50% Increase in Demos from AI Search

Lago needed to build sustained AI Overview and conversational visibility for non-branded topics while increasing citations and brand mentions across models.

Traditional SEO dashboards couldn't capture GEO value. They missed citations, sources, and the compounding effect of model learning.

The team also faced entity noise in competitor tracking and needed a repeatable prompt selection method that prioritized high-intent queries.

Lago adopted a sources-first validation framework: count citations and sources as the ground-truth KPI, not just mentions.

Using Athena Prompt Planner, they identified gaps where models already answer but don't cite or mention Lago, then prioritized prompts with high response volume and low Share of Voice.

They organized prompts into cohorts to track AI Overview impressions momentum and model learning week-over-week, expecting citations to lead and impressions to follow.

1. Prompt cohort planning: Find prompts where competitors appear but Lago doesn't

2. Sources-first content: Produce articles answering exact prompts with stable, citable sources (owned research, product docs, real third-party threads)

3. Social discovery → AI answers loop: Research ~300 social threads, contribute credible commentary, track in Athena Granularity Sources as they appear in AI answers

4. Competitive prompt tracking: Avoid vanity prompts; allocate budget to high-volume competitor-covered prompts with zero Lago presence

5. Weekly iteration: Monitor cohort curves, focus on citation curves as models learn to trust sources

AI Overview impressions grew 11x (3% → 33%) from March to September 2025, driven by sources-first content and weekly prompt cohort execution

Citations "exploded" as the leading indicator of sustained GEO success that preceded impressions growth

Pipeline impact: Approximately 50% of booked demos linked to GEO visibility over time (directional, based on internal CRM tagging and Athena source validation)

AI Overview impressions tracked in prompt cohorts (GSC): grew 11x (3% → 33%) from March to September 2025

Citations by model and prompt set: the primary leading KPI that predicted impressions growth

Source coverage underpinning AI answers: the reliable signal of influence

Social mentions showing up as sources in Athena

The team learned that citations move first, impressions follow. Tracking citation curves revealed true momentum weeks before AI Overview impressions caught up.

AI systems prefer answers that align with stable, verifiable sources. By producing content with exact-match prompts and answer blocks, Lago improved retrieval similarity and ranking.

Competitive prompt tracking ensured budget went to high-impact gaps, not vanity wins.

The social-to-GEO loop (Social → Athena Sources → AI answers) created a flywheel: credible threads became sources, sources became citations, citations compounded authority.

1. Prioritize gaps, not vanity prompts
2. Treat citations as the leading KPI (they predict impressions)
3. Close the social-to-GEO loop (Social → Athena Sources → AI answers)
4. Track AI Overview impressions in cohorts to see true momentum
5. Ship weekly and iterate based on citation curves

Athena is our command center for GEO. Their advanced features, sources-first framework, granular data, and citation tracking gave us a repeatable system that actually moves the needle. We ship weekly with Athena, their prompt cohorts show us exactly where to focus, and the results speak for themselves. Citations exploded, impressions grew 11x, and now 50% of our booked demos have GEO influence. This isn't a short-term experiment for us, Athena is core to how we build pipeline, and we're committed to this partnership for the long haul." — Finn Lobsien, Growth Lead

Lago is redefining usage-based billing for modern SaaS. Valued at ~$100M with $22M raised (Series A led by FirstMark, with SignalFire and Y Combinator), Lago is the most popular open-source billing solution on GitHub with 8,600+ stars.

Trusted by AI leaders like Mistral.ai, Groq, Juni, and Swan, Lago offers real-time metering, flexible pricing models, and seamless integrations that scale with your business. As an open-source alternative to Chargebee, Recurly, or Stripe Billing, Lago is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and built for companies that need advanced metering without engineering overhead.

Learn more at getlago.com.