Getting Started with MentionLayer: Your First 30 Minutes

Set up your agency, add your first client, run an AI visibility audit, and understand your baseline score — all in under 30 minutes.

Create Your Account & Agency Profile

When you first sign up for MentionLayer, you'll set up your agency profile. This is your top-level account that contains all your clients.

Screenshot: Agency setup form with name, logo, and owner email fields

Your agency profile includes: - Agency name — your business name (e.g., "Xpand Digital") - Owner email — the primary contact for billing and admin - Logo — displayed in the dashboard header and client reports

If you're a single brand (not an agency), just use your brand name as the agency name. MentionLayer works the same way either way — one agency with one client.

Add Your First Client

Click Clients in the sidebar, then Add Client. Each client represents a brand you're managing AI visibility for.

Screenshot: New client form with brand brief, tone guidelines, and target audience fields

The four fields that matter most:

Brand Brief — This is the single most important field in MentionLayer. Every AI-generated response, every classification decision, every audit scan uses this text. Write 2-3 paragraphs describing what the business does, who it serves, and what makes it different. Be specific. "We're a marketing agency" is useless. "We're a B2B SaaS content marketing agency that's generated $47M in pipeline for 200+ tech companies since 2019" is what you want.

Tone Guidelines — How should responses sound? Casual and helpful? Technical and authoritative? Include specific rules like "never use the word 'utilize'" or "always mention the free trial."

Target Audience — Who are you trying to reach? The more specific, the better the AI can craft responses that resonate.

Key Differentiators — What makes this brand different from competitors? These points get woven naturally into generated responses.

Add Keywords to Power Discovery

Keywords are the fuel for MentionLayer's discovery engine. They determine which Reddit threads, Quora questions, and Facebook Group discussions get surfaced.

Screenshot: Keyword management screen with tags, intent classification, and bulk import

Manual entry: Type keywords one at a time. Good for starting out.

AI suggestions: Click "Suggest Keywords" and MentionLayer generates relevant keywords based on your brand brief and industry. Review and add the ones that match buying intent.

Bulk import: Paste a comma-separated list or upload a CSV. Useful if you already have keyword research from tools like Ahrefs or Semrush.

Tips for great keywords: - Focus on buying-intent terms: "best [product category]", "[product] alternatives", "[product] vs [competitor]" - Include question-format keywords: "how to choose a [product]", "is [product type] worth it" - Add competitor comparison keywords: "[competitor] alternative", "[competitor] vs [your brand]" - Don't go too broad. "Marketing" is useless. "B2B SaaS content marketing agency" finds the right threads.

Each keyword can be tagged with categories and assigned to specific platforms (Reddit, Quora, Facebook Groups). By default, all platforms are enabled.

Run Your First AI Visibility Audit

Once you've added keywords, MentionLayer can run a baseline audit. This scans 5 pillars to measure your current AI visibility.

Screenshot: Audit progress screen showing 5 pillars being scanned

The audit takes 3-5 minutes and checks:

Citations (25%) — How many high-authority forum threads mention your brand vs competitors
AI Presence (30%) — Whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude recommend you
Entities (15%) — Whether your brand identity is consistent across platforms AI models reference
Reviews (15%) — Your review presence and sentiment across key platforms
Press (15%) — Your earned media footprint and authority signals

Most new clients score between 15-35 out of 100. That's normal — it means there's massive opportunity. The audit also generates a prioritized action plan telling you exactly what to tackle first.

Read the full breakdown in The AI Visibility Audit.

Explore Your Dashboard & Next Steps

After the audit, your dashboard populates with data. Here's where to go next:

Citation Engine — Your daily working screen. This shows all discovered threads where you can place your brand. Start by generating responses for the highest-scoring threads.

AI Monitor — Set up monitoring prompts to track whether AI models start mentioning your brand over time. This is your north-star metric.

Reports — View your audit results, export PDF reports for clients, and track month-over-month progress.

Screenshot: Dashboard overview with stats cards and module navigation

Recommended first actions: 1. Review your audit action plan — it tells you exactly what to do first 2. Go to Citation Engine and generate responses for your top 5 threads 3. Set up 5-10 monitoring prompts in AI Monitor 4. Schedule your next audit for 30 days out

The discovery engine runs automatically twice per week, so new threads will keep appearing in your queue. Your job is to review, generate responses, and post them.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to set up my first client?

About 10 minutes. You need a brand name, website URL, and a 2-3 paragraph brand brief. Keywords can be added manually or generated by AI. The initial AI visibility audit runs automatically after setup and takes 3-5 minutes.

What should I put in the brand brief?

Describe what the business does, who it serves, and what makes it different — in 250 words or less. This text gets injected into every AI prompt, so specificity matters. Include concrete details like years in business, number of customers, and unique selling points. Avoid generic marketing fluff.

How many keywords should I start with?

Start with 10-20 high-intent keywords. Focus on buying-intent terms that your ideal customer would actually search for. MentionLayer's AI can suggest additional keywords based on your brand brief and industry.

Can I import keywords from other tools?

Yes. You can paste a comma-separated list or import from a CSV file. MentionLayer also has an AI keyword suggestion feature that generates relevant keywords from your brand brief.

What happens after I run my first audit?

The audit scans 5 pillars — Citations, AI Presence, Entities, Reviews, and Press — and produces a composite AI Visibility Score from 0-100. You also get a prioritized action plan telling you exactly what to do first. Most new clients score between 15-35, which means massive opportunity.