Arrow Build the business case from the cost of the proposed work, the audience decisions it addresses and a measurable conversion path. Track delivery, AI observations, visits, qualified inquiries and revenue as separate stages. Use clearly labelled scenarios before results exist, and avoid treating every AI mention or website click as an attributable customer.
Start with a transparent cost and outcome model
Include setup, recurring fees, external tools and internal review time. Define what constitutes a qualified inquiry and how the business evaluates its value. Use contribution or gross profit consistently when calculating payback; revenue alone can obscure delivery costs.
For illustration, if a project costs $1,000 for a period and one incremental qualified sale contributes $500 before that marketing cost, two such sales would cover the period’s cost. This is a scenario, not evidence that GEO will produce those sales or that they are incremental.
Use several evidence streams without adding them twice
Analytics may identify a referring source, a form may capture self-reported discovery and a CRM may show a later sale. Those records can refer to the same customer. Join and deduplicate them where appropriate, while preserving uncertainty about the journey.
A saved recommendation provides evidence of an observed answer, not proof that a customer saw it. Report direct observations, known referral conversions and assisted or unknown journeys separately. Revisit the business case using actual data and the same definitions.
What to check
- Write the cost model and qualified-inquiry definition before launch.
- Distinguish forecast scenarios from observed business outcomes.
- Deduplicate CRM outcomes and retain unknown attribution.
A practical example
A team reports five inquiries mentioning AI discovery, two identifiable AI referrals and one sale. It checks whether the referral records overlap the five inquiries before estimating any return.
Sources and further reading
- Arrow: published pricing and engagement terms
- Arrow: AI citation tracking methodology
- Arrow: managed GEO plans and deliverables
These steps are Arrow AI's implementation guidance. The example is illustrative; it is not a measured customer result. Publication and source access do not guarantee an AI recommendation.
Apply this to your website
Identify the source gaps and decide what to improve with Arrow's free audit. Review what Arrow GEO measures before choosing a reporting scope.