In our survey report, The State of Agency Positioning and AI Search Readiness, Marketing agencies say they’re paying close attention to how AI search works.

60% describe themselves as “very” or “extremely” aware of the emerging standards for AI-mediated search visibility.

That’s an encouraging  number, but what are agencies are doing with that awareness?

Are Agencies Optimizing Their Own Sites for AI Search?

Well, not really, at least not to the degree their awareness would suggest.

Only 11% of agencies rate their own website as “very optimized” for AI-mediated search, search that’s happening on platforms like Claude and ChatGPT, and Gemini.

The largest group, 63%, land at “somewhat optimized,” and another 20% say their site isn’t optimized at all.

So, much like their new business strategy, agencies know the standards exist, but  haven’t gotten around to applying them to their own sites.

Why Isn’t Awareness Turning Into Action?

Once again, it’s the Cobbler’s Children Syndrome, clients, understandably, have to come first.

It’s a familiar pattern to us, and is a big reason RSW/US exists in the first place.

Agency principals rarely have the bandwidth to treat themselves as a client.

Between managing client work, staffing, and the day-to-day of running a firm, optimizing the agency’s own site for how AI reads it tends to fall to the bottom of the list, even when the awareness is there.

Are Agencies at Least Helping Their Clients With AI-mediated search?

Yes, more than they’re helping themselves.

66% of agencies say they’re currently helping clients optimize their websites for AI-mediated search, while only 34% say they aren’t.

So, agencies are willing to build AEO and GEO into client strategy, but haven’t turned that same lens on their own site.

Does AI Search Visibility Matter for New Business?

Yes, we’ve seen it ourselves, anecdotally.  My last 6 conversations with agency principals came from them discovering us via an AI search.

So it’s becoming a more common path to being found.

In our 2026 New Year Outlook report, we found that once-reliable sources of agency new business, like networking and referrals, were on the decline.

Outbound outreach held steady, and search was on the rise.

Somewhere around 20% of agencies said their new business came from marketers finding them online.

That number isn’t overwhelming on its own, but it’s moving in one direction while older sources move in the other.

Google has also published its own official guide on optimizing for generative AI search, and the core message lines up with what the broader SEO community has been saying: the fundamentals still matter, since generative AI features on Google Search are built on top of its existing search ranking and quality systems.

Being ready for AI-mediated search largely means doing the SEO fundamentals well, then building on them.

What Should Agencies Do About Their Own AI Search Readiness?

Start by looking at the site the way an AI system does, not the way a person browsing on a laptop does.

A generative engine isn’t scrolling your homepage top to bottom, it’s pulling specific, well-structured answers from wherever they live on your site, whether that’s a services page, a blog post, or an about page.

If your positioning and expertise are buried in dense paragraphs with no clear structure, there’s less for a system like that to pull from and cite.

The same consistency that matters for a human prospect matters here as well.

Over 80% of agencies in our survey said their positioning shows up “usually” or “always” across touchpoints like their website, LinkedIn, and proposals.

That consistency should carry into AI search readiness as well, since a generative engine forming an impression of your firm is likely pulling from more than just your homepage.

We’ve built an AI Search Readiness Audit into every new client program we kick off, checking client sites against the current best practices for GEO and AEO before we start representing that agency to prospects.

If you want a sense of where your own site stands, more on our AI Brand Compass Model here.

Agencies have gotten comfortable being “on it” when it comes to AI search, but the next step is making sure their own site reflects that, not just their clients’.

Marketing agencies overwhelmingly believe their own firm is well differentiated, even while agreeing that the agency industry as a whole is not.

That gap matters even more now that AI-powered search is reshaping how prospects find and evaluate agencies in the first place, a shift we break down in Generative Engine Optimization for Agencies.

In our recent survey of marketing agencies across North America, (The State of Agency Positioning and AI Search Readiness: What Our 2026 Survey Found) more than 80% said their agency is “somewhat” or “very” differentiated from the competitors they run into most.

Ask the same group about the industry overall, and over 75% call it “somewhat” or “very” undifferentiated.

Both answers came from the same agencies, in the same survey, which helps explain why so many agency websites end up sounding alike even when the people writing the copy for them are convinced otherwise.

Is Agency Positioning Really as Similar as It Sounds?

While I do think it’s gotten better, the answer is yes.

We’ve spent 21 years talking and working with agencies who are confident their positioning is unique.

“We’re more strategic.” “Only senior-level people work on your account.” “We’ve been on your side of the desk.”

All are usually true, but many other (most?) agency sites say these same things, often in nearly identical words.

The industry, and small and mid-sized firms, have a sort of default positioning vocabulary.

And when a prospect sees/reads phrases like this, there are eye-rolls, or worse, they’re ignored.

If ten agencies on a shortlist all describe themselves this way, the words lose meaning, regardless of how true they are for any one of them.

Why Do Agencies End Up With Positioning That Sounds Like Everyone Else’s?

The answer: most agencies build and test their positioning entirely in-house, without checking it against how the market sees the industry

Our survey found 85% of agencies developed their current positioning using only their own employees.

15% brought in a consultant.

Only 20% tested their positioning statements with actual prospects, and 22% tested them with current clients.

When your firm is testing positioning with current clients, I will give you credit, at least you’re moving outside your four walls.

However, that exercise tends to produce the same handful of compliments: smart, hardworking, strategic, a great partner.

Those are things a happy client should, and ideally does say, about any agency doing solid work.

It’s useful feedback about the relationship certainly, but not useful feedback about your actual differentiation.

What Should Small and Mid-Sized Agencies Do Differently?

You know it’s coming.  Yes, specialization is paramount here.

Per this recent Ad Age piece (What makes a small agency successful as clients demand more than independence):

True specialization is the biggest white space for small agencies to take advantage of to win more business, Davis said, adding that they must create a point of view that holding companies can’t credibly claim.

“The biggest gaps are not creative ideas because there are so many agencies that can come up with creative ideas … We’re more inclined to see an absence of the less sexy stuff,” Davis said. Agencies that can deliver exceptional cross-cultural marketing, outcomes-based creative or strategy backed by deep data and analytics can be really competitive.

But as I’ve stated many times in these posts, specialization doesn’t have to mean a one-vertical focus.

It can be an umbrella vertical, like “healthy living” for example, that can encompass many different verticals and sub-verticals, but gives your firms a point of view as an expert in the space.

And something else to think about as an aside, from the article:

Success doesn’t always mean chasing a high-spending advertiser and going up against the holding companies, several people interviewed stressed. “You can still chase massive share of a certain kind of client,” Wieser said, i.e. “the non-sexy, regional, mid-sized or small marketers.”

We do see a fair amount of this strategy with small and mid-sized firms and it’s a smart move.

They may not all be sexy, and your team will just need to accept that, if they’re a solid client.

How Should Agencies Test Their Positioning?

Against outside, not internal, eyes.

They’re not weighing your internal sense of what makes you special against the internal sense every other shortlisted agency has of itself.

They’re comparing sites, decks, and first impressions side by side, and from that vantage point, a lot of agencies blend together.

The differences between how an agency sees itself and how it reads to an outsider usually takes an outside perspective.

Not because the people inside don’t know their agency well, but because they know it too well

Which is a big reason why (shameless plug here, can’t help myself) we’ve built an AI Brand Compass we use for every new client program we kick off.

Combined with our experience working solely with agencies and PR firms, it gives us an outside, objective look, based on hundreds of other firms, at how an agency’s positioning comes across before we start representing that agency to prospects.

(Agencies can also get this if they’re not an RSW client, more on  the brand compass here.)

So, ultimately, it’s not whether your positioning feels true to you, but whether it would still feel distinct if you read it on ten other agency homepages.

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AI summaries are just one dimension of how artificial intelligence is reshaping agency outreach. For a broader look at how to apply AI across your entire new business effort, see our guide to actionable AI business development strategies for ad, PR, and marketing firms.

One of the most frustrating challenges in agency new business?

When prospects go dark

Always tough, and agencies tend to get worried or even desperate when it’s been a few days or weeks, understandably so.

(I’ve written several posts arond it, here’s one that might be helpful: Prospect Ghosting You? Use this ghosting schedule to follow up.)

You can’t get anxious (easy for me to say I know) and when you do reach back out, find something of value to further the conversation so it’s not just a generic check-in.

Something interesting about going dark that’s not often talked about though:

Agencies go dark with their own prospects

Usually without meaning to, but excellent opportunities are lost this way.

For the same reasons agencies work with us (predominantly lack of time for a consistent process because clients have to come first) we realized we often needed to take the reins (where it made sense) after those first meetings.

And you can’t let the fact that you’re slammed cause a promising prospect to fall through the cracks.

It most often happens with those prospects who have a need, but it’s several weeks or months away.

How to Follow Up With Prospects Without the Generic Check-In

Don’t just send a generic “just checking in” or “touching base” email.

It tells a prospect that you need something from them, which gives them very little reason to reply.

The agencies that successfully stay top of mind in the interim between meetings bring something helpful.

That could be industry content, a quick breakdown of a campaign you just wrapped up, or an observation about their vertical and the market.

Doesn’t need to be a major production: a brief note with a link to a relevant case study or a trade article keeps the relationship warm without putting pressure on them.

It helps to look at this approach less as a standard follow-up and more as a way to keep a conversation going.

Tactical Steps to Keep Prospects Engaged

Before that first meeting ends, respectfully ask for a second, as well as a timeline if possible.

Immediately afterwards, set calendar reminders for yourself and take a few minutes to craft a meaningful email or send a thank you via snail mail.

Don’t pester them, but stay consistent in your reach-outs.

Especially if there’s new work to tout, awards won, or content around their vertical you’ve written, and the prospect will see what working with you looks like, making them feel better and better about you before you’ve started working together.

Everybody’s busy, and it stinks when a prospect goes dark-don’t do the same.