Ads Lighthouse vs Birch (formerly Revealbot) in 2026: Brand-search evidence vs paid-media operations
Ads Lighthouse repeatedly records defined Google, Bing, and Shopping searches so a team can investigate outside advertisers. Birch runs rules, analysis, creative launches, and reports inside connected Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat accounts.
Ads Lighthouse
Birch (formerly Revealbot)- Ads Lighthouse schedules configured Google and Bing paid-search checks on every plan, with Google Shopping from Growth; Birch operates connected Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat accounts.
- Ads Lighthouse retains query, location, device, source, advertiser domain, copy, and destination details for its saved observations, then supports policy cases and destination traces.
- Birch Pro includes Rules, Explorer, Launcher, custom metrics, Top Audiences, and wider integrations for performance teams working in their own accounts.
- Ads Lighthouse Starter is $49 per month for one project, 20 keywords, two locations, daily checks, 7,500 scheduled checks, and 100 on-demand checks.
- Birch lists a 14-day no-card trial for Essential and Pro, while its published plan pricing is based on connected monthly advertising spend.
- Ads Lighthouse Scale adds REST API access and client-branded PDFs; Birch offers scheduled reports, automation logs, and Slack or email alerts for account operations.
- Neither product establishes a competitor’s spend, profitability, targeting settings, or legal liability from an observed ad.
Ads Lighthouse and Birch meet in a paid-media agency, but they own opposite sides of the account boundary. Ads Lighthouse asks who appeared beside a protected term, from which destination, in which market, and what evidence should be retained. Birch asks what should happen inside accounts a team already controls, whether that means applying an approved rule, reviewing performance, launching a creative batch, or sharing a report. Choose Ads Lighthouse for brand bidding, affiliate compliance, or a dated record of paid-search appearances. Choose Birch when repeatable account operations are consuming the team. The products can sit beside each other in a mature agency, but neither replaces the other: a saved search observation is not a campaign-management command, and connected-account automation is not a public competitor archive.
The tools at a glance
Ads Lighthouse
Configured Google, Bing, and Shopping brand-search monitoring with evidence and affiliate-compliance workflow
Ads Lighthouse turns a bounded brand-search assignment into recurring observations. A project holds a brand, its domains, keywords, markets, devices, sources, and schedule. Each saved check records what appeared for that particular combination at a particular time, including advertiser domain, ad copy, and destination. Paid Results can then be examined by advertiser, keyword, copy change, or destination. Its observed visibility number is the share of saved monitored searches in which a domain appeared, not Google Ads impression share, spend, or proof that a particular keyword was purchased.
The workflow after discovery is the point. Teams can specify affiliate URL parameters and known IDs, see unfamiliar markers in observed links, trace eligible destinations server-side, and open policy cases around prohibited copy, direct linking, promotion codes, or unauthorized IDs. A trace can retain status codes, the final page, affiliate IDs, and a WARC archive when a server is reached. Email, Slack incoming-webhook, and JSON-webhook alerts can flag new or returning advertisers, brand mentions, and affiliate markers before an investigator assembles an evidence pack.
Starter is $49 monthly for one project, 20 keywords, two locations, daily checks, 7,500 scheduled checks, and 100 on-demand checks. Growth is $99 and adds Google Shopping; Scale is $299 and adds API keys, REST API access, and client-branded PDF reports. Team roles, exports, reports, and the hosted MCP server are available across plans. It is deliberately a poor substitute for campaign automation, which is precisely why its findings remain useful when a compliance or brand-protection question needs careful review.
| Feature | Starter $49/month | Growth $99/month | Scale $299/month | Business $599/month | Enterprise Custom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Projects | 1 | 2 | 5 | 10 | Agreed with you |
| Keywords | 20 | 50 | 150 | 500 | Agreed with you |
| Most frequent schedule | Daily | Every 6 hours | Every 2 hours | Hourly | Every 15 minutes |
| Google Shopping monitoring | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| REST API and client-branded PDFs | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MCP server | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Birch (formerly Revealbot)
Paid-media automation, creative launch, performance analysis, and server-side Meta tracking for active accounts
Birch is for the work that begins after an operator connects an account. Its Rules product can combine nested conditions, timeframe comparisons, relative ranking, and more than 20 actions across Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat. That makes it an account-operations product rather than a place to browse competitors. An operator still has to choose thresholds and governance, which matters because a rule can affect live advertising spend. Birch is useful when that operating model is settled and repeated work is worth systematizing.
Pro is the plan that exposes the main operating products: Rules, Explorer, Launcher, custom metrics, Top Audiences, and the broader listed integration set. Explorer supports trends, comparisons, filters, creative groupings, fatigued ads, and best performers. Stage can take approved Google Drive assets and Google Sheets rows into Meta, TikTok, or Snapchat launch batches, with a preview before release. Birch also names Google Analytics, AppsFlyer, Adjust, Hyros, Wicked Reports, and Google Sheets among sources that can inform custom metrics and workflows.
Reporting and accountability are part of the package. Scheduled reports can combine platforms, automation logs show what was evaluated or changed, and Slack or email alerts keep teams aware of activity. The pricing caveat is substantial: Essential and Pro pricing is tied to connected monthly ad spend, not a simple seat count. At up to $10,000 in connected monthly spend, Essential is listed at $99 monthly or $49 monthly billed annually, while Pro is listed at $99 monthly. Model the connected portfolio before treating the entry setting as an agency-wide price.
| Feature | Essential $99/mo monthly or $49/mo annually at up to $10K connected monthly ad spend | Pro $99/mo monthly at up to $10K connected monthly ad spend | Enterprise Custom plan | Hub gateway Free for 10,000 events/mo, then $10 to $499/mo by event volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing basis | Connected monthly ad spend | Connected monthly ad spend | Custom | Tracked events per gateway |
| Automated Rules and strategies | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Explorer, Launcher, custom metrics, and Top Audiences | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Stage | Free version | Free version | Custom limit | ✗ |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card required | 14 days, no card required | Contact sales | ✗ |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Ads Lighthouse | Birch (formerly Revealbot) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Brand-search evidence and compliance | Paid-media account operations |
| Core data | Saved paid-search observations | Connected-account performance and configured logic |
| Configured Google and Bing searches | Yes | No public monitoring workflow |
| Connected account operations | No | Yes |
| Google Shopping monitoring | Growth and above | Not a competitor-search feature |
| Policy cases and destination traces | Yes | No |
| Automation rules | No | Pro and Enterprise |
| Creative launch workflow | No | Stage for Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat |
| Reports and alerts | Reports and email, Slack, or webhook alerts | Scheduled reports, logs, Slack, and email alerts |
| Published starting price | $49/month Starter | $99/month at up to $10K connected monthly spend |
| Important boundary | Observed visibility is not spend or impression share | Not a public competitor-ad archive |
Which should you choose?
Ads LighthouseBirch (formerly Revealbot)Ads LighthouseBirch (formerly Revealbot)Birch (formerly Revealbot)The choice is clear once the ownership of the work is clear. Ads Lighthouse looks outward and preserves a repeatable record of visible paid-search activity, which gives a reviewer context to investigate a possible compliance issue. Birch looks inward and makes a team’s connected-account process more repeatable through rules, analysis, creative production, and reporting. A capable agency may have both responsibilities, but it should not expect one subscription to perform the other product’s job. The relevant comparison is evidence collection versus account operation, not feature quantity.
Bottom line
Choose Ads Lighthouse when the agency must preserve what appeared on a defined Google or Bing brand search, inspect a destination or affiliate marker, and turn a finding into a defensible case. Start at $49 for focused monitoring, add Shopping on Growth, and choose Scale only if API access or client-branded reports matter. Choose Birch when recurring account work is the bottleneck: Pro brings Rules, Explorer, Launcher, custom metrics, and wider integrations. Birch pricing follows connected spend, so budget against the real portfolio rather than one small account.
Frequently asked questions
Should an agency use Ads Lighthouse or Birch to catch affiliates bidding on its client’s brand name?
Ads Lighthouse is the better fit for affiliate brand-bidding investigations because it records configured paid-search appearances and can match affiliate URL parameters or known IDs, trace eligible destinations, and support policy cases. Birch operates accounts the agency connects, so it does not provide a public search-monitoring record for outside advertisers.
Can Birch change a Google Ads or Meta Ads account automatically while Ads Lighthouse only sends evidence?
Birch can run configured Rules across connected Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat accounts, while Ads Lighthouse schedules observations and sends alerts rather than editing advertising accounts. Teams should keep Birch rules under explicit governance because account automation can affect live spend.
How does Birch pricing compare with Ads Lighthouse for a small paid-media team?
Ads Lighthouse Starter is $49 per month for one monitoring project with published keyword, location, and check allowances. Birch’s published Essential and Pro prices are tied to connected monthly ad spend; at up to $10,000, Essential is $99 monthly or $49 monthly billed annually, and Pro is $99 monthly.
Which tool can turn Google Drive creative and a Google Sheet into paid-social launch batches?
Birch is the relevant choice for structured creative launching because its Stage product can use approved Google Drive assets and Google Sheets rows to prepare Meta, TikTok, or Snapchat ads with a final preview. Ads Lighthouse does not create or launch ads.
Can Ads Lighthouse or Birch prove that a competitor is profitable or targeting a particular audience?
Neither Ads Lighthouse nor Birch proves a competitor’s profitability, bids, targeting, or private conversion data. Ads Lighthouse records outside paid-search observations, while Birch works with the customer’s connected accounts and configured data sources.
Reviewed by Filipe Lins DuarteCo-Founder & CEOVast experience talking to customers and users to understand what good software looks like. Background spans commercial and product roles.
Checked by John RiceCo-Founder & CTO15+ years building tech products and web applications. Conducted hundreds of user interviews to know what a good product looks like.
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