Birch (formerly Revealbot) vs Foreplay in 2026: Paid-media operations vs creative research and briefing
Birch works on connected Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat accounts to automate rules, analyse performance, launch creative batches, and report. Foreplay helps paid-social teams find, save, monitor, analyse, and turn creative evidence into briefs. The right choice follows where work is getting stuck.
Birch (formerly Revealbot)
Foreplay- Birch supports rule-based campaign management across Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat, with more than 20 actions and scheduled or 15-minute checks.
- Foreplay combines a searchable database of more than 200 million ads with Swipe File, Spyder competitor monitoring, Lens account analysis, and Briefs.
- Birch Pro costs $99 per month at up to $10,000 in connected monthly ad spend and adds Rules, Explorer, Launcher, custom metrics, and wider integrations.
- Foreplay Basic costs $49 per month billed annually, while Workflow costs $149 and is the first tier with Spyder and Lens.
- Birch Stage can use Google Drive and Google Sheets to create Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat ad batches, but requires a preview before launch.
- Foreplay is not a console for bids, budgets, audiences, or publishing ads, and Birch is not a public competitor-ad archive.
Birch and Foreplay meet at the creative team, then go in opposite directions. Birch is the operating layer for an account already spending money: rules can use platform and attribution data, Explorer can inspect performance, Stage can build ad batches from Drive and Sheets, and reports can run across platforms. Foreplay is the upstream research and briefing system: Discovery searches its ad database, Swipe File organises references, Spyder watches competitors, Lens reads a team’s Meta or TikTok creative, and Briefs turns selected examples into production direction. Birch Pro costs $99 per month at up to $10,000 in connected monthly ad spend, while Foreplay Basic costs $49 per month billed annually and Workflow costs $149. Choose Birch when the costly gap is live account control. Choose Foreplay when research repeatedly dies in scattered links and screenshots before the brief exists. An agency doing both jobs may need both, but they are not interchangeable.
The tools at a glance
Birch (formerly Revealbot)
Paid-media automation, creative launch, performance analysis, and server-side Meta tracking for active ad accounts
Birch, formerly Revealbot, works on the accounts a team controls. Its centrepiece is Rules, which can combine platform data, calculated metrics, Google Sheets, Google Analytics, and connected attribution inputs across Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat. A rule can use nested conditions, relative ranking, different timeframes, and more than 20 actions. Birch says rules can check every 15 minutes or use a custom schedule. This is operational infrastructure for a team with clear thresholds and an owner who can govern what automation is allowed to change.
The surrounding products make that operating layer broader. Explorer helps teams compare trends, creative groups, fatigued ads, and best performers. Stage connects view-only Drive folders and Sheets so each row can become an ad with its own account, template, copy, CTA, URL, UTM parameters, and ad name. A run can contain up to 1,000 rows, but Birch requires a preview and lets the user choose active, paused, or scheduled launch. Reports can combine platforms and run on a schedule, while activity and automation logs reveal what was evaluated or affected.
Pricing depends on connected monthly ad spend. At up to $10,000, Essential is $99 monthly or $49 monthly billed annually, and Pro is $99 monthly. Essential has workspaces, Overview, reports, activity, and a free Stage version, but not automated Rules, Explorer, Launcher, custom metrics, or Top Audiences. Pro adds those operating products and the wider integrations. Birch also offers a 14-day no-card trial for Essential and Pro. It is not the tool for browsing a rival’s public creative library, and it should not be treated as an unattended media buyer.
| Feature | Essential $99/mo monthly or $49/mo annually at up to $10K spend | Pro $99/mo at up to $10K spend | Enterprise Custom plan | Hub gateway Free for 10,000 events/mo, then $10 to $499/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing basis | Connected monthly ad spend | Connected monthly ad spend | Custom | Tracked events per gateway |
| Automated Rules and strategies | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Explorer, Launcher, custom metrics, Top Audiences | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Stage | Free version | Free version | Custom limit | ✗ |
| Reports and activity page | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card required | 14 days, no card required | Contact sales | ✗ |
Foreplay
Paid-social creative workflow for finding, saving, analysing, and briefing ads
Foreplay is designed for the creative work before an ad enters an account. Discovery searches a database Foreplay describes as holding more than 200 million ads, with filters, transcription, and AI-assisted creative, emotional, persona, and target detection. Swipe File turns useful references into shareable boards. Its Chrome extension can save from Meta Ad Library, TikTok Creative Center, Instagram organic posts, and other supported pages, while the mobile app supports saving and sharing from a phone. That makes the evidence legible when a strategist needs to explain why an example belongs in a brief.
Workflow is the tier where Foreplay becomes more than a library. Spyder watches named competitor brands and the published comparison lists history, creative tests, media mix, timelines, landing pages, and recurring hooks. Lens connects a team’s own Meta and TikTok accounts for creative analysis and reports. Briefs converts selected references into scripts, storyboards, modular sections, and sharable direction. The product can therefore connect competitor research, internal creative patterns, and a production handoff, but it cannot change bids, budgets, targeting, or publish campaigns into an ad manager.
Basic costs $49 per month billed annually and includes one user, Discovery, Swipe File, and a 7-day trial. Workflow is $149 billed annually for five users, Spyder for 10 or more competitor brands, one Lens brand, and MCP, API, and AI-tool connections. Agency is $389 for 10 users and 50 or more Spyder brands. Extra users cost $20 per month. Basic is the right entry for a solo strategist; the higher plans earn their price only when competitor monitoring and connected-account creative analysis are recurring work.
| Feature | Basic $49/mo billed annually | Workflow $149/mo billed annually | Agency $389/mo billed annually | Enterprise Custom pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Included users | 1 | 5 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Discovery and Swipe File | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Spyder competitor brands | Not included | 10+ annually unlimited | 50+ annually unlimited | Unlimited |
| Lens connected brands | Not included | 1 | 10+ | Unlimited |
| MCP, API, and AI-tool connections | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Trial | 7 days | 7 days | 7 days | Talk to sales |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Birch (formerly Revealbot) | Foreplay |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Paid-media operations and automation | Creative research, analysis, and production briefs |
| Starting price | $99/mo at up to $10K connected spend | $49/mo billed annually |
| Pricing basis | Connected monthly ad spend | Fixed user and brand allowances |
| Public creative discovery | Not published | Yes |
| Competitor creative monitoring | Not published as an ad archive | Spyder from Workflow |
| Connected-account creative analysis | Explorer for connected account performance | Lens for Meta and TikTok from Workflow |
| Rules, budgets, and execution controls | Yes, Pro and Enterprise | No |
| Creative-batch launch | Yes, Stage for Meta, TikTok, Snapchat | No |
| Briefing workflow | Not published as a dedicated product | Yes, Briefs |
Which should you choose?
ForeplayThe deciding question is whether the team needs to improve an account or improve the creative decision before it reaches the account. Birch has the deeper operating controls, attribution inputs, logs, reporting, and structured launch path for active media buyers. Foreplay has the clearer research-to-brief pathway, mixing a searchable ad database, saved boards, competitor monitoring, connected-account creative analysis, and production documentation. A creative team can hand a Foreplay brief to a buyer using Birch, but the platforms do not overlap enough to replace one another.
Bottom line
Choose Birch Pro when campaign operations are complex enough to need rules, account analysis, reporting, controlled creative launch, and an approval process around live changes. Choose Foreplay Basic for a solo creative researcher, or Workflow when Spyder and Lens are repeated needs. Birch is the account-control purchase and Foreplay is the creative-decision purchase. Teams that run high-volume paid-social testing may benefit from both, but should evaluate each against a separate bottleneck and not assume either tool proves creative performance by itself.
Frequently asked questions
Is Birch or Foreplay better for a paid-social agency managing Meta and TikTok accounts?
Birch is better for the agency’s live account operations because it supports rules and analysis across connected paid-media accounts, while Foreplay is better for the creative research and briefing side. An agency repeatedly turning competitor evidence into briefs may use Foreplay Workflow alongside Birch rather than trying to force one product to cover both jobs.
Can Foreplay automatically pause underperforming ads or scale a campaign budget?
Foreplay cannot automatically pause ads or scale campaign budgets because it is a creative research, analysis, and briefing product rather than an advertising execution console. Birch Rules is the relevant option for controlled campaign-management automations across its supported connected platforms, subject to a team’s own review process.
Which Birch plan includes Rules, Explorer, and custom metrics for a small account portfolio?
Birch Pro includes automated Rules and strategies, Explorer, Launcher, custom metrics, and Top Audiences at the listed $99 per month setting for up to $10,000 in connected monthly ad spend. Essential includes reporting and activity features but does not include those Pro operating products.
What does Foreplay Workflow add beyond Basic for a creative team?
Foreplay Workflow adds Spyder monitoring for 10 or more competitor brands, Lens analysis for one connected Meta or TikTok brand, five included users, and MCP, API, and AI-tool connections. Basic includes Discovery and Swipe File for one user but does not include Spyder, Lens, or those integration features.
Can Birch Stage create ads directly from a creative team’s spreadsheet?
Birch Stage can use view-only Google Drive folders and Google Sheets to build Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat ad batches, with each row carrying fields such as copy, CTA, URL, UTM parameters, and ad name. Birch requires a preview before launch, so folder or spreadsheet changes do not automatically publish live ads.
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.
Every Marketraa page follows our editorial standards.