Sixty-five percent of B2B buyers now use AI tools in their research before talking to a vendor. If your brand isn't appearing in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews when buyers ask about your category, you are invisible at the most important moment in the buying journey. TPG's AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) program builds the content architecture, structured data, and citation signals that make your brand visible across all four major AI engines.
The average B2B brand scores 18-22 on TPG's AXO baseline diagnostic. TPG AEO clients average 58+ after a 6-month program.
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| B2B buyers using AI in research (2026) | 65% |
| Average B2B brand AXO baseline score | 18-22 out of 100 |
| TPG AEO client average score (6 months) | 58+ out of 100 |
| Branded direct traffic increase for high-AXO brands | 25-40% |
When a B2B buyer asks ChatGPT or Perplexity "what are the best revenue marketing firms" or "who are the top HubSpot implementation partners," the AI engine returns a list of names. If your brand isn't on that list, the buyer may never know you exist — even if you are the best choice for their situation. The brands that appear in AI-generated answers aren't there by accident. They built content architectures designed for AI retrieval. Your competitors who figured this out 12 months ago have a compounding advantage you are falling behind on daily.
Most B2B marketing teams track Google rankings, social mentions, and website traffic. Almost none track what AI engines say about them. This means when a buyer asks Claude or Gemini about your category and your brand either appears or doesn't, you have no visibility into the pattern. You don't know which AI engines cite you, which cite your competitors, or what language the AI uses when it does mention your brand. Without monitoring, you cannot improve.
Ten years of Google SEO optimization produced content architectures that work for keyword matching: keyword-dense paragraphs, long-form blog posts optimized for search snippets, and backlink profiles that signal domain authority. AI retrieval systems prioritize differently: structured FAQ formats, direct question-answer pairs, clear entity definitions, schema markup, and authoritative sourcing. A website built entirely for Google SEO may perform poorly in AI search regardless of its Google rankings.
We run TPG's AXO diagnostic: a 0-100 AI visibility scoring assessment across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. The diagnostic covers 40+ category-relevant queries about your market, your services, and your competitors. We document where you appear, where you don't, what language AI engines use about your brand when they cite it, and how your competitors score across the same query set.
The diagnostic output is a scored report with your AXO baseline, competitor benchmarks, and a gap analysis that shows exactly which query categories you need to win and which AI engines are most important to prioritize.
We design the content and technical architecture required to improve your AXO score systematically. This includes: a structured FAQ content plan mapped to the queries where you need to appear, a schema markup plan (FAQPage, Article, Organization, Service schemas), a content cluster redesign for AI retrieval priority, an entity definition strategy (ensuring AI engines have clean, accurate, and consistent information about your brand and offerings), and a citation signal plan (the third-party publications, directories, and structured data sources that AI engines draw on to validate brand information).
The architecture design is the blueprint for Phase 03.
We execute the architecture. This includes: FAQ page creation and optimization across your service areas, schema markup implementation, content page restructuring for AI retrieval (converting existing high-traffic pages to AEO-optimized format), new content production for query gaps identified in the diagnostic, and distribution to key citation sources (industry publications, directories, review platforms, authoritative databases).
We monitor AXO scores throughout this phase with bi-weekly diagnostic runs on a tracking query set to measure score improvement and identify optimization priorities.
"Our Google traffic was flat for 18 months despite consistent publishing. TPG ran our AXO diagnostic and we scored 14 out of 100. Six months into the AEO program we were at 61, and branded direct traffic was up 32%. The AI engines are where our buyers are doing research now." — VP of Marketing, B2B SaaS Company (Series B, healthcare technology)
What is the AXO diagnostic and how does it work? The AXO (AI Experience Optimization) diagnostic is TPG's proprietary scoring system for measuring a brand's visibility in AI-generated search results. We run 40+ category-relevant queries across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, document whether and how your brand appears, and score the results on a 0-100 scale. Scores above 40 indicate meaningful AI search presence. Scores above 60 indicate consistent citation across most relevant queries. The average B2B brand scores 18-22 at baseline. The diagnostic takes 5-7 business days to complete.
How is AEO different from SEO? SEO (Search Engine Optimization) optimizes for ranking in traditional search engine results pages — the blue links that appear when you search on Google. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) optimizes for being cited in AI-generated answers — the direct answers that ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews produce instead of (or in addition to) traditional search results. The two overlap: AI engines frequently draw on well-structured, authoritative web content. But the specific tactics differ: AEO prioritizes structured FAQ formats, schema markup, direct question-answer pairs, and entity consistency across sources, while SEO prioritizes keyword density, backlink profiles, and page authority.
How long does it take to see AXO score improvement? Most clients see initial score improvement within 6-8 weeks of the first major content and schema changes. Meaningful score improvement (from the 18-22 baseline range to 40+) typically occurs within 12-16 weeks of implementation. The 6-month program target of 58+ represents a full cycle of content production, schema implementation, and citation signal development.
Do you also monitor competitors' AEO programs? Yes. The AXO diagnostic includes competitor scoring, and we track competitor query performance throughout the engagement. Knowing when a competitor gains ground in AI search — or when you surpass them in a specific query category — is actionable information. We include bi-weekly competitor tracking in the monitoring program.
What happens to AEO investment if AI search evolves? AI search is evolving rapidly, and the specific tactics that work today will shift as AI engines update their retrieval systems. The underlying principle — that well-structured, authoritative, specifically useful content about your area of expertise is what AI engines want to cite — is stable. Our AEO architecture is built on this principle, not on platform-specific exploits that break with every update. The AEO maintenance guide we deliver at program completion gives your team the framework to adapt.
The Pedowitz Group | pedowitzgroup.com | Revenue Marketing Experts Since 2007