Marketing

March 23, 2026

How to Show Up in AI Search: HubSpot’s Winning AEO Playbook

For years, marketers have been trained to think in rankings: rank on Google, drive traffic, optimize conversion. Repeat. That model influenced an entire generation of content strategy and defined what we wrote, how we structured it, and how we measured success.

But at INBOUND 2025, Aja Frost, Senior Director of Global Growth at HubSpot, made it clear that this model is being replaced with AEO (the practice of optimizing your content so AI tools like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews can find, extract, and recommend your brand in their answers). AI is compressing what used to be a multi-step journey into a single, synthesized answer.

If your brand isn’t part of the answer, you may never enter the consideration set at all. Frost knows this firsthand. HubSpot saw the shift early, pivoted their content strategy, and is now the number one most visible CRM in AI engines. Here's the playbook she sharedcheck and what you can start doing today.

Search Isn’t What It Used to Be and Neither Are Buyers

The traditional search experience was built on exploration. A user asked a question, reviewed a list of links, and chose where to go next. Marketers competed for that click. AI removes that step entirely. Instead of presenting options, it delivers conclusions.

AI-generated overviews now appear in nearly six out of ten searches, and when they do, click-through rates drop dramatically.

“Google is keeping people on Google rather than sending them to websites.” — Aja Frost

At the same time, buyer behavior has reorganized around this new AI search reality.

Where buyers used to:

Search → click → research → convert

They now:

Ask AI → validate socially → then visit a site

Many teams are already feeling the impact: traffic may be declining, but conversion rates are rising. By the time buyres reach your website, they’re no longer exploring; they’re deciding.

Which means the real competition is happening earlier, inside the answer itself.

From SEO to AEO: How Content Competes

For years, the dominant content strategy was built around comprehensiveness. The more thorough your guide, the more likely it was to rank. That logic led to an explosion of long-form, top-of-funnel content designed to capture as many queries as possible.

AI has changed that equation. As Frost shared, “AI has completely commodified broad, educational content.”

When an AI system can instantly synthesize hundreds of “ultimate guides” into a single response, depth alone is no longer a differentiator. What replaces it is precision.

“Stop publishing the ultimate guide to everything. And start publishing the exact answer to the exact question your buyer is asking in ChatGPT.” — Aja Frost

This is the core of AEO (AI Engine Optimization): answering a question completely, clearly, and in a way that can be extracted, trusted, and reused by AI systems.

How AI Engines Build Answers

When someone asks ChatGPT a question, it doesn't just answer that one question. It breaks it into a web of subqueries, finds the best answers to each, and synthesizes them into one response. Your content needs to answer not just the primary question, but those specific subqueries, or you won't show up.

“AI isn't just coming up with the answer to that one question. It's breaking it into a bunch of subquestions.” — Aja Frost

Layered on top of this is personalization. AI systems don’t return static answers. They tailor responses based on context, behavior, and prior interactions. Every response is personalized in ways that weren't possible before, making generic content invisible.

How to Identify The Right Questions to Answer

AI can generate certiain content at scale (broad, educational content). What it can't do is answer hyper-specific questions with your original data, your customer insights, and your product context.

At HubSpot, Frost’s team maps questions instead of keywords. To find those questions, Frost recommended a 3x4 grid. Map your buyer personas across the top (and she means specific — not "marketing manager Margaret," but "marketing manager Margaret at a 200-person logistics company") against the four stages of the buyer's journey down the side: awareness, consideration, evaluation, decision.

Do this for every major product or service you offer. Then fill the grid using three sources:

keyword data (Google Search Console clicks and impressions)
social listening (the questions people ask in forums and on social, phrased conversationally the same way they'd ask AI)
first-party data (your chat transcripts and sales calls are a gold mine of high-intent questions).

Once you've mapped those questions, check where you're actually showing up using HubSpot's AEO Grader tool. The questions where you're not visible are your gaps and your content roadmap.

The 7-Point AEO Page Checklist

Once you know what to write, the structure of your page determines whether AI actually surfaces it. Frost walked through seven non-negotiables.

1. Put the answer first. The first sentence should completely answer the primary question. AI engines are scanning for quick confirmation they're in the right place. Don't bury the lede.

2. Go a click deeper. Follow the answer with two to three short paragraphs that expand on it with context, definitions, and methodology. This signals to the LLM that your content is credible and complete.

3. Reference original data throughout. "AI engines are looking for net new information," Frost highlighted. That doesn't have to mean expensive surveys. Your CRM data, your customer success team's observations, your sales team's field insights…all of it counts.

4. Include an FAQ. At the bottom of each page, answer at least three subquestions. Format each as its own H3 or H4 so AI can find and extract them. These are your subquery answers, built in.

5. Add structure. Bullets, headers, tables. Make it effortless to parse.

6. Make every section self-contained. AI pulls chunks of content (the technical term is literally "chunking"). Each section should make sense even if nothing around it is read.

7. Tie every point back to your product. This is the one most brands miss. "You need the one-two punch. You need ‘here's some good content to get your attention’, and ‘here's why that topic is deeply connected to what your product can do’," Frost emphasized. Educational content without product relevance makes AI smarter without making it more likely to recommend you.

Mentions Are the New Backlinks

In SEO, backlinks were the authority signal. In AEO, they still matter but they’re no longer the deciding factor. What matters now is positive brand mentions. Is your brand being talked about on Reddit? LinkedIn? G2? Review sites? That's what AI is reading.

Frost laid out a three-step off-site strategy:

1. Identify the websites AI is already citing in responses for your priority questions (especially the ones you’re novisible but should be). Then secure mentions in those sources: guest posts, roundup features, asking an exciseting article to include you.

2. Leverage review platforms. Sites like G2 and TrustRadius appear consistently in AI responses because AI trusts user-generated content.

3. Seed human-first channels. Partner with YouTube creators, newsletter authors, and LinkedIn thought leaders so their organic content includes your product in context.

Rethink Your Search Scorecard

As discovery shifts upstream, measurement needs to follow. Old search metrics (rankings, sessions, click-through rate) don't tell the full story anymore.

“You have to completely rethink your search scorecard for the AI era.” — Aja Frost

Frost shared HubSpot's new AEO scorecard, built around four signals:

AI visibility: How often do you show up in the responses that matter?
Share of voice: How often relative to your competitors?
Citations: Is your brand being referenced as a source? (Frost noted that cited brands are described more positively — you'll say the nicest things about yourself.)
Referral traffic and demand: How many visitors from AI engines are actually converting?

The results are hard to ignore. Since launching their AEO strategy, HubSpot has reached the highest share of voice in their space, significantly improved citation rates, and driven demand up by 1,850%.

The Takeaway: Winning in AI Search Means Being the Answer

The move to AI-driven discovery doesn’t eliminate the need for great content. It raises the bar for what great content looks like.

It’s no longer enough to:

Rank highly
Cover topics broadly
Drive traffic at scale

Instead, the goal is to:

Answer specific, high-intent questions
Structure content for extraction and clarity
Build authority across the broader web
Measure presence where decisions are actually made

Because in this new model, the moment that matters most is the answer (not the click). And the brands that win will be the ones that show up there first.

Want access to more sessions and content like this? Join us in Boston this September.

Frequently Asked Questions about AEO

What is AI engine optimization (AEO)?

AI engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring your content, technical setup, and off-site presence so your brand appears in AI-generated responses in tools like ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, and Gemini. Where SEO focuses on ranking in traditional search results, AEO focuses on showing up in the answer itself.

How is AEO different from SEO?

SEO is about ranking web pages in search engine results. AEO is about being included in the answer itself. While SEO prioritizes keywords, backlinks, and rankings, AEO prioritizes direct answers, structured content, and brand mentions across trusted sources.

How do you optimize content for ChatGPT?

To optimize for ChatGPT, content should:

Answer specific questions directly in the first sentence
Be structured with clear headers, bullet points, and short sections
Include original insights or data
Address related sub-questions (query fan-out)
Clearly connect insights back to your product or solution

This makes it easier for AI systems to extract and reuse your content in responses.

What kind of content performs best in AI search?

The content that performs best in AI search is highly specific, question-driven, and easy to extract. Instead of broad guides, AI favors focused pages that answer one clear question, include supporting context, and are structured for readability and clarity.

Why are brand mentions important for AEO?

AI engines rely heavily on brand mentions across the web to determine authority and relevance. Mentions on platforms like Reddit, LinkedIn, review sites, and editorial content signal trust more than traditional backlinks alone, increasing the likelihood that your brand is recommended in AI-generated answers.