We’ve listened to your feedback and are pleased to announce that Search Set Up in TRAC is getting a new look. It now comes with a simpler, faster, and more streamlined user experience; no more repeating keywords across platforms, no more Instagram token requirements, and no more keyword limits for channels like Instagram, Facebook, Threads or TikTok!

Previously, setting up searches in TRAC meant creating separate keyword sets for each platform alongside your general keywords. This approach, shaped by how data was sourced, often required repeating the same terms multiple times and generalising search terms against some data sources in order to keep within the 20 keyword limit, which often introduced unwanted noise. With this update, a single query now works seamlessly across all platforms; one query for all your data sources on TRAC.

Creating new searches on Pulsar has been revamped, we've taken a less-is-more approach, removing steps that were repetitive and time-consuming across sources. This section explains exactly what’s changed and what to expect when creating your next Topic or Content search on TRAC. We are confident that these updates will make the process of creating searches significantly faster with no repetition or unnecessary complexity. You define the keywords, and TRAC handles the rest. Here’s a sneak peek!

Below is a comparison of what the setup screen looked like before these changes, and what it looks like now.

1. Old Wizard Search Setup: The screenshot below shows the old search setup wizard, which required separate keywords for Facebook, TikTok, Threads and Instagram, with a keyword limit for those sources.

2. New Wizard Search Setup: The new search setup wizard offers a single input field for all the sources within the search, simplifying the search setup and no more keywords or hashtags limits!

3. Old Boolean Search Setup: The old Boolean editor required separate keywords for TikTok, Threads, Facebook and Instagram, and a 20 key word limit for Facebook, TikTok and Threads.

4. New Boolean Search Setup: The new Boolean editor now supports one single rule for all your data sources, no keyword limits to abide by for specific sources, no tokens for Instagram or a separate workflow. One query, applied across all your data sources - no keyword limits, no Instagram tokens, no separate workflows.

As part of the new search setup experience, we will also be gradually consolidating and migrating your existing searches to this new experience. You do not need to do anything, migration will happen in the background for all your searches. However, in the event that you edit a search that has not yet been migrated to the new search experience, we will migrate that search on the fly, ensuring that the transition from the old search experience to the new one is seamless and automatic.

We are now going to walk you through the before-and-after examples of search queries after they have been consolidated and migrated, comparing how they appear prior to migration and after the migration. These examples highlight key changes that you need to be aware of, including the aforementioned removal of operators, the removal of separate keyword fields, and the consolidation of any Instagram hashtags into your standard query.

When we begin consolidating and migrating your search queries, we’ll use two main approaches:

The example below shows how a search query appears before and after consolidation and migration.

Consolidating queries into a single rule may affect your search volumes, and it's important to understand why.

If you notice fluctuations in data volume over the coming weeks, it likely means your search has been migrated to the new consolidated query. This is expected, as it reflects a more complete dataset across all sources, not a system error.

In some cases, search volume may increase as hashtags are incorporated into the broader Boolean logic. In others, volume may decrease as broader keywords previously used for sources like Facebook, TikTok and Threads are replaced with more precise Boolean queries, something that was not previously possible due to the 20-keyword limit.

Over the next six weeks, all existing search queries will be automatically migrated to the new unified search query structure.

From the 29th of April, new Topic and Content searches will use the new setup experience. If your search includes Facebook, TikTok, Threads, or Instagram, you will no longer see separate input fields or Boolean operators for these sources, and you will not be asked to create an Instagram token.

Once the new search set up experience is live, any edits to an existing search will trigger an automatic migration to the new experience. As a result, you may notice some changes in volume as the updated query takes effect.

Searches that have not been edited will be migrated automatically through May and June. This process will take place in the background and requires no action on your part, we’ll handle everything. If you intentionally kept certain keywords scoped to specific platforms, now is a good time to review your search setup. Reach out to your account manager if you'd like a hand with that.

This is one of the most significant updates to search setup in TRAC; it’s what our users have been asking for, so we are confident that these changes to search set up will vastly improve your search set up experience, streamline your Boolean creation process and reduce the time needed to start generating insights in TRAC.