Playbook · methodology
Agency pitch in 14 days
Prospects want to see their own data before they sign. This playbook turns a domain into two weeks of real tracking and a white-label pitch deck — in a pitch project that archives itself if you don't win.
- Goal
- A pitch deck built on the prospect's real AI visibility
- For
- Agencies and freelancers
- Duration
- 14 days of daily tracking
- Output
- White-label deck (PPTX/PDF) and share link
Goal
Show a prospect, with their own data, where they stand in AI answers, who wins instead and what you would do about it — without weeks of unpaid work. The deliverable is a white-label deck built from 14 days of tracking.
Who it's for
- Agencies adding GEO to SEO, content or PR retainers
- Freelancers pitching AI visibility audits
- In-house teams pitching a GEO budget internally
Prompt set
Twelve templates covering the prospect's category, comparisons and brand perception: broad enough to find a story, small enough to track for two weeks at modest cost.
Import it in AutoSEO under AI Visibility → Tracker → Import CSV (paste the text or upload the file).
Replace these placeholders before you import — the importer takes every line literally:
[category],[audience],[use case]— in the prospect's own words (check their website and ads)[prospect]— the prospect's brand[competitor]— the competitor the prospect worries about most (ask in the first call)[country]— the prospect's main market
prompt,tags"What is the best [category] for [audience]?","Pitch|Category""Which [category] providers are recommended?","Pitch|Category""Which [category] is best for [use case]?","Pitch|Category""Which [category] is the most trustworthy?","Pitch|Category""How much does a [category] cost?","Pitch|Category""Who are the leading [category] companies in [country]?","Pitch|Category|Local""What are the best alternatives to [competitor]?","Pitch|Comparison""[prospect] vs. [competitor]","Pitch|Comparison""Is [prospect] a good choice for [use case]?","Pitch|Brand""What are the pros and cons of [prospect]?","Pitch|Brand""What do customers say about [prospect]?","Pitch|Brand""Is [prospect] legit?","Pitch|Brand"Engines to track
Every engine tracked for 14 days costs money. Pick the four or five that matter to the prospect's buyers.
| Engine | Role in the pitch |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | The engine every prospect asks about first. |
| Google AI Overviews | Connects the pitch to the Google traffic the prospect already knows. |
| Perplexity | Its sources make the “here's why competitors win” slide concrete. |
| Gemini or Microsoft Copilot | Add one, depending on whether the prospect's buyers work with Google or Microsoft tools. |
Baseline measurement in AutoSEO
- 1
Day 1: Create a pitch project
Add the prospect's domain as a pitch project with an expiry of 7 to 90 days. If you don't win, it is archived automatically.
- 2
Day 1: Prompts and competitors
Import the prompt set, add the competitors the prospect named plus those AutoSEO suggests, and set daily tracking on four or five engines.
- 3
Days 2–13: Read the answers
Check in every few days. Look for the story: who is recommended instead, which sources are cited, what AI gets wrong about the prospect.
- 4
Day 14: Build the deck
Create a report from the Pitch or Audit Pitch template, apply your brand kit and export PPTX or PDF, or send a password-protected share link.
Actions
- 01
Lead with one clear finding
One sentence the prospect will repeat internally — for example, which competitor AI recommends for their most valuable prompt. From their data, not from a benchmark.
- 02
Show the why
Use Sources and the answers themselves to explain why competitors win: the pages, reviews and lists behind the answers.
- 03
Add technical quick wins
Run a crawlability check on the prospect's site. Blocked AI crawlers or client-side rendering are concrete, fixable findings.
- 04
Propose a measurable plan
Offer a baseline, a fixed prompt set, monthly reporting and the playbooks you will run — not a promised ranking.
- 05
Be upfront about variance
Show that answers fluctuate and that you will report averages over many runs. It builds trust and protects you from being judged on a single screenshot.
- 06
Convert, or let it expire
If you win, convert the pitch project into a regular project and keep the 14 days as the baseline. If you don't, it archives itself.
How to measure change
- Your win rate for pitches with data versus without, in your own pipeline
- Mention rate and share of voice after 14 days, as the engagement baseline
- Tracking cost per pitch under Settings → Usage, to price future pitches
- Hours spent per pitch, to decide whether to standardize the prompt set
Give the client access
Once the contract is signed, invite the client with the Client role: read-only access to their project and nothing else.
Expected variance
Fourteen days give a directional picture, not precise numbers. A small prompt set on a few engines shows visible day-to-day swings. Present results as ranges and trends, and say so on the slide.
Limitations
- Tracking costs apply for 14 days per engine; set a budget per pitch.
- Two weeks show where the prospect stands today, not what you will achieve for them.
- Competitor lists from a first call are incomplete; the answers themselves often reveal competitors nobody mentioned.
- On AutoSEO Cloud, an active pitch project counts toward the project limit of your workspace until it expires and is archived.
Questions about this playbook
How much does tracking a 14-day pitch cost?
It depends on the number of prompts and engines and on the providers configured. Check Settings → Usage after the first few days and extrapolate. On a self-hosted instance, AI work can run through Claude Code or Codex subscriptions you already have via the local agent, while engines tracked through DataForSEO are billed per request by DataForSEO.
Can the prospect see the project during the pitch?
Only if you invite them. You can also share the finished deck through a password-protected link without giving the prospect an account.
What happens when the pitch period ends?
The pitch project is archived automatically. While it runs, you can convert it into a regular project at any time; all tracked data stays and becomes the baseline of the engagement.
Can I white-label the deck?
Yes. Brand kits apply your logo and colors to reports, and you export them as PPTX or PDF or share them through a password-protected link.
Should I promise results in the pitch?
No. AI answers are probabilistic and engines change without notice. Promise a method — baseline, fixed prompt set, monthly measurement, specific actions — and report honestly against it.
Run this playbook in AutoSEO
Every feature is included in the free self-hosted edition and in AutoSEO Cloud.