Modern Asset Lab · Client acquisition for the AI search era

AI is already recommending someone to your buyers. We make sure it's you.

When your ideal customer asks ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity or Gemini who to hire, the engine names one or two businesses and the rest never get the call. Match Protocol™ is the five-layer AEO and GEO system we deploy to make AI find you, match you, recommend you and send you a buyer who is ready to say yes. Then we prove it every month with the Match Protocol Score™.
Discover how you can dominate AI search and be the top recommended solution.
8 in 10small businesses in the benchmark are Ghosted by AI engines
36%were never recommended in a single buyer conversation
50.9average Match Protocol Score™ out of 100
23×better conversion from AI search visitors than organic (Ahrefs, 2025)

Match Protocol™ Benchmark 2026 · 100 businesses · 10 industries · 11 metro areas · up to 32 blind buyer conversations each · Read the full findings

Your buyers stopped searching. They started asking.

A year ago a prospect typed "roofing company near me," scanned ten links and called three. Today they ask an AI engine "who should I hire to replace my roof in Tulsa, and why?" and get a short answer with one or two names in it. That answer is the whole shortlist. If you are not in it, there is no page two to climb from. You are simply not part of the conversation.

Most businesses have no idea this is happening, because it never shows up in their analytics. The buyer who was told to call someone else never visited your site. AI can read you. AI can verify you. AI will not send you the customer.

That gap is the single biggest client acquisition opportunity of the next three years, and almost nobody in your market is working on it yet.

Lumea

What the 2026 benchmark found

100 U.S. small businesses. Up to 32 blind buyer conversations each across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini. The engines could read them. They wouldn't recommend them.

Average score by stage, 100 businesses

AI can find and verify most businesses. It still won't recommend them.

Found80
Matched42
Recommended18
Trusted88
Chosen74

Source: Match Protocol™ Benchmark 2026, Modern Asset Lab. 100 U.S. small businesses, up to 32 blind buyer conversations each on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini.

View data
StageAverage score (of 100)
Found80
Matched42
Recommended18
Trusted88
Chosen74

How often AI recommended each business

Out of an average of 27.8 buyer conversations answered per business.

Never36
1 to 3 times26
4+ times, under half30
More than half8

Source: Match Protocol™ Benchmark 2026, Modern Asset Lab. 100 U.S. small businesses, up to 32 blind buyer conversations each on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini. 62 businesses were recommended three times or fewer, including the 36 never recommended. Only 8 were recommended in more than half of their conversations.

View data
Times recommendedBusinesses
Never36
1 to 3 times26
4+ times, under half30
More than half8

What does Modern Asset Lab do?

Modern Asset Lab is a client acquisition agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that specializes in AI search: Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). We deploy Match Protocol™, our proprietary five-layer framework, so ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini recommend a business to the buyers asking for it, and we measure the result every month with the Match Protocol Score™.
Lumi

Get recommended by AI

We deploy all five Match Protocol™ layers across your site, your entity, your citations and your content so ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini find you, match you to the right buyer, and name you as the answer.
Lumi

Convert the click

A buyer arriving from an AI recommendation has already been told you are the answer. We rebuild the pages they land on so that trust is confirmed in seconds and the next step is obvious: a booked call, a quote request, a purchase.
Lumi

Prove it every month

We re-run your Match Protocol Score™ every month across all four engines, so you see which buyer questions you now win, which engine moved, and what we deploy next. No vanity reports. The recommendation is the metric.

How does an engagement work?

Four steps. The first two cost you nothing but an hour.

1. Score

Run your free Match Protocol Score™. In about 90 seconds you see your 0 to 100 score, your tier, and which of the five stages is holding you back.

2. Strategy Session

We read your score, your market and the questions your buyers ask, and show you the exact layers to deploy first. You leave with a plan whether or not you hire us.

3. Deploy

Our team installs the five layers across your site, your entity data, your citations and your conversion path. No homework for you beyond approvals.

4. Re-measure and scale

We re-score every month across all four engines, report which buyer questions you now win, and deploy the next layer until AI names you first.
45 minutes · For Qualified Business Owners
Lumi

Machine-Readable Architecture

Schema, entities, crawlable structure and clean technical signals so every AI engine can read exactly who you are and what you do.
Lumi

Algorithmic Alignment

Your services, locations and proof phrased the way buyers actually ask, so the engine matches you to the right question.
Lumi

Targeted Extraction

Answer-first content that an engine can lift straight into its reply, with your name attached.
Lumi

Citation & Corroboration

Third-party mentions, reviews, press and consistent data that let the engine verify you are the safe recommendation.
Lumi

Human Handoff

The page, offer and follow-up that turn a recommended visitor into a booked client. This is where most agencies stop short. We don't.
Lumi

Read the full framework

Definitions, stage weights, the 49-point recommendation cap, and how the Score is calculated.

A strong fit

You sell a high-value service or product where one new client is worth thousands, not dollars.
Your buyers research before they buy: home services, legal, medical, financial, B2B, professional services, premium local.
You already deliver well. You have reviews, results and a track record the engine can verify.
You want a system that compounds, not another lead source that evaporates when the ad spend stops.

Not a fit yet

You are pre-revenue or still working out what you sell and to whom.
Your margins can't support a client acquisition investment beyond a few hundred dollars.
You want rankings reports rather than booked calls and closed clients.
You are looking for a one-time website refresh with no follow-through.

Top Recommended or You Don't Pay.

We measure what AI engines say about you before we start, and we keep measuring every month. If your business does not become a top recommended answer in your category for the buyer questions we agree on, you don't pay for the engagement. We can make that promise because the Match Protocol Score™ makes the outcome visible, and because we only take on businesses we are confident we can move.
Full terms and the exact questions we measure are agreed in writing before any work begins.

What does a Match Protocol™ engagement include?

A six-month, done-for-you engagement across all five layers, measured every month against the buyer questions that matter in your market. You approve. We research, build, publish, corroborate and re-score.

Everything we deploy lives on your domain and under your name. When the engagement ends, the entity, the answers and the citations keep working for you. That is why we call them assets.

Deliverables

Buyer question map. The questions your buyers ask each engine, and who gets named today.
Entity and schema build. JSON-LD, llms.txt, crawler access and a clean knowledge-graph record.
Answer-first content. Pages and FAQs written to be lifted straight into an AI reply.
Citation and corroboration program. Directories, press, reviews and data that let engines verify you.
Conversion handoff. AI referral tracking and the landing pages recommended buyers arrive on.
Monthly Match Protocol Score™. Four engines, every stage, every month.
"The AI is a matchmaker scanning for the safest, most authoritative match. Most businesses have never been introduced. Our job is to make the introduction, and to prove it with a number every month."
Clint Rogers, founder of Modern Asset Lab

Built by an operator, proven on his own company.

Clint Rogers developed Match Protocol™ while scaling Creativo AI, a Techstars-backed company, and it was the first business to run the full framework. The results became the methodology, and the methodology became the Match Protocol Score™.

Modern Asset Lab exists to deploy that system for a small number of businesses that want to own the recommended answer in their category before their competitors know the category has changed.

Questions buyers ask before they book.

What is the difference between Match Protocol™ and SEO?

What happens on the Strategy Session?

How long until AI engines start recommending us?

Do you replace our SEO agency?

What does "Top Recommended or You Don't Pay" actually cover?

Is the Match Protocol Score™ really free?

Find out who AI is recommending instead of you. Then fix it.

Book a Match Protocol™ Strategy Session and see exactly where you stand, what to deploy first, and what it will take to become the answer in your market.