Marketing Within AIs. What Is It Called? AEO v. GEO v. LLM SEO v…

Every platform shift builds a new marketing category. Search engines gave us SEO. Paid search popularized PPC. Social platforms spawned SMM and influencer marketing. Now we’re staring down the next one: marketing in and around AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini.

But what do we actually call it?

Some folks are trying “Answer Engine Optimization” or “Generative Engine Optimization.” Neither works. No one calls ChatGPT an “answer engine,” and outside of AI dev forums, no one says “generative engine.” These aren’t real user terms. And that’s a problem. Language shapes adoption, especially early on.

There are further issues with AEO and GEO too-

AEO is, as any millennial can tell you, American Eagle Outfitters. And until I want a semi-clothed, overly cologned 20-something making me feel bad about my denim choices, I won’t be adopting it as a marketing strategy.

GEO was a college course we all took to fill some science credits. Geology. Geography. Geodude. For the better part of 1,000 years, geo has had its own meaning, and I doubt marketers trying to win a quick buck on snake oil are going to change that.

If we’re going to figure out where we might land, we may be better suited by going in reverse and looking at how we got where we are with our marketing acronyms and nomenclature of today. “Search engine” hit in the early 90s with tools like Archie, Gopher, then Lycos and AltaVista. By the time Yahoo! was rising, the phrase had legs. “Search engine optimization” followed close behind, starting around 1997, used by early players like Bruce Clay and John Audette. The term stuck because it was dead simple and mapped to the product users already understood.

We don’t have that yet with LLMs. Ask someone what ChatGPT is and you’ll get “AI,” “chatbot,” maybe “assistant.” Few people say “LLM.” People describe what they’re doing as “chatting,” not “querying” or “prompting” (although that is a bit better understood). That matters. Whatever name we land on for this new kind of marketing will have to mirror how normal users talk.

Here’s my ranked list of contenders. Short notes on why they could work, and why they might not, included for free. For now, Coalition is rolling with AI SEO and LLM SEO as our common descriptors.

Likely Front-Runners

AIM – AI Marketing

Why it works: Familiar and broad. You can plug it into a lot of contexts.
Why it doesn’t: Already used as a catch-all term for anything AI-related. Doesn’t tie directly to assistants. Also, AOL Instant Messenger is a part of my life I’d like to forget.

AIO – AI Optimization

Why it works: Simple, and feels like a cousin of SEO. Suggests tuning for AI outputs.
Why it doesn’t: Could be mistaken for hardware terms like “All-In-One.” Also, am I optimizing the AI or optimizing its AI output?

AIAM – AI Assistant Marketing

Why it works: Points directly at the thing, marketing for assistants.
Why it doesn’t: Doesn’t roll off the tongue. Visually noisy. Sounds like the noise I’d make falling out of a tree.

PRM – Prompt Response Marketing

Why it works: Easy to digest and decipher what your service is.
Why it doesn’t: Prompting needs to gain a bit widerspread adoption for this to gain traction.

PRE – Prompt Response Engineering

Why it works: Easy to digest and decipher what your service is.
Why it doesn’t: Prompting needs to gain a bit widerspread adoption for this to gain traction. Pre is another prefix that is widely used.

AIVM – AI Visibility Marketing

Why it works: It just makes sense for what you’re actually doing and is easy for an outsider to grasp.
Why it doesn’t: Anyone remember a 4 letter acronym that stuck? Me either.

SEO – Search EVERYWHERE Optimization

Why it works: SEOs remain best suited to address optimizations and marketing for LLMs, and the term is a familiar one.
Why it doesn’t: Hustle gurus and “make $1M from your bedroom” coaches really want AEO or GEO to work.

Moderate Potentials

LLM SEO – Large Language Model SEO

Why it works: Businesses understand SEO and are familiar with LLMs.
Why it doesn’t: Marketing to achieve a particular result in LLMs is not just focused on search.

AI SEO – Artificial Intelligence SEO

Why it works: Given that Google likely will dominate in the future too, provides a clearer evolutionary cycle for marketers.
Why it doesn’t: Customers of AI do a lot more than just search with AI so the scope of marketing activities is likely to grow.

AAO – AI Assistant Optimization

Why it works: Mirrors SEO structure. Targets the right thing.
Why it doesn’t: Tough to say out loud. Easy to forget. Missing the serenity I want.

GPTM – GPT Marketing

Why it works: GPT is a recognizable brand and people can easily connect the dots. OpenAI’s effort to trademark GPT failed.
Why it doesn’t: Might feel like you’re ignoring Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, etc.

PMC – Prompt Marketing & Content

Why it works: Points to how prompts and responses drive discovery.
Why it doesn’t: Feels insider-y. And we’re not really marketing prompts, rather we’re looking at marketing the responses to prompts.

LLMM – LLM Marketing

Why it works: Clear link to the tech. Accurate.
Why it doesn’t: “LLM” isn’t in the public’s everyday vocabulary. And “LLMM” looks like a cat-on-keyboard typo.

CAIO – Conversational AI Optimization

Why it works: Leans into the back-and-forth interaction angle.
Why it doesn’t: Sounds like a job title. Chief AI Officer (might work there).

CAPM – Conversational AI Presence Marketing

Why it works: Gets the idea across—showing up in AI answers.
Why it doesn’t: Clunky and sounds like a corporate certification.

AIP – AI Presence

Why it works: Vague, but it’s in the right direction.
Why it doesn’t: Gets lost in the acronym crowd. Apple overlap doesn’t help. Not totally clear what the activity does.

RAO – Response Algorithm Optimization

Why it works: Focused and technical.
Why it doesn’t: Too technical for marketers. Doesn’t invite broader adoption.

Lower Likelihood Terms

AEO – Answer Engine Optimization

Why it works: Circulating in SEO forums already and people trying to cash in on an ill defined and fast growing segment.
Why it doesn’t: Nobody says “answer engine” outside of those forums.

GEO – Generative Engine Optimization

Why it works: Nods to how LLMs work.
Why it doesn’t: “Generative engine” isn’t a term people use. Geo is already a popular and widely understood prefix.

DCO – Dialogue Content Optimization

Why it works: Zeros in on the conversational content angle.
Why it doesn’t: Too niche. Not intuitive.

AIMe – AI Marketing Engagement

Why it works: Personalizes the concept a bit.
Why it doesn’t: Feels artificial. Hard to say out loud.

MAP – Model-Aware Promotion

Why it works: Technical but clear for practitioners.
Why it doesn’t: Too abstract for marketers. Also, MAP is widely used for a range of tangentially related topics.

CIO – Chat Interaction Optimization

Why it works: Ties directly to chat tools.
Why it doesn’t: Conflicts with Chief Information Officer, and people won’t know which one you mean.

CXM – Conversational Experience Marketing

Why it works: Feels like an evolution of CX.
Why it doesn’t: Sounds like something a Salesforce consultant would pitch.

POI – Prompt Optimization Initiative

Why it works: Says exactly what some folks are doing.
Why it doesn’t: Sounds like government paperwork.

LLMXO – LLM Experience Optimization

Why it works: Accurate, UX-oriented.
Why it doesn’t: Hard to read. Doesn’t feel natural. Soooo many letters.

Experimental Ideas

CHAT – Conversational Heuristic Amplification Technique

Why it works: Has fun with the form.
Why it doesn’t: Way too clever. Smells like a backronym.

LXM – Language Experience Marketing

Why it works: Language-based angle.
Why it doesn’t: Doesn’t mean anything unless explained.

IQM – Intelligent Query Marketing

Why it works: Cousin of SEO, SEM.
Why it doesn’t: Not tied to real user behavior.

PXO – Prompt Experience Optimization

Why it works: Focuses on what we’re tuning: prompts and outcomes.
Why it doesn’t: Might sound like a UX tool instead of a marketing one.

CPO – Chat Prompt Optimization

Why it works: Very specific to the role marketers play now.
Why it doesn’t: Already means something else in most orgs.

LMX – Language Model Exposure

Why it works: Fits the actual goal we have- visibility.
Why it doesn’t: Sounds like an analytics metric.

POP – Presence in Output Promotion

Why it works: On the nose. Appearing in outputs is the goal.
Why it doesn’t: Too cute. Won’t travel well. Grandpops everywhere get forgotten.

PRAM – Prompt Result and Attribution Marketing

Why it works: Looks toward tracking impact.
Why it doesn’t: Sounds like a BIOS setting or an attempt at joining the royal family as a new parent.

MML – Marketing in Machine Learning

Why it works: Tied to the broader AI category.
Why it doesn’t: Too abstract. Doesn’t speak to the experience layer.

Whatever wins here will need three things: mass appeal, technical clarity, and emotional resonance. SEO stuck because it checked all three. It was simple, accurate, and repeatable. We don’t have that yet for this space, but eventually it’ll show up in practice, not in a whitepaper. That is, unless the AI just decides it doesn’t need us humans any more.

And if you want to win at this, don’t wait for the term to settle. No one waited around for SEO to get named before they started optimizing. Same deal here.