Ads Lighthouse vs Otterly.AI in 2026: Brand-search evidence vs AI visibility monitoring

Ads Lighthouse is a recurring monitoring tool for a bounded paid-search question. A project holds one brand, its domains, keywords, markets, devices, and schedule. Every saved check represents a keyword, location, device, and source at a point in time. The paid-results area then groups advertiser domains and preserves copy and destinations, letting a team investigate changes without confusing an observed search result with platform-reported impression share or spend.

Its distinctive value is the evidence and compliance workflow. A team can declare an affiliate URL parameter, upload known IDs, flag unfamiliar markers, and open policy cases around prohibited copy, direct linking, promo codes, or unauthorised IDs. Eligible destinations can be traced server-side, retaining status codes, final pages, and affiliate identifiers. Email, Slack, and webhook alerts make the product useful when a new advertiser or a returning advertiser needs an owner, rather than merely a dashboard review.

Starter is $49 monthly for one project, 20 keywords, two locations, daily checks, 7,500 scheduled checks, and 100 on-demand checks. Growth at $99 adds Google Shopping; Scale at $299 adds REST API access, API keys, and client-branded PDFs. The tool cannot assess AI-answer citations or discover broad social creative. It is the better purchase when the organisation needs a defensible record of paid-search activity on a defined set of brand queries.

Otterly.AI is an AI search monitoring platform for teams asking how often their brand appears in generated answers and which domains those answers cite. Its base coverage includes ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. Gemini, Google AI Mode, and Claude are paid add-ons. That is a different data surface from paid search: the product is tracking brand mentions, answer position, and citations, not advertisers bidding against a brand term.

The GEO audit is what makes Otterly more than a mention dashboard. It identifies gaps in AI-search presence and provides optimisation recommendations, while domain ranking and citation link analysis show which domains receive citations around a category. This is useful for prioritising content work, but it does not establish that a citation caused a visit or that a recommendation will change an AI model’s answer. Results need to be read as monitored observations, then tested through a broader content programme.

Lite starts at $29 monthly with 15 prompts, one workspace, four base engines, GEO audit, and citation link analysis. Standard is $189 monthly and Premium is $489; both add API access and MCP integration. There is no free tier and no white-label delivery on the public Lite, Standard, or Premium plans. Choose it for an in-house AI visibility programme or a consultant who can export findings into their own reports, not for a compliance case about a paid Google result.