[becitable]
[GEO Basics]

Do you need a GEO agency? Or can you do it yourself?

Category: GEO Basics · Reading time: 10 min

Single wooden chair and side table against a terracotta brick wall, representing an honest assessment of generative engine optimisation agencies

A generative engine optimisation agency is a marketing services firm that helps companies get cited inside AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews. Most were SEO agencies eighteen months ago. The good ones bring a useful blend of technical SEO, content strategy and digital PR. The honest truth is that almost every B2B SaaS company can do this work in-house if they want to - and for many, that is the better choice. This guide is a balanced, advisor-style assessment of when hiring an agency makes sense and when it does not.

What does a generative engine optimisation agency actually do?

A typical generative engine optimisation agency offers some combination of the following services: an AI visibility audit across major tools, technical SEO and schema implementation, on-site content production (FAQ, comparison and pillar pages), digital PR and review-site placement, and monthly monitoring with reporting. Some specialise in one pillar - usually content or digital PR - and partner for the rest. The work is recognisable to anyone who has worked with a modern SEO or content agency, because that is exactly what most GEO agencies are.

When does hiring a GEO agency make sense?

There are four situations where a generative engine optimisation agency is genuinely the right call.

  • You have budget and need speed. If you have £8k-£25k per month to spend and need a visible move in 90 days, an agency can ship faster than a single in-house hire.
  • You have no internal SEO or content function. If GEO would otherwise sit on a single overworked marketer, an agency removes the bottleneck.
  • You need specialist digital PR. Earning placements on trade publications and review sites is genuinely relationship-driven. Agencies with existing journalist relationships move faster than you can from cold.
  • You are in a crowded, mature category. If you are competing with ten well-known incumbents, the marginal lift from an outside specialist is higher than in a niche where you already have natural authority.

When does it not make sense?

Equally, there are situations where hiring a GEO agency for B2B is the wrong move - or at least premature.

  • You are early-stage with limited budget. Below £6k/month, you will get either junior delivery or a thin slice of senior time. Neither moves the needle.
  • You want to build internal capability. GEO compounds with institutional knowledge of your category, ICP and voice. Outsourcing forfeits that compound.
  • Your product, positioning or category framing is unclear. An agency cannot fix muddled positioning. They will write polished pages around a confused message.
  • You already have a strong in-house SEO and content team. The marginal lift from an agency is small. Better to brief your existing team with a GEO playbook.

What questions should I ask before hiring one?

The questions below separate the agencies who understand AI search from the SEO shops who have rebranded the homepage.

  1. What is your monitoring methodology? If they cannot describe the prompts and tools they run, they are guessing.
  2. Show me three B2B SaaS clients whose AI visibility improved in the last six months. Specific scores, before and after, in named tools.
  3. How do you decide what to publish? The answer should be prompt research, not keyword research alone.
  4. Which off-site placements do you have direct relationships with? "Digital PR" without named outlets is a red flag.
  5. What does month one look like, in deliverables? If month one is "strategy and audit" only, you are paying for slides.
  6. Who actually does the work? Senior in pitch, junior in delivery is the oldest move in the agency book.
  7. What happens if we leave after twelve months? A good generative engine optimisation consultant or agency builds assets that compound for you, not dependencies that compound for them.

What does the in-house alternative look like?

The DIY path is realistic for most B2B SaaS companies. The work breaks down into four pillars and roughly twenty repeatable plays. None of them require an agency to execute; they require someone competent inside the business who reads, follows a checklist and ships consistently.

A typical in-house GEO programme costs the time of one marketer for roughly one day per week, plus modest spend on review-site presence and PR tooling. The pillar overviews below are the resource:

If you want a single starting point, the B2B SaaS founder's first week in GEO is the most-used jumping-off page on this site.

So, do you need a GEO agency?

Probably not, if you are honest with yourself. The best GEO agency for SaaS companies is the one that produces a measurable lift in AI citations against a clear baseline, with named people doing the work and a clean exit if it does not work out. The best alternative is a disciplined in-house programme run against the same baseline. Either can work. The worst outcome is a generic generative engine optimisation services retainer with no audit, no named placements and a quarterly slide deck that says "trending positively". Avoid that, and you will be fine.