Mentioned vs Hatch: AI Visibility for Trade Contractors
You're probably comparing two different categories. Hatch is a marketing agency. Mentioned is an AI visibility tool. The real question isn't "which one" — it's "do I need both, and if so, in what order?"
What Hatch Does Well
Hatch Digital (and agencies like them) handle full-service marketing. They run your ads, build your funnels, manage your reputation. If you don't have marketing help, hiring an agency is smart. They're expensive because they coordinate across multiple channels and take the weight off your team.
The problem: agencies are built for retainer-model thinking. You pay $3k–$5k/month for them to handle Google SEO, ads, reputation. But AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini) is now 22% of how people find contractors. Most agencies aren't measuring it yet, so they don't know if their work is actually making you visible where customers are looking.
Where Mentioned is Different
Mentioned is laser-focused on one thing: are people finding you when they ask AI engines "HVAC company near me?" or "best plumber in [city]?"
Here's what that looks like in practice:
- Audits 4 AI engines. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini. Each one ranks sources differently. You need to see all four.
- Public dataset. 137 audits CC-BY-4.0. Contractors like you. Median score 32/100. Top score 79. The gap is 47 points. That's not random — it's competitive advantage.
- Speed. 90 seconds to audit your visibility. You know your score today. No waiting on agency proposals.
- Actionable. Not just a score. The audit tells you which citation gaps are costing you visibility. Which content pieces would get quoted by AI. What your competitors are doing right.
- Founder cohort ($297/mo or $1,497 lifetime). Closes July 4. After that, standard pricing. Get in early if this matters to you.
Best For (Comparison)
| Situation | Hatch (Agency) | Mentioned (AI Visibility) | Best Choice |
|---|---|---|---|
| You have zero marketing help | Takes everything off your plate | Measurement-only tool | Hatch. You need the full stack first. |
| You have an agency but want to audit their work | They measure Google mostly | Fills the AI visibility blind spot | Mentioned. Complements what they do. |
| You're already ranking well on Google | Maintains your position | Reveals the next frontier (AI search) | Both. Google is table stakes. AI is next. |
| You want to prove ROI on marketing spend | Attribution is fuzzy | Shows AI-driven inbound directly | Mentioned. Pair with call tracking to close the loop. |
| You're building a 5-location footprint | Expensive to scale across all locations | Track and fix across locations at once | Mentioned. Agencies charge per location. Mentioned doesn't. |
Use Both?
Yes. But not at the same time. If you don't have agency help, hire one first. If you already have one, ask them what percentage of your inbound comes from AI search. If they say "we don't measure that yet," pull Mentioned. Audit yourself. Show them the gap. Then you know if they're optimizing for all the places customers are actually looking.
The honest take: contractors who are winning in 2026 are visible in both places. Google still matters. AI search is the second wave. You can't afford to be invisible in either one.
Next Step
Free 90-second audit. No credit card. Audit your AI visibility now — see your score across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini.
If your score is below 50, the founder cohort ($297/mo or $1,497 lifetime) closes July 4. You'll get the Fix Agent to auto-execute citation building and content briefs. Details at checkout.
See your Hatch AI visibility score in
Enter your business below. We run live queries across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. You get your score in under 90 seconds.
Common questions about AI visibility for Hatch contractors in
Google ranks pages. AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity name specific businesses in answers. A Hatch contractor in can rank #1 on Google and still be invisible in ChatGPT, because the signals are different (schema, citations, structured data, training-data presence).
Most Hatch contractors see meaningful score lift within 30-60 days of implementing the three core fixes: Google Business Profile completion, consistent industry directory listings, and schema markup. The 47-point gap between median (32) and top performers (79) is closeable.
Yes. Roughly 40% of homeowner searches now start in ChatGPT or Perplexity instead of Google. Even with strong Google rankings, you can be completely invisible in AI answers, which means losing calls you don't even know about.
Your AI visibility score across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. Specific gap analysis against top performers in . Three highest-leverage fixes prioritized by impact. Takes 90 seconds, no card required.