How to create topics and prompts to track in Profound

This guide explains how to build a structured prompt set for tracking in the Profound platform. The process covers defining overarching topics, generating prompts, and uploading them into the platform.

How to create topics

Step 1: Define overarching topics

Topics are the high-level themes that shape your monitoring strategy. They should cover the range of areas relevant to your brand and industry.

Examples of overarching topics:

• Product or service topics: project management software, online grocery delivery, skincare products

• Customer use cases or needs: "tools to collaborate with remote teams," "where to order groceries in under an hour," "face cream for sensitive skin"

• Industry themes or trends: AI in workplace productivity, sustainable packaging, rise of quick commerce

• Competitors or alternatives: "Company vs Company," "Instacart alternatives," "Alternatives to Sephora"

• Regions and languages: think about where you want visibility. For example, prompts for the US market should be in English, while prompts for Spain should be written in Spanish. Consider differences in phrasing across regions.

Aim for 5–10 topics to start. Keep them broad enough that each one can branch into multiple prompts.

Step 2: Generate prompt ideas

Once you've defined your topics, expand them into prompts. Use multiple sources to create a well-rounded set.

Use the Profound prompt generator

• Use Profound's generator or other LLMs to create 5–10 prompts for each topic.

• Include different types of prompts:

  • Informational: "What is project management software?"

  • Comparative: "Best project management software vs Trello"

  • Problem-solving: "How do I track deadlines in project management software?"

  • Transactional: "Where can I buy affordable project management tools?"

• Generate variations to reflect how users naturally ask similar questions.

Internal FAQs and support data

• Pull frequent customer questions from support or sales teams.

• Reframe them into natural prompts. Example: FAQ = "Does the tool integrate with Slack?" → Prompt = "Does project management software integrate with Slack?"

Each prompt runs daily by default, and Profound scores it across all selected platforms (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and others) and regions.

Step 3: Upload prompts into Profound

After generating and refining prompts, you can upload them into the platform in three ways:

Generate prompts in the platform (best for scaling quickly)

1. Go to Answer Engine Insights → Prompts → Modify Prompts.

2. From the Generate option, create new topics and prompts directly in Profound.

3. Select region and language (for example, US/English or Brazil/Portuguese).

4. Profound generates prompts for you.

5. Review and add them directly to your configuration for tracking.

6. Prompts created here are automatically associated with the selected topic and region, and begin running on the next daily visibility cycle.

7. Best for: exploring new topics or quickly expanding coverage.

Bulk upload (best for large prompt sets)

• Go to Answer Engine Insights → Prompts → Modify Prompts.

• Select Bulk Upload > Download template to download the prompts sheet template.

• Fill in the template with your prompts, regions, tags, and languages. Make sure each field (Topic, Prompt, Tags, Regions, Language) appears in a separate column. If all values appear in a single column when you open the file, use "Split text to columns" in Excel or Google Sheets with comma as the delimiter.

• Upload the completed file to add all prompts at once.

• Best for: adding many prompts across multiple topics and geographies.

Manual add/edit (best for smaller updates and refinements)

• Go to Modify Prompts, where you already have topics and prompts set up.

• Use Add Topic or Add Prompt to write in new entries individually.

• Best for: testing a few new prompts, adding FAQs, or refining specific topics.

Visibility, Share of Voice, and Citations metrics populate after the first full 24–48 hour cycle; an initial "No Data" status is normal.

After uploading through any method, prompts run daily, with results visible within about 48 hours. Aim to create approximately 15 strategic topics, with around 10 prompts per topic. This balanced approach helps maintain quality while ensuring comprehensive coverage.

Best practices

1. Think in topics, not keywords

Group related questions into broader, strategic topics rather than tracking individual keywords. Each topic should represent a clear business theme.

Example: instead of tracking variations of "cheap flights," create a topic called "Flight pricing and deals" with relevant prompts.

2. Focus on user intent

Write prompts that reflect natural conversation patterns. Use complete questions or statements rather than short phrases.

Example:

• Less effective: "Cheap flights Europe"

• Better: "What's the best way to find affordable flights to Europe?"

3. Prioritize relevance over volume

Choose fewer, high-impact prompts that align with your strategic goals rather than tracking thousands of low-value variations.

Example:

• Less effective: "Hotel ratings good sites"

• Better: "Which travel site has the most accurate hotel ratings?"

Categorize Your Prompts With Tags

How to tag prompts

Tagging is a powerful way to organize and filter prompts inside Profound. You can add tags in two places:

1. Excel template (Bulk Upload) → add tags in the “Tags” column before uploading.

2. In the platform (Modify Prompts) → edit an individual prompt or topic and assign tags directly.

Why tagging matters

• Organization: Tags help you quickly filter large prompt sets into manageable views.

• Analysis by theme: See how you perform in a specific area (e.g., competitor comparisons vs. product features).

• Cross-topic tracking: Some prompts may overlap topics; tags let you track them across multiple dimensions.

• Team collaboration: Tags make it easier for different teams (e.g., product, PR, marketing) to focus on the prompts that matter to them.

Tagging guidelines

• Use clear, descriptive labels

  • Good: “Competitor Comparison,” “Feature Request,” “Purchase Intent”

  • Not good: “Misc,” “Random,” “Test”

• A single prompt can have multiple tags

  Prompts often belong in more than one topic. Assigning multiple tags to one prompt lets you analyze prompts from various angles without duplicating them.

  • In the Excel template: put multiple tags in the same cell, separated by commas. Example: Competitor Comparison, Purchase Intent, Project Management

  • In the Profound platform: assign multiple tags directly to the same prompt when editing.