The Search Monitor: Features, Pricing, and Top 10 Alternatives

Curious about digital marketing intelligence! Here is all that you want to know about available digital marketing tools. Digital marketing intelligence is a shortcut to getting popular in the digital era. It is a software solution that helps in getting information about the trend, analysis, customer needs, and behavior.

With the help of the digital marketing tools, one can analyse which of the ads or posts is grabbing the audience’s attention. It gives a track on what to improve further, what the trend is, and what the audience wants.

In this article, I’ll give you detailed and unbiased information on what Search Monitor is and what its alternatives are for your reference.

What is Search Monitor?

A digital marketing intelligence tool, The Search Monitor, was founded by Lori Weiman and Shaun Martinec in 2007. The tool helps businesses track their growth. 

It helps to track the organic traffic and unauthorized use of the brand name. The platform can check which posts or paid ads are attracting traffic. The tool can automatically file a complaint to remove the unwanted ads, which will save money and protect the brand image in the long run.

It includes keyword ranking, ads, and post traffic, competitor ads tracking, and performance of the campaign on different search engines. Tools like Ad Armor help in analysing the pay-per-click (PPC) spending. 

In 2025, Search Monitor joined hands with Similarweb. It is now used in around 244 countries and is popular worldwide.

Features of The Search Monitor

The platform offers several important features for brands and marketers:

• Brand Protection: Detects unauthorized or unwanted use of your trademarks in paid ads and can automatically submit complaints to remove them. 
• Affiliate Monitoring and Compliance: Monitors the paid ads to avoid any misuse of the brand reputation and theft of the website’s traffic. It also alerts about hidden URLs and bad ads.
• SEM Insights: Provides information about the organic traffic, paid ads, and trends. It gives keyword insights and brand visibility.
• Ad Armor: Lowers the spending on ads and controls PPC.
• Custom Alerts: Helps in getting up-to-date and ensures a quick response to the trends.

The Search Monitor Subscription Pricing

It offers customized plans that can be adjusted as per the requirements. Pricing depends on the number of search engines, regions, and the scope of monitoring. You need to first quote the exact price. The price ranges between $599 – $899, according to the plan’s nature. For the exact price, you can visit its official pricing page.

The Search Monitor Reviews

Below, I have mentioned the top reviews from the top rating sites:

• Capterra: 4.0/5
• SoftwareSuggest: 4.7/5
• G2: 4.4/5

Pros Mentioned by Users:

• Accurate and comprehensive monitoring of search ads.
• Effective trademark violation detection and automated complaint process.
• Good customer support and onboarding.
• Helps reduce ad spends through smart PPC management.
• Valuable insights into competitors’ ad strategies.

Cons Mentioned by Users:

• The interface can be complex for beginners.
• Customization options sometimes require technical help.
• Alert features could be more user-friendly.
• Cheaper options are available in the market.
• Occasional delays in data refresh for specific regions.

Top 10 Alternatives to The Search Monitor

You can explore The Search Monitor’s alternative options available. Here are the top 10 digital marketing tools for SEO, pay-per-click, and analyzing your competitors.

1. Ahrefs: It is an SEO platform that provides you with limited free features to search the competitors’ traffic and keyword traffic.
   • It is currently the most usable platform for SEO, with the largest backlink database, with over 30 trillion links. Tracks keyword traffic potential and site health.
   • Used by 90% of top SEO experts. Helps find content gaps and broken link opportunities.
2. Moz: Helps with tools like site audits, keyword tracking, site audits with Site Crawl, backlink analysis, and competitor traffic analysis.
3. Serpstat: All-in-one SEO and PPC platform for keyword research, competitor analysis, and audits.
   • Unique feature: Covers SEO and paid search data across 15+ search engines with keywords.
   • Affordable for startups and mid-sized businesses.
4. SpyFu: Competitive PPC and SEO analysis showing competitor keywords, ad copy, and budgets.
   • Unique feature: Tracks 24 billion keywords and 10+ years of paid search history.
   • Great for reverse-engineering competitor campaigns.
5. Ubersuggest: SEO and PPC tool offering keyword suggestions and domain analysis.
   • Unique feature: Database of 2 billion keywords with added PPC competitor insights.
   • Popular among small businesses for low-cost plans.
6. SE Ranking: Combines SEO and PPC tracking with site audits and competitor research.
   • Unique feature: Tracks 750 million keywords and offers automated marketing plans.
   • Provides white-label reporting ideal for agencies.
7. Link-Assistant: Focused on backlink audits and keyword rank tracking for SEO campaigns.
   • Unique feature: SEO SpyGlass audits over 1 billion backlinks.
   • Includes supplementary PPC tracking features.
8. Similarweb: Provides digital market intelligence like website traffic and competitor trends.
   • Unique feature: Tracks over 190 million websites with enterprise-level insights.
   • Accuracy and can be integrated through API.
9. Majestic: Works best with backlink analysis and SEO metrics tracking. And best known for link optimization.
   • Its pricing starts from $49.99/monthly for one user.
   • Popular for measuring domain authority and link quality.
10. Mangools: SEO toolkit with keyword research and rank tracking.
    • Updates keyword data daily from billions of searches.
    • The starting price is $19.43/monthly, while it has a free version for the trial.

Comparison Table: The Search Monitor Vs Alternatives

How does The Search Monitor Work?

1. Insert the keywords, like product name, brand, etc.
2. It then uses a special technology known as SmartCrawler to pretend to be human and search for the keywords.
3. The tool collects information from both paid and unpaid search engines to analyze where the brand stands.
4. It checks for unwanted use of the brand name and trademark. If found, it alerts the user.
5. You can get information on the ads’ reach and trends that your competitors are following.

Tips for Choosing the Right Tool for Your Business

The right digital marketing tool for you depends on your requirement from that tool. Follow the tips below when purchasing any tool for your organization.

• Make a list of what features you need, like ads, keyword search, and SEO.
• Start with a less expensive plan first, before buying for the longer term.
• Use the free version before purchasing one. If it fits your needs, you are good to go.
• Always check for customer support and easy-to-integrate tools.
• Read reviews from different known websites like Trustpilot, G2, Capttera, etc.

The right tool saves your money and time. It also gives expected output and later helps in achieving your marketing goals.

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