Ads Lighthouse vs Semrush (Advertising Toolkit) in 2026: Brand-search evidence vs all-in-one search intelligence

Ads Lighthouse is deliberately narrow. A project defines a brand, its domains, keywords, locations, devices, source, and schedule, then keeps the paid results observed under that configuration. Each record supplies the query, engine, place, device, time, advertiser domain, ad copy, and destination required to understand a later finding. Paid Results supports advertiser, keyword, copy-change, and destination drilldowns. Observed visibility is the share of saved monitored searches where a domain appeared. It is not a platform impression-share number, a spend estimate, or proof that a competitor purchased the exact keyword a team searched.

The product’s value appears after a suspicious result. Teams can define affiliate parameters and known IDs, inspect unfamiliar identifiers in observed links, trace eligible destinations server-side, and open policy cases for prohibited copy, direct linking, promo codes, or unauthorized IDs. A completed trace can preserve status codes, final pages, affiliate IDs, and a WARC archive when it reaches a server. Alerts by email, Slack incoming webhook, or JSON webhook can surface new or returning advertisers, brand mentions, and affiliate markers. This is evidence for human review, not an automatic infringement or bidding determination.

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 monitoring. Scale is $299 and adds API keys, REST API access, and client-branded PDFs. Team roles, exports, reports, alerts, and the hosted MCP server are available on every plan. Ads Lighthouse will not replace keyword research, backlink intelligence, technical crawling, or content planning, but it gives a brand-protection assignment a much more defensible operating record.

Semrush is a broad digital-marketing platform built around SEO, content, competitor, and paid-search intelligence. Its reviewed profile covers keyword research, backlink analysis, technical site audits, competitor benchmarking, and content optimization alongside advertising research. This is the appeal for an in-house SEO team or a generalist agency: one subscription can cover a search programme’s research and reporting work without assembling a different niche product for every question. The trade-off is complexity. New users have a large surface area to learn, and no single module should be assumed to replace a specialized evidence workflow.

Its AI visibility layer tracks brand and competitor appearances across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. Teams define prompts and monitor share of voice and citations over time. The platform also includes white-label reporting, branded PDF exports, client portals, and a mature API covering much of its keyword, backlink, domain, and position-tracking data. Those tools make Semrush useful as the reporting and intelligence backbone for a broad portfolio, though the profile cautions that reporting options and add-ons can affect the final budget.

Pricing is modular. Semrush lists a free tier with 10 searches per day and 10 tracked keywords, an SEO Toolkit at €134 monthly or €112.52 monthly billed annually, and an AI Visibility Toolkit at $99 monthly per domain. The AI toolkit includes 25 custom prompts and one Brand Performance domain, with extra domains at $99 monthly and 50 extra prompts at $60 monthly. Semrush One bundles begin at €190 monthly or €158.40 monthly billed annually. It is a serious investment when the team uses the platform broadly, not a low-cost substitute for a $49 brand-search evidence project.