AI search optimization, pricing, and timelines
Real questions buyers ask Dcrayons before signing on. Straight pricing, real timelines, and the AI-search reality. No fluff, no jargon.
Most Dcrayons retainers run Rs 3L to 6L per month (USD 3,500 to 7,500) for multi-region D2C and B2B programs. Starter single-market AI-search engagements begin at Rs 60,000 (USD 750). Enterprise multi-brand programs scale above Rs 10L (USD 12,000+). Pricing depends on three variables. How many AI surfaces you want visibility on (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews). How deep your entity graph needs to be rebuilt. How much content production the program carries. We share a Dcrayons Score readout in the first call so the quote anchors to your actual gap, not a flat rate card. Most brands that wait six months to start lose between Rs 8L and Rs 40L in pipeline that competitors who optimised earlier are now compounding.
Traditional SEO optimizes for blue-link rankings on Google with backlinks, on-page signals, and crawl health. AI search optimization (also called GEO or LLM SEO) optimizes for citation inside generative answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, which weight entity clarity, source authority, and structured claim coverage far more than link volume. We have been running both tracks in parallel since 2024 when AI Overviews first started cannibalising click-through.
Citation depends on three things: a clean entity footprint across Wikipedia, Wikidata and industry databases; claim-dense content the LLMs can quote verbatim; and earned mentions on the source domains those models trust per category. The DcrayonsAI playbook audits all three, then closes the weakest gap first, which is usually the entity graph for younger brands and the claim-density gap for older ones.
First citations in Perplexity and Gemini typically appear in 6 to 10 weeks, ChatGPT browse-mode citations in 8 to 14 weeks, and Google AI Overviews stabilises around 4 to 6 months because it is tied to traditional ranking signals. One Dcrayons D2C client saw a +5,556% jump in AI-referral traffic from 2024 to 2025. The brands citing today in your category are accumulating compound trust signals every week. Each month of delay roughly doubles the recovery work. Timelines track your starting Dcrayons Score.
Traditional agencies optimize for clicks, impressions, and last-click ROAS. Dcrayons, as an AI-first agency since our 2024 pivot, optimizes for share-of-answer across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews alongside performance media. Same revenue KPIs at the bottom of the funnel, very different tactics at the top. Agencies still running the 2022 playbook are leaking 30 to 50% of top-funnel research traffic into zero-click AI answers.
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Free readout of your AI-search citation gap and the 90-day plan to close it.
AI search is the new shelf. Dcrayons has been stocking it since our 2024 AI-first pivot.
Dcrayons launched in 2016 as a performance marketing agency and pivoted AI-first in 2024 when Google AI Overviews started absorbing top-funnel clicks. Today Dcrayons runs share-of-answer audits, entity-graph repair, and citation-engineering programs for 100+ active clients, backed by Shopify Partner and Amazon Ads Partner status.
Generative engine optimization, GEO playbooks, and what AI changes in 2026
Mid-funnel questions our prospects research before the first call - what GEO actually means, which playbooks work, and how AI is reshaping marketing in 2026.
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of structuring your brand, content, and entity data so that generative engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews cite you instead of a competitor. It overlaps with SEO on technical hygiene but rewards clarity of claims, structured evidence, and authority signals from sources the model trusts. Dcrayons treats GEO as a peer discipline to SEO, not a replacement. Brands that picked one and dropped the other in 2024 are now rebuilding the side they cut.
Three shifts are now obvious. One, zero-click answers absorb 30 to 50% of informational searches. Two, ad inventory is opening inside AI surfaces (Perplexity ads, AI Overview placements). Three, creative production cycles collapsed from weeks to days because of generative tools. The Dcrayons Growth Formula was rebuilt in 2024 to map spend across these new surfaces instead of the old Google + Meta duopoly.
No, it extends it. Traditional Google SEO still drives the majority of high-intent commercial traffic in 2026, and Google AI Overviews actually pull from the same ranking signals plus a layer of entity and citation logic on top. Brands that ignore classic SEO lose the foundation that AI Overviews builds on, so we run both tracks together inside one roadmap.
Our 2026 stack covers three jobs. AI-citation tracking (Profound, Peec). Classic SEO (Ahrefs, Semrush). Prompt-level monitoring (Otterly, Goodie). Plus internal DcrayonsAI tools for entity audits and claim-density scoring. The Dcrayons Growth Formula sequences these into a 90-day program with weekly Dcrayons Score reviews, so spend always traces back to a measurable gap.
No, the playbook shifts. D2C brands need heavy entity-graph work and review-source seeding because LLMs lean on third-party trust signals; B2B needs claim-dense long-form and analyst-style citations because buyers prompt with comparison queries; e-commerce needs structured product data and category-level authority because most AI shopping queries are head-of-funnel research. DcrayonsAI runs a separate intake checklist for each motion before the engagement starts.