What is AEO? How local businesses show up in AI answers
How ChatGPT and Google's AI decide which business to name, and what you can do about it.
Ethan TryhubczakEthan TryhubczakWant to become the local authority in your market?
Take the quiz to figure out what's holding you back.
Where your customers look for you now
- Search results
- Named in the AI answer
- Ads and posts in the feed
- On the map
The authority engine
An AI-powered growth team for your local market
Ads, AI search, SEO, social posts and follow-up usually mean hiring several vendors who never talk to each other. Cardos runs them as one system with one job: making your business the obvious choice in your market, and keeping it there.
Get started →Services
Show up everywhere your town looks.
AEO
Answer engine optimization. When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI who to call in your town, we work to make your business the answer they get.
Read more →GEO
Generative engine optimization. We structure your website, reviews and listings so AI models can read them, trust them and name you when they answer.
Read more →SEO
Search engine optimization. Pages built to rank for the searches people type right before they buy, in every town you serve.
Read more →Social Ads
Meta and Instagram. Campaigns built around your offer and your market, run from an ad account that's in your name from day one.
Read more →ChatGPT Ads
People ask ChatGPT who to call now. ChatGPT ads put your business next to the answer, at the moment they ask.
Read more →Performance Branding
Blue Ocean positioning. We find the ground no competitor in your market owns, build your brand on it, and track what it brings in. That's how a local business becomes the authority and stays there.
Read more →Organic Social
Four posts a week. Your town sees your name every week on Facebook, so you're familiar long before anyone needs you.
Read more →CRM + Follow-up
Your login. Every lead lands in your CRM and gets texts, emails and reminders on a schedule, so nobody slips through.
Read more →Funnels + Websites
On a domain you own. Landing pages and authority websites built to turn a click into a booked call.
Read more →Blue Ocean positioning
Stop fighting over the same customers. Become the obvious choice.
Most local businesses compete in a red ocean: the same keywords, the same discounts, the same shared leads sold to several companies at once. We look for the open water in your market, the position nobody in town has claimed, and make you the authority there. Then we help you stay on top.
RED OCEAN
- Bidding on the same keywords as everyone
- Competing on price
- Buying leads sold to several other companies
- Renting an agency's ad account
BLUE OCEAN
- A position no competitor in town owns
- Competing on authority
- Customers who find you first
- An ad account, CRM and data in your name
Find the open water
We study your market and your competitors to find what nobody in town is known for yet.
Claim the position
Your ads, website, AI answers and posts all say the same thing, everywhere your customers look.
Stay on top
Weekly posts, reporting and new campaigns keep you the local authority month after month.
You want a marketing partner who cuts the B.S. and shows you where every customer came from.
Results
Everyone in your market will wonder how you pulled ahead.
We track every lead from the ad that brought it in to the sale it turned into, in a dashboard you can log into yourself. Here is one client's first campaign, as it stands today.
Commission4 deals4 dealsDeals closed, all in Rhode IslandThe client's dashboard closed, all in Rhode Island
Ad spend$6,893$6,892.96$6,893Meta ad spendThe client's dashboard
Brought in$34,505$34,505$34,505 in commissionCommission on those dealsThe client's dashboard
LeadsFirst deal closed 34 days34 daysDays from the first ad to the first closed dealThe client's dashboard after the first ad
Brought in7474 leadsLeadsThe client's dashboard
About these numbers
This was a solar campaign in Rhode Island, one of the most challenging solar markets in the US. Marketing won't always be like this, but this is what's possible with the right timing, right offer, right market, right positioning. At Cardos, we focus on industries we're competent in.
Counted from the client's dashboard, checked Oct 28, 2026. This is from the first two months of ads.
Truly white glove service. You can't even explain it.
If we stop earning it, you should
FIRE US.
We work month to month. Leaving is easy because everything we build is already in your name: the ad account, the domain, the funnels and every lead in your CRM. We're betting you'll stay anyway.
How to get startedHow it works
Live in 30 days30 daysTime from partnering to the first live ad, guaranteedCardos FAQ. Guaranteed.
Your first ad runs within 30 days30 daysTime from partnering to the first live ad, guaranteedCardos FAQ of partnering. It's a partnership, so we move as fast as you get us access, assets and answers.
Strategy call
Thirty minutes of straight talk. We look at your market and tell you whether we can win it. If it's a fit, we'll build it. If it's not, we'll tell you on the call.
Onboarding
One call. You give us access, assets and answers, approve the content rules once, and get back to running your business.
Build
We build the ads, funnel, CRM, follow-up and search presence, and open every account in your name.
Launch
Your first ad goes live within 30 days30 daysTime from partnering to the first live ad, guaranteedCardos FAQ. Leads flow straight into your CRM and follow-up starts on its own.
Stay on top
Four posts a week, weekly reporting and new campaigns keep your name in front of your town.
Who it's for
Built for local businesses that are already good at what they do.
SolarHome servicesRoofingHVACMed spasDentalMortgageLegalContractors
For you
You're producing at a high level and your team works its own leads.
Not for you
You want to buy leads and stay out of the follow-up.
Insights
Notes on becoming the local authority.
Ethan Tryhubczak
Blue Ocean marketing for local businesses
How to find the position nobody in your town owns and become the authority there.
Ethan Tryhubczak
Why your ad account should be in your name
What happens to your data, pixel and ad history when an agency owns the account.
Ethan TryhubczakWhat makes Cardos different from a marketing agency?
We don't sell leads. We install the system that creates them. Agencies sell you leads and charge a management fee. If it performs, great. If it doesn't, you own nothing.
We work with businesses already producing real revenue, and we build the system inside yours. We build the race car, and everything is in your name. If you ever break ties with Cardos, you keep it, and you leave better than you started.
What does it cost?
Cardos does not publish pricing. We go through it on the strategy call, once we've looked at your market and know whether we can win it.
How much of my time does this take?
One call. You give us access, assets and answers, approve the content rules once, and get back to running your business.
How long until ads are live?
30 days30 daysTime from partnering to the first live ad, guaranteedCardos FAQ to live, guaranteed. Your first ad is running within 30 days30 daysTime from partnering to the first live ad, guaranteedCardos FAQ of partnering. This is a partnership, so we move as fast as you get us access, assets and answers.
What exactly do you build?
Your Meta ads and ChatGPT ads. Your website and funnels. Your ads, cut by high quality editors, and your static images. Your email campaigns, text messages and nurture sequences, running inside your GoHighLevel. Your CRM. The pixel and the data underneath it, so you can see which ad produced which deal. All of it in your name, an engine that runs while you sleep.
Who is this for?
Operators already producing at a high level who want the next one. Not for beginners. Not for someone without a marketing budget who's trying to save the business. This is for owners who can handle more leads, who already have the infrastructure, who may be doing well on referrals and cold outreach, and who want to be the authority in their space.
What happens if we stop working together?
You keep the keys to the race car. Everything is yours and you take it with you. While you're in, we teach you how to drive it.
Founder
“I didn't build Cardos to work with thousands of people. I built it to work with a small number of the right people and win together at a high level.”
Ethan TryhubczakFounder, Cardos
Your market has an authority. Make sure it's you.
If it's a fit, we'll build it. If it's not, I'll tell you on the call.
Book a callBook a call. 30 minutes30 minutesLength of the booking callCardos booking page, straight talk.