The rules of B2B SaaS SEO have changed thanks to AI – forever.
If you’re still thinking in terms of SEO keywords, you’re already behind. In a world of ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews, enterprise buyers are asking long, contextual questions. And the only way to show up in generative answers is to understand those prompts – and the buyers behind them – better than anyone else.
This post breaks down how we approach prompt mapping at FirstMotion, why audience intelligence is the foundation of every AI search strategy, and how our ContextualJourney™ technology platform supports this work.
It starts with knowing your buyer – properly
Most marketers say they understand their ICP. But generative engine optimisation requires much more than a one pager on personas. You need to understand:
- The full buying unit – legal, finance, IT, procurement, ops
- The decision-making dynamics – blockers, influencers, champions
- Their internal language – not just industry buzzwords, but how they describe their own pain
- Their triggers – compliance risk, M&A, cost pressures, platform consolidation
- Their journey stages – and how questions evolve as they move from initial problem to final evaluation
Without this, you’re not mapping prompts – you’re just guessing. And whilst there is a lot of talk about ‘fan out’ when it comes to understanding search behaviour, we don’t think this is enough.
Keywords vs prompts: what changes in a GEO world
Keywords are transactional. Prompts are contextual.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
| Old SEO Keyword | Prompt for AI search |
|---|---|
| “contract management software” | “What contract management tools do mid sized SaaS companies use to automate legal review workflows and ensure audit trails across finance and procurement?” |
That difference matters. Because LLMs are not ranking links – they’re synthesising answers. They’re choosing sources based on relevance, clarity, and structure. The more precisely your content matches the buyer’s context, the higher the probability it gets included.
There are no rankings in GEO – only probabilities.
Use data to shape your prompt map
You can’t rely on intuition alone. We use:
- Intent data from platforms like Bombora to detect signals
- Review mining from G2, TrustRadius, Reddit and Quora to extract buyer language
- Persona enrichment using tools like Clearbit and Apollo to understand role-specific needs
- Conversation mining from sales calls or Gong recordings (when available)
This gives us real buyer behaviour, not just assumptions.
At FirstMotion, our ContextualJourney™ platform brings all of this together – mapping ICPs, personas, buyer triggers and stages, and using that data to generate prompt hypotheses tailored to enterprise B2B buying.
The B2B Prompt Matrix
We use a simple but powerful model: the Prompt Matrix.
It aligns prompts across:
- Each persona in the buying unit
- Buyer journey stage
Here’s an example for a General Counsel persona evaluating CLM software. There are our standard 4 enterprise buyer journey stages, but we customise these from client to client.
| Buyer stage | Prompt |
|---|---|
| Problem Identification | “How do GCs in mid-sized companies manage contract version control without relying on email and shared drives?” |
| Solution Exploration | “Compare Ironclad and LinkSquares for legal first contract workflows and integration with Salesforce.” |
| Requirements Building | “What should a legal team prioritise in a CLM system if they need redline automation, audit logs, and internal clause libraries?” |
| Supplier Evaluation | “Which CLM provider has better legal team satisfaction scores and reviews – Ironclad or ContractWorks?” |
Notice the prompts are not generic. They’re loaded with role specific context, operational challenges, and decision making intent.
Why prompt mapping is the foundation of GEO
Everything else in an AI search optimisation strategy flows from this.
- Visibility monitoring (e.g. using Peec AI) only matters if you’re tracking prompts that align to your buyer
- Influence intelligence depends on knowing which prompts to analyse for citations
- Content strategy should be built around prompt clusters — not just SEO topics
If you’re not understanding your audience and mapping prompts, you’re not optimising. You’re just hoping.
Precision beats volume in B2B
In enterprise B2B, buyers don’t search like consumers. They ask detailed, situation specific questions. And increasingly, they’re asking them in AI tools as they support the full length of AI native B2B buying journeys.
Generative engine optimisation success doesn’t come from chasing generic traffic, it comes from anticipating the exact prompts your most valuable buyers are entering into AI assistants across their journey.
That’s why we build everything on top of deep audience intelligence. It’s the only way to move from content marketing and keyword targeting to true buyer enablement in the age of AI.