Case studies in marketing are usually disguised sales pitches. This post is an honest look at three AEO campaigns, what worked, what didn’t, and what the actual ROI looked like. All three are composites drawn from real client work, with specifics generalized for confidentiality but tactics and timelines kept accurate.

Case Study 1: B2B SaaS in Accounting

Company profile: Mid-market accounting software serving small accounting firms. Approximately $12M ARR when the AEO program started. Sales team of 8 focused on outbound and channel partnerships. Limited inbound pipeline from content and search.

The problem: The company was losing prospects who were researching alternatives on ChatGPT and Perplexity. When asked “best accounting software for small firms” or “alternatives to [competitor],” AI products consistently named three larger competitors without mentioning this company. Sales reps heard the same objection repeatedly: “I asked ChatGPT and they said [competitor] is the leading option.”

The program:

Month 1-2 (foundation):

Month 3-6 (content and outreach):

Month 7-12 (expansion):

The results (month 12):

The ROI math:

What worked: Press coverage and comparison content. The Accounting Today and Journal of Accountancy placements showed up in AI product responses within 4-6 weeks of publication and drove most of the visibility gains.

What didn’t work: Podcast content was slower to pay off than expected. Podcasts are hard for AI products to index, and the ROI on that channel was delayed into year 2.

Key lesson: For B2B SaaS, trade publication coverage is dramatically more productive than general business press. Four placements in the right four publications moved the needle; two placements in broader outlets wouldn’t have.

Case Study 2: Consumer DTC Skincare Brand

Company profile: Direct-to-consumer skincare brand with three core products. Approximately $6M annual revenue at program start. Predominantly acquisition-driven through paid social.

The problem: Rising paid acquisition costs were squeezing margins. The brand wanted to build organic demand through AI product recommendations (ChatGPT, Perplexity) and had seen competitors gaining ground in AI responses to queries like “best sensitive skin moisturizer.”

The program:

Month 1-2 (foundation):

Month 3-6 (outreach and content):

Month 7-9 (amplification):

Month 10-12 (scale):

The results (month 12):

The ROI math:

What worked: Sample-based editorial outreach and honest dermatologist reviews. The editorial placements produced direct AI visibility, and the dermatologist content gave AI products high-trust source material for formula-related questions.

What didn’t work: Paid influencer content with generic sponsored language had negligible AEO impact. AI products increasingly discount sponsored content, and the paid posts didn’t move the needle.

Key lesson: For DTC beauty, sample-based editorial is the dominant lever. Paid influencer work is useful for other goals but not AEO.

Case Study 3: B2B Services Firm

Company profile: Mid-market consulting firm specializing in cybersecurity compliance for healthcare companies. Approximately 40 employees. Sales entirely through referrals and direct outbound.

The problem: The firm had no inbound pipeline at all. Prospective clients couldn’t find them in AI product responses to queries like “cybersecurity consultants for healthcare” because the firm had essentially no web presence beyond a basic website.

The program:

Month 1-3 (foundation and pain-first content):

Month 4-8 (authority building):

Month 9-12 (momentum):

The results (month 12):

The ROI math:

What worked: Primary research and op-ed placements. Research reports gave AI products unique data to cite, and op-eds in authoritative publications built the entity authority from nothing.

What didn’t work: Generic “compliance tips” blog content. The lightweight content didn’t move anything. Only the original research and executive byline content moved visibility.

Key lesson: For niche B2B services, you can afford to go deeper and narrower. Eight queries out of 60 is a smaller number than the other case studies, but in a tight niche with high-value deals, each query win is worth more.

Patterns across the three

Several themes emerged across all three case studies.

Press coverage drove the visibility. Every case study had earned editorial placements as the primary visibility driver. Content alone was necessary but not sufficient.

Timelines were 6-12 months for meaningful results. No case study produced significant visibility change in the first 90 days. Expect patience, not shortcuts.

First-year ROI was modest; compounding was the real story. All three case studies produced positive but not eye-popping first-year ROI. The real value showed up in year 2 and beyond as the entity authority compounded.

Trade/vertical publications mattered more than general business press. For B2B cases especially, three placements in the right niche publication outperformed ten placements in broader outlets.

Schema and entity work enabled everything else. None of the content or press work would have moved the needle without the underlying entity cleanup. Skipping that step would have limited all the other tactics.

What to do with this

If you’re evaluating whether AEO is worth investing in, these case studies offer a realistic picture: positive ROI in year 1, stronger ROI in year 2, and requirements for real budget and real patience. Brands looking for faster, cheaper, or bigger results should either invest more heavily or accept that AEO is not the right tool.

If you’re already running an AEO program, benchmark against these patterns. Are you building on earned press as the anchor? Are you patient with 6-12 month timelines? Are you investing in entity foundations before pursuing content or press tactics? If not, the program is probably underperforming what it could achieve.

AEO is a slow, compounding investment. The brands that win treat it that way.