Writing prompts that reflect real customer questions

Your monitoring is only as meaningful as the prompts you measure. This article shows you how to write questions that potential customers would actually ask AI systems, and what KI Score does with your prompt when it queries them.

Why you should leave out your brand name

Monitoring measures visibility: it checks whether an AI system names your brand in its answer on its own.

KI Score doesn't stop you from putting your brand name in a prompt. But if it's in the question, the answer will almost automatically mention your brand. Your mention rate goes up without telling you anything about your actual visibility.

• Less useful: “Is Example Tax Advisory a good choice for freelancers?”
• Better: “Which tax advisor is a good fit for freelancers who run an online shop?”

The same goes for your competitors' names: if a competitor is in the question, the answer will almost certainly name them. That's why suggestions of the Non-branded type never include your brand name or your competitors' names.

Questions with your brand name still have a purpose: they show what AI systems say about your brand when someone asks about it directly. So keep the two kinds apart. KI Score recognizes from the prompt text whether a question names your brand and marks every prompt under All prompts in the Tags column with “B” (Branded) or “N” (Non-branded). If a prompt is classified wrongly, click that column and correct it under Type in the Edit prompt tags dialog. With the Mentions brand filter, you can analyze the two groups separately. KI Score can also suggest questions that name your brand if you choose the Branded type when generating suggestions.

A specific search intent instead of general questions

Onboarding gives you the tip “Prompts with a clear search intent”. General questions tend to produce explanations rather than recommendations. Questions someone asks shortly before making a decision tell you more.

These points help when you write prompts:

• Name a specific need, target group, or occasion.
• Ask for suitable providers, products, or solutions, not for definitions.
• Write the way people ask: in full sentences rather than keywords.
• Use several prompts to cover different needs instead of rephrasing the same question slightly several times.

KI Score doesn't show real user queries to AI systems. The AI demand column in the prompts table only estimates the monthly demand for an automatically matched topic per measurement country; it isn't a query count for your exact prompt. You'll learn which questions your customers ask from your own sources, such as sales conversations, support requests, or your website's search. For more, see Does KI Score show real user queries to AI systems?

Taking location and offering into account

Every prompt has at least one measurement country, and up to 10 are possible. KI Score queries it separately in each measurement country, and each country costs credits like a separate prompt. The default is your website's country. KI Score doesn't add a city or region, though. Your text is sent the way you write it, only with the ranking instruction added (see below).

For how you phrase your prompts, this means:

• If a specific place matters for your offering, for example for a trade business or a law firm, write it into the prompt, such as “Which tax advisor in Cologne is a good fit for freelancers?”.
• Only ask about services and places you actually cover. Otherwise your mention rate drops without telling you anything about your visibility.
• If you want to compare the same question across several countries, give the prompt several measurement countries. For several cities, create a separate prompt for each place.

Using suggestions as a starting point

Under All prompts, KI Score can suggest up to 10 short questions through Add more → Add prompts, in the language you use the dashboard in. They're based on your brand, your brand description, your services, and, if you pick one, one of your topics. The Non-branded type gives you general questions without your brand and your competitors, and Branded gives you questions about your brand. Suggestions don't cost any credits.

Treat the suggestions as a draft:

• Only stage questions your customers would ask in the same or a similar way. Before you add them, you can still edit every staged prompt.
• Sharpen general suggestions, for example with a target group or a specific requirement.

Tip: Each active prompt costs one credit per run, measurement country, and AI provider. A few well-chosen prompts are therefore often more telling than many similar ones.

To learn how to organize your prompts by topic and tags, see Organizing prompts with topics and tags.

What KI Score adds to your prompt

KI Score doesn't send your prompt to the AI providers word for word. To every prompt that monitoring queries, KI Score appends an instruction in German. It starts with “Antworte bitte in Form eines Rankings der besten Ergebnisse” (please answer in the form of a ranking of the best results) and asks for the names to be listed one after another with numbers. This lets mentions and positions be evaluated consistently.

For how you phrase your prompts, this means:

• You don't need your own formatting instructions such as “List five providers for me.” KI Score adds the request for a ranking itself.
• Questions that can sensibly be answered with a ranked list of providers, products, or solutions work best.
• The instruction is always in German, even if your prompt is written in another language.