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Create Coverage Alerts and Coverage Surge Alerts

Stay informed with email alerts for new coverage or significant spikes in media activity.

Agility helps you stay on top of your monitoring by sending email notifications when new coverage is found or when unusual activity is detected.

There are two types of alerts:

Alert Type

Best For

Trigger

Coverage Alert

Monitoring new coverage as it happens

New mentions matching a Topic, Subscription, Social Topic, or Theme

Coverage Surge Alert

Detecting breaking news, crises, or unusual media activity

Significant increases in mentions, impressions, or sentiment compared to normal activity

🔹 Video Guide

🔹 Create a Coverage Alert

Coverage Alerts notify you whenever new mentions are found.

Step 1: Access Coverage Alerts


Go to Monitor > Coverage Alerts,

then click New Coverage Alert and select Recent Coverage Alert.

Step 2: Choose Your Source


Select the Topic, Subscription, Social Topic, or Theme where your results will come from.


You can also use Source Filters to refine your alert by:

  • Keywords within a topic

  • Mentions from specific outlets

  • Sentiment (positive, negative, neutral)

Step 3: Customize Appearance


Add components such as:

  • Title

  • Explanatory text

  • Optional branded image

  • Date

Each element can be edited by clicking the pencil icon. You can also style how the mentions section appears in the email.

Step 4: Set Delivery Details


Enter:

  • The subject line of the alert email

  • Who the email is coming from (From field)

  • One or more recipient email addresses

  • (Optional) connect to an RSS feed

Step 5: Choose Duration


Decide if the alert should run continuously or only within a specific time period (such as during a campaign window).

Step 6: Save and Activate


Click Save as Draft to review your settings. Then click Activate when you’re ready to start receiving alerts.

🔹 Create a Coverage Surge Alert

Coverage Surge Alerts notify you when there's a significant increase in coverage compared to recent activity.

These alerts are ideal for monitoring breaking news, emerging issues, product launches, or potential crises.

Step 1: Access Surge Alerts


Go to Monitor > Coverage Alerts, click New Coverage Alert, and select Coverage Surge Alert.

Add Surge Insights (Optional)

When creating a Coverage Surge Alert, you can optionally enable Surge Insights.

Surge Insights automatically adds an AI Coverage Curator to your alert. Instead of simply notifying you that a surge occurred, the AI analyzes the coverage responsible for the spike and helps explain what happened.

Within the AI Coverage Curator, you can customize the analysis by selecting one or more Analysis Focus options:

  • Themes, Quotes, and Brands — Identifies common themes, notable quotes, and key brands mentioned in the coverage.

  • Sentiment and Tone — Analyzes the overall sentiment and tone of the coverage during the surge period.

  • Strategy and Actions — Provides strategic observations and suggested actions based on the coverage.

You can enable only the analysis types that are most relevant to your monitoring goals.

Learn more: Customize Surge Insights.

Step 2: Choose Your Source


Select the Topic, Subscription, Social Topic, or Theme you want to monitor for spikes or changes.

Step 3: Define the Surge Metric


Choose whether to monitor changes in:

  • Mention volume

  • Impressions

  • Sentiment

Step 4: Set Alert Sensitivity

Choose how sensitive the alert should be.

Coverage Surge Alerts compare current hourly activity against the previous seven days.

For example:

  • 150% triggers an alert when activity is 50% higher than the seven-day average.

Use Check Against Previous 7 Days to preview historical activity and determine an appropriate threshold.

Understanding Surge Source and Surge Period

When Surge Insights are enabled, two additional settings are used automatically.

Surge Source

The Surge Source is the Topic, Subscription, Social Topic, or Theme being monitored.

No additional configuration is required.

Surge Period

When Agility detects a surge, it analyzes the coverage published during the one-hour period surrounding the spike.

This coverage is used to generate the AI insights included in the alert.

Step 5: Customize the Alert Layout

Coverage Surge Alerts can be customized to provide more than a simple notification email.

For example, an alert can include:

  • A branded header image and introductory text

  • Charts that visualize the surge

  • AI-generated analysis explaining what happened

  • AI Coverage Curators that identify themes, brands, sentiment, and recommended actions

  • Additional sections that provide context around the event

Content can be organized using one-, two-, or three-column layouts, making it possible to create anything from a simple alert to a more detailed report-style email.

Each component can be customized using the design settings panel, including fonts, colours, spacing, alignment, and content block styles.

This flexibility allows Coverage Surge Alerts to be tailored to internal reporting requirements, stakeholder updates, or executive summaries.

Step 6: Configure Cool Down


Set the minimum time between alert notifications. Once an alert is sent, no additional notifications will be sent until the cooldown period has passed.

Step 7: Set Delivery Details


Enter who the email is coming from and who it is going to. When your surge criteria are met, recipients will receive an email describing the spike.

Step 8: Save and Activate

  1. Fill in all required fields.

  2. Click Save as Draft.

  3. Enter a name for your Surge Alert.

  4. Click Activate.

Your Coverage Surge Alert will now monitor your selected source and notify you whenever a significant spike occurs.

🔹 Best Practices

  • Use Coverage Alerts for day-to-day monitoring of new mentions.

  • Use Coverage Surge Alerts to detect breaking news, crises, or rapidly developing stories.

  • Start with a higher surge threshold to reduce unnecessary notifications.

  • Enable Surge Insights when stakeholders need context in addition to notifications.

  • Review your alert recipients regularly to ensure notifications reach the right people.

  • Use Source Filters to reduce unnecessary emails and focus on the most relevant coverage.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between a Coverage Alert and a Coverage Surge Alert?

Coverage Alerts notify you whenever new matching coverage is found.

Coverage Surge Alerts notify you only when there's a significant increase in mentions, impressions, or sentiment compared to recent activity.

Can I send alerts to multiple recipients?

Yes.

You can specify one or more email recipients when configuring either type of alert.

Can I temporarily stop an alert?

Yes.

You can save an alert as a draft or deactivate it until you want it to begin monitoring again.

What triggers a Coverage Surge Alert?

A Coverage Surge Alert is triggered when mention volume, impressions, or sentiment exceeds the threshold you've configured compared to the previous seven days.

Do I need AI enabled to use Coverage Surge Alerts?

No.

Coverage Surge Alerts work without AI.

Enabling Surge Insights simply adds AI-generated analysis to the alert email.

Can I edit an alert after creating it?

Yes.

You can update the source, recipients, thresholds, layout, schedule, and other settings at any time.

📝 Support & Resources

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