 1 of 233 tracked AI assistant answers (ai-dm · Sep 2026). That's the report you'd send a brand: strong where it's strong, plain where it isn't. You can inspect Moolwan's real numbers, with the source and date of each.
Each brand's tracking and pages stay private to that brand, and nothing is published without your team's approval; you can check how brand data is protected.
Related pages
Questions agencies ask about selling AI search services
What is an AI search service?
An AI search service is a monthly agency offer that tracks how often answer engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity name a brand and cite its pages for a fixed set of buying questions, publishes pages that answer those questions better, and reports the results under the agency's name.
Can an agency guarantee a brand will show up in ChatGPT?
No, and no one can. The engines don't publish how they choose what to name, and Google doesn't say why it picks a page. Sell the measurement and the work: an honest mention rate, the pages and rivals behind it, and better answers to the questions that matter.
How should an agency price AI search services?
From its own numbers. Count the hours a month for tracking, writing and reporting, multiply by your cost of an hour and add your target margin. The calculator on this page does the sum and writes the package, so the price covers the work whatever the results.
Which AI engines should an AI search service cover?
Start with the ones the brand's buyers use. ai-dm tracks the brand's answers in ChatGPT and Perplexity, and impressions in Google's AI results come from the brand's Search Console. Keep the same engines and prompts every month so the numbers compare.
How long does AI search work take to show results?
Measure monthly and judge changes over months, not days. Give a new page a few weeks before judging it, change one thing at a time, and keep the prompt set fixed so a rise or fall means something.
Can we sell AI search under our own agency name?
Yes. Reports and the brand portal carry your agency's logo and domain, not ai-dm's, so the brand buys the service from you. Every number in the report keeps its source.
What does it cost to run an AI search service on ai-dm?
There's no plan to pick. Sign up, pay as you go, and add each brand from its domain. Billed in USD and INR. Per-brand plans or pay as you go. A brand's data is deletable on request.
No plan to pick. Billed in USD and INR. A brand's data is deletable on request.