Questions We Get Asked About AI Search, Pricing And Results
Prices, timelines, and the things we refuse to promise. If an answer here talks you out of it, that was the answer doing its job
Straight Answers, Including The Prices
Questions We Get Asked About AI Search, Pricing And Results
Prices, timelines, and the things we refuse to promise. If an answer here talks you out of it, that was the answer doing its job
Strategic AI Marketing is a one-person marketing agency in Elanora Heights on Sydney's Northern Beaches. A Revenue X-Ray costs A$670 fixed and runs 30 days. Retainers start at A$870 a month, month to month. AI search visibility typically starts moving at 60 to 90 days.
The short version: we make businesses findable inside AI answers — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews — as well as in ordinary Google search. Those are not the same job. A business ranking first on Google has roughly a 45% chance of also showing up in the AI answer for the same question, which means more than half of well-ranked businesses are invisible in the place their customers are increasingly asking.
We measure this on ourselves and publish the number every month. Ours started at 0 out of 12. That is on the record, dated, and it is the reason we can tell you what this actually takes.
Table of Contents
Do I need marketing if I already get work by word of mouth?
Maybe not. If your diary is full three months out, you need a second van, not an agency. But word of mouth now has a step in the middle — the person you were referred to looks you up before ringing, and what she finds decides whether the referral survives.
What is AI search visibility, and why does it matter?
When someone asks ChatGPT or Google AI who to use, the answer names a handful of businesses. Only about 1 in 100 local businesses ever gets named. Being invisible there is not a ranking problem you can fix with normal SEO — it works differently, and it is fixed differently.
What makes you different from a normal SEO agency?
Most agencies optimise for Google and stop. Ranking on Google does not carry across to AI answers — only about 45% of businesses in the map pack also appear in AI results. We work both, and we publish our own score every month. Ours started at zero. We showed that too.
How do you measure whether it worked?
We did ourselves: Three real buyer questions, locked on day one and never changed, run monthly across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI. Twelve checks, one score. We never swap in an easier question to flatter the number, which is the entire reason the number means anything.
Do you work with tradies?
Yes, and specifically on the Northern Beaches. Plumbers, electricians and builders between Manly and Palm Beach. We are based in Elanora Heights, so local means the same thing to us that it means to you.
Do you work with restaurants?
Yes. Sydney restaurants and hospitality venues, with experience across 17 venues. We publish The Savvy Operator, a free weekly newsletter for restaurant operators who want to understand their marketing rather than outsource it and hope.
What areas do you cover?
We are based in Elanora Heights on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and work across Sydney. Most of our trade work is on the peninsula between Manly and Palm Beach. Remote work across Australia is fine for strategy and systems, but local is where we are strongest.
How much does a Revenue X-Ray cost?
A$670 for a Revenue X-Ray, credited against the build if you sign within 30 days. No custom quotes, no scoping calls to arrive at a number. It runs for 30 days and takes under three hours of your time. If we cannot give you three actionable insights, you pay nothing. That guarantee is real and we have honoured it.
See what a Revenue X-Ray covers →
How long until I see results?
Website and conversion fixes show up in weeks. AI search visibility typically starts moving at 60 to 90 days and compounds from there. We do not promise 30-day results because nobody can honestly promise them. You get a monthly score either way, including the months it does not move.
Is there a lock-in contract?
The Revenue X-Ray is a one-off, A$670, 30 days. Retainers are month to month. Everything we build stays yours, including the systems and the documentation, so leaving is a decision rather than a hostage negotiation.
What do I actually have to do?
Not much. The Revenue X-Ray takes under three hours of your time across 30 days — one kick-off call, access to your accounts, and one session at the end. We do the work. You do not need to be technical, and nothing gets changed without your sign-off.
I need to run this past my business partner
Good. Everything we send is written to be forwarded — the Revenue X-Ray comes back as a document with the numbers, the findings and the recommendations in plain English, not a slide deck that only makes sense with someone talking over it. Share it and decide together.
Can I just do this myself with ChatGPT?
Partly, and you should try. ChatGPT is a very good cockpit and a very poor pilot. It does not know your customers, your numbers or your voice unless someone builds that in. What we sell is the system that makes the AI useful, not access to the AI.
Google Business Profile
Can I put my prices on my Google Business Profile?
Not in the listing itself. Google’s content policy for Maps and Business Profiles now has a section for businesses. In the listing, promotional content cannot carry dated promotions, pricing or direct calls-to-action. That covers a call-out fee, a “from” price, or “call now for a free quote”. The same policy still allows offers in posts. So take prices and dated offers out of your service descriptions and put them in a Google post. Leave your licence number, service area and hours where they are.
Still deciding?
The honest answer to “should I do this now or in six months” is that AI answers are built partly from what the models learned during training, not only from what they can see today. Roughly 28% of the businesses named in AI answers are named from training memory. That memory is being written now, and it is being written about somebody.
Six months from now the work is the same work. The difference is who has already been in the answer for six months while you were deciding.
Twelve checks across four engines. Takes us about 90 seconds. No sales call attached.
Call Rowan: +61 420 745 357
Or book a time to chat at strategicai.marketing
Strategic AI Marketing — Built by someone who’s actually worn the hard hat.