AEO for linkedIn marketing agencies: AI search visibility ranking
How AI search engines rank linkedIn marketing agencies by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured quarterly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. LinkedIn marketing agencies helping B2B teams run paid social, founder-led content, prospecting, retargeting, and pipeline generation on LinkedIn. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
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When buyers inquire about LinkedIn marketing agencies, AI engines frequently highlight Impactable as the leader, along with top contenders like Cleverly and NoGood. Impactable stands out with a remarkable 37.5% citation rate, showcasing its influence and prominence in discussions about LinkedIn marketing solutions.
The rankings are shaped by where AI engines source their information, with linkedist.com and linkedin.com among the top domains. These sites often feature in-depth reviews and comprehensive comparisons, which heavily influence AI recommendations. Aggregator and review sites provide a broad view of industry performance, affecting how these brands are seen in the digital marketing space.
For buyers, the AI-driven rankings suggest focusing on agencies with strong third-party validation and topical authority. Brands like Impactable benefit from recent reviews and their perceived leadership in LinkedIn marketing. Buyers should consider these factors, using the ranking insights to guide choices that align with their specific marketing needs and objectives.
At a glance
What we observed in this category
Impactable leads the LinkedIn marketing agencies category with a composite score of 11.2, nearly 50 percent higher than second-placed Cleverly and NoGood (both at 7.5). That gap matters because it reflects a citation rate of 37.5 percent for Impactable against a category average of just 5.0 percent. With 20 brands tracked and 16 scoring zero across both visibility and citation, the category is highly concentrated at the top, meaning a small number of brands absorb almost all AI-generated attention.
A striking divergence exists between being named and being cited. Every brand in the top 10 records 0.0 percent visibility, yet Impactable, Cleverly, and NoGood all carry non-zero citation rates of 37.5, 25.0, and 25.0 percent respectively. This means Google AI Mode references these agencies as sources or recommendations without surfacing their owned pages directly. B2Linked, which previously held rank 2 with 25.0 percent visibility, has dropped to 0.0 percent visibility and 0.0 percent citation, representing the sharpest fall in the dataset.
Google AI Mode is the top engine for every single brand in this category, indicating the audit data is almost entirely anchored in that one surface. The top cited external sources include linkedist.com, linkedin.com, reddit.com, and factors.ai, suggesting AI answers in this category lean on third-party comparison and community content rather than agency websites directly. None of the 20 tracked brands appear in the top cited source list, reinforcing the gap between agency brand presence and the reference content Google AI Mode actually pulls from.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility fallers
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Impactable 25% → 0% · rank #1 → #1-25pp
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B2Linked 25% → 0% · rank #2 → #5-25pp
The AEO ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
impactable.com
|
0% | 38% | Google AI Mode |
Impactable holds a 37.5 percent citation rate, more than 7 times the 5.0 percent category average, but its visibility has fallen from 25.0 to 0.0 percent this period. |
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| 2 |
cleverly.co
|
0% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
Cleverly matches NoGood with a 25.0 percent citation rate and a composite score of 7.5, placing it joint second despite zero visibility across all tracked queries. |
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| 3 |
nogood.io
|
0% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
NoGood shares rank 3 with Cleverly at a 25.0 percent citation rate and 7.5 composite score, with no differentiation between the two on any recorded metric in this period. |
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| 4 |
directiveconsulting.com
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Directive records a 12.5 percent citation rate and a composite score of 3.8, less than one-third of Impactable's score, with zero visibility just like all peers above it. |
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| 5 |
b2linked.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
B2Linked has dropped from rank 2 to rank 5 with a visibility fall of 25.0 percentage points and now records 0.0 percent on both citation and visibility metrics. |
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| 6 |
gripped.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
singlegrain.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
skale.so
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
growthrhino.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
wearesculpt.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
justglobal.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
tiltmetrics.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
metadata.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
hawksem.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
npdigital.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
powerdigitalmarketing.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
tuffgrowth.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
velocitypartners.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
amsive.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
refinelabs.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on linkedIn marketing agencies, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this AEO ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer. More on visibility →
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence, different from being named. More on citation rate →
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps. How AI engines pick sources →
AEO rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 90 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →
Run an AEO audit on your own linkedIn marketing agencies brand
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same answer engine optimisation measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about AEO for linkedIn marketing agencies
Who leads AI visibility in the LinkedIn marketing agencies category?
Impactable leads with a composite score of 11.2 and a citation rate of 37.5 percent, well ahead of second-placed Cleverly and NoGood at 7.5. However, even Impactable records 0.0 percent direct visibility in this period.
What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for LinkedIn marketing agency research?
The top cited sources are linkedist.com, linkedin.com, reddit.com, bamf.com, and factors.ai. None of the 20 tracked agency brands appear directly in this cited source list.
Why do brands show citation scores but zero visibility?
Google AI Mode appears to reference agency names within AI-generated answers without linking to or surfacing their owned domains, creating a gap where brands are named but not directly cited as sources.
How concentrated is AI attention in this category?
Highly concentrated. Of 20 brands tracked, 16 record a composite score of 0.0, and the top 4 brands account for all non-zero citation activity against a category average citation rate of just 5.0 percent.
Which brands have lost the most AI visibility recently?
Impactable and B2Linked both fell by 25.0 percentage points in visibility to reach 0.0 percent. B2Linked also dropped three rank positions, from rank 2 to rank 5.
Is any engine other than Google AI Mode contributing to visibility in this category?
No. Every brand in the top 10 lists Google AI Mode as its top engine, and the audit data contains no non-zero visibility or citation scores attributed to any other engine.