How we used our own Croatian LLC (IGROW MARKETING d.o.o.) as a test lab for AI visibility and what that means for your B2B company.

I, Edin Cerimagic, Founder of iGrow, share the journey with you in my own words.

Here you can find the summarized IGROW MAREKTING Croatia Case Study.

The most honest self-experiment we have ever done

If you help clients get found in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, you should be able to prove it yourself. Not with PowerPoint slides. Not with theoretical frameworks. But with real numbers, a real company, and a real starting position: almost zero visibility.

That is exactly the story of iGrow Marketing in Croatia.

In August 2025, we founded IGROW MARKETING d.o.o., our Croatian company based in Mali Lošinj. A new company, a new market, a new domain (igrow-marketing.hr). No existing SEO authority. No backlink profile. No brand awareness. And therefore: 0% AI visibility - for our newly defined prompts in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overview, and the like. Our new location in Croatia was deliberately chosen as a test laboratory for AI Search Visibility.

What we had: 1x article, which brought us an average of 33.3% AI visibility for a prompt "digital marketing agency".

As of June 6, 2026, the RankScale dashboard for iGrow HR shows the following numbers:

• 67.6% average Visibility Score across all tested prompts and engines

• +34.3% growth within the last 7 days alone

• 75 Brand Mentions, 133 Citations

• 70.9% Detection Rate (the percentage of tests in which iGrow was found at all)

• 65.0% Top 3 visibility (how often we appear in the top three results)

• Average position of 1.8 when we are found

• The closest competitor: 9.0%
  
  

This is not a coincidence. This is method.

The Croatian market: different from DACH, but no less interesting

Anyone working in the DACH region must understand: Croatia works by different rules.

Google Ads CPCs are significantly cheaper. Inquiries come in faster. The total number of leads is higher. But: the market is more price-sensitive. Many prospects are still in an early decision-making phase. Large companies with real budgets research more thoroughly and often decide based on price rather than positioning-based criteria.

For us, this means: Google Ads was a good starting point to generate inquiries in the first place. The ads were running. The leads were coming in. But qualified pipeline from organic and AI channels: zero.

Anyone operating in the Croatian market without a strong organic and AI presence is constantly fighting on price. On the other hand, anyone perceived as an authority, recommended by ChatGPT, or ranking first for relevant searches on Google fundamentally changes their negotiating position – this is precisely where a strategic AI Search and GEO positioning comes in.

That was the motivation for me, as Founder, to start the project.

The starting position: one article triggered everything

Back then, I had written an article myself. In Croatian, meaning: "Agencija za digitalni Marketing" (Digital Marketing Agency) focusing on the keyword. No sophisticated SEO concept behind it. No strategic editorial plan. Just a well-written, informative article about a relevant topic.

The result surprised me: the article started generating organic traffic. It appeared in AI Overviews. It brought iGrow HR into the visibility of AI systems for the first time.

That was the proof moment. Not theory. Not another company's case study. But our own experiment, live.

The problem: our focus was on our clients. We did not have a content team free to look after igrow-marketing.hr exclusively. New team positions were filled later, capacities were built up. Our own content had to wait.

Until we made the decision: if we pull this off for clients with 100% focus, we have to pull it off for ourselves as well. Systematically. With a clear strategy.

The Strategy: Funnel-first, not traffic-first

The most common mistake in content projects: starting at the top of the funnel. General information articles. High volume. Low intent. Lots of traffic, few leads.

We turned that around.

Bottom of funnel first. Prompts and keywords directly linked to a purchase decision. Someone searching for "Google Ads Agencija Hrvatska" or asking ChatGPT who the best digital agency in Croatia is isn't looking for information. They are a potential buyer.


Mid funnel next. Content that builds authority, shows references, presents case studies, and positions iGrow as a provider that delivers. That is what we are doing right here, with this article.

Top of funnel as assistance. General topics around SEO basics and proven SEO tactics, Google Ads, AI Search, digital marketing in Croatia. These articles are published as a supplement, link to bottom-funnel pages, and strengthen the thematic authority of the domain. Classic search engine optimization remains important here, but is complemented by Generative Engines Optimization and AI optimization for new answer systems.

The prompt framework: We asked ourselves how Croatian companies would formulate their purchase intent. Not how SEO experts think people search. But how a Managing Director in Zagreb asks Google or ChatGPT when looking for a marketing agency. Exactly this changed user behavior in AI searches determines a relevant part of the content strategy today.

The results of this analysis were translated directly into article titles and content focus. In doing so, we formulated questions along the industry where systems name concrete options, making artificial intelligence tangible for real buying moments.

The implementation: 22 articles, 24 hours, top 1 position

The first articles went online at the end of May 2026. Some of them only went live on June 5, 2026.

What happened next surprised even us:

Within 24 hours, our articles appeared in organic Google search results. Several of them directly in 1st place. At the same time, we were cited as a relevant source in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and AI Mode – i.e., in systems with artificial intelligence where users ask complex questions directly to AI assistants and content is served as AI answers or recommendations.

A total of 22 articles have been published so far. All 22 have generated AI visibility. The goal here is to be mentioned as a relevant option in your own industry so that AI tools know your company.

This is not a claim. This is documented in the screenshots below, which are embedded in this article. AI optimization does not replace classic search engine optimization, but is a growing part of the strategy.

AI Visibility Croatia Website

Best SEO Agency for Marketing

How to improve Google ranking

Google Advertising Croatia

How to improve Google ranking

How to make an SEO strategy

How do I measure the success of marketing campaigns

Google Advertising Croatia

Google Ads for small businesses (because of budget :P)

Google Ads Agency

Digital Marketing for B2B Companies

Content Marketing Croatia

ChatGPT Brand Recommendation (how to get recommended)

AI Search Optimization and SEO for Web

SEO Agency Croatia

Local SEO Croatia

How to increase online sales + How to attract ideal clients online

The numbers in detail

Overall Performance (as of June 6, 2026)

Competitor Comparison (Visibility Score)

To put it in context: At the start (June 1, 2026), iGrow HR was at 33.3%. Kala Presence led with 35.9%, 404 agency was at 29.0%. In less than a week, we overtook all competitors and more than doubled their score.

Performance by Topic Cluster

Our articles cover several thematic pillars. The AI visibility by topic:

Google Ads and AI Search Optimizacija lead with 100% and 92.3% visibility respectively. These are exactly the topics we defined as bottom-of-funnel priorities.

Performance by AI Engine and ChatGPT SEO

AI Overview, ChatGPT, and Perplexity show the strongest growth because we only went live a few days ago and these engines picked up our articles quickly. Gemini and AI Mode had already indexed us earlier and therefore show smaller delta values, although the absolute scores are high.

Share of Voice and Citations

In the citations area, we dominate with a 70.4% market share (from 0% to +70.4 in a week). The nearest competitor is at 4.8%.

In Share of Voice (Mentions) we are at 42.4%, also coming from 0%.

The Prompts and Prompt Research: Not a single one of them is branded

A key point of this case study: AI visibility was not generated by branded searches. Nobody asked for "iGrow". The prompts represent real buying intent from Croatian business owners.

Here are the tested search terms (translated from Croatian):

SEO Topics:

• "SEO Agency Croatia"

• "Best SEO for Marketing"

• "Local SEO Croatia"

• "How to create an SEO strategy"

• "How to improve Google ranking"

Google Ads:

• "Google Ads Agency"

• "Google Ads for small businesses"

• "Google Advertising Croatia"

AI & Digital Marketing:

• "AI Search Optimizacija i SEO za Web" (AI Search Optimization and SEO for Web)

• "AI visibility Croatian website"

• "ChatGPT brand recommendation"

• "Digital marketing for B2B companies"

• "B2B Marketing Croatia"

• "B2B Lead Generation"

Decision phase:

• "How to choose a digital agency"

• "How to measure the success of marketing campaigns"

• "How to attract ideal clients online"

• "How to increase online sales"

• "Content Marketing Croatia"

• "Digitalni Marketing" (general)

These prompts reflect how Croatian business owners actually search, from our perspective, after research. Anyone recommended by ChatGPT or Google for these questions is already on the shortlist, even before a discovery call has taken place.

The Google search results: not just AI, but also organic top 1

AI visibility is one side. The other: our articles rank concurrently in organic Google search results on top positions.

Documented examples (as of June 5/6, 2026, in some cases less than 24 hours after publication):

"AI Search Optimizacija i SEO za Web" (AI Search Optimization and SEO for Web): igrow-marketing.hr ranks in 1st place, directly above the AI Overview, which also cites our page as the main source.

"Kako odabrati agenciju za digitalni marketing" (How to choose a digital marketing agency): iGrow HR ranks as the first organic source in the AI Overview, with a direct quote from our article.

"Kako Napraviti SEO Strategiju" (How to make an SEO strategy): igrow-marketing.hr in 2nd place in organic results, in AI Overview in 1st place with our article as main source, 11 referenced websites overall.

"Google Ads Agencija" (Google Ads Agency): iGrow HR ranks organically on the page, competing against established providers such as Redbrick, IGNIS, and Radionica, all of which have a significantly longer market presence.

"Digitalni Marketing za B2B Tvrtke" (Digital Marketing for B2B Companies): 1st place in organic results, with AI Overview citation directly below.

"ChatGPT Preporuka Brenda" (ChatGPT Brand Recommendation): 1st place organic, AI Overview cites igrow-marketing.hr as the primary source.

"B2B Marketing Hrvatska" (B2B Marketing Croatia): 1st place organic, AI Overview with iGrow HR as primary reference.

"Kako Napraviti SEO Strategiju" (How to make an SEO strategy): igrow-marketing.hr appears in the AI Overview as one of 11 referenced sources, with our article as the second thumbnail.

The prompts represent real buying intentions and should be tested across various thematic contexts, not just for a single search term. Classic rankings remain useful as a benchmark, even though AI responses are increasingly served using different logic.

Some of these articles were published on June 5, 2026. It took less than 24 hours for them to rank at the top of AI search and Google.

Why it worked so quickly

The question everyone is asking: how is this possible? A new company, a young domain, practically no backlinks, yet top 1 positions within 24 hours?

The answer lies in the combination of several factors:

1. Market maturity of the topic in Croatia

AI visibility and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) are still largely unoccupied territory in the Croatian market. Classic SEO is primarily based on stable rankings and keywords. The other side: here, it also key whether content appears in AI answers. Most local agencies do not publish structured, high-quality articles on these topics. This creates a gap that can be filled quickly.

2. Strategic prompt selection

We did not optimize for traffic, but for purchase intent. This means that the articles we write are directly aimed at questions that AI systems are frequently asked. Whoever answers precisely the question a user asks is preferred for citation by the AI.

3. Content quality and structure

AI systems prefer content that is clearly structured, provides clear answers, addresses specific questions, and is factually correct. Clarity is also crucial here so that content is easier for machines to categorize and adopt in responses. We don't write generic agency texts. We write articles that provide real value to the reader, have a clearly recognizable author, and are structurally optimized for AI systems at the same time.

4. Technical foundation

The website igrow-marketing.hr is set up cleanly from a technical perspective: fast, mobile-first, with correct schema markup, clear page structure, and internal linking. This accelerates indexing significantly.

5. Funnel logic in content architecture

Bottom-funnel articles link to service pages. Mid-funnel articles link to bottom-funnel ones. Top-funnel articles complete the picture and strengthen the thematic depth of the domain. This structure signals authority in a specific subject area to search engines and AI systems and follows a strategic roadmap for AI visibility in B2B.

What this means for your B2B business

The question is not whether AI search is relevant to your business. The question is when you will stop waiting for it to solve itself.

In Croatia, it took less than 30 days to go from 0% to a 67.6% visibility score. Yes, there was a 33.3% starting position for one prompt - but the prompts we newly defined logically had 0% because the AI had no content of ours to measure here. In the DACH region, the market is more mature, the competition is stronger. But the basic principle is identical.

We have also achieved a high visibility score for other companies in a very short time, whether in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, or the USA – we have built our framework so that it works in every country, with every language, even in Croatian.

What you can do today:

Ask yourself: if your ideal customer asks ChatGPT right now who they should recommend for [your service], what does the AI answer? Are you mentioned? Are you recommended? Or does the inquiry land directly with your competitor?

If you don't know the answer, that is already a problem. Because your customers are already asking these questions.

The most crucial priority is therefore not just ranking, but measurable presence in AI answers – ideally founded on a structured GEO Visibility Audit for your AI visibility.

In your content, pay attention to clear, direct answers and visible author information as a trust signal.

Create technically clean foundations with schema markup and structured data such as JSON-LD.

Strong content, genuine backlinks, and positive customer reviews increase the likelihood of AI recommendations.

Brands should be described consistently across various websites to gain visibility.

When AIs cite your brand, it strengthens trust and your status as an expert.

The iGrow methodology: what is behind the result

What we implemented in Croatia is the same methodology we use for our clients in the DACH region – as a specialized B2B Growth Partner. It is based on three pillars:

In 2026, visibility in AI will become more important for many companies than pure Google rankings.

Pillar 1: AI visibility through structured content Not all content is weighted equally by AI systems. We optimize for what ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity classify as a reliable source: clear answers, structured information, factual depth, thematic consistency.

Pillar 2: Intent-based keyword strategy We start with the questions that decision-makers ready to buy are asking. Bottom-of-funnel first. This ensures qualified visibility instead of vanity-metric traffic numbers.

Pillar 3: Measurement and Optimization With tools like RankScale, we track AI visibility across all relevant engines. Classic tracking quickly reaches its limits here because answer engines cite, weight, and play out results differently. This is why we define clear KPIs and robust metrics that go beyond clicks and are actionable for marketing teams. These include metrics like citation frequency, citation rank, or complementary signals such as reading time when classic rankings lose their meaning. What matters is how AI models select sources and how early a brand appears in answers. The most important question before the next optimization decision is therefore which tool is truly reliable for this monitoring. What is measured can be optimized. What is not measured remains speculation.

This is already relevant in the market: 37% of Austrians already use AI tools for recommendations. How strongly this affects a real pipeline is demonstrated by our SoWork Case Study on AI visibility, in which we increased visibility from 16.6% to 100% within 90 days – an approach we documented in detail in the English SoWork AI Visibility case study.

Reference points: our next piece of evidence

This case study is not the first time iGrow has documented measurable AI visibility.

At SoWork, one of our DACH clients, we increased AI visibility from 16.6% to 100% in 90 days. This was the starting point for our positioning as an AI visibility agency and highlights how vital a specialized Digital Marketing Agency for B2B SaaS in the DACH region is for a measurable pipeline.

More recently, also in another case study on MiniFinder, an IoT company from Sweden, where we measure ourselves against major providers like Tractive and Garmin in Germany.

iGrow Croatia is another piece of evidence. Our own company. Our own budget. Our own skin in the game.

From 0% (in the newly defined prompts) to 67.6% in less than 30 days. From a newly founded company with no organic presence to market leadership in AI visibility within the Croatian agency market.

Further client results are, by the way, currently in progress and will be covered separately in new articles.

Conclusion: visibility in AI is no longer a question of the future

Every third person searching Google today gets an AI Overview answer. ChatGPT has over 500 million weekly users. Perplexity is growing faster than any other search platform in recent years. Gemini is integrated directly into Google.

Those who are not visible in these channels lose inquiries they never even see. Those who are visible win inquiries before the potential client even writes the first email.

iGrow Marketing in Croatia proved this in less than 30 days. With 22 articles. In a new market. Without existing domain authority.

If this works in Croatia, it will also work for your B2B company.

Do you want to know how visible you already are in AI search?

We will create a free AI Visibility Check for you, showing where you stand today and what that means for your pipeline. If you would also like to speak with a specialized GEO agency for AI search results, you can inquire directly via our iGrow contact page.

Request an AI Visibility Check now

iGrow is a revenue marketing agency for SaaS, Tech and B2B companies in the DACH region. Our core services: SEO, Google Ads, AI Search Visibility / GEO and LinkedIn Thought Leadership. All results in this article are based on measured data from RankScale and Google Search Console (as of June 2026).