devaimani Context hints
What they are
Free text describing when an ad is relevant. The platform evaluates it semantically against live conversations.
What they are not: keywords. There are no match types, no per-hint bid and no per-hint reporting.
"Provide a list of descriptions or keywords for when the product or service might be useful to show."
How many
The API accepts up to 2000 per ad group. That is a technical ceiling, not a recommendation.
Because there is no per-hint reporting, the ad group is the smallest unit of measurement. 200 hints in one group means seeing the outcome but never the cause. A success cannot be repeated and a failure cannot be isolated.
Guideline: 10 to 25 hints per group, tightly scoped. Five groups of 15 beat one group of 75.
A hint belongs in a group only if it serves the same intent as the rest. The moment you hesitate, it belongs in its own group.
Phrasing
Hints are free text read semantically. Use natural language, not keyword syntax.
| Instead of | Better |
|---|---|
process automation smb |
A mid-sized company is looking for ways to automate repetitive workflows |
chatbot price |
Someone is asking what a chatbot for their website costs |
gdpr ai |
The topic is using AI in a company in a data-protection-compliant way |
Descriptions of the conversational situation outperform search terms, because matching is semantic and questions put to a chat assistant are longer and more discursive than search queries.
Forming groups
Group by intent, not by product and not by audience.
A service business might arrive at:
| Group | Intent | Landing page |
|---|---|---|
| Automating workflows | concrete need, looking for a solution | service page |
| Introducing AI in a company | orienting, still early | overview page |
| Chatbot for a website | specific product | product page |
| AI and data protection | addressing concerns | compliance page |
Groups with different intent need different bids: someone still orienting is worth less than someone already comparing vendors.
Research with external data
Optional. Two things carry over well, one does not.
Scraping the assistant's actual answers shows which words it uses, which sources it cites, and whether local businesses get named at all. That is not a proxy — it is the thing itself. Useful for vocabulary in a 50-character headline.
Search intent classification (informational, commercial, transactional, navigational) carries over, because intent is platform-independent. Since this platform has no match types, clean intent separation at the ad group level is the main lever available.
What does not carry over: click prices from search advertising. Different auction, different participants. Also be wary of metrics marketed as "AI search volume" that are in fact derived from web search elements — check the source before treating them as chat usage data.
Negative keywords
Account-wide only, at most 100 entries, 1 to 100 characters each. There is no per-campaign or per-group scoping.
The scarcity is the point: every slot has to earn its place by working broadly. A term that only bothers one group is not worth an entry.
Common exclusion themes for a B2B service business:
| Theme | Examples |
|---|---|
| Free intent | free, gratis, open source, freeware |
| Job seeking | job, vacancy, salary, apprenticeship, internship |
| DIY | do it yourself, tutorial, how to build |
| Education | degree, course, certificate, training |
| Second hand | used, refurbished |
| Templates | template, sample, download PDF |
| Definitions | definition, what is, meaning |
Check each one: does it also exclude genuine prospects? "Cost" does not belong on the list — asking about cost often signals real intent.
Set them with set_negative_keywords. The list is replaced entirely, not
appended to, so always send the full intended list.
Refining
Without per-hint reporting, optimisation works through the group:
- Find groups with a conspicuously low click rate
- Review their hints: which describe a different intent from the rest?
- Move those into their own group — do not delete them
- Measure for two weeks
- Pause whatever still underperforms
Move rather than delete, because a hint can perform badly in the wrong company and well in the right one.