Straight North and Geology overlap in goal (more pipeline) but not in method. Straight North is a Chicago lead-generation agency that runs SEO, PPC, paid social, and web design under monthly retainers, with reporting tuned to validated leads. Geology is a software platform for Generative Engine Optimization that measures how brands show up across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews and ships the page-level fixes that improve presence. If you want a team to staff a multi-channel lead engine, Straight North is the right fit. If you want to control AI search visibility and act on it weekly, Geology is built for that.
At a glance
| Dimension | Geology | Straight North |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Mid-market and B2B teams that need AI visibility plus execution | Companies that want managed lead-gen across SEO, PPC, paid social |
| AI platforms tracked | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Google AI Overviews | Not a focus area |
| Execution support | Yes. Page audits, prompt monitoring, content briefs, agentic optimization | Yes. Human-led SEO, PPC, design, content |
| Pricing model | Subscription, transparent | Monthly retainer, custom quote |
| Time to first insight | Same-day audit | Onboarding cycle (weeks) |
| Reporting | Self-serve dashboard plus exports | Validated-lead reports |
| Best paired with | A team that wants AI visibility on top of existing demand-gen | An in-house team without an SEO/PPC operator |
What Straight North does
Straight North is a full-service internet marketing agency founded in Chicago. The agency runs SEO, PPC, paid social, email, content, and web design, with a public emphasis on lead-generation and validated-lead reporting (see the Straight North homepage). The team is sized for mid-market clients across B2B services, manufacturing, ecommerce, and franchise networks. Reviews on Clutch and similar sites center on responsive account management, clear lead reporting, and depth across services. The agency model is human-hours: you buy a retainer that pays for strategists, content writers, link prospectors, and PPC managers working a defined scope each month.
What Geology does differently
Geology is software that runs continuously, not a team that bills hours. It tracks brand presence in AI assistant answers across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews, and pairs the data with execution: page audits flag the URLs an AI is misreading, prompt management captures the questions buyers actually ask, the content workspace turns gaps into briefs, and an agentic optimization layer ships common fixes (schema, FAQ structure, internal linking) automatically. The economics work differently. Instead of buying twenty hours of strategist time per month, you pay a subscription for a platform that re-checks AI visibility every week and acts on the changes. For teams that already have an SEO partner, Geology covers the new layer of search that lead-gen retainers were not designed to optimize.
Pricing
Straight North uses custom-quoted monthly retainers scoped to channels and lead targets. Geology runs a transparent subscription with public tiers and no sales cycle. They are not direct substitutes: a Straight North retainer buys human-led campaign work across multiple channels, while Geology buys software that measures and optimizes AI visibility specifically.
When Straight North wins
If you need a managed multi-channel lead-gen engine (PPC plus SEO plus design plus reporting), Straight North is built for that. AI visibility is not part of the standard scope, and a software subscription will not run a paid social campaign or design a landing page for you.
When Geology wins
If the gap is AI search visibility, Geology is the right buy. The platform reports how ChatGPT and Perplexity describe your category, surfaces the prompts losing you to competitors, and ships schema and content fixes without a retainer cycle. For teams already running demand-gen elsewhere, Geology covers what agency retainers typically do not.