Case: how a B2B brand doubled its Share of Model in 2 quarters
Why your competitor is mentioned by AI more often than you
Imagine this: a potential customer asks ChatGPT for a recommendation in your industry. The answer contains three names. Yours is missing. This scenario plays out daily for hundreds of thousands of B2B brands that don't actively monitor their AI visibility.
A Dutch B2B technology company faced exactly this problem. Despite 20+ years of experience in their field, own experts and production in Schijndel, their brand name barely appeared in AI responses. The competitor dominated the narrative. In two quarters, this company completely turned the situation around. This is their story.
The initial situation: invisible despite strong market position
The company, active in industrial automation, scored excellently in traditional SEO. Google rankings for core terms were stable in the top 5. Yet the lead pipeline remained stagnant. The Marketing Manager noticed that more and more prospects had already formed a preference before visiting the website.
The reason? Prospects consulted AI engines for guidance. And those AI engines consistently mentioned two competitors, not this brand.
The first step was quantifying the problem. With a GEO Deep Scan, 25 industry-relevant queries were tested on four platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.
The confronting figures from the baseline measurement
| Metric | Score at start | Industry benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| GEO Readiness Score | 28/100 | 45/100 |
| Share of Model (ChatGPT) | 8% | 22% |
| Citability | Low | Average |
| Sentiment in AI responses | Neutral | Positive |
The conclusion was painfully clear. The brand was not only invisible, it scored far below industry average. A GEO Score of 28 meant that the content was neither technically nor substantively suitable for AI citation.
The action plan: three pillars for AI dominance
Based on the Executive Summary from the Deep Scan, the marketing team formulated a phased action plan. No large budgets, just targeted interventions.
Pillar 1: technical foundation
Developers implemented the technical recommendations from the report within two weeks:
- An llms.txt file that explicitly allowed AI crawlers to index content
- Schema markup on all product and expertise pages
- Optimization of the robots.txt to remove conflicting crawl instructions
Pillar 2: restructure content for citability
The marketer translated the recommendations into a content calendar:
- Every product page received a summary in the first paragraph with direct answers to frequently asked queries
- Expert articles were rewritten with the "one thought per sentence" structure that AI engines prefer
- Comparison pages were added in which the brand positioned itself objectively against alternatives
Pillar 3: trend tracking for continuous advantage
The Marketing Manager activated quarterly reports to monitor shifts in AI visibility. This proved to be the decisive factor. GEO is not a one-time action. It is a continuous process of measuring, adjusting and measuring again.
The results after two quarters
After the first quarter, technical changes were implemented and the first content was live. The second GEO scan already showed significant shifts.
| Metric | Start (Q1) | After Q2 | After Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GEO Readiness Score | 28/100 | 51/100 | 67/100 |
| Share of Model (ChatGPT) | 8% | 14% | 19% |
| Share of Model (total) | 6% | 11% | 16% |
| Citability | Low | Average | High |
| Sentiment | Neutral | Positive | Positive |
The Share of Model more than doubled. From 6% to 16% across all platforms. On ChatGPT, the score increased from 8% to 19%.
What the Marketing Manager learned about AI visibility
Three insights from this case are directly applicable to any B2B organization:
Measuring is knowing, even for AI. Without the GEO Readiness Score as a starting point, the team would have had no direction. The 0 to 100 score gave stakeholders a clear metric to report progress.
Technology and content reinforce each other. An llms.txt file without citable content delivers nothing. Citable content without proper crawl instructions doesn't either. Both pillars must be in place simultaneously.
GEO is not a one-time action. It is a continuous process of measuring, adjusting and measuring again.
Start today with your own baseline measurement
This B2B brand proved that AI visibility is not a matter of luck or brand size. It is a matter of strategy, structure and consistency. The GEO Score is your starting point. Your competitors are already measuring it.
Know which AI engines mention your brand and which don't. Start your audit and receive your personal action plan within 10 minutes. Do you have questions about the right scan for your situation? Contact our team.
