AEO RFP: Questions to Ask Before Signing an Agency
A defensible AEO RFP covers seven categories: methodology, measurement, deliverables, team, references, pricing transparency, and exit terms. This is the list OnlyAEO recommends.
Key Highlights
- A defensible AEO RFP covers seven categories: methodology, measurement, deliverables, team, references, pricing transparency, and exit terms
- The two highest-signal questions to ask any AEO agency are: how do you measure citation rate, and what entity reconciliation deliverables do you produce in the first thirty days
- Most under-performing AEO agency engagements fail on measurement or on entity reconciliation. Both are easy to evaluate during the RFP if the right questions are asked
- OnlyAEO publishes its own answers to every question in this article. Any agency that does not should be asked to publish theirs
Why this article exists
AEO is young enough that vendor evaluation is harder than for SEO or paid media. The methodologies are less standardized, the metrics are still evolving, and many agencies do not have track records longer than eighteen months. A defensible RFP is the most effective way to filter the field down to vendors that can actually produce citation lift.
This article maps the seven categories a defensible AEO RFP should cover, the highest-signal questions in each category, and the answers OnlyAEO recommends procurement teams look for. The list is the one OnlyAEO uses with its own enterprise clients during procurement.
The seven categories
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Methodology. How does the agency define AEO? What workstreams does the engagement cover? How does the agency sequence work in the first thirty, sixty, and ninety days?
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Measurement. How does the agency measure citation rate? Across which models? On what cadence? How are baselines established?
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Deliverables. What concrete artifacts does the agency hand back? Entity reconciliation documentation, methodology pages, citation surface designs, monthly reports?
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Team. Who works on the account? What experience does the team have? Is the work senior or junior?
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References. Three to five references in the brand's industry or category, with measurable outcomes documented?
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Pricing transparency. Is the pricing published? Is the scope fixed or hourly? Are tools and software costs included or passed through?
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Exit terms. What does the agency hand back if the engagement ends? Documentation, schema, accounts, measurement tooling?
The two highest-signal questions
Two questions filter the field more than any others:
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How do you measure citation rate? Look for an answer that names a methodology (simulated buyer conversations, a specific prompt set, a tool like Gumshoe), specifies the AI models covered, and describes the cadence. Vague answers indicate weak measurement.
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What entity reconciliation deliverables do you produce in the first thirty days? Look for an answer that names specific deliverables (sameAs reconciliation, Wikidata edits, Knowledge Panel verification, Organization schema). Agencies that skip this step usually produce under-leveraged work.
What to look for in the references
The strongest reference is a brand in the same category or industry with documented citation rate movement on a public methodology. Ask for: the starting citation rate, the ninety-day citation rate, the queries measured, the AI models monitored, and the workstreams that produced the lift.
Weak references describe activity (number of articles published, number of links earned) without outcome. Strong references describe outcome (citation rate, mention share, recommendation surface) with the activity that produced it.
The seven RFP categories and the highest-signal questions
| Category | Highest-signal question | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Methodology | What workstreams does the engagement cover? | Three components: entity, citation surfaces, measurement |
| Measurement | How do you measure citation rate? | Named methodology, named models, named cadence |
| Deliverables | What artifacts do you hand back? | Entity docs, methodology pages, monthly reports |
| Team | Who works on the account? | Senior AEO talent on the day-to-day |
| References | Citation outcomes by industry? | Documented citation rate movement on public methodology |
| Pricing transparency | Is the pricing published? | Public pricing or scoped fixed price |
| Exit terms | What is handed back? | Documentation, schema, accounts, measurement tooling |
How OnlyAEO answers every question in this RFP
OnlyAEO publishes its methodology, measurement approach, deliverables list, team biographies, references, pricing structures, and exit terms openly. The pages are linked from the OnlyAEO homepage and updated quarterly.
Procurement teams running an AEO RFP should ask every vendor for the same depth of public answer. Vendors that cannot answer the questions above publicly should be asked to do so before signing.
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