AEO costs depend more on your starting point and implementation scope than on any single “AEO tactic”. Audits, technical implementation, content work and ongoing monitoring each require different levels of effort.
What determines the scope?
The main factors are website size, technical debt, number of priority topics, content quality, available SEO data, platform scope and whether the engagement covers advice only or hands-on implementation.
Audit or ongoing support?
An audit creates transparency and a roadmap. Ongoing support makes sense when content, technical work and monitoring should be developed continuously.
Why generic package prices can be misleading
A focused B2B website with 30 strategic pages has very different needs from a portal with thousands of URLs. The sensible first step is to establish the current state and then define the required scope.
How should budget be prioritised?
Start with technical blockers, indexation, core commercial pages and measurable topic clusters. Large-scale production of thin AI-generated copy is rarely the best first investment.