---
title: 'Add your first brand'
description: 'Step-by-step walkthrough of brand onboarding.'
---

## Prerequisites

 - A logged-in Optumus Analytics account ([cloud](https://app.optumusanalytics.com/sign-up) or [self-hosted](/self-host/docker-compose))
- 5–10 minutes
- The website URL of the brand you want to track

## Onboarding flow

The onboarding wizard has **5 steps for self-hosted** instances and **6 steps for the cloud** (the extra step is plan checkout). Each step auto-saves so you can resume later if you drop off.

<Steps>
  <Step title="1. Brand basics">
    Three fields:

    - **Brand name** — exactly how the brand is named in the wild (e.g. *Mercedes-Benz*, not *MBZ*). Casing matters — suggestions copy your spelling, mention detection is case-insensitive.
    - **Website** — your main domain without `https://` prefix (e.g. `mbusa.com`, `linear.app`). Used for citation classification, AI traffic attribution, and competitor research.
    - **Describe your brand** *(optional but recommended)* — 1–3 sentences covering what you do and who your audience is. Fed into AI to generate better topics, prompts, and competitor suggestions.

    The industry isn't asked as a separate field — Optumus Analytics infers it from your description.

  </Step>
  <Step title="2. Region & language">
    Pick the primary market and language for tracking. This drives:

    - Which language AI engines respond in (English prompts return English answers, etc.)
    - Region weighting on search engines that have it (Google AI Overview / Mode geo-localize)
    - DataForSEO query routing for prompt volume estimation

    18 regions and 13 languages supported. You can change these later per-prompt if you have multi-region needs.

  </Step>
  <Step title="3. Topic selection">
    Optumus Analytics uses your brand description and an AI model to suggest 6–10 **topics** — themes your customers care about (e.g. *EV Range*, *Reliability*, *Pricing*).

    Review the list and check the topics that fit your brand. Uncheck any that don't apply. You can also type a custom topic name and add it manually.

    <Tip>
    Aim for 4–7 topics. Too few = narrow tracking surface. Too many = noisy and hard to interpret.
    </Tip>

  </Step>
  <Step title="4. Prompt review">
    For each selected topic, Optumus Analytics generates **5 starter prompts** (real questions a potential customer would ask an AI engine). Review the full list:

    - Edit prompt text inline if a phrasing feels off
    - Delete prompts that don't fit
    - Add custom prompts at the bottom

    <Note>
    These prompts will run on every AI platform allowed by your plan. Self-hosted unlocks all 8 (ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Google AI Mode, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Grok, Claude). Starter plan runs ChatGPT + Perplexity by default; Growth and Enterprise unlock the rest.
    </Note>

    <Tip>
    Avoid prompts that include your brand name (e.g. *"What is Acme?"*). They almost always score 100 because the AI obviously talks about you when asked — but they don't measure organic AEO performance. Keep your tracked prompts brand-agnostic.
    </Tip>

  </Step>
  <Step title="5. Competitors">
    Optumus Analytics analyzes your brand and suggests 3–8 competitor names. Review the list:

    - Check the ones that are actual rivals
    - Uncheck ones that aren't really comparable
    - Add custom competitors at the bottom (use the name as it appears in AI responses, e.g. *Salesforce*, not *salesforce.com*)

    Competitor tracking is unlocked on Growth and Enterprise plans on the cloud, and always available on self-hosted.

  </Step>
  <Step title="6. Plan & checkout (cloud only)">
    On the cloud, the final step picks your subscription plan (Starter, Growth, or Enterprise) and runs Stripe Checkout. All paid plans include a **14-day free trial** — you enter card details but no charge happens until day 15. Self-hosted instances skip this step entirely.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What happens after you finish

The first round of AI engine queries kicks off automatically and finishes in 5–15 minutes (depending on prompt count and plan). The dashboard updates live as platforms report back. While you wait:

- **Insights** — first KPI cards appear within 1–2 minutes of the run starting
- **Citations** — populates as AI responses come back with source URLs
- **Prompts → Insights tab** — Suggestions card refreshes after the run, surfacing new prompts to add

## Adding the tracking pixel (optional, post-onboarding)

The onboarding flow doesn't include the tracking pixel — it's an opt-in step you do separately for **AI Traffic Analytics** (real visits arriving from AI answer engines). To set it up:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the Traffic page">
    Navigate to `/dashboard/traffic` after onboarding. The snippet is shown at
    the top of the page.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Copy the snippet">
    Looks something like:

    `<script src="https://api.optumusanalytics.com/t.js" data-t="YOUR_TRACKING_CODE" defer></script>`
  </Step>
  <Step title="Paste it into your site head">
    Drop the snippet just before the closing `</head>` tag. Next.js: add it inside `app/layout.tsx`. WordPress: use a header injection plugin. Static sites: edit your template.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Visits start logging immediately; the dashboard updates near-realtime.

## Common pitfalls

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="My visibility score is 0 — is something broken?">
    Probably not. New, niche, or B2B brands often start at 0 across most
    prompts. AI engines need either (1) significant training data mentioning
    your brand, or (2) live citations from authoritative sources. The score only
    stays at 0 when both are missing — which is exactly what AEO is for.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Prompts include my brand name — should I remove?">
    Yes. *"What is Linear?"* style prompts almost always score 100 (the AI
    obviously talks about you when asked) but they're not measuring organic
    discovery. Remove brand-name prompts; they distort averages.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="I see weird competitors I never heard of in AI responses">
    That's gold. Those are AI-suggested alternatives users see when you're not
    cited. Add the most-mentioned ones to your competitors list to track them
    properly.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Why is Google AI Overview missing from my plan?">
    Starter plan runs only ChatGPT and Perplexity. Google AI Overview, Google AI
    Mode, Gemini, Copilot, Grok, and Claude unlock on Growth and Enterprise
    plans (cloud), or are all available immediately on self-hosted.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Can I add more topics later?">
    Yes. From the **Topics** page or the **Suggestions** card in **Prompts →
    Insights**, you can add new topics and prompts at any time. Tracking
    immediately picks them up on the next scheduled run.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<Card
  title="Continue: Reading Answer Engine Insights"
  icon="arrow-right"
  href="/guides/answer-engine-insights"
>
  Now that data is flowing, learn to read the dashboard.
</Card>