Aftermarket Auto Parts Retailer Grows AI Search Revenue 344% in Six Months, New Visibility Labs Case Study Shows

Visibility Labs releases a case study documenting how a six-month AI SEO campaign took Private Label MFG from 1% to 20%+ AI search visibility, producing a 344% increase in AI referral revenue.

BEND, Ore., May 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Visibility Labs, an AI SEO agency specializing in generative engine optimization (GEO), released a case study documenting a six-month AI SEO campaign for Private Label MFG (PLM), an aftermarket car parts retailer. The campaign ran from mid-September 2025 through mid-March 2026 and produced a 344% increase in AI referral revenue.

Initially, PLM appeared in fewer than 1% of 100 commercial-intent prompts tested daily across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity. Post-purchase surveys showed fewer than 0.5% of customers cited an AI assistant as their discovery channel. By March 2026, AI visibility had grown to more than 20% of tracked prompts, and 5% of customers credited AI search as their discovery channel.

"They took a small brand like ours and put us in the same arena as brands 10 to 20x our size," said Devyn Merklin, Marketing Manager, Private Label MFG.

The AI SEO campaign centered on four primary initiatives:

1. Website Optimization. PLM's product pages and collection pages were rebuilt around the specs, use cases, compatibility data, and product-level questions that LLMs need to recommend a product.
2. Content Creation. Twenty "best of" articles and competitor comparison posts were published on the blog and optimized for AI citations.
3. Brand Mentions. 154 net-new brand mentions were built across four channels: pitches to third-party product roundups, guest posts on relevant automotive sites, a student scholarship promoted to universities, and a press release announcing PLM's sponsorship of the SEMA tradeshow.
4. Reddit Marketing. Across PLM's 100 tracked prompts, reddit.com was the single most-cited domain in AI responses. Visibility Labs published 129 helpful comments in relevant automotive subreddits.

"Private Label MFG had real authority in their niche but had not yet taken steps to make their brand visible in AI search," said Jeff Oxford, founder of Visibility Labs.

About Visibility Labs
Visibility Labs is an AI SEO agency helping eCommerce, SaaS, and service businesses appear in AI-generated answers across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. The full case study is available at https://visibilitylabs.com/ai-seo-case-study-private-label-mfg/.

SOURCE Visibility Labs