The way buyers search is changing fast. And if you’re a B2B marketing leader still relying solely on traditional SEO, you might already be falling behind.
Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews are rewriting how B2B buyers discover, explore, and evaluate software. That means your marketing strategy – and budget – needs to adapt.
But how do you make the case for investing in something as new as Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)? How do you balance investment alongside ‘traditional SEO’, especially when the data is still catching up?
This post gives you a structured way to build that business case and make AI search/GEO a priority in your marketing roadmap.
1. Start by reframing the risk
Working on GEO/AI SEO isn’t about taking a bet on a new channel.
It’s about responding to a structural change in buyer behaviour.
Millions of users are already turning to AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity instead of Google. Gartner predicts that by 2026, traditional search volume could drop by 25%.
Team’s need to ask what’s the bigger risk?
- Investing early and learning fast?
- Or staying static while buyers migrate to a channel you’re invisible in?
2. Use lots of data
We’re seeing this shift already reflected in real world data, and data is powerful when it comes to building your AI search investment case:
- Studies from Ahrefs, Semrush, TollBit, Similarweb, and others show clicks from Google are dropping
- AI generated answers are taking up more space in the SERPs
- Zero-click behaviour is rising
Meanwhile, tools like Peec AI are beginning to give us real visibility into how often brands appear in ChatGPT and Perplexity answers.
If you’re looking for some statistics on the growth of AI post, see our post here. We also run the largest collated live and updated database of AI search research and studies here.
3. Zoom out and anchor it in buyer journey impact
AI assistants aren’t just top of funnel tools and ‘visibility’. Visibility is a fluffy metric unlikely to get sign off from a CFO.
AI assistants are becoming B2B buyer enablement co-pilots across the entire buyer journey.
Buyers might be:
- Asking ChatGPT which vendors to shortlist
- Getting instant summaries from Perplexity about product pros and cons
- Using Claude to draft evaluation frameworks and RFPs
This is happening across every stage:
- Problem identification: “Why are our sales cycles getting longer in enterprise SaaS?”
- Solution exploration: “What platforms can automate B2B intent data capture?”
- Requirements building: “What should we ask vendors in a demo of an ABM platform?”
- Supplier evaluation: “Compare 6sense vs Demandbase for large deal ABM.”
The business case starts by showing that AI search isn’t a new channel – it’s now where much of the B2B buyer journey takes place.
Even if buyers are still using Google – there’s a good chance that somewhere in the buyer journey, a persona is going to use an AI assistant at some point to guide them, validate their thinking, help with a task or assist with evaluation.
4. Highlight how traditional SEO is becoming less reliable
SEO traffic reports might still look healthy – but dig deeper, and you’ll often find:
- Rankings are holding, but traffic is falling
- Impressions are rising, but clicks are flat
Why? Because AI Overviews and AI assistants are are giving users the information they need without them ever needing to click through to a website.
AI search is cannibalising traditional SEO results. And unless you’re adapting, your returns are diminishing. If you already have signs of this happening in your search console account or SEO data, it’s critical to include it in your business case.
Keep an eye out for the so called crocodile effect!
5. Translate GEO investment into revenue outcomes
Don’t position GEO as a visibility project. Position it as a revenue growth lever.
Explain how investing in GEO can might be able to help with:
- Influence buyers earlier in the journey
- Build preference before the demo request
- Increase brand recall when it comes to RFPs
- Reduce drop-off by answering objections preemptively
- Speed up the sales cycle
At FirstMotion, we position GEO not just as AI SEO – but as buyer enablement in the AI era.
It might be that you already have some traffic being referred from ChatGPT that you can see in analytics, and you may even be getting conversions – make sure you include any data you have in your business case.
6. Link it to your broader marketing strategy
A generative engine optimisation strategy doesn’t sit in a silo. It aligns with your existing initiatives and so it’s important to tie AI search into the wider marketing mix in your business case:
- Content marketing: Repurpose assets into prompt relevant formats
- Demand generation: Meet buyers earlier and influence downstream
- ABM: Shape personalised AI journeys for your high value accounts
- Attribution: Track influence across the ‘dark funnel‘ using tools like Peec and proxy metrics
- PPC: reduce the reliance on paid performance channels, lower CAC longer term
- SEO: future proof your search strategy, reducing reliance on declining SEO clicks
This is about evolving your full funnel strategy, not replacing anything.
7. How to spot if AI search is already impacting your traffic
You don’t need new tools to spot the early signs. Start with Google Search Console.
Look for:
- Clicks falling while rankings hold steady: AI Overviews could be taking the traffic
- Impressions up, clicks down: The ‘crocodile mouth’ of AI disruption
- Brand searches rising with fewer landing page clicks: Users saw your brand in AI and came later
- Higher bounce rates: They got their answer before they got to you
If you’re seeing any of these, it’s time to act. For more on this, see our post here.
8. Build your business case around readiness, not perfection
Your exec team may want to see numbers. That’s fair.
But your job is to help them see what’s coming, not just what’s measurable today.
Frame the case around:
- Competitive advantage – be early, be visible, be cited
- Buyer access – influence more of the journey
- Strategic readiness – test and learn before it’s urgent
- Revenue impact – align to pipeline, not just rankings
- AI future proofing – be prepared as AI evolves