what's your process for making google alerts?

Type the term into Google Alerts, then click "Show options" before you hit create. That's where most people go wrong, because the defaults are fine but not great. I set frequency to once a day, sources to automatic, and change "How many" to all results if it's something niche, otherwise it misses half of them. Put brand names in quotes so you get the exact phrase, and use a minus to knock out the noise, e.g. your brand name minus a common word it gets confused with. I run one for the brand, one for the founder's name and one for each main competitor.