Agency Partner Story

How Hawke Media built a GEO practice on measurement rather than guesswork

Hawke Media began running AI visibility audits in early 2025. What started as a hedge bundled into SEO packages became a practice with its own measurement discipline: audits in the room before a deal is signed, and a tracked cadence on client brands once it is.

31.7% to 59.2%

AI visibility for one client brand, March 2025 to August 2026

workspaces across client services, new business, and PR

4 tiers

of GEO packages, from roughly $2K to $8K a month

The Agency

About Hawke Media

Hawke Media is a full-service marketing agency working across SEO, paid media, social, PR, and affiliate. Its SEO and GEO practice runs AI visibility measurement for client brands, while its new business team uses the same platform to open conversations with prospects.

Full-Service MarketingAgency PartnerSEO + GEO

Visit hawkemedia.com

Why Gumshoe

Working backwards from what the models actually cite

For an agency, the hard part of AI visibility isn't knowing a client is underrepresented. It is knowing what to do about it. Hawke's team uses Gumshoe's citation data as the starting point for a plan: which sources the models pull from, which competitors those sources mention, and which are realistically influenceable.

"The thing I really like about Gumshoe is the citation piece. It reverse-engineers everything for us: this is how competitors show up, here's where sources are."

RB

Rachael Bly

SVP, Services, Hawke Media

The persona layer matters for the same reason. Rather than a single visibility score, the team sees which buyers a brand is missing, turning an abstract problem into a content brief.

How They Use It

Two places in the business, two different cadences

Before the pitch

Hawke runs a visibility audit on a prospect's brand ahead of the new business conversation, in a dedicated new business workspace. The pitch then opens with that prospect's actual standing in AI models rather than a general argument about why AI matters.

After the deal

Retained client brands move onto a tracked report that is re-run over time, so the team can show movement rather than a one-off snapshot.

Team by team

Nine workspaces span client services, new business, PR, and Hawke's own product integration work. Client work stays separated, and the people who own a relationship own the measurement for it.

In the packaging

GEO is sold through four tiers blended with SEO, ranging from roughly $2K to $8K a month.

"We started by pairing GEO with our SEO offerings. That way, if we didn't get momentum on the GEO side for a client, we could still show them progress in SEO, so they'd know they weren't wasting their money. With Gumshoe, we quickly came to a point where we could start selling GEO on its own."

RB

Rachael Bly

SVP, Services, Hawke Media

Case Study

For a home wellness and indoor appliance brand: visibility doubled

One client brand has been measured on the same tracked report since March 2025. Between the first run and the most recent one in August 2026, its AI visibility went from 31.7% to 59.2%.

March 2025

31.7%

August 2026

59.2%

Every buyer persona improved

Buyer persona	March 2025	August 2026
Health-focused	18.0%	55.6%
Minimalist design preference	24.0%	54.8%
Tech-forward wellness emphasis	28.0%	52.8%
Pet focus	34.0%	63.2%
Parent and family focused	42.0%	70.4%

So did every tracked topic, by between 24 and 38 points

Topic	March 2025	August 2026	Change
Home wellness	29.4%	67.7%	+38.3
Allergens and sensitivities	35.0%	67.8%	+32.8
Affordable, eco-conscious living	38.5%	71.1%	+32.6
Eco-friendly options	22.4%	54.5%	+32.2
High-performance residential	36.8%	68.4%	+31.5
Energy efficiency for apartments	46.2%	75.4%	+29.1
Quality and sustainability	25.7%	52.8%	+27.1
Smart home integration	30.0%	54.0%	+24.0

The gaps the data surfaced became the plan

Early in the engagement, the heat map in Gumshoe's Visibility Audit showed this brand was weakest with two buyer types and two topics: health-focused buyers, buyers with a minimalist design preference, smart home integration, and eco-friendly messaging. The Hawke team named those four as areas they hadn't been writing for.

All four now sit in the 54 to 56% range. The two weakest personas, at 18.0% and 24.0%, moved the most.

Alongside the targeting, the team changed the shape of the content itself.

"FAQ-type formatting has, across the board, made a huge difference in what's getting pulled as content. Basic headers with a clear question rather than a creative header, and then directly answering the question. That's kind of astronomically made a difference for me."

SEO Services Team Member

Hawke Media

Additional Case Studies

Three more client brands, three very different buying cycles

In each of these, the same prompt set and the same buyer personas were measured at both ends of the window, so the movement reflects the brand's standing rather than a change in what was asked.

A B2B technical equipment manufacturer: 69.0% to 77.4%

This brand was already well represented when measurement began. It was mentioned in 69.0% of AI answers across its category in February 2026. Seven months and eight monthly audits later, that had climbed to 77.4%.

The interesting part is not the headline. It is where the gains landed. Visibility with the two most senior, most technical buyer types in the set improved by 20 and 15 points, and nine of the ten tracked purchase criteria moved up.

Buyer personas, February to September 2026
Buyer persona	Feb 2026	Sep 2026	Change
Institutional program leadership	62.5%	82.5%	+20.0
Large-scale enterprise buyers	65.0%	80.0%	+15.0
Early-stage technical founders	73.8%	86.2%	+12.4
Service providers in the category	73.8%	83.8%	+10.0
Precision-driven research leadership	76.2%	86.2%	+10.0
Public-sector and adjacent programs	65.0%	70.0%	+5.0
Applied technical developers	68.8%	70.0%	+1.2
Research and academic buyers	75.0%	76.2%	+1.2
Government-backed initiative leadership	61.3%	61.3%	No change

Purchase criteria: nine of ten improved
Criterion	Feb 2026	Sep 2026	Change
Ecosystem compatibility	68.5%	82.1%	+13.7
System reliability	64.6%	77.1%	+12.5
Total cost of ownership	65.3%	75.7%	+10.4
Technical support quality	63.4%	73.7%	+10.3
Integration flexibility	69.4%	78.7%	+9.3
Precision	60.7%	68.8%	+8.0
Scalability and expansion	78.0%	83.3%	+5.4
Ease of use	69.9%	73.5%	+3.7
Future-proof architecture	76.6%	77.7%	+1.1

The tenth criterion moved the other way, falling 8.3 points over the same period. That is the value of tracking at this level of detail: a brand can improve overall while still losing ground on a specific purchase criterion, and without the breakdown, it would be invisible until it showed up in lost deals.

Why this one is worth reading

A brand starting near 70% has less obvious room to grow than one starting at 20%. This is what incremental defense of an already strong position looks like when measured.

A consumer hardware brand: 31.4% to 49.6% in five weeks

This brand sat fifth in its competitive set when measurement began, well behind four larger names. Across six weekly audits in August and September 2025, its visibility went from 31.4% to 49.6%, a 58% increase in just over a month.

Every persona and every topic improved.

Buyer persona	Start	End	Change
Professional field user	17.5%	52.5%	+35.0
Preparedness-minded buyer	15.0%	30.0%	+15.0
Small business operator	20.0%	32.5%	+12.5
Independent outdoor user	25.0%	40.0%	+15.0
Connected-home buyer	32.5%	50.0%	+17.5
Enthusiast hobbyist	50.0%	65.0%	+15.0
Urban space-constrained buyer	60.0%	77.5%	+17.5

The strongest topic gains were the two where the brand started weakest relative to its potential, both roughly doubling:

Topic	Start	End	Change
Emergency and contingency use	30.8%	61.5%	+30.8
Mobile and travel use	30.0%	60.0%	+30.0
Recreational use	41.7%	64.3%	+22.6
Speed and convenience	42.9%	64.3%	+21.4
Technical specification comparisons	35.6%	55.8%	+20.2
At-home applications	21.9%	40.6%	+18.8

Why this one is worth reading

The climb was gradual across all six weekly runs rather than a single jump, which is the pattern you would expect from content landing progressively rather than a one-time technical fix. Weekly measurement is what makes that distinction visible at all.

A specialty consumer health brand: 33.4% to 47.1% in five weeks

This brand began the window ranked second in its category. Six weekly audits later it had taken the top position, moving from 33.4% to 47.1%.

Its established strengths held and extended. The more striking result is what happened in the areas where it had almost no presence at all:

Topic	Start	End	Change
Sensitivity and comfort concerns	4.7%	25.0%	5x
Alternatives to conventional treatment	15.2%	34.8%	+19.6
Sensitivity-conscious product choices	25.0%	44.3%	+19.3
Environmentally conscious options	20.3%	36.7%	+16.4
Core category use case	53.3%	73.9%	+20.7
Natural and gentle approaches	56.2%	71.9%	+15.6
Non-prescription options	55.0%	68.1%	+13.1
Professionally recommended products	67.5%	77.5%	+10.0

All seven buyer personas improved, led by three that gained more than 15 points each:

Buyer persona	Start	End	Change
Practical high-volume caregiver	37.5%	60.0%	+22.5
Environmentally conscious buyer	33.8%	52.5%	+18.8
Specialized-needs caregiver	37.5%	55.0%	+17.5
Holistic-approach buyer	27.5%	42.5%	+15.0
Category specialist	40.0%	52.5%	+12.5
Niche expert buyer	25.0%	33.8%	+8.8
Evidence-driven buyer	32.5%	33.8%	+1.3

Why this one is worth reading

Two topics started in single digits and stayed low in absolute terms even after improving. Both remain the brand's clearest open opportunity, which is exactly the kind of finding that turns a report into a roadmap.

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