Birch (formerly Revealbot) vs Google Ads Transparency Center in 2026: account automation vs public ad lookup

Birch, the new name for Revealbot, is for an active media-buying desk rather than a person hunting through a public ad archive. Its Rules product combines nested conditions, timeframe comparisons, ranking conditions, calculated metrics, and connected data before applying actions across Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat. Logs show which entities were evaluated or affected, and scheduled reports, Slack alerts, and email alerts help the owner review the result. That scope makes it a genuine operating layer, but it also requires judgment. A poorly designed rule can affect a live account, so Birch earns its value where a team already has an owner for thresholds, approval, and exception handling.

Pro is the meaningful plan for a buyer who needs automation rather than a basic workspace. It adds Rules and strategies, Explorer, Launcher, custom metrics, Top Audiences, and the wider listed integrations. Explorer supports visual analysis, creative grouping, filtering, trends, and comparisons using connected data. Stage solves a separate creative-operations problem: Drive media and Sheets rows can become reviewable Meta, TikTok, or Snapchat ad batches, with a preview and a deliberate launch step. A run can use up to 1,000 rows, but Birch does not publish ads automatically when a folder changes. That is a useful guardrail for agencies and teams that need repeatability without removing launch approval.

Pricing is based on connected monthly ad spend rather than a simple seat price. At the listed up-to-$10,000 setting, Essential is $99 monthly or $49 per month billed annually, and Pro is $99 monthly. Essential omits Rules, Explorer, Launcher, and custom metrics, so it is not the comparable plan for a buyer looking to automate operations. Hub is separate Meta server-side tracking with its own event-based pricing. Use the 14-day, no-card trial on one real guardrail and inspect the logs before connecting every client account.

Google Ads Transparency Center begins outside an advertiser account. Search by an advertiser name or website to inspect public records that Google makes available for ads shown through Google. A website can return more than one advertising account when several accounts point ads to that domain, then be narrowed to one advertiser. That is valuable when a researcher knows the destination site but not the buying entity. The Center is a sensible first-party check before repeating a finding from another ad database or using examples in a client brief.

Its coverage needs to be read literally. Google says represented ads have been shown at least once across Search, Display, YouTube, and DV360 in supported formats. The record therefore supports an observation about an available Google ad, not an assertion about budget, conversion rate, margin, or audience selection. The platform filter applies to ads shown on or after September 4, 2023, and Google says selecting it removes older ads from the result. Regional and political records can show additional disclosure; election-ad creative in the political report remains available for seven years after the last impression.

The Center is public infrastructure, not a hidden subscription package. The reviewed material does not publish paid plans, account connections, team seats, saved boards, alerts, reports, workflow approvals, or performance analytics. A team can record its findings in its own research process, but it needs another system for monitoring and a different system for account management. It is best when the question is narrow: which advertiser is associated with this website, what available creative does Google show, and what disclosure belongs to that public record?