94% of CMOs are spending more — but the real signal isn't that number
In 2026, Conductor published 'The State of AEO/GEO in 2026: CMO Investment Report', surveying 250+ enterprise digital leaders (CMOs, VPs, senior directors). The most-quoted figure: 94% of CMOs plan to increase AEO investment in 2026, and AEO/GEO ranked the #1 strategic marketing priority for the year. Source: the official Conductor report page. In one line: being cited by AI has moved from experiment to a permanent line item on the enterprise budget.
What happened over the last 12-18 months? In 2024 people still argued whether AEO/GEO was just rebranded SEO; by 2025 the report shows 97% of respondents saw a positive impact from AEO. Market-size expectations went to the ceiling — McKinsey projects roughly $750 billion of revenue flowing through AI search by 2028. The spend isn't a fad; it's a response to changed user behaviour.
What are competitors doing? The tool vendors are raising hard: Profound has raised about $58.5M (backers include Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, NVIDIA, Sequoia); Evertune raised about $19M. The category sits in 'funding expansion + enterprises moving first'. The report even notes high-maturity orgs are 2x more likely than medium and 3x more likely than low to increase investment — leaders are pulling away.
Will SMBs be affected? Yes, but inversely to enterprises. Below: the full numbers, immediate actions for three reader types, a comparison of mainstream GEO tools, and an SMB path that needs no SaaS subscription.
The full numbers: who benefits, who gets left behind
Laid out: 250+ enterprise digital leaders surveyed; 97% say AEO had a positive impact in 2025; 94% plan to increase spend in 2026; AEO/GEO is the #1 strategic priority for 2026; high-maturity orgs are 2x more likely than medium and 3x more likely than low to raise investment.
Who benefits? Brands that already structured their content, kept clear entities and set up measurement early — they're being adopted first by AI answers and compounding the lead. Who's left behind? Orgs treating GEO as 'next year's problem'; the report's core warning is 'late movers are at risk', because once a source is repeatedly adopted by a model, latecomers struggle to squeeze into that answer slot. For SMBs the bad news is enterprises are grabbing terms; the good news is local, niche long-tail questions are beneath enterprise interest.
Immediate actions for three reader types
Brand owners / SMB owners
- Don't buy a tool first — list 'the 20 questions your customers ask AI'; that's your GEO content map.
- Fill in and structure your site's FAQ, service pages, address and hours — the entry ticket to being cited.
- Each month, manually ask those 20 questions to ChatGPT/Gemini/Perplexity and log your brand's appearance rate as a baseline.
Marketers / SEO operators
- Embed FAQPage and Article JSON-LD in every piece (see Google structured data docs).
- Restructure content: lead with the conclusion, use clear subheads and lists so AI can extract answers.
- Set an AI-traffic baseline in Google Search Console instead of watching only classic clicks.
Developers / agencies
- Standardise a 'site GEO retrofit': schema injection, entity pages, performance (Core Web Vitals) in one pass.
- Build clients a lightweight 'citation tracker' script that hits AI APIs on a schedule and logs brand mentions — no expensive SaaS.
- Add AI crawler (OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot) robots rules and log monitoring to your delivery checklist.
Mainstream GEO/AEO tool comparison
| Tool | Position / strength | Price tier | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | Enterprise citation tracking, answer share | High (enterprise contract) | Big brands with budget wanting dashboards |
| Evertune | Brand mention/sentiment inside models | Mid-high | Marketing teams focused on brand voice |
| Scrunch | AEO/GEO monitoring + competitor compare | Mid | Growth companies, agencies |
| Frase | Content generation + answer-led optimisation | Low-mid (affordable monthly) | SMBs and content teams getting started |
Bottom line: tools differ in monitoring depth and price, but they all answer 'am I cited?' — not 'how do I become worth citing?'. The latter is content and structure work.
What the marketing pitch won't tell you
- Dashboards give comfort, not traffic: paid tools excel at turning 'mention rate' into pretty trend lines, but a citation isn't a conversion. Observers note AI-driven clicks are still far below classic search; the real value is brand trust, not immediate traffic.
- '94% are spending more' is an enterprise story: the sample is large-company CMOs; applying it directly to SMBs misleads. Your competitor isn't Profound's client but the small business in your area and niche — you need long-tail coverage, not an enterprise arms race.
- Metrics aren't standardised: what counts as 'one citation' differs by vendor, so cross-tool numbers can't be compared and you risk being captured by a single vendor's definitions.
An SMB path with no SaaS subscription
- Measure: use Google Search Console (free) for AI-related impressions, plus a small weekly script hitting the ChatGPT/Gemini API that writes your appearance rate into a Google Sheet.
- Structure: use schema.org Article + FAQPage JSON-LD (open, free) so pages parse cleanly.
- Content: turn 'frequently asked customer questions' into FAQ pages and scenario-based long-form, conclusion first, clearly listed.
- Monitor: filter AI crawler User-Agents in your server logs to track visit frequency — closer to the truth than any paid dashboard.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
I'm an SMB — should I buy GEO tools just because 94% of CMOs are spending more?
Don't reach for the card yet. The report tracks enterprise CMO budgets, a different market from a shop doing a few million in revenue. For SMBs, first get your site's structured data (Article, FAQPage) and entity pages (address, hours, service list) right — those are the precondition for being cited by AI. Tools only measure; if the content isn't done, the priciest dashboard just shows you a zero.
What's the actual difference between AEO, GEO and SEO?
Roughly: SEO is 'rank on the results page and earn the click'; AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is 'be adopted directly as the answer'; GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) covers 'be cited and named inside generative engines like ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews'. The underlying content-quality demands overlap heavily; the difference is whether your optimisation endpoint is a ranking, an answer, or a citation.
Without paid tools like Profound or Evertune, how do I know if AI cites me?
Three zero-cost moves: check AI-related traffic and impression trends in Google Search Console; manually ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity a fixed set of 'questions customers ask' on a schedule and log whether your brand appears; and watch your server logs for AI crawlers (OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot) and how often they visit. Build a baseline for free, then consider paid tools once you have scale.
Does structured data really affect citation odds?
Structured data (schema.org JSON-LD) doesn't guarantee citation, but it makes it far easier for machines to correctly understand what your page is about — title, author, FAQ, reviews, price. AI engines favour sources they can parse cleanly with clear entities. Think of it less as bonus points and more as the entry form that lets you sit the exam.
My take
The mainstream narrative is 'AEO/GEO is #1, spend now'. My judgement is the opposite: for the vast majority of SMBs, 2026's money should go not to a tool subscription but to fixing content structure. The 94% are buying 'measurement', but measuring something you haven't built yet just yields a report full of zeros. Citation requires content that parses cleanly, with clear entities and concrete answers — that needs not a few-hundred-dollar monthly SaaS but someone to rebuild the site correctly.
For an agency like ScriptWalker this is the productisation sweet spot. We can package a 'GEO-ready retrofit' as a quotable project: structured-data injection, FAQ/entity-page rebuild, Core Web Vitals tuning, plus a lightweight citation-tracking script. Clients skip the expensive SaaS; we use a one-off-plus-small-retainer model to translate enterprise-grade anxiety into deliverables SMBs can afford.
Sources
- Conductor: The State of AEO/GEO in 2026 — CMO Investment Report (primary)
- Google structured data documentation (primary)
- schema.org (structured data standard) (primary)
- Search Engine Journal coverage of the report (third-party)
- MarTech Cube: Conductor Survey — CMO Investment in AEO/GEO Accelerates (third-party)