Generative Engine Optimization Case Study: Pabau 6→59%
Two months ago, when clinic owners asked ChatGPT to recommend a scheduling and patient-management platform, Pabau was named just 6% of the time.
Today it's in 59% of those answers, a near 10x jump and its own website is now the #1 source ChatGPT cites across the whole category.
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Introduction
Pabau is an all-in-one practice management and EHR platform for clinics scheduling, patient records, payments and marketing in one place. It is widely used by aesthetic clinics, med spas and allied-health practices, with a strong UK footprint.
It was already an established name, but on the broad “which platform should I use?” questions buyers actually ask AI, it rarely surfaced. Big EHR names like athenahealth, SimplePractice and Tebra were getting recommended instead.
The job was to turn Pabau into a default answer on those high-intent category questions.
What we did
CrowdReply helped Pabau show up in the conversations its buyers were already having on Reddit such as clinic owners, aesthetic practitioners and allied-health professionals asking “what software do you actually use to run your clinic?”
The approach is to be genuinely useful and on-topic in each thread (never spammy), so that both buyers and the AI assistants that read these communities increasingly treat Pabau as a credible, top-tier answer.
The questions Pabau is winning on
These are the high-intent buyer questions where ChatGPT now recommends Pabau far more often than before:
More wins
Now recommended alongside the category leaders
In those same answers, Pabau is consistently listed next to the most established names in clinic and practice-management software:
athenahealth
SimplePractice
AdvancedMD
Tebra
Cliniko
Jane App
DrChrono
A specialist edge in clinic verticals
Pabau's wins are strongest exactly where it's most differentiated which is the specialist clinic niches, not just generic “EHR.” Its traction is concentrated in aesthetics & med spa, therapy, chiropractic and family-medicine conversations, which is where its all-in-one scheduling + payments + marketing combination stands out most against the big horizontal EHRs.
Near-total recognition when buyers ask for it by name
When buyers ask ChatGPT about Pabau directly, it's recognised and described accurately 96% of the time, a sign the brand itself is well understood; the opportunity is simply to surface it earlier on the broader, non-branded category questions.
AI describes Pabau positively
84% of mentions are positive, and when ChatGPT names multiple options Pabau lands around 5th on average, a solid position with clear room to climb toward the top 3.
Pabau owns the #1 cited source: its own content
When ChatGPT backs up these answers with sources, Pabau's own website is the most-cited source of all, ahead of every competitor, review site and tech publication. The pages doing the work are Pabau's own “best software” and scheduling guides:
Biggest low-hanging fruit: Owning your citations is the part you fully control and Pabau is already doing it better than anyone in its category. These results come from helpful guides on Pabau's own website, no outreach or third party required.
Keep refreshing them and add vertical-specific guides (med spa, physiotherapy, dental, psychiatry) to capture more niche questions the same way.
Top cited sources overall
Across all the answers, here are the sources ChatGPT cited most with Pabau's own site at #1:
Where it happened: the communities
Pabau's traction came from being genuinely helpful in the communities where its buyers spend time such as clinic owners and practitioners running real practices.
CrowdReply helped it join these conversations naturally and on-topic, contributing useful answers rather than promotions. The most active communities included:
Med spa & aesthetics communities
Therapy & counselling communities
Massage & chiropractic communities
Family-medicine & doctor communities
Health-IT & small-clinic-business communities
Supporting momentum: SEO and AI grow together
During the same window, Pabau's traditional Google search traffic didn't just hold it tripled, from ~22,000 visits/month to ~70,000, now ranking for 13,246 keywords (5,227 of them in the top 3 spots).
This is the flywheel at full speed, and Pabau is the clearest example of it in action: the same helpful “best software” and scheduling guides that earn top Google rankings are the exact pages ChatGPT cites most.
Winning in search and being recommended by AI are reinforcing each other - one body of content, two compounding channels.
Recommendations: how to win even more
Actionable next steps we'd prioritise to push Pabau's AI visibility further:
Keep owning citations - it's working (highest ROI). Pabau's own guides are already the #1 cited source. Refresh them regularly and add vertical-specific guides (med spa, physiotherapy, dental, psychiatry) to win more niche questions, since this is fully in Pabau's control.
Win the EHR-with-payments question. Pabau is still near 0% on “EHR with built-in payments and marketing” ironically a core strength. A dedicated page plus on-topic community answers should move it, like the scheduling question did.
Expand beyond ChatGPT to Gemini. Today's wins are concentrated in ChatGPT. For comparable B2B brands, Gemini has recommended them several times more often than ChatGPT, making it a large, untapped second audience.
Lift position and sentiment. Pabau lands ~5th with 84% positive mentions. Head-to-head comparison content (Pabau vs SimplePractice / Cliniko / Jane App) and addressing recurring buyer concerns can lift both where and how it's mentioned.
Double down on the verticals that are resonating. The aesthetics, therapy and chiropractic communities are clearly receptive, maintain a steady, helpful presence and expand into closely related niches.
