AEO EngineIn-house hire vs agency vs AEO Engine
$120K buys one SEO hire. Or an entire AI search department.
A single in-house manager has to buy the tools, the PR, the links and the content help, then figure out what works in AI search on your budget. Here is how that stacks up against a system already running across 100+ campaigns.
- Covered
- Partly, or costs extra
- Not covered
| In-house hireOne SEO/AEO manager at $120K | Typical agencyRetainer, plus add-ons | One accountable ownerAEO EngineAI-native SEO + AEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | One personStrategy, writing, links, PR and reporting | A shared teamSplit across many clients | 40+ AI agentsRun by senior strategists and client success |
| What the strategy is built on | A blank slateLearns what works on your budget | A Google-era playbookAI search bolted on | 15 months of dataOn what works, and what does not, in SEO and AI search |
| Live campaigns it learns from | 1Yours | VariesFew run AI search at scale | 100+Managed right now |
| Content assets per month | About 10If they do nothing else | Capped by headcountHuman-only production | 30-90What a 20-person content team would produce |
| Categories you can push at once | One at a timeThere are only so many hours | One at a timeMore scope, bigger retainer | Several, in parallelOn the Category Win plan |
| Press releases | Paid per releaseAround $1,200 each | Separate vendorBilled on top | IncludedQuarterly up to 4x a month |
| Authority backlinks | Buy and vet them yourselfVendors, pricing, quality checks | Usually an add-onPriced per link | Included3-20 a month, DR 30+ sites only |
| Brand mentionsReddit, Quora and trusted platforms | ManualOne person, one account | Rarely offeredNot part of most retainers | Included3-20 a month |
| AI visibility trackingChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews | Another tool to buyThen learn it and report on it | Rank reportsMostly classic Google | Built inReported weekly, in plain English |
| Technical SEO, schema and on-page fixes | When there's timeCompetes with everything else | Monthly auditOften a PDF of to-dos | Every weekAutomated optimization agents |
| Time to real output | 4-6 monthsRecruit, onboard, ramp up | Weeks of onboardingThen a learning curve | No ramp-upPlugs into a system that is already running |
| When someone leaves | Start overThe know-how walks out the door | New repNew learning curve | Nothing stopsThe system and the data stay |
The real bill
The $120K hire costs about $353K once they can actually compete.
Year-one estimate for one in-house manager equipped to match an AEO Engine program. You still end up with one person, learning on the job.
$352,800a year
$216,000all-in
$120,000same as the salary
Receipt
In-house hire, year one
- Salary$120,000
- Benefits + payroll tax$30,000
- SEO + AI tracking software$18,000
- 24 press releases$28,800
- Backlinks + mentions$36,000
- Freelance content$120,000
Not counted: recruiting fees, your management time, and 4-6 months before real output.
Receipt
AEO Engine, Category Win
- Senior strategy + client successIncluded
- 40+ agent fleetIncluded
- Content + weekly optimizationIncluded
- PR twice a monthIncluded
- Backlinks + brand mentionsIncluded
- AI visibility trackingIncluded
$18,000 a month. Enterprise runs the same core program one category at a time for $120,000 a year.
How we estimated the in-house bill. Year one, US-based hire. Benefits and payroll tax at 25% of salary. Software at about $1,500 a month for an SEO suite, an AI visibility tracker and content tools. Press releases at 2 a month and about $1,200 each. Backlinks and brand mentions bought from vendors at about $3,000 a month. Content: the hire writes about 10 assets a month and freelancers add about 40 more at roughly $250 each. The agency column reflects common retainer models; individual agencies vary. AEO Engine plans range from 30-90 content assets, 3-20 authority links, 3-20 brand mentions and quarterly to 4x monthly PR, depending on plan.
Your one hire would be up against 40+ agents, 100+ live campaigns and 15 months of data. On day one.
AEO Engine is an AI-native SEO and AEO agency, led by operators with 10 to 15 years in search. One system, one strategy, one accountable owner.
Talk it through with us