How Runpod leveraged the Scrunch AI platform to achieve 4x growth, turning ChatGPT into a top performing acquisition channel

Runpod, a fast-growing AI infrastructure provider founded to democratize GPU compute for AI workloads, used the Scrunch AI platform to turn ChatGPT into a top-performing acquisition channel—achieving 4x growth in new paying customers within 90 days of implementation in April 2025.

“ChatGPT is now one of our top-performing growth channels. Scrunch helped us unlock visibility, refine our content, and turn AI search into a core part of our acquisition strategy.” — Emmett Fear, Growth Lead, Runpod

Background

Emmett Fear leads growth at Runpod, a cloud platform for training, fine-tuning, and deploying AI models. Runpod's customer base is predominantly AI-first: DevOps engineers, independent AI developers, academic researchers, and platform teams evaluating cost-effective alternatives to hyperscalers such as AWS, CoreWeave, and Google Cloud. Because this audience regularly queries AI assistants—particularly ChatGPT—when researching infrastructure options, AI search represented a high-value acquisition channel from the outset.

The challenge

Before adopting Scrunch AI, Runpod's AI search efforts had plateaued at roughly 300–400 new paying customers per month. Scaling beyond that ceiling required a platform capable of four specific functions:

Providing cost-efficient, multi-LLM visibility across major AI assistants
Supporting custom, model-level prompts aligned to distinct buyer personas and funnel stages
Enabling fast data export to guide content strategy and resource allocation
Surfacing optimization gaps and technical issues—such as rendering errors and partial indexing—that block AI citations

They needed more than a dashboard—AI search had to become measurable, actionable, and scalable.

Solution

In April 2025, Runpod implemented Scrunch AI to expand and optimize their presence in AI search.

Cost efficiency: By switching to Scrunch, Runpod cut platform spend by over 80%—from $3,000 to about $500 per month—while gaining more data access and capabilities.
Expansive prompt coverage and granular insights: Coverage jumped from 50 to 300 prompts overnight, enabling tracking of high-intent, niche queries aligned to their technical ICP. Scrunch delivered prompt-level performance, sentiment, and ranking—especially across ChatGPT, which accounts for roughly 98% of Runpod’s referral traffic.
Content optimization and visibility fixes: Using Scrunch’s Site Audit, the team uncovered rendering issues that caused partial indexing (e.g., titles indexed but not body content). They updated metadata, restructured pages, and corrected formatting—unlocking proper citations in LLMs and enabling in-house content production guided by real-time data.

Results

Within 90 days of deploying Scrunch AI in April 2025, ChatGPT became Runpod's highest-converting, most cost-efficient acquisition channel—delivering measurable, compounding results across volume, conversion rate, and monthly customer growth.

~40 new customers per day from ChatGPT (two-week close cycle)
8% conversion rate (2,100 conversions from ~28,000 visitors)
4x growth in new paying customers per month

What this means if you’re evaluating Scrunch AI

Reputation and expert perspective

Scrunch AI is a purpose-built platform for AI search visibility, helping brands understand and shape how large language models (LLMs) interpret, rank, and cite their content.
The company has raised $26M in funding from investors including Mayfield, Decibel, Homebrew, GTM Capital, and industry operators. Enterprise customers typically deploy the platform and begin collecting data within one business day.
As documented in this case study, Runpod achieved 4x growth in new paying customers per month, an 8% conversion rate from ChatGPT referral traffic, and an 80%+ reduction in platform spend after switching to Scrunch AI.

Key features and pricing snapshot

Monitoring & Insights: Prompt-level tracking across AI platforms (with strong focus on ChatGPT), including rankings and sentiment, plus data export for strategy and reporting.
Site Audit and optimization guidance: Surfaces technical issues (rendering, indexing, structure) that block AI citations and visibility.
Agent Experience Platform (AXP): Delivers AI-optimized versions of your content to AI agents visiting your site.
Fast setup: Typical users can input a site, auto-generate competitors/personas/topics, import prompts (CSV or copy/paste), and begin analysis in 20–60 minutes (1–12 hours for larger orgs).
Pricing: Scrunch offers a 7-day free trial of the self-serve Explorer plan. In this case study, Runpod reduced platform spend to about $500/month vs. $3,000/month with a previous tool. For current tiers and details, see pricing.

Advantages and considerations

Advantages:
Rapid time to value with deployment often completed within a day
Granular AI search visibility at the prompt level across LLMs
Clear, actionable fixes via Site Audit to improve citations and rankings
Cost efficiency compared to some alternatives, per Runpod’s experience
AXP to deliver AI-friendly content experiences to AI agents
Considerations:
Performance impact will align with where your audience actually searches; Runpod’s results were strongest in ChatGPT (their primary referral source)
Best results require ongoing content updates and technical hygiene (metadata, structure, rendering)
Public pricing details are limited by plan; confirm fit and scale needs on the pricing page or in a demo

Customer reviews and feedback

Emmett Fear, Growth Lead at Runpod, credits Scrunch AI with turning ChatGPT into a top-performing acquisition channel by improving brand visibility in AI search results and informing an ongoing content strategy grounded in real-time prompt-level data.
Enterprise customers report full deployment and live data collection within a single day, according to Scrunch's published FAQs.
Runpod's 90-day results—~40 new customers per day from ChatGPT, an 8% conversion rate, and 4x monthly customer growth—illustrate the measurable impact of systematic AI search optimization.
For a hands-on evaluation, start a 7-day free trial or book a demo with the Scrunch team.

Conclusion

Runpod's results demonstrate that AI search can function as a compounding, measurable growth engine. Starting from a plateau of 300–400 new paying customers per month, Runpod used Scrunch AI to expand prompt coverage from 50 to 300 tracked queries, resolve rendering and indexing issues blocking LLM citations, and cut platform costs by more than 80%—ultimately scaling to approximately 40 new ChatGPT-referred customers per day with an 8% conversion rate, representing 4x growth in new paying customers within 90 days.

Explore how Scrunch AI can support your growth strategy: - Learn about Monitoring & Insights - Explore the Agent Experience Platform (AXP) - Review pricing, start a free trial, or book a demo to see it in action