Skip to main content
Set up AthenaHQ and start tracking your brand across AI search in just a few steps. The activation flow takes about 15-20 minutes and is designed to be self-serve. Once you complete these steps, your workspace begins collecting data and surfacing insights in your dashboard.

​
Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:
  • Admin permissions in your workspace so you can invite teammates and configure integrations
  • Credentials for any tools you want to connect, such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, Shopify, Webflow, or Looker Studio
  • A working list of your competitors

​
What’s already running in your account

When you log in to AthenaHQ, the onboarding wizard sets up the foundation for you:
  • Your brand profile: auto-extracted from your website, including your industry, name, description, and logo. You can edit it on the Brand Profile page.
  • A competitor list: Athena analyzes your site and proposes competitors. Each competitor has identifiers, which are text patterns Athena uses to detect mentions in AI responses, and domains, which are URL patterns used to attribute citations. You can refine both on the Competitors page.
  • About 10 starter prompts: auto-generated based on your industry and tagged as Branded or Non-Branded. They live on the Prompts page.
  • A streaming schedule: the AI engines you selected, running Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by default. You can view and adjust this under Stream Data in the prompts area.
These are smart defaults to refine, not final settings you need to keep. Your job now is to review what Athena built, sharpen it, and let it run.

​
Onboarding

Complete the six steps below in order. You can return to any step later from the Settings menu in your dashboard.
1

Invite users to the platform

Bring your team into the workspace so everyone has visibility into your AI search performance.
  1. From the left sidebar, click + Invite People.
  2. Enter the email address of each teammate you want to add.
  3. Assign a role, either Admin or Viewer, and click Send Invite.
2

Connect your integrations

Integrations let AthenaHQ pull in keyword, traffic, and revenue context from the tools you already use, which makes your prompt tracking and reporting richer.
  1. In Settings, navigate to the Integrations tab.
  2. Connect any integrations that apply to your business:
    • Google Search Console: surfaces your real-world search keywords to help generate prompts.
    • Google Analytics 4: ties AI search visibility back to site traffic.
    • Shopify, Webflow, and WordPress: publish content directly to your content management system.
    • Looker Studio: pipes Athena data into your custom reports.
  3. Follow the in-app authentication flow for each integration. Most take less than a minute.
You do not need to connect every integration to get started. Google Search Console is the most valuable for new users because it powers prompt suggestions in Step 5.
3

Confirm your brand profile

Your Brand Profile tells Athena who you are so it can accurately attribute mentions to your brand.
  1. Open the Brand Profile section from the left sidebar.
  2. Confirm your Brand Description. Review the auto-generated description and edit it so it accurately reflects what your company does. A clear, specific description improves the quality of mention detection.
  3. Add at least one Brand Kit. A Brand Kit is a centralized collection of your company’s approved assets and guidelines. It often includes:
    • Brand voice and tone: a short guide to how your brand should sound.
    • Vocabulary and lexicon: approved terminology, brand taglines, commonly used phrases, and words that should be avoided.
Brand Kit assets and guidelines are used to generate your custom content in the Content Hub.
4

Add your competitors

Tracking competitors lets you benchmark your share of voice in AI-generated answers.
  1. Navigate to the Competitors tab.
  2. Refine identifiers for your own brand. List every name, product line, abbreviation, and alternate spelling for your brand.
  3. Build an exhaustive competitor list. Add every competitor across all of your product lines and service offerings. The more complete the list, the more meaningful your share-of-voice metrics will be.
  4. Add identifiers for each competitor. List every name, product line, abbreviation, and alternate spelling for each competitor.
Remember:
  • Include product line names separately when relevant, such as a parent company and its specific product names.
  • Think about every way a competitor might be referenced in an AI response.
5

Generate your first set of prompts

Prompts are the questions Athena runs against AI engines on your behalf. A strong, representative prompt set is the single biggest driver of useful insights.You have three ways to build your starting cohort.Option 1: Upload a CSV
  1. Go to the Prompts tab and click + Add More.
  2. Select Add Prompts, then navigate to the CSV tab.
  3. Use the template to format your prompt list and drag your CSV to upload.
Option 2: Use the Prompt Planner (Enterprise-only)
  1. Go to the Prompts tab and click Planner.
  2. Select + Create Cohort.
  3. Select the input sources from the options available and click Create.
Option 3: Use Prompt Universe (Enterprise-only)
  1. Go to the Prompts tab and click Universe.
  2. Select + New Analysis.
Aim for 50-100 prompts to start. You want enough coverage to see patterns, but a focused set is easier to act on than hundreds of low-signal prompts.
6

Stream data

The final step turns tracking on. This is where Athena starts running your prompts against the AI engines you select on a schedule you control.
  1. From the Prompts page, click the Stream Data button at the top left.
  2. Pick which AI engines to track. Select the products that matter to your audience, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews.
  3. Pick your tracking schedule. Choose the days of the week and time of day that Athena should run your prompts. You can also stream monthly or every 2-3 weeks.
  4. Double-check the Fan-out toggle and confirm it is selected or deselected based on your streaming strategy.
  5. Save your changes.
Saving your Stream Data changes is the most commonly missed step. Double-check that your changes are saved before leaving the page.
Your workspace is now live. Initial results typically appear in your dashboard within a few hours.

​
Need help?

Our team is here to support you. Contact us at support@athenahq.ai.

​
Troubleshooting

If something does not look right after activation, run through this checklist:
  • Confirm your Brand Profile description is accurate and specific.
  • Verify your brand and competitor identifiers include every relevant variation you want counted.
  • Make sure you saved your changes on the Stream Data screen.
  • Check that the AI engines and days you selected match your tracking goals.
  • Allow a few hours after first activation for data to populate.
  • Still stuck? Reach out to support@athenahq.ai.