If your budget is under $1,000 a month, hire nobody

I published a short list a while ago matching what a business can spend on AI visibility to the kind of help it should buy. It is the thing people quote back to me most, and almost always the same line: the one that says spend nothing.

So here is the longer version, including the part the short list left out, which is the part that matters more than the money.

Budget is only half the question

Every enquiry starts with the same one: what does this cost? It is a fair question and it is the wrong first question, because two businesses with identical budgets often need opposite things.

The second axis is capacity. Ask it this way:

If I handed you the answer tomorrow, could your team execute it?

If yes, you need thinking. Buy a few hours of senior judgement and let your own people do the work. If no, you need production, and the best strategy in the world sitting in a document changes nothing.

Most businesses that waste money on this get the axis wrong rather than the amount. They buy production when they needed a decision, or they buy a strategy deck when what they actually lacked was someone to do the work.

Under $1,000 a month: hire nobody

I mean this. At this level the work that moves the needle is unglamorous and entirely within reach, and anyone who takes a retainer from you here is taking the money for work you could have done in a weekend.

The full list, in order:

One. Make your business name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear. Not similar. Identical — including whether you write Suite, Ste or #.

Two. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile. Every field. Hours, categories, service areas, photos, description.

Three. Get listed on the three or four directories your industry actually uses. Not fifty. The ones your customers and the AI systems both read.

Four. Add structured data to your site stating plainly what you do, where, and who you are. If that is beyond you, most website platforms have a plugin.

Five. Write the answers to the ten questions customers actually ask, in the words they ask them, and put the answer in the first two sentences.

That is the whole list. A business that does those five properly will outperform a competitor paying three thousand a month who never fixed their address.

$1,000 to $5,000: buy judgement, not hours

Here you can afford someone senior, but not a team. So buy the thing a team cannot give you: decisions.

The right shape is an independent specialist, or your existing SEO agency extending into this if the relationship is good. What you want is someone who tells you what to do and what to ignore, then leaves your own people to execute.

The failure mode: buying a small retainer from a large firm. At this level you are below their attention threshold, the senior person who sold it will not be doing it, and you will get a junior working from a template. You would be better served by six hours of the right person's time.

$5,000 to $20,000: buy capacity, with measurement agreed first

Now a specialist agency makes sense, because you can afford the volume that justifies one and you probably have a marketing person to manage them.

The failure mode here is measurement. Agree what you are measuring before you sign, in writing, with the actual prompts named. Not "AI visibility" as a concept — the specific questions you want to be the answer to, and where you stand on them today. Without that baseline you will be twelve months in with a pile of reports and no way to tell whether any of it worked.

Above $20,000: only with real complexity

Large consultancies earn their fee when the problem genuinely spans systems — multiple brands, multiple markets, data that lives in six places, a team that needs retraining.

If your problem is that AI does not mention your dental practice, you do not have that problem, and you will be paying for governance you do not need at a pace that will frustrate you.

How I actually use this on a first call

I ask three things.

What would change in your business if this worked? If the honest answer is "a few more enquiries," the budget should be small and I will say so.

If I gave you the answer, could you execute it? This sorts thinking from production faster than any other question.

What have you already tried? Half the time the previous agency did reasonable work that was never finished. Buying it again is expensive.

Some of those calls end with me telling someone to do the five things themselves and come back when they have. The ones who do come back arrive knowing what they need, which makes the engagement better for both of us.

Why this is worth saying out loud

An industry that only ever recommends buying something has a credibility problem, and everyone on the buying side can feel it. The fastest way to be trusted with a large decision is to be honest about the small ones.

There is also a practical reason. A client who bought the wrong shape of help does not blame the shape. They conclude the whole category is a waste of money, and they tell other people that. Every consultant in this field pays for those conversations.

Common questions

How much should I spend on AI visibility?
Below about $1,000 a month, hire nobody and do five things yourself: make your name, address and phone identical everywhere; claim and complete your Google Business Profile; list on the three or four directories your industry uses; add structured data; and answer your customers' ten most common questions in their own words. Between $1,000 and $5,000, buy judgement from an independent specialist rather than hours from a large firm. Between $5,000 and $20,000, a specialist agency makes sense if you agree the measurement before signing. Above $20,000, a large consultancy only earns its fee when the problem genuinely spans systems.

Should I hire an AI visibility consultant or do it myself?
Ask whether your problem is thinking or production. If someone handed you the answer tomorrow and your team could execute it, you need a few hours of senior judgement, not a retainer. If your team could not execute it, you need capacity, and a strategy document will change nothing. Most wasted spend comes from getting that axis wrong rather than from spending the wrong amount.

What is the highest-return AI visibility work for a small business?
Consistency before anything clever. Identical name, address and phone number everywhere, a complete Google Business Profile, listings on the few directories your industry actually uses, structured data stating what you do and where, and content answering real customer questions in the customer's words. A business that does those five properly will outperform a competitor paying thousands a month who never fixed their address.