AI Visibility & Pipeline Growth
Year
2026
Focus
AI Visibility
Pipeline Growth
Duration
10 weeks
Client
Fintech companies · Germany
Industry
Fintech / Prepaid Infrastructure
Section
Overview
51.1 %
Share of Citation
70
New pipeline deals since kickoff
22
Qualified deals in the pipeline
Project Overview
A Berlin-based B2B fintech company with prepaid infrastructure via a single API had zero AI visibility at kickoff and no way to publish blog content at all. There was no CMS, no content pipeline, and no clean attribution between marketing and pipeline.
~Ten weeks later, the company is the market leader in AI search. More importantly, 70 new deals have entered the HubSpot pipeline since June 1 without a single face-to-face contact or conference lead. 22 of these are already qualified.
The execution
01
Challenge
The company had no CMS and was technically unable to publish blog articles. Zero AI visibility. Buyers searching for prepaid API providers in ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity never saw this company. Marketing and pipeline ran side-by-side without clean attribution.
02
Solution
We built a complete infrastructure in ten weeks: CMS from scratch, 5 articles per week according to 68 SEO/GEO prompts and a 14-week editorial plan, Google Ads live in 5 markets, LinkedIn transition from classic lead gen campaigns to Thought Leader Ads, clean GA4 and HubSpot tracking with clear event definition.
03
Result
35.4% Share of Voice and 51.1% Share of Citations, both ahead of all tracked brands. 3,957 AI mentions across 6 engines. 70 new pipeline deals, 22 qualified. Conversions grew at +111%, faster than sessions at +62%, meaning: more traffic AND better traffic quality at the same time.
How We Did It
THE STORY: FROM KICKOFF TO MEASURABLE PIPELINE IN ~10 WEEKS
June 2026, Campaign Kickoff
Zero AI presence. No CMS. Content strategy defined, first articles in production.June 2026, CMS and Content Pipeline live
Blog infrastructure technically available for the first time. Cadence set to 5 articles per week.June 2026, Day 19, first inbound lead from AI
Generated directly from AI search. No ad budget, no sales team, just content.June 2026, after 21 days 65.1% Visibility Score, 1st place on all major AI engines, ahead of Tillo, Runa, and Tremendous.
July 2026, LinkedIn Strategy Pivot
Switch from classic lead gen campaigns to Thought Leader Ads. CTR and CPC improve significantly. In addition, several organic inbound leads via founder profiles, two of which were confirmed via tracking directly through Gemini.July 2026, Google Ads Budget Correction
After an initial budget increase, it became clear: the campaigns were still in the maturation phase, and the cost per conversion rose disproportionately. Budget was scaled back to the baseline level in early July to build a more stable performance foundation.August 24, 2026
35.4% Share of Voice, 51.1% Share of Citations, 3,957 AI mentions across 6 engines, 87.3% Query Coverage. 70 new deals in the HubSpot pipeline, 22 qualified.
THE NUMBERS, 10 WEEKS
Metric / Result / Delta
AI Share of Voice / 35.4% / +2.5pp (Snapshot Aug 24)
AI Share of Citations / 51.1% / +5.9pp (Snapshot Aug 24)
AI Mentions (6 Engines) / 3,957 / since kickoff
Query Coverage / 87.3% (288/330) / -
Avg. Rank when found / #1.84 / -
Content published / 45–50 articles / 5/week cadence
Google Ads Conversions / 18 / €376 Cost/Conv.
GA4 Active Users / 4,497 / +105.7%
GA4 Key Events (thank_you_page_view) / 76 / +111.11% (vs. 36 in the previous period)
HubSpot Pipeline Deals / 70 / since June 1, without outbound cold outreach
Of which qualified / 22 /
AI ENGINE OVERVIEW (As of Aug 24, 2026)
Engine / Visibility Score / Change
AI Mode / 37.7% / -0.1pp
AI Overview / 37.4% / -0.3pp
Copilot / 37.3% / +4.4pp
Perplexity / 30.0% / +5.3pp
ChatGPT / 22.4% / +0.7pp
Gemini / 22.4% / +0.6pp
Notable: AI Mode has overtaken AI Overview as the leading engine. Perplexity shows the strongest growth with +5.3pp.
COMPETITIVE POSITION (As of Aug 24, 2026)
Share of Voice
Our client: 35.4% (+2.5)
Tillo: 19.4% (-0.8)
Tremendous: 16.2% (+0.9)
Runa: 12.7% (-1.9)
Epay: 9.6% (-0.9)
Blackhawk Network: 6.7% (+0.2)
Share of Citations
Our client: 51.1% (+5.9)
Tillo: 18.4% (-5.3)
Tremendous: 16.5% (+4.3)
Runa: 9.7% (+0.4)
Blackhawk Network: 2.9% (-2.8)
Epay: 1.5% (-2.5)
WHY COMPARISON ARTICLES CONTINUE TO WIN
The pattern is also confirmed at the topic level: comparison content stands at a 66.6% Visibility Score, by far the strongest category.
CHANNEL QUALITY: AI ASSISTANT CONVERTS 10X ABOVE THE AVERAGE
Paid Social delivers the largest volume of users with 1,482 users, but zero key events. The highest conversion quality is delivered by the AI Assistant channel with a 14.89% Key Event Rate, 48 users, 12 key events; chatgpt.com and gemini.google.com combined accounted for 88 sessions and 10 key events. The site-wide average is 1.41%. AI Assistant is ten times higher than that.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Buyers research vendors in AI before they ever visit a website. Before they fill out a form. Before sales gets a chance. If AI cannot explain you, you are not in the consideration set.
This case study demonstrates the next step: AI visibility alone is not the goal, but the lever for the pipeline. 70 new deals since kickoff, 22 qualified, 6 of which had direct AI referral attribution in HubSpot. Conversions grew by 111%, faster than sessions at 62%, which means it is not just more traffic, but higher-quality traffic.
All data tracked via RankScale, Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, and HubSpot. Data window: June 1 to August 24, 2026.