Key Takeaways
- The burn wasn't bad tactics. It was that nobody, the agency included, could show which calls came from the work.
- Attribution starts in week one. If the agency can't name the tracking number, form field, and day 30 report, don't sign.
- You keep the lead log. Every call and form, source in the caller's own words, in a sheet you own.
- Month to month only. A twelve month contract exists to protect the agency from your evidence.
- Three ChatGPT queries, run by you on the first of every month, screenshotted. Proof nobody can spin.
- Don't fire the current vendor to make room. Measure first, then decide who stays based on the log.
The Burn Was Never the Tactics
Three agencies. Add up what you paid them and it's a five figure number. What do you have to show for it? A few ranking reports. A dashboard you stopped opening.
I've run 35 growth analysis calls with local business owners this year. 53% said some version of the same sentence: “I couldn't tell if it was working.” Not “it didn't work.” Couldn't tell.
That's the actual injury. The tactics may have been fine. The agency controlled the measurement, so the agency controlled the story. Leads up, the agency was the reason. Leads flat, it was the season or the algorithm.
You can't fire a vendor with evidence you don't have. You can't confidently hire the next one either. So you sit in the middle, paying and uneasy, until you cut it and start from zero.
The fourth engagement fixes one thing: who holds the evidence. Everything below makes that you.
Attribution From Week One
Ask one question before you sign anything: what will I be able to see on day 30 that I can't see today?
If the answer is rankings, keyword positions, or domain authority, walk. Those are the agency's numbers. Your numbers are three: the phone rang, the job was won, the check cleared.
Week one attribution means three things get wired before any content, links, or listing work begins.
A tracking phone number on every asset the agency touches. Call tracking runs $30 to $100 a month. Your account, your card, not theirs.
A source field on every form. One extra line: how did you find us? Free text, not a dropdown. You want the caller's own words.
A report format agreed in writing. Three lines, weekly: calls in, jobs booked, revenue collected. Not a 30 page PDF. A long report is where the story hides.
An agency that says give it six to twelve months before we can show attribution is asking for a year of spend you can't check. The one page scope that prevents this is in what an AI search agency should put in writing before you pay.
The Lead Log You Keep Yourself
The agency's dashboard is their version of events. The lead log is yours.
It's a spreadsheet. Five columns: date, caller, how they found you in their own words, what they wanted, outcome. Your front desk fills it in, or you do. Thirty seconds per lead.
Every Friday you count the rows. That's your weekly report. Four minutes.
The rule that changes everything: the agency reports to your log, not the other way round. When the agency says it drove 40 leads, you open the sheet. If the sheet says 12, the conversation is about 12. If it says 40 and 30 of them wrote “found you on ChatGPT”, the renewal decision is made for you.
Give the agency read access. Never write access. The moment a vendor can edit the log, it's their dashboard with a different logo.
A restoration company in the Bay Area had a caller this summer say they found the business on ChatGPT. The owner sent me that one line. It did more for the retainer conversation than any report I could write.
Three ChatGPT Queries You Run Yourself
Rankings tell you where a page sits. They don't tell you what a customer sees when they ask an AI assistant who to call. You can check that yourself in ten minutes a month.
Pick three queries a real customer would type. For a plumber in Denver:
- best plumber in Denver
- who should I call for a burst pipe in Denver
- plumber in Denver that installs tankless water heaters
On the first of every month, open a fresh ChatGPT chat and run all three. Screenshot each answer. Note whether you appear, where in the list, and who else is named. Then run the same three in Google and screenshot the AI Overview.
Run each query twice. Answers vary between runs, so count yourself cited if you appear in either.
Twelve months of screenshots is a record no agency can spin, because you produced it. If you want more than three queries, this walkthrough on monitoring which local businesses AI assistants recommend covers the tooling.
Month to Month, Nothing Longer
Twelve month contracts get sold as “SEO takes time.” What they actually do is protect the agency from the evidence you're now collecting.
With a tracking number, a source field, and a log, you don't need a year to know whether the phone is ringing differently. You'll know by day 60. So the contract should let you act on day 60.
Month to month means the agency earns month four with month three's log. Good agencies prefer it.
A one time setup fee is fair, $500 to $2,000 for the tracking, schema, listings, and baseline audit. A lock in is not. Retainers for this work run $800 to $3,000 a month. The full breakdown is in how much AI search optimization costs.
Switching restarts the clock, so the goal isn't to churn vendors quarterly. It's to hold the option and rarely need it. Here's when switching is worth it and when it isn't.
Don't Fire Anyone to Make Room
The instinct after three burns is to fire whoever you have now and start clean. Don't.
You have no evidence yet. Fire the incumbent before the log exists and you'll never know what they were producing. The fourth agency then inherits a baseline of zero, which is the exact situation the first three exploited.
Set up the tracking number, the form field, and the log with the current vendor still running. Thirty days later you'll have their real number. Then bring in the fourth as an addition, aimed at a gap the incumbent doesn't cover. For most local businesses that gap is AI search: ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews citations, which a traditional SEO vendor rarely tracks.
Two vendors both reporting to your log beats one vendor reporting to itself. The incumbent, now measured, either earns its place or shows itself the door.
Which Path Fits You
Here's how I'd decide, depending on where you actually are.
Choose to hire the fourth agency if...
You can log leads, either yourself or through a front desk. You'll spend ten minutes a month on the three queries. And the agency puts week one attribution and month to month terms in writing. All three. Two out of three is how the first burn started.
Choose to run the measurement yourself for 60 days if...
You can't say today how many leads came in last month or where they came from. Build the log, add the tracking number, run the queries. It costs $0 to $100 a month. Then hire against a real baseline instead of a guess.
Choose neither if...
You won't open the spreadsheet on Friday. I mean that plainly. No contract structure protects an owner who won't look at the numbers. If the log won't get filled in, the fourth agency will burn you exactly the way the first three did, and it won't be their fault.
The First 60 Days
The whole setup, in order. Nothing here needs the agency's permission.
| Day | What happens | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Tracking number live. Source field on every form. Lead log created. | You |
| Day 7 | Baseline. Three queries run and screenshotted. Last 30 days of leads entered. | You |
| Day 30 | First three line report from the agency, checked against your log. | Agency, verified by you |
| Day 60 | Decision. Renew, add, or cut, based on the log and not the deck. | You |
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I ask a marketing agency if I've already been burned?+
One question does most of the work: what will I be able to see on day 30 that I can't see today? A good answer names a tracking phone number, a source field on your forms, and a three line weekly report of calls in, jobs booked, and revenue collected. A bad answer talks about rankings, domain authority, or a dashboard. Then ask whether it's month to month. An agency that hedges is asking for the same trust the last three had. Get the answers in writing before money moves.
How much does an AI search agency cost month to month in 2026?+
Retainers for AI search optimization on a single location local business run $800 to $3,000 a month, with most landing between $1,200 and $2,000. Expect a one time setup fee of $500 to $2,000 for the baseline audit, schema, listings, and call tracking. Above $3,000 a month for one location needs a clear reason, usually multiple locations or a large content program. Month to month shouldn't cost more than a twelve month contract. If an agency charges a premium for the right to leave, that tells you what it expects the evidence to show.
What does call tracking and a lead log cost to set up?+
The lead log is free. A Google Sheet with five columns: date, caller, source in their words, what they wanted, outcome. Call tracking runs $30 to $100 a month. One number for the website and one for your Google Business Profile covers most local businesses. The form source field costs nothing, it's one extra text input on the form you already have. The three ChatGPT queries are free and take ten minutes a month. All in, full attribution runs under $100 a month and about two hours of setup, which is less than one week of most agency retainers.
Should I fire my current SEO agency before hiring one for AI search?+
No, not yet. Fire them without a lead log and you'll never know what they were producing, and the next agency starts from a baseline you can't check. Set up the tracking number, the source field, and the log while the incumbent is still running. After 30 days you'll have their real number in your own sheet. Then add an AI search vendor for the gap the incumbent doesn't cover, usually ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews citations. If the incumbent's number is near zero, the log makes that call for you.
Will a good agency accept a month to month contract?+
The good ones prefer it. A client who stays because the log shows the phone ringing stays for years. A client who stays because of a signature leaves the day the contract ends, usually angry. What good agencies won't accept is month to month with no setup fee, because the first month is real work: audit, schema, listings, tracking. Pay the setup fee, $500 to $2,000, and hold the month to month terms. If an agency insists on twelve months, ask what it's protecting against. Results take time. Attribution doesn't.
What if the agency's dashboard shows more leads than my lead log?+
Then the conversation is about your log, not their dashboard. The gap is normal. Agency dashboards count clicks, form views, calls under ten seconds, and sometimes the same caller three times. Your log counts a human who wanted something. When the agency says 40 and the log says 12, ask them to name the 28 missing ones. Usually they can't. Sometimes they find real leads your front desk skipped, which is useful, and you tighten the logging. Either way the log is the record of truth and the agency reports against it. Read access for them, never write access.
How long before I know if the new agency is working?+
Sixty days, if attribution was wired in week one. AI search results don't always arrive that fast. But by day 60 you'll see movement in the three numbers or you won't. Calls from a new source in the log. A first "I asked ChatGPT" line. Your business appearing in one of the three monthly queries where it wasn't in the baseline. If nothing has moved by day 60, the agency should explain exactly why. If it wants until month nine to show anything, that's the twelve month contract pitch in a different coat.
Which three ChatGPT queries should I run every month?+
The three a real customer would type. First, the head term: best plus your trade plus your city. Second, a problem query: who should I call for a burst pipe in Denver. Third, a specific service query: plumber in Denver that installs tankless water heaters. Run each in a fresh ChatGPT chat on the first of the month and screenshot the answer. Then run the same three in Google and screenshot the AI Overview. After three months you'll know which competitor keeps getting recommended, and that's the real target.
Set the fourth one up so it can't hide
If you want a second pair of eyes on the scope before you sign, or you'd rather have the tracking wired by someone who does it every week, book a call. Thirty minutes. You leave with the three numbers you're missing, whether or not we work together.
About the author
Matthew Johnson is the founder of Pleiades Consultancy. He previously scaled his own marketing agency to multiple six figures before serving as CMO of an Amazon agency, where the client base tripled from 15 to 45 active clients during his tenure. He worked with some of the largest names in e-commerce, including Ridge Wallet, HexClad, BK Beauty, The Woobles, Walkize, Lonely Planet, and Obvi. He now works with local businesses to maximize their client acquisition and visibility through AI search with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot.