Direct questions · No. 20 / 31
20. How much should we budget for GEO services and a 90-day pilot?
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Budget from a defined scope rather than treating a broad agency retainer range as a market price. This research did not verify a representative US agency-fee dataset, so the example below is a planning model—not a quotation or benchmark.
Separate diagnosis, monitoring, implementation and validation in the budget. That lets procurement see whether two proposals are selling the same work.
What could an illustrative pilot cost?
| Workstream | Explicit planning assumption | Illustrative cost |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline and prompt design | Fixed project allowance | $2,500 |
| Monitoring | $300 × three months | $900 |
| Technical implementation | 30 hours × $125 | $3,750 |
| Editorial and product-information work | 40 hours × $100 | $4,000 |
| Independent review | Fixed allowance | $1,500 |
| External subtotal | Sum of the above | $12,650 |
| Contingency | 10% of external subtotal | $1,265 |
| External budget | Subtotal plus contingency | $13,915 |
| Internal time | 24 hours × $75 | $1,800 |
| Total planning cost | External budget plus internal time | $15,715 |
Every rate and allowance above is hypothetical. Replace them with supplier quotes and your own fully loaded staff costs.
For a smaller diagnostic, remove implementation work until the baseline identifies a problem worth fixing. For a complex site, do the reverse: do not spend heavily on monitoring while leaving a known access problem unfunded.