AEO Rankings · Marketing

AEO for marketing consulting firms: AI search visibility ranking

By monitoraeo Last updated August 01, 2026 Refreshed every 30 days

How AI search engines rank marketing consulting firms by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Marketing consulting firms helping brands with growth strategy, positioning, channel planning, customer acquisition, and commercial transformation. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →

Avg visibility across category

Avg citation rate

20/20

Brands successfully audited

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When potential customers ask AI engines about Marketing consulting firms, EY frequently emerges as the leader with a visibility percentage of 37.5. Other top names that stand out in AI responses include Boston Consulting Group and Vivaldi. These brands consistently appear in conversations about marketing expertise and strategy.

The rankings are heavily influenced by the sources AI engines access, with top-cited domains including reddit.com and vivaldigroup.com. Many of these sources are aggregator or review sites, which means they consolidate user opinions and expert analyses, providing a broad view of customer satisfaction and brand reputation.

For buyers evaluating which marketing consulting firm to choose from, it's important to consider what AI engines prioritize: recent reviews, third-party validation, and authority in specific subcategories. Look for brands with up-to-date feedback and strong endorsements from diverse sources to ensure you're choosing a well-regarded partner.

At a glance

Category leader EY 38% visibility · named in 3 of 8 AI answers

Most cited brand Vivaldi 50% citation rate · the AI's most-trusted source brand in marketing consulting firms

Top cited domain reddit.com Referenced by AI across the marketing consulting firms query set — the highest-leverage PR target in this category

Visibility spread 38pp Gap between top and bottom of the ranking · 18 brands at 0% (invisible to the AI)

What we observed in this category

EY leads the marketing consulting firms category with a visibility score of 37.5%, compared to the category average of just 2.5%, making its dominance statistically significant. However, EY carries a 0.0% citation rate, meaning Google AI Mode names it frequently but never links back to its domain. BCG ranks second at 12.5% visibility and 25.0% citation, giving it a more balanced presence. The gap between EY and every other brand is large enough that no single competitor is close to displacing it on mention volume alone.

The divergence between being named and being cited is the sharpest pattern in this data. Vivaldi holds a 0.0% visibility score yet earns the highest citation rate in the top five at 50.0%, meaning Google AI Mode actively links to vivaldigroup.com without routinely mentioning the brand by name in responses. EY presents the opposite case: highest visibility, zero citations. McKinsey and Bain both score 0.0% on both metrics despite being globally recognised firms, suggesting AI responses in this category are not simply deferring to brand reputation.

The top cited sources listed in the audit are dominated by third-party and community platforms: reddit.com appears first, followed by vivaldigroup.com, webtonic.io, equibrandconsulting.com, casebasix.com, consulting.us, preplounge.com, and consultancy.org. Google AI Mode appears to be anchoring its sourcing on discussion forums, niche directories, and smaller consultancy sites rather than on the owned domains of the largest firms. This pattern likely explains why major brands such as Bain, McKinsey, and Deloitte Digital score zero on both visibility and citation despite their market scale.

Movers & shakers since last refresh

Biggest visibility risers

Boston Consulting Group 0% → 12% · rank #10 → #2
+12pp

Biggest visibility fallers

EY 88% → 38% · rank #1 → #1
-50pp
McKinsey & Company 25% → 0% · rank #3 → #4
-25pp
Bain & Company 25% → 0% · rank #2 → #7
-25pp

The AEO ranking

#	Brand	Visibility	Citation	Top engine
1	EY ey.com	38%	0%	Google AI Mode
EY leads with 37.5% visibility, fifteen times the category average of 2.5%, but its 0.0% citation rate means AI names it without ever linking to ey.com.
2	Boston Consulting Group bcg.com	12%	25%	Google AI Mode
BCG is the category's biggest riser, jumping from rank 10 to rank 2 with a 12.5-point gain in both visibility and citation rate in the current period.
3	Vivaldi vivaldigroup.com	0%	50%	Google AI Mode
Vivaldi scores 0.0% visibility yet holds a 50.0% citation rate, the highest of any brand in the top five, indicating AI trusts its domain as a source more than it names the brand.
4	McKinsey & Company mckinsey.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
McKinsey fell from rank 3 to rank 4 and dropped from 25.0% to 0.0% visibility, losing all AI presence while its citation rate also sits at zero.
5	Accenture Song accenture.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
Accenture Song holds rank 5 with a composite score of 0.0, matching McKinsey, Deloitte Digital, and Bain in having no measurable AI visibility or citation at all.
6	Deloitte Digital deloitte.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
7	Bain & Company bain.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
8	Simon-Kucher simon-kucher.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
9	Prophet prophet.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
10	Landor landor.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
11	Ogilvy Consulting ogilvy.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
12	PwC pwc.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
13	KPMG kpmg.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
14	Publicis Sapient publicissapient.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
15	Slalom slalom.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
16	West Monroe westmonroe.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
17	Kearney kearney.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
18	Lippincott lippincott.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
19	VML vml.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
20	ZS zs.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode

Sources AI engines trust in this category

Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on marketing consulting firms, 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.

reddit.comvivaldigroup.comwebtonic.ioequibrandconsulting.comcasebasix.comconsulting.uspreplounge.comconsultancy.org

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 30 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →

Run an AEO audit on your own marketing consulting firms 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.

Audit your marketing consulting firms brand → Browse all AEO rankings Methodology →

Frequently asked about AEO for marketing consulting firms

Who leads AI visibility in the marketing consulting firms category?

EY leads with a visibility score of 37.5%, far above the category average of 2.5%, though it holds a 0.0% citation rate so its domain is never directly linked.

Which brand is most cited as a source by Google AI Mode in this category?

Vivaldi holds the highest citation rate among the top five at 50.0%, despite having zero visibility, meaning Google AI Mode uses vivaldigroup.com as a source without naming the brand in responses.

What sources does AI cite most for marketing consulting research?

The top cited sources include reddit.com, vivaldigroup.com, webtonic.io, equibrandconsulting.com, and community or directory sites such as preplounge.com and consultancy.org, rather than the owned domains of major firms.

Why do large firms like McKinsey and Bain score zero in AI visibility?

McKinsey dropped from 25.0% to 0.0% visibility and Bain fell from 25.0% to 0.0%, suggesting Google AI Mode has shifted away from referencing those brands, possibly because its source anchoring favours third-party and forum content over large firm domains.

Which brand showed the biggest improvement in AI visibility this period?

Boston Consulting Group is the only listed riser, moving from rank 10 to rank 2 with a 12.5-point increase in both visibility and citation rate.

Is there a consistent relationship between brand visibility and citation rate in this category?

No, the data shows a clear split: EY has the highest visibility at 37.5% but zero citations, while Vivaldi has zero visibility but a 50.0% citation rate, indicating named mentions and linked sources operate independently.