Why YouTube might be your AEO secret weapon.

In the early days of SEO, there were no playbooks and no ultimate guides. As algorithms shifted, the only way to consistently rank was to test and iterate, then swap notes with other marketers.

For good and bad, that’s exactly where we’re at with AEO.

“Everyone needs to be an explorer,” says Tina Lavery.

Before joining HubSpot, Tina was the growth director at XFunnel, one of the very first AEO optimization platforms. And she was kind enough to spill the beans on what tests actually earned answer engine visibility.

The first installment about LinkedIn articles isn’t required reading for today’s tactic, but it does make an excellent companion.

Gleaming the Tube

AI models can’t watch YouTube videos. At least, as of the time of publication. But when the AEO team was researching what sources LLMs cited most, they found a bit of a surprise.

“We see YouTube videos get cited a lot,” says Tina Lavery, lead product marketer for HubSpot’s AEO tools. And it’s not just Google’s own AI that likes them so much. “YouTube is very dominant for Perplexity citations.”

Copilot, Grok, and SearchGPT were a little less Tube-friendly, but still cited them enough to be worthwhile.

Now, Tina wanted me to repeat from the last article that the most important thing for AEO is to build consensus across channels, so no single tactic will reliably get you into the answer engines on its own. But she says videos are a great place to start, even for brands with limited budgets and bandwidth, thanks to their marketing versatility.

“Creating a strong YouTube video that breaks down your product versus a competitor’s has a lot of value even outside of AEO. You can also take that video and use it on your product pages and push it out on social. But it’s also a great way to drive that consensus across channels.”

Prompt Attention

When done properly, Tina saw YouTube videos get picked up by LLMs in as little as 24 hours. Here’s the very same process she’d recommend to her big-name clients.

1. Think prompt, not keyword.

“With answer engines, we’re not talking about exact-match keywords, we’re not talking about monthly search volume. Every prompt is unique, and the average AI prompt is something like 25 words or above,” she explains.

"Adding another layer of complexity, LLMs have so much context about who you are. My ChatGPT account knows I'm a mom, knows I'm based in California, knows I'm a product marketer. So when I ask ChatGPT what I should do for Memorial Day weekend, it gives me recommendations that are close to LA and family-friendly. It's changing that response based on what it knows about me as a person."

So her first piece of advice is to stop thinking in terms of keywords and start thinking about your audience’s pain points.

“The point isn’t to find the most searched-for prompts. It’s to understand what types of questions people are likely asking that you want to show up for.”

The best way to do that is to use a tool that identifies trends in answer engine queries, and — surprise! — HubSpot’s AEO tool can do that.

2. Pick a prompt that suits your business goals.

If an answer engine cites you as a source, but doesn’t mention your brand within the actual answer, all you’ve really done is feed the LLM.

The purpose of this tactic is not to drive traffic through citations, but to get your brand into the conversation.

“Let’s say you’re in the fitness space. A prompt like ‘What are macros?’ is probably not worth your time, because no brands are showing up in the answer. That’s an awareness-level prompt where LLMs are just going to educate you,” Tina points out. “If you target ‘What are the best calorie tracking apps?’ that’s going to be a much more valuable prompt.”

As a general rule, she recommends mid-funnel topics with a structure like: “What are the best [solutions] for [persona] with [use case or need]?”

• What are the best running shoes for people with flat feet?
• Which sunscreens do dermatologists recommend for sensitive skin?
• What are the best performance review tools for mid-size companies with a distributed workforce?

3. Check what’s being cited for those prompts.

Once you’ve got a target prompt in mind, your next step is to check what sources are being cited in the average answer.

Is YouTube being cited in the first place? If not, you don’t want to fight an uphill battle. If yes, “look at the type of videos that are being cited for those prompts. Is it app versus app? Product comparison stuff? What’s feasible for you to create?”

As you can imagine, the hyperpersonalization of AI-generated answers means you’ll want to check a tool that can give a sample across a broad swath of answers.

Your goal is to make a video that is more useful to answer generation than the existing citations.

4. Optimize the video context.

“LLMs aren’t actually watching these videos. They’re looking at all of the context around the video to understand if they should be citing it in their responses,” Tina says. “You definitely need to spend time actually optimizing the video, but just going out there and publishing the video without any of that other stuff isn’t going to work.”

To make your video attractive to answer engines, be sure to include all of the following metadata:

• A full transcript
• Closed captions
• A thorough video description
• Accurate tags
• Descriptive thumbnail alt text

Make It Stand Out

Now that the big pieces are in place, here’s what’s going to set you apart from your competitors.

1. Get granular.

“You should be thinking about the personas you’re speaking to. What are the best calorie-tracking apps for millennials who don’t have time? Or for fitness enthusiasts who are prepping for a marathon?”

Don’t be afraid to cover the same topic multiple times from different angles.

“Nobody’s actually searching for that exact phrase, but that’s not the point. The point is to understand how LLMs will respond when they know this person is a millennial, or when they know they’re prepping for a marathon.”

Just be sure you’re creating unique and valuable content for each angle. Your human audience won’t take kindly to repetitive videos. Which brings me to my next point…

2. SEO still matters.

“Most LLMs start with a web search on Google or Bing to find this content in the first place. More views and comments make your video more likely to rank on Google, and therefore more likely to be discoverable to LLMs.”

Which means two things: Focusing on AEO doesn’t mean you can forget basic SEO principles. And you’re not absolved from making good content.

Which brings me to my next point…

3. Crap won’t cut it, so cut the crap.

“We haven’t seen AI slop in video format work well. It’s unlikely that a really terribly produced video is going to do much for you.”

Which doesn’t mean you have to make a Hollywood-grade film each time. You can still grab your iPhone and shoot a high-quality, low-budget product comparison.

But you shouldn’t crank out low-effort nonsense to try to flood the LLMs.

“We tried it. Using one of those tools where you upload an article and it spits out a video. It didn’t work. The ones that got cited were the ones we put more time into.”

4. Make partner content.

Lastly, remember that the goal of all AEO is to build consensus. LLMs want to see a diverse, trustworthy range of sources discussing your brand or product.

“Go find YouTube influencers in your industry and see if you can collaborate. Partner with [related brands] to tell your story in an organic way that’s actually valuable to your audience. Reinforce the message about why your product is the best on all the different channels where your customers are spending time.”

How to find high-value prompts.

1. From the AEO dashboard, click Add Prompts in the top right.
2. Click Generate with AI to have the tool suggest prompts based on your CRM data and brand context.
   
   (If you have ideas about what your audience is looking for, you can manually enter prompts individually, or in bulk via CSV file.)
3. Select an Ideal Customer Profile from the dropdown, or create a new one.
   
   (This will help account for hyperpersonalization and ensure you find customers like yours.)
4. Select a product or service, or add a new one.
5. Select a buying journey phase.
   
   “My recommendation is to start with Consideration,” Tina says. “These are going to be non-branded prompts that ask about products or services. Then add a few Evaluation or Decision stage.”
6. Choose how many prompts you want per ICP/product combination. Note that adding multiple products multiplies the total prompts generated (e.g. 2 products × 2 prompts = 4 prompts total).
7. Click Generate Prompts. The tool runs a deep research prompt on your brand and CRM data to generate suggestions.
8. Review the suggested prompts and click Continue to add them, or go back to adjust.