Overview
This guide walks you through setting up your first brand monitoring project in MentionLab. By the end, you’ll have a working project that tracks how AI platforms mention your brand.If you’re using the API instead of the dashboard, check out the API Quickstart for code examples.
Before You Begin
Make sure you have:- A MentionLab account
- Your brand name and any aliases (alternative spellings, abbreviations)
- A list of questions to monitor (queries)
Step 1: Create a Project
A project is the container for your brand monitoring. Each project typically represents one brand or product.Project configuration
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Brand name | The primary name of your brand or product |
| Aliases | Variations AI might use: abbreviations, common misspellings, product names |
| Website | Your brand’s primary website |
| AI platforms | Which AI assistants to monitor (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok) |
| Schedule | How often to run your queries: daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly |
| Execution count | How many times each query runs per schedule (more runs = more data) |
Step 2: Add Queries
Queries are the questions MentionLab sends to AI platforms. They should reflect what your potential customers might ask.Best practices for queries
Best practices for queries
- Use natural language questions
- Cover different stages of the buyer journey
- Include competitor-focused queries
- Test variations of similar questions
Example queries by intent
Example queries by intent
Awareness queries:
- “What are the best tools for [your category]?”
- “Top 10 [product type] in 2024”
- “Is [your brand] better than [competitor]?”
- “[Your brand] vs [competitor] comparison”
- “What [product type] do you recommend for [use case]?”
- “Best [product type] for small businesses”
Step 3: Organize with Tags
Tags help you categorize and filter your queries for analysis.By Intent
Awareness, Consideration, Decision
By Topic
Features, Pricing, Support
By Competitor
Competitor A, Competitor B
Step 4: Set Schedule
Configure how often MentionLab runs your queries:| Schedule | Best For |
|---|---|
| Manually | On-demand / one time usage |
| Daily | Active campaigns, fast-moving markets |
| Weekly | Standard monitoring, most brands |
| Biweekly | Stable industries, budget optimization |
| Monthly | Long-term trend tracking |
Step 5: Run and Analyze
Once configured, run your project to start collecting data. Results typically appear within a few minutes.Key metrics to watch
Brand Visibility
How often you appear in AI responses
Share of Voice
Your mentions vs. competitors
Average Ranking
Where you appear in lists
Source Coverage
Which of your pages are cited