When you monitor online conversations, it’s important to keep your data clean and relevant. Spam, bots, or off-topic mentions can dilute your analysis. This guide explains how to set up filters and exclusions in BrandMentions so you collect only the mentions that matter.
1. Use Excluded/Filter Keywords
You can instruct BrandMentions to ignore mentions that contain specific words or phrases.
Go to Project Settings → Keywords to Track.
Find the section for Filter/Excluded Keywords.
Enter words, phrases, or terms you want to include or exclude (for example, “cheap-buy”, “spamlink”, “subscribe here”).
Choose the match type:
Exact Match – only the exact word or phrase triggers exclusion.
Broad Match – includes word variations.
Case Sensitive – takes capitalization into account.
Save your changes.
Outcome: Any mention that contains an excluded keyword will not show up in your project’s feed.
2. Exclude Specific Domains, URLs or Social Accounts
You may want to exclude entire sources (domains, URLs, or bot accounts) that consistently deliver irrelevant content.
In Project Settings → Sources → Exclusions, look for the option to exclude domains or social media accounts.
Add domains (e.g.,
spamdomain.com), URLs, or social handles (e.g.,@spamaccount) to the exclusion list.Save your settings.
This ensures mentions from those sources will be skipped in future monitoring.
3. Filter by Author Name or Performance to Remove Low-Quality Mentions
Filtering helps you manage mentions after they’ve been collected so you focus only on the most relevant content.
Open the Mentions Feed.
Use the Advanced Filters section. You can set rules like:
author name does not contain "bot" – to exclude mentions from accounts with “bot” in their name.
Exclude mentions with very low performance score (e.g., under 2) since they might be spam or irrelevant.
Save the filter if you’ll use it often.
4. Review and Adjust Your Keywords Regularly
Even a well-set project needs periodic review. Over time, new spam patterns or irrelevant terms may emerge.
Review your list of tracked keywords and exclusions every few weeks.
Add new excluded keywords when you notice recurring spam terms.
If you have unnecessary keywords that attract generic traffic, consider removing or refining them (e.g., changing from broad match to exact match).
Ensure your sources, languages and regions are still accurate for your target monitoring.
5. Re-Run Your Project If Needed
After you make changes to exclusions, keywords, or sources, you may want to refresh your project so the new rules apply to previously collected mentions as well.
Apply Changes → Re-Run Project.
Choose whether to:
Re-analyze existing mentions under the new rules; or
Apply rules only to new mentions from this point forward.
Confirm and wait a few minutes for the system to apply updates.
By using excluded keywords, source exclusions, and filters, you can significantly reduce the volume of irrelevant or spam mentions in BrandMentions. Regular review and adjustment keep your dataset high-quality, so your insights are cleaner and more meaningful.