Aria is good at answering precise questions and merely adequate at answering vague ones. The difference is almost entirely in how you ask — and the fix takes about five extra words.

There is no cost to asking. **TrackIQ does not cap usage**, so this is about getting a better answer, never about spending fewer questions.

[Watch the walkthrough](https://kb.trackiq.com/kb-assets/kbvideo-asking-aria-explainer-e91a76af.mp4)

*Prefer to watch? Seventy-four seconds on the four things a good question carries.*

## **The four things a good question carries**

![Aria answers from your own reporting, and shows its working](/kb-assets/shot-aria-answer-answer-664af1.png)

**A period.** *“Last month”*, *“the last 30 days”*, *“February”* — not *“recently”*.

**A subject.** A product, a campaign, a keyword, a marketplace. *“My ads”* covers hundreds of things doing different jobs.

**A measure.** ACoS, spend, sessions, days of cover. Say which one you mean, because *“performance”* means six things.

**A decision.** What you would do with the answer. This is the one people leave out, and it changes the reply more than the other three.

## **The decision is the trick**

Compare two questions that ask for the same underlying data:

> *“How is my advertising doing?”*

…returns a description. Accurate, and you still have to decide what to do.

> *“Which campaigns should I cut budget on this month?”*

…returns a ranked list with a reason against each, because you have said what the answer is *for*.

**Ask for the decision, not the data.** Aria is doing the analysis either way — you may as well have it point at an action.

## **Before and after**

| Instead of | Ask |
|---|---|
| *How are my ads?* | *Which campaigns had ACoS above 40% in the last 30 days?* |
| *Is inventory OK?* | *Which products have under 21 days of cover?* |
| *How's the new product?* | *Sessions and conversion for ASIN X, last 14 days vs the 14 before* |
| *What should I do?* | *Where am I spending most with the least return this month?* |
| *Am I ranking?* | *Which of my tracked keywords dropped out of the top 10 this week?* |

The pattern in every right-hand column: **a measure, a threshold, a period.**

## **Say the state you mean**

This one silently changes answers, and it catches people out.

**Only enabled campaigns are counted by default.** Ask “how many campaigns do I have?” and you get the active ones. If you want the full picture, say ***“including paused and archived”***.

The same applies to a marketplace or brand — every answer is scoped to the brand in your top bar unless you say otherwise.

## **Ask one thing at a time**

Three questions bundled into one produce a summary of all three rather than an answer to any.

> *“How are my ads and inventory doing and what about rank?”*

Split it. Ask the first, read the answer, then ask the follow-up — **and the follow-up is where the value usually is**. The second and third questions are the ones that get specific, and nothing stops you asking them.

## **Follow up rather than restart**

Aria holds the thread of a conversation. Once you have a list of campaigns, you can say *“now show spend and orders for those”* without naming them again.

That makes a conversation cheaper to steer than a perfect first question. **Do not agonise over the opening question** — ask something reasonable and refine.

## **Asking about a period is not the same as asking about a trend**

*“What was my ACoS last month?”* gets a number. *“How has my ACoS moved over the last six months?”* gets a direction.

If you want a comparison, **say both periods**: *“this month versus last”*. Aria will not assume you wanted a comparison.

Note the grain limits when you ask for a trend: daily breakdowns cover the **last 30 days**, Search Query Performance is **weekly**, and AMC is **monthly**. See [**The Full MCP Tool Reference**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/the-full-mcp-tool-reference) for why.

## **When the answer looks wrong**

Read the plan and the data queries Aria shows before disputing the figure. Nine times in ten the answer is right and the question was read differently — a different brand, a different range, enabled-only.

See [**Checking Aria's Work When an Answer Looks Wrong**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/checking-arias-work) and [**What Aria Can and Cannot Answer**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/what-aria-can-and-cannot-answer).

## **When not to ask at all**

**A question you ask every week** belongs in a **Studio** or a scheduled **Business Report**, so it is waiting when you open it and consistent week to week.

**Monitoring** belongs in alerts and rules. Asking repeatedly whether something broke is a worse way to find out than being told — alerts run whether you ask or not, and rules act the moment a threshold is crossed.

For a starting set of questions worth asking, see [**Aria Prompt Library: 40 Questions Worth Asking**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/aria-prompt-library).

## **Related**

- [**Reading Aria's Plan and Data Queries**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/reading-arias-plan-and-queries) — checking it understood you.