AEO agency · Answer engine optimization services
The AEO agency that publishes its method, its prices, and its limits
Botanik is an answer engine optimization (AEO) agency: we measure whether AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini recommend you, then work on what keeps you out of the answer. The method is public, limits included, audits start at €2,670, retainers at €1,780 per month, and 15 to 25% of our fees depend on results.
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the work of making your brand the answer that AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini give when a buyer asks for a recommendation in your category. AI queries grew 494% between 2023 and 2026, and 48% of French people now use generative AI.
You will see the same discipline sold under several names: AEO (answer engine optimization), GEO (generative engine optimization), sometimes LLM SEO. Vendors argue about the labels. The work is identical: understand what answer engines say about your category, then earn a place in the answer.
The shift is measurable. In 2025, 76% of Google's top 10 sources were cited in AI Overviews. In 2026, 38% are. Ranking well no longer guarantees being cited, which is exactly why this became a discipline of its own.
Keep the scale honest, though. Google still records 84 billion visits per month, against 5.5 billion for ChatGPT. AEO does not replace search; it is the layer you add so the fastest-growing channel does not skip you.
Do you need an answer engine optimization agency? An honest answer
Not every company needs an AEO agency, and Botanik has no interest in pretending otherwise. If you have an in-house team ready to act, a tracking tool from €65 per month may be enough. If nobody will execute, you are paying to watch the problem.
Set your expectations before you sign anything. First citations move in 6 to 10 weeks. A durable move from Mentioned to Recommended plays out over 4 to 6 months. Any provider promising faster is guessing, and any provider refusing to name a timeline is stalling.
Botanik's priority categories are the ones where a recommendation carries the sale: consulting, IT services companies, business services, healthcare, industry, and premium retail. If AI assistants already answer buying questions in your category, the question is not whether to act. It is who does the work: your team, or an agency.
One rule cuts through every pitch deck. A serious agency publishes three things before selling anything: its measurement method, its prices, and the indicator it agrees to be judged on. And 30 days is the deadline by which you should hold a deliverable, not a discovery phase. Hold this page to the same standard.
How Botanik measures AI visibility: the Oracle method
No fixed list of prompts. Replica agents play prospects, with their needs, hesitations and constraints, in multi-turn conversations with the assistants, and an Analyst agent records what the assistant searches, opens and recommends. We don't pick the questions: the conversations surface the topics. More than 2,500 AI searches are analyzed in a single audit, framed on one product range.
Oracle works on ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, which according to Maple Labs cover 99% of consumer scenarios. There is no engine-by-engine verdict: differences between assistants that would change the conclusions are built into the analysis. And the AI finds on its own the competitors it actually compares; we give it none.
Absent: the AI does not cite you on a decision factor. Mentioned: it cites you without presenting you as the right choice. Recommended: it presents your brand as the option that fits the request, or the preferable one. The same three states appear in every audit and re-audit, factor by factor, so you can read them in 30 seconds.
Scoring follows Maple Labs' steps: decision factors (criteria, expectations, trends), trusted sources, one activation prompt per factor, tested until stable (variance under 5%), then coverage brand × factor × source. The result: Absent, Mentioned or Recommended, factor by factor, with the gaps scored and prioritized.
Each activation prompt is tested until the result is stable, with variance under 5%, before anything is scored. A single answer proves nothing, and Botanik's reports say so in those words. Fewer exciting charts, fewer false victories.
Five limits, stated upfront by Maple Labs: Oracle does not see the prompts your users actually type, does not guarantee a recommendation, does not manipulate answers, does not replace SEO, and does not predict every answer.
Botanik's AEO services rely on Oracle, the tool built by Maple Labs, our technology partner. AI agents hold multi-turn conversations with the assistants, like real buyers, at scale: more than 2,500 AI searches analyzed in a single audit.
How much does an AEO agency cost?
A specialist AEO agency charges between €1,780 and €8,000 per month in 2026; the wider market runs from €65 per month for a tracking tool to €15,000 per month for enterprise programs. Here is the full grid, and where Botanik sits in it.
| Market tier | Price in 2026 | Who does the work | What you typically get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tracking tool only | from €65/month | You | Data without execution; viable if your team acts on it |
| Generalist agency with a GEO option | €890 to €1,780/month | Project manager, often a junior | Often a single engine tracked |
| Specialist AEO / GEO agency | €1,780 to €8,000/month | Dedicated senior consultant | Multi-engine measurement, implementation, placement in cited sources, monthly reporting |
| Enterprise and multi-market | €8,000 to €15,000/month | Multidisciplinary team | Several markets and languages, BI integration, governance |
Botanik's AEO services: Graine, Pousse, Canopée
From 3 days of audit, delivered in 3 weeks for one product range. You get Oracle's conversational analysis on ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, your status, Absent, Mentioned or Recommended, factor by factor, a full SEO audit, and a prioritized roadmap. Implementation is not included, and the pricing page says so in plain words. If you continue with Pousse or Canopée within 60 days, the audit fee is deducted from your first month.
A 6-month engagement, from 2 days per month. Continuous AI monitoring, implementation done by the consultants, content designed to be cited, placement in the sources engines actually cite, and monthly reporting from Absent to Recommended. The 6 months are not a lock-in tactic: engines, classic and AI alike, take 3 to 4 months to re-crawl, re-cite and re-rank. Below 6 months, you pay to sow without ever harvesting.
From 3 days per month. Everything in Pousse, across several markets. Local GEO with a geogrid by zone: 62 cities covered, with a dedicated page per market. PR and citations. A dedicated engagement lead.
Oracle re-audits, usually every quarter. 100% seniors, zero juniors: your file is never handed to a junior or subcontracted. Execution, not a recommendations deck. A published methodology. Results you read in 30 seconds: Absent, Mentioned or Recommended, factor by factor. Full reversibility: your content, your access, your data, all of it belongs to you.
15 to 25% of Botanik's fees are indexed to an indicator defined in black and white in the contract. The baseline is signed at the start, a third-party tool does the measuring, and the calculation window is quarterly, from the 4th month. Local visibility carries a separate, stricter mechanism: +30% guaranteed on your zone over a 1-month measurement window, or the variable part of the fee is not due.
Botanik sells three AEO services with public prices: Graine, the seed, a one-off audit from €2,670; Pousse, the sprout, an implementation retainer from €1,780 per month; and Canopée, the canopy, a multi-market program from €2,670 per month. Every level runs on a day rate of €890.
What you have in hand at 30, 60 and 90 days
Botanik's AEO engagements follow a dated calendar: a scored baseline at 30 days, published content and source placement at 60 days, and a decision point at 90 days. One internal rule governs the start: no engagement begins without a signed baseline. And 30 days means a deliverable in hand, not a discovery phase.
- 01Day 30: a measured starting pointYour Absent / Mentioned / Recommended status, factor by factor, plus a prioritized roadmap. No discovery phase in place of a deliverable: 30 days is the deadline by which you must hold something concrete.Deliverable : Status factor by factor, a baseline signed and measured by a third-party tool, a prioritized roadmap.
- 02Day 60: work visible in publicContent and structured data published on your domain, and placement work under way in the sources the engines cite. This is where implementation shows, because Botanik executes rather than handing over recommendations.Deliverable : Published content and structured data, plus a first dated competitive comparison.
- 03Day 90: reporting and a decisionReporting against the signed baseline, and your movement against the competitors the AI compares you with. The engagement is built to be judged, which is why the baseline is signed before anything starts.Deliverable : A decision, stated in the report: continue, adjust, or stop.
Four signals that should disqualify an AEO agency
The clearest grounds for disqualification in the guide. If a provider cannot show how its numbers are produced, and what the method cannot do, the numbers are marketing. Ask: where is your measurement methodology, and what are its limits? A serious answer also names the engines tracked, with the collection frequency.
A '+30% guaranteed' with no contractual indicator, no signed baseline and no measurement window is a sales promise, not a commitment. Botanik carries a +30% local guarantee precisely because all three conditions are in writing: contractual indicator, third-party measurement, a 1-month window.
The first sign of rent-seeking. Hidden prices serve the seller, never the buyer, which is why a serious grid is published and the same for everyone. If the number only appears after a discovery meeting, the number is negotiable, and you are the variable.
If the deliverable is a login, you are paying a subscription at the price of a consultant. Ask what you hold at 30, 60 and 90 days. The answer should name documents and published pages, not chart colors.
Botanik's buying guide for GEO and AEO services lists 4 disqualifying signals; each one alone is enough to drop a provider from your shortlist. The same guide gives 6 criteria to verify before signing, in one hour and without a sales meeting. Both lists apply to Botanik too.
What we won't do
Botanik's AEO services come with published refusals, because negative claims are the easiest to verify. We won't staff juniors, hide prices, lock you in, or publish a number without its method. And 15 to 25% of our fees are indexed to a contractual indicator, so we are paid according to whether it's true.
We won't staff juniors on your account. 100% seniors, zero juniors: your file is never handed to a junior or subcontracted, at any level of engagement.
We won't hide prices. The grid is public and the same for everyone: a one-off audit from €2,670, retainers from €1,780 per month, a single day rate of €890. Hidden prices serve the seller, never the buyer.
We won't lock you in. Full reversibility is the rule: your content, your access, your data, everything belongs to you and follows you, without penalty and without a closed tool.
We won't publish a number without its method. Every figure Botanik publishes carries its measurement tool and its period, and example lines that do not come from a real mission are labeled as examples, explicitly.
We won't bury partial results. The results register has a Partial status, published at the same rank as Achieved.
We won't oversell the measurement. Oracle does not see the prompts your users actually type. It does not guarantee a recommendation, does not manipulate answers, does not replace SEO and does not predict every answer. We say so upfront, because visibility is cultivated, not hacked.
How long before AEO shows results?
First citations move in 6 to 10 weeks. A durable move from Mentioned to Recommended plays out over 4 to 6 months. Anyone promising faster is guessing. This is also why the free scan exists: it gives you a dated starting point before you spend anything.
Why does Pousse require a 6-month commitment?
Because engines, classic and AI alike, take 3 to 4 months to re-crawl, re-cite and re-rank. Below 6 months, you pay to sow without ever harvesting. If a shorter engagement is what you want, buy Graine alone: a one-off audit from €2,670, with no obligation to continue.
Can I do AEO with a tool instead of an agency?
Yes, tracking tools start at €65 per month, and Botanik's own pricing page says so: take the tool if you have a team to act on the data. Otherwise you pay to watch the problem. The honest split: a tool measures, an agency measures and executes. What you buy at €1,780 per month and up is execution: content, structured data, source placement, and someone accountable for the move from Absent to Recommended.
What does the work actually involve?
Botanik's work follows 4 steps. 01 Measure: the Oracle audit and a signed baseline. 02 Structure: content, plus lifting the three classic technical barriers, heavy JavaScript, a missing llms.txt, incomplete Schema.org; only 3.2% of sites have deployed llms.txt. 03 Place: comparison pages, press and regional dailies, authority directories, Wikipedia, Reddit, LinkedIn. 04 Prove: monthly reporting on your AI traffic, AI by AI, and your AI accessibility, plus a re-audit, usually every quarter, that scores your AI presence, your recommended share and the status of each factor against the signed baseline, measured by a third-party tool.
What is the free scan?
A 60-second verdict on one question: do AIs recommend you? No account, no card. You pick your sector and get a verdict per engine: Absent, Mentioned or Recommended. It is the lowest-risk first step because it costs nothing.
What happens if Botanik misses the target?
15 to 25% of Botanik's fees are indexed to an indicator defined in black and white in the contract, with a signed baseline, third-party measurement, and a quarterly calculation window from the 4th month. Local visibility is a separate mechanism: +30% guaranteed on your zone over a 1-month measurement window. If the three written conditions are met (contractual indicator, third-party tool, measurement window) and the threshold is not reached, the variable part is not due. Two distinct mechanisms, both in the contract, not in a footnote.
Does AEO replace SEO?
No. Google still records 84 billion visits per month, against 5.5 billion for ChatGPT. Search remains the bigger channel; AI answers are the faster-moving one. The two also share plumbing: ChatGPT leans heavily on its corpus and Bing search, Gemini on the Google index and its SEO signals. That is why Graine includes a full SEO audit alongside the AI visibility measurement.
Who will actually work on my account?
100% seniors, zero juniors: your file is never handed to a junior or subcontracted. Oracle, the measurement tool, is built by Maple Labs; how it is applied to your file is the responsibility of a named person, Franck Neuenschwander, founder, 15 years in-house, on the brand side. Named people are one of the buying guide's 6 criteria: ask who will work on your file, and whether it is the person in front of you.
What proof does Botanik have?
Honestly, the case studies Botanik publishes are SEO work: eBay gained +95% organic traffic, +38% clicks to products and +22% average basket on a product-page SEO engagement, and Swile ran an SEO acquisition strategy with results in 3 months and no figures published. For AEO itself, the proof on offer is different: a method published with its limits, a public benchmark (the Baromètre GEO France, published with its full protocol), and fees indexed to results. Judge that against any competitor's slide deck.
Case studies, measured results
How Pennylane strengthened its SEO presence on key accounting and financial queries
With Botanik, Pennylane structured a comprehensive SEO strategy combining technical optimization, educational content, and semantic targeting to strengthen its position in the financial management tools ecosystem.
Franck Neuenschwander · founder of Botanik
The method behind our GEO audits, Organic Inference™, comes from Maple Labs. What's mine is how we apply it, and I answer for it. 15 years in-house, on the brand side, and the only agency I have ever worked at is the one I run: if you want to discuss it, you discuss it with me, not with a salesperson.
Thirty minutes with a consultant
Not a salesperson. We tell you which lever fits your case, and if none does, we say that too.
Are you absent, mentioned or recommended?