GEO Case Study: How a B2B company increased its AI visibility by 614% in 3 months

Imagine: A potential B2B customer is looking for a solution in your industry. But instead of searching Google, they ask ChatGPT. The AI responds in detail – and mentions three of your competitors. Your company? Not mentioned. You are virtually invisible.

This scenario is not a pipe dream. It is already happening. Thousands of times. And if you’re thinking, “Our SEO is working well,” then I’m happy for you. Traditional search engines are great and should not be neglected. However, AI search engines have become a new source of leads – and their traffic brings much more valuable leads than classic Google traffic (Tepper, 2025).

The new reality: Why traditional SEO should be expanded now

The medium-sized telecommunications provider Tenios faced exactly this problem. Despite years of SEO work, organic visibility continued to decline. And in AI systems? Practically invisible. Brand coverage in ChatGPT was a meager 7%, while competitors already dominated half of all relevant queries.

The reality for B2B companies:

• Your potential customers are increasingly using AI tools for their research – as shown by a recent study by Open AI (Chatterji et al., 2025)
• These AIs have already read up on the internet and know your competitors – but not you
• Traditional SEO metrics do not capture this new reality

The 3-month turnaround: From 7% to 50% AI visibility

Tenios commissioned us with visualization in the AIs in May 2025.

At that time, the brand was in 10th place for citations. Here is a screenshot. in 10th place: Tenios with 9 citations

What happened next sounds almost too good to be true. Within just three months:

• Brand coverage in ChatGPT rose from 7% to over 50% (“Brand coverage = combination of domain coverage, brand mentions and average brand position across defined prompts and platforms”)
• The share of voice doubled
• Citations jumped from 10th place to 1st place – by a significant margin

Here is a screenshot from August 2025: Tenios clearly in first place, well ahead of its competitor.

But here’s the trick: this was not achieved with a huge budget or a team of 20 people. But with a clever strategy that combines SEO and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).

The 70/30 formula: How do you allocate your budget correctly?

Forget the either/or mentality. The future belongs to the both/and approach:

70% classic SEO – because Google continues to form the backbone of your online visibility 30% GEO – because this is where the future lies and you need to lay the foundations now

This division is no coincidence. It is based on the realization that both areas reinforce each other. What you optimize for GEO also helps your classic ranking. And vice versa.

What levers can you use for instant AI visibility?

1. Content that AIs love: Precision instead of blah blah blah

AIs have a weakness for concrete data. Instead of “We are the leader”, you write “87% of our 1,200 customers save an average of 8 hours per month”.

The transformation in practice:

• Alt: “Trust our proven service”
• New: “Over 10,000 small companies use our solution with 99.9% uptime”
• Alt: “Rapid implementation”
• New: “Average implementation time: 3.5 days”

2. The Reddit hack: show up where AIs collect their information

ChatGPT is trained directly with Reddit data. Google AI Overviews regularly quotes Reddit threads. The consequence? You should be present there.

The strategy:

• Create multiple authentic accounts (not obviously branded)
• Organically mention your solution in relevant discussions
• Start your own threads with real added value
• Never just advertise – always offer context and benefits

An example: In a thread about AI voice assistants, you casually mention your positive experience with a particular solution. Not a hard sell, but an authentic recommendation.

3. Schema markup: the forgotten secret weapon

While everyone is talking about content, 80% of B2B websites forget about schema markup. Yet it is the direct line to search engines and AIs.

What you should implement immediately:

• Organization scheme for your company
• Product/service schema for your offers
• FAQ scheme for frequently asked questions
• Review scheme for customer reviews

The audit quick check: 7 points that make your site AI-ready right away

1. Concrete statistics instead of vague promises: Numbers, percentages, times on every important page
2. Comparison tables with real data: Your solution vs. status quo or competition
3. Customer quotes and success stories: With concrete results, not just “great” and “super”
4. Problem-solution format: First describe the specific problem, then your solution
5. FAQ sections with natural questions: The way users would ask them in ChatGPT
6. Clear target group definition: Explicitly answer “Who is this for?”
7. Technical optimization: Schema markup, fast loading times, no JavaScript dependencies

Are you a first mover?

AI traffic is growing exponentially. Many companies do not yet have these search engines on their radar. This is exactly your opportunity in marketing. Position yourself early and enjoy the long-term advantage in your B2B industry.

The first step: what you can do today

1. Analyze your current AI visibility
   • Test 10 relevant prompts in ChatGPT and Perplexity
   • Document where your brand is mentioned (or not)
   • Take our free GEO test
2. Optimize a pilot site
   • Choose your most important product page
   • Implement the 7 audit points from above
   • Measure the change after 4 weeks
3. Start with Reddit
   • Identify 3 relevant subreddits
   • Build an authentic account over 2 weeks
   • Start with helpful comments, not advertising

Your decision: pioneer or laggard?

The question is not whether AI visibility will become important. The question is whether you will be one of the first to get it right – or one of those who will have to catch up in two years’ time.

A medium-sized B2B company has managed to jump from practically zero to number 1 in the AI citations in three months. With a focused strategy, not a budget in the millions.

The calculation is simple:

• Start today = secure a competitive advantage
• Starting tomorrow = catching up
• Start the day after tomorrow = lose market share

Conclusion: The new rules of the game for B2B marketing

AI visibility is no longer a nice-to-have. It is becoming a pillar of B2B success. Companies that act now will reap the rewards in 12 months. The others will wonder why the leads aren’t coming in.

The good news: with the right strategy and focused implementation, you can achieve more in three months than your competitors can in three years. The tools and tactics are on the table. The only question is: are you using them?

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Next steps: If you want to know where your company stands in terms of AI visibility and what specific measures make sense for you, let’s talk. Not a sales show, but an honest assessment – even if the answer is: “It doesn’t make sense for you yet.”

Because sometimes the best thing an agency can do is to be honest.

References:

Chatterji, A., Cunningham, T., Deming, D., Hitzig, Z., Ong, C., Shan, C., & Wadman, K. (2025). “How People Use ChatGPT”. OpenAI. https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/a253471f-8260-40c6-a2cc-aa93fe9f142e/economic-research-chatgpt-usage-paper.pdf

Tepper, S.H. (2025). “The GEO White Paper: Optimizing Brand Discoverability in Models such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews (Version 3.0, August 2025)”. Medium. https://medium.com/@shaneht/the-geo-white-paper-optimizing-brand-discoverability-in-models-like-chatgpt-perplexity-and-ee741613dfb3