Build a search query in our Media Monitoring tool to automate the process of collecting coverage of your brand or product from online media.
Getting started
From the dashboard, go to Monitoring and start working on your monitoring project. If you don't have any projects yet because you're setting up monitoring for the first time, you'll be taken directly to the query builder when you click Get started.
What is a project?
A project is, basically, a folder where you keep all your search queries. It's useful to have separate projects when, for example, you're a PR agency working with multiple clients. In this case, you can keep all search queries of a single client under separate projects.
If you want to add a new search query to your existing project, open the project and click the button New search query.
New search query
Creating a new search query begins with a selection related to the kind of information you'd like Prowly to monitor. You can select one of the following:
- Brand - monitor brands, see how popular it is and what’s the sentiment of the articles when the brand is mentioned
- Competitor - track competitors and can compare the results on the share of voice
- Keywords - track keywords/phrases of your choice
- Person - monitor people from top management, experts, and new hires
- Backlinks - track how many articles with the provided URL were found online. Use it to get an idea of how and what is the impact of SEO
Then, fill in the text field with your keywords, names, or links, depending on your choice. Once you have put in your keyword, scroll down and adjust the settings of your query.
Main filters
Here you can add more keywords, filter by country and language and adjust the timeframe for which you wish to view the mentions.
Additional keywords
You can start by inserting additionally three types of keywords that will help you get even more relevant results:
- Results MUST ALSO contain ALL of these keywords - fill in any keywords that must also be present in the mentions.
- Results CAN contain ALL of these keywords - fill in any keywords that can but don't have to be present in the mentions.
- Results MUST NOT contain ALL/ANY of these keywords - it works the opposite way of the MUST field. Use this section to specify keywords or phrases that you don't want to have in mentions with your required keywords.
With a query set up like in the screenshot above, we will receive the below results.
The following mentions will be found:
"Prowly is a leading PR software",
"Prowly is a leading PR tool",
"Prowly is an all-in-one software".
The following mentions will NOT be found:
"Prowly is a software used by PR specialists".
Keyword options
Next, you can check two additional options that will help you get more relevant results:
Exact match - check this option to make the search work in the exact mode. When checked, it will look for articles with the exact combination of keywords you provide. Uncheck this option to allow searches with the right-hand side wildcard.
For example, let's say the keyword you want to monitor is Apple. If you want to search for the exact keyword Apple, check the exact match checkbox. If you want to get results such as Apples or Apple's, uncheck it to enable the right-hand side wildcard.
Case sensitive - you can check this option to make your search match keywords only when the letter case is exactly the same as what you provide. Uncheck to make the search case insensitive.
Backlink tracking
Fill in the Track backlinks field for Media Monitoring to look for it in the coverage (applies to queries configured for Brand, Competitor, Keywords and Person). This can be a URL to your landing page, newsroom, or website included in an article. If you add it, you can use the backlinks filter when browsing coverage. It's not a filter, though, so your query can find mentions with and without the URL if the keyword conditions are met.
Backlink tracking vs. Backlinks search queries
- Backlink tracking is used to find a specific URL in the coverage associated with the keyword search query
- Backlink search queries are used to find mentions using a specific URL
Country, language and date range
Apart from keywords, you can use the following filters to refine your search:
- Countries - filter based on the outlet's headquarters location.
- Languages - filter based on the article's language.
- Date range - select whether you prefer to view mentions published from the current moment onwards, within the last 30 days, or a custom range (up to a maximum of 30 days). This setting is especially useful if you're interested only in future mentions and don't want to use your limits on the past ones.
Sources
Next, move on to sources you want to gather mentions from.
You can search for mentions from both traditional online sources and social media. Select the sources that interest you most; this way, you'll use your limits to gather the most relevant coverage.
Online
Choose from news, blogs and discussions.
To further customize your search, specify where you want to look for mentions:
- title - select to look for keywords present in the title of the article only
- text - select to look for keywords present in the body of the article only.
Social media
Monitor social media channels, including X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
What is more, you can add links to social media profiles to monitor specific pages effectively (you will still see mentions from different social media profiles in your search after filling this property, but you can filter out the ones you have added here).
Save your search
When you're done with setting keywords and/or filters, you can go ahead and save your search. Click Create query to save it. Prowly will gather all of the mentions it can find on the Internet. The monitoring is constantly on, and as soon as any mention matching the conditions is found, you'll find it in the dashboard.
Email notifications
Set up email notifications for your search to be notified whenever Media Monitoring finds new coverage. You can read more about notifications in this article.