Google Just Released an Insanely Valuable Prompting Guide

Google just released a massive prompting 101 guide packed with useful advice.

The guide is 40+ pages and has tips on how to prompt Google Gemini to get better results.

It also features tons of great use cases for Gemini across marketing, sales, and service.

Unlike the prompting "gurus" out there, Google advises users to keep prompting simple.

The company says "the most successful prompts average around 21 words.”

They also say there are four main areas to consider when writing an effective prompt. (Though you don't even need to use all four.)

• Persona. What role is the AI playing?
• Task. What task do you want it to do?
• Context. What context would be helpful for it to know?
• Format. What format should the output be in?

Google also says to use natural language, be specific, and provide as much context as possible.

Google also offers a range of sample prompts that professionals can use.

These include:

• Turning your notes from a meeting or research into ideas within Docs: Generate a list of four relevant and engaging thought leadership blog post ideas for [company] based on trending topics, target audience analysis, and brand keywords
• Doing market research using Gemini: I need to do market research on [industry] industry to identify new trends. Use [URLs] to uncover emerging trends and shifting consumer preferences.
• Writing sales emails for outreach in Gmail: Write an email inviting people interested in [focus area] to our happy hour taking place on [date, time] at [trade show event]. Include that we specialize in [focus area].

And the guide has dozens more prompts you can use across Gemini, Docs, Slides, and Gmail.

“It just further shows that there is no right answer a lot of times when it comes to AI," said Marketing AI Institute founder / CEO Paul Roetzer on Episode 92 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.

There are tons of different and conflicting pieces of prompting advice out there. Google's guidance goes against plenty of them. That's because AI is constantly evolving and no one knows everything, says Roetzer.

That's why actually conversing with these systems is so important.

“Talk to it like a person. Talk to it like you’re giving instructions to an associate, an intern, a colleague," says Roetzer.

And don't hesitate to ask: What else do you need to complete this task well?

The guide is a great place to start. And it's recommended reading for any professional.

But your own expertise, instinct, and intuition will also make you great at talking to AI, says Roetzer. And it presents you with a golden opportunity:

"Become the person on your team who knows how to work with this tool."