How much to charge for managing a local business's AI presence (example packages)
The local business is the best first client for an AI visibility service, and also the easiest to mis-price. Best client, because their questions are the ones people already ask AI — "best dental clinic in Getafe", "trustworthy garage near Triana" — and because almost none of their competitors has made a move: in the study we ran on 9,865 Spanish SMEs, 91% appeared in only 1 of the 4 main AIs; among hotels, only 1 in 4 was visible across several, and among garages, 1 in 50 (the full study, here).
And easiest to mis-price, because the owner of a local business compares any figure with "what the website lad charges me", and because, without defined packages, you end up negotiating downward service by service.
The solution is to sell neither hours nor promises: sell fixed packages, with concrete deliverables and three prices. Here are the three, with the margin maths at the end.
Before the prices: the anchor
To position the client (and yourself): SEO in Spain is charged at between €600 and €4,000/month (pacoruben.com). An AI presence service for a local business sits below that floor because the scope is narrower — one business, one area, a handful of questions — but not infinitely below: it takes a tool, hours and judgement every month. The healthy range for local is €250-900/month, split across three packages.
Basic package: €250-350/month — "stop AI telling lies about you"
The entry package, for the small business that has just discovered the problem. The focus is defensive: correct presence, kept under watch.
Deliverables:
- Initial audit: where they appear (and don't) in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity for the questions of their area and sector, with dated screenshots.
- Weekly monitoring of up to 40 questions across 3 AIs.
- Source correction: website, Google profile, local directories and structured data with the right information (opening hours, address, services, indicative prices).
- An alert if AI gives a false fact about the business, with a correction at source.
- Monthly PDF report: which questions they appear in, which they don't, and what's been done.
Who it's for: the bar, the hairdresser, the garage — small turnover, a single location, zero prior digital marketing work.
Standard package: €400-600/month — "get AI to recommend you"
The package you should sell the most. It moves from defending to competing: as well as watching, you actively work to appear in more answers.
Deliverables (everything in Basic, plus):
- Monitoring of the main competitor: which questions they show up in and your client doesn't, and a plan to close that gap.
- 4-6 pieces of content a month answering the detected questions (service pages, frequently asked questions, citable local content).
- Reviews system: a process to request and respond to them, because AIs draw heavily on them.
- Quarterly review of the monitored questions: the ones people ask change, and the tracking must change with them.
Who it's for: clinics, professional practices, restaurants with a high average ticket, local estate agents — businesses where a single new client a month already pays for the service. The sales argument is direct: traffic arriving from AI answers converts at 14.2% versus 2.8% for classic organic (sector data compiled by roymo.es); whoever asks AI arrives with the decision almost made.
Premium package: €700-900/month — "dominate the answers in your area"
For the local business with ambition and serious competition: the franchise, the clinic with three branches, the hotel.
Deliverables (everything in Standard, plus):
- Extended monitoring (up to 75 questions) across 4 AIs, including Claude.
- More production: 10-16 pieces of content a month, also covering the sector's background questions ("how much does a dental implant cost?", "what to look for when choosing a hotel with kids in…?") that AIs cite when recommending.
- Tracking of several competitors and of which sources make them appear.
- A 30-minute monthly meeting to go over the report and decide the next month.
Who it's for: those who already invest in marketing and understand the timeframes. Here the client isn't buying "being there": they're buying becoming the usual answer in their area.
The margin maths, no tricks
Let's do the numbers with real tool costs. With Surfeo for agencies, the base account is €20/month and each client costs €35/month (Starter tier: 40 prompts, 3 AIs, 6 articles/month) or €79/month (Growth tier: 75 prompts, 4 AIs, 16 articles/month). Each client gets the full product in their own workspace, with a PDF report for your reporting.
| Package | You charge | Tool | Hours/month (~€40/h) | Approx. margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic (€300) | €300 | €35 | 2-3 h ≈ €100 | ~€165/month (55%) |
| Standard (€500) | €500 | €35 | 4-5 h ≈ €180 | ~€285/month (57%) |
| Premium (€800) | €800 | €79 | 6-8 h ≈ €280 | ~€440/month (55%) |
(The €20 base account is diluted across the whole portfolio: with 5 clients it's €4 per client.)
Hours are the variable that decides whether this is a business: the monitoring, the base content generation and the report are done by the tool; your hours go to judgement, corrections and the client relationship. If you do it all by hand — testing 40 questions across 3 AIs every week, with screenshots — the hours triple and Basic stops being profitable. The realistic time breakdown per client is in how many hours a month an AI visibility client takes.
With 8 clients on Standard: €4,000 in revenue, around €300 in tooling (20 + 8×35) and 32-40 hours of work. It's the productised retainer path we develop in how to grow your recurring revenue by productising GEO.
How to present the three packages
Always all three at once: Basic acts as the floor, Premium as the ceiling, and Standard — the one you want to sell — stands out as the reasonable choice. And one rule: prices are per package, not negotiable piece by piece. If the client wants to pay less, you remove a whole package, you don't discount the same work.
Frequently asked questions
Isn't €300/month expensive for a bar?
For some, yes, and that's fine: this service isn't for the whole local market, only for the business where a new client is worth €50-500. A clinic, a renovation job or a professional practice recoups the Standard package with a single deal a month.
Do I offer a lock-in or month to month?
Month to month, with an honest initial commitment of 3-4 months explained for what it is: the first month is baseline and corrections, and effects in the answers take time to show. Without that timeframe, you'll be signing cancellations in month two.
What do I do if the client only wants the audit, no monthly fee?
Sell it as a one-off project (€150-300), deductible from the first month if they sign up afterwards. The audit without follow-up has little real value — the answers change every week — and saying so plainly usually steers the conversation back to the package.
Do these ranges apply to clients that aren't local?
Not exactly: a nationally focused SME or a B2B can bear higher fees because there are more questions, more competition and more value per client acquired. The general ranges by client type are in how much to charge for AI visibility services in Spain.
You've got the packages; add your logo and your prices. For the maths of your specific case — how many clients, which tier each — see the agency pricing and run the numbers with your real portfolio.
