Media Monitoring in AI PR Toolkit helps you track online mentions of your brand, product, or other keywords. A well-structured query will catch just the results you’re looking for.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to build your first media monitoring query.
Creating your first query
To begin tracking media mentions:
- Go to Media Monitoring in the left-hand menu.
- Click the Create query button.
In the first step, you’ll define the keywords you want to track. These should include brand names, product terms, or relevant industry phrases. If you're tracking multiple brands or regions, we recommend setting up a separate query for each one to keep your results organized and easier to compare.
Using primary and secondary criteria
Your search will center on the primary criterion. You set it up by adding one or more keywords in one of the two fields: all of these terms or any of these terms.
- ANY (OR operator): at least one of these keywords must be found in the search results
- ALL (AND operator): all of these keywords must be found in the search results
For example, if you want to monitor conversations about electric vehicles:
- ANY: electric cars, EVs
- ALL: electric vehicles, battery technology
Try to keep your keywords clear and specific to reduce noise and improve accuracy.
Using the AI Query Assistant
When setting up your query, the AI query assistant suggests keyword expansions and exclusions to improve your results. It may propose brand name variants, acronyms, or synonyms, as well as terms to exclude if they are similar but unrelated.
Suggestions are generated automatically during setup. You can review and apply them as needed to refine your query.
Adding more keyword groups (optional)
If your topic is broader, you can expand or refine your search by adding extra keyword groups. Click + Add optional criteria to include additional search terms using ANY, ALL, or NONE.
- NONE (NOT operator): none of these keywords can be found in the search results
Use optional criteria to:
- Include results that mention any of your main keywords (ANY)
- Add at least one term from a supporting group (e.g., related product names or variants) (ALL)
- Exclude mentions that contain certain unwanted terms (NONE)
Optional criteria are especially helpful when your brand name is generic or your topic has various interpretations.
Adjusting keyword behavior
Under Keyword options, you can adjust how the search works:
Exact match – finds only mentions that exactly match the word or phrase you typed, without including different forms or variations. For example, searching for bike will not return results like bikes, biker, or biking.
Case sensitive – only finds mentions that match all your upper and lower-case letters (e.g., Apple ≠ apple).
No press release pickups – removes press release reprints from wire publications to clean up your feed from duplicates.
Once your keywords are ready, click Continue.
Choosing sources
Now decide which types of sources you want to track:
You must select at least one source to proceed.
Click Continue.
Add backlinks (Optional)
Add URLs here if you want to find mentions that include links to your website, newsroom, or campaign landing page.
The system will return results that match your search terms (criteria), whether or not they include the backlinks you added. Adding URLs here just makes it easier to find mentions with backlinks later in your monitoring dashboard.
Once you're done, click Continue.
Setting filters (Optional)
Filters help narrow down your results by:
- Country
- Language
- Date range: From now, Last 7 days, Last 30 days
Filters are optional but helpful if your keywords are broad or your results are too general.
Click Continue.
Scheduling email notifications (Optional)
Choose how you'd like to receive updates about new mentions. You can get regular digests or real-time alerts.
Available options:
- Daily digest – get a daily news scan with an AI coverage summary
- Weekly digest – get a weekly news overview with an AI coverage summary
- Monthly digest – get a monthly news recap with an AI coverage summary
- New mention alert – get notified each time new mentions appear
- Unusual spike alert – get notified when there's a surge in mentions
You can enable one or more options or skip this step entirely.
Click Continue.
Review query
In the final step, you’ll see a summary of your query—including keyword combinations, selected sources, filters, and alerts. If your query is too broad, the system will show a warning and suggest ways to narrow it down.
Once everything looks right, click Create query to save and start monitoring.
Revisiting and refining
Your query will start tracking immediately. You’ll see your results in the Media Monitoring dashboard. You can edit the query at any time to adjust keywords, filters, or notifications.