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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Brandwatch

    Score8.4 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Brandwatch, from Cision (acquired February 2021) is an enterprise social intelligence platform that is designed to allow brands to listen and analyze online conversation to extract meaningful insights, inform their business decisions and understand more about the return on their marketing spend.

    $800

    10k mentions

    SpyFu

    Score7 out of 10
    N/ASpyFu is the eponymous SEO and PPC research platform from the company in Scottsdale, Arizona focused on "spying" on competitors, or basically using their behaviors to refine your own through keyword and content analysis, and backlink poaching. This positional search engine optimization and paid listings management platform touts the ability to lower costs and raise rankings via a Kombat-oriented approach... basically a cute way of saying "it makes comparisons" of how well your site does in niche…

    $39

    per month

    Pricing
    BrandwatchSpyFu
    Editions & Modules
    Pro
    $800
    10k mentions
    Enterprise
    3000+
    Unlimited mentions or Queries
    Basic
    $39
    per month
    Professional
    $79
    per month
    Team
    $299
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BrandwatchSpyFu
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    BrandwatchSpyFu
    SEO
    Comparison of SEO features of Brandwatch and SpyFu
    Feature
    Brandwatch
    -
    Ratings
    SpyFu
    6.6
    52 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Keyword analysis00 Ratings7.052 Ratings
    Backlink management00 Ratings6.040 Ratings
    SERP ranking tracking00 Ratings6.044 Ratings
    Page grader00 Ratings7.829 Ratings
    Competitive analysis00 Ratings7.051 Ratings
    Site audit / diagnostics00 Ratings7.232 Ratings
    Site recommendations00 Ratings6.031 Ratings
    Task management00 Ratings6.120 Ratings
    SEO Channels
    Comparison of SEO Channels features of Brandwatch and SpyFu
    Feature
    Brandwatch
    -
    Ratings
    SpyFu
    5.8
    39 Ratings
    27% below category average
    Local SEO00 Ratings5.033 Ratings
    Social SEO00 Ratings5.028 Ratings
    Mobile SEO00 Ratings8.029 Ratings
    Global SEO00 Ratings5.035 Ratings
    SEO Platform & Account Management
    Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Brandwatch and SpyFu
    Feature
    Brandwatch
    -
    Ratings
    SpyFu
    7.2
    28 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Multi-domain support00 Ratings6.028 Ratings
    Integration with web analytics tools00 Ratings8.518 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BrandwatchSpyFu
    Small Businesses
    Mention
    Score8 out of 10
    Serpstat
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Mention
    Score8 out of 10
    Yoast
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Social Suite by Reputation.com
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Google Trends
    Score8.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BrandwatchSpyFu
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (69 ratings)
    7.0
    (62 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    10.0
    (10 ratings)
    Usability
    6.0
    (8 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.9
    (14 ratings)
    7.6
    (13 ratings)
    Online Training
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BrandwatchSpyFu
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cision
    The user interface is great and is easy to use for social media marketers of all ranges. In regard to planning and scheduling content, it allows all users with access to the capability to view all upcoming on an actual calendar. For organizational purposes, this is great and mitigates any confusion that other team members may have. The tool seems to always be updating which has its pros and cons because once you figure something out, there's a switch and you'll need to relearn how things are positioned but overall, it's not a heavy lift.
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    SpyFu
    If you have a Google ads PPC campaign and then I would say this is more or less essential if you want to know what your competitors are doing. You can get very useful data out of it even if you subscribe for one month. And the pricing is very reasonable. Even if you don't use Google ads, I would say this is still useful for your SEO/SMO team since it gives you a great idea of what keywords and traffic your competitors are working on.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cision
    • Clean, beautiful visuals that can be easily incorporated into reports to be used internally and externally.
    • Customization-- anywhere from the queries you create to adjusting individual report widget/components this tool is very flexible.
    • Excellent Customer Service and support. My Brandwatch rep is always open to hearing from me for questions and often reaches out to me to check in on my status or see if I would like to participate in beta programs.
    • Constant innovation. It seems like Brandwatch is constantly updating and adding improvements to their platform--especially with their 2019 acquisition of Crimson Hexagon.
    Incentivized
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    SpyFu
    • Keeping a tab on competitors organic and inorganic activities
    • Helps identify where the competitor is getting the backlinks from.
    • Identify competitors top content and the keywords that's bringing them traffic
    • Get proper information of their current and past ADS run on Google.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cision
    • Very steep learning curve- good luck training casual users on the difference between a query, a rule, a category etc
    • Lack of access to FULL historic data is a serious drawback- populating that data takes a minimum of 24 hours and incurs additional costs
    • Volume limits mean you may have to build your query to exclude mentions that may be useful in getting the full context of the situation
    Incentivized
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    SpyFu
    • As with any database, their keyword database has limits, so the data returned is relative to their database, not necessarily the full picture.
    • When SpyFu database or scoring chances, the data provided can spike, thus causing confusion among stakeholders, we're reporting to.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cision
    Brandwatch is a simple tool that is easy to learn and understand. Without any rigorous training, the team can learn to use it and interpret the results in an efficient manner. It saves a lot of work and helps the team to focus on other important time consuming tasks. I would like to continue using Brandwatch.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    Love this tool but would like insights from all 3 major search engines not just Google. I would also like deeper understanding of the placement for local businesses on Google Places/Maps. Insight into mobile search rankings and best landing pages per industry would also help :) Overall, SpyFu is a necessity for serious search marketers.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cision
    I've invited quite a few of my colleagues to try Brandwatch, and all of them were able to use its features with no assistance, and most of these had never used a social listening/monitoring tool before, or even a digital analytics tool! Brandwatch is not only easy to use, but filters, widgets, menus and other options are in intuitive places - it just works
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    SpyFu is an easy to use tool, and has a self -explanatroy dashborad to generate the data needed to provide insights into any B2B SEO and PPC campaign. It is not comprehensive, but it certainly provides good enough insight to make it a valuable part of any agency tool stack
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cision
    Brandwatch craps out sometimes. Pages freeze, data doesn't populate for hours. It's fine if you're not in a hurry but something to keep in mind if you're working in real-time. It's not as bad as Talkwalker but it's impacted timely delivery of work for me, and one of the first things I teach when introducing the platform is the process for closing out and re-logging in to see if it unfreezes
    Incentivized
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    SpyFu
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Cision
    We have not had to reach out to the team for much support but when we did, The support from the Team has been Superb. We were given the assistance needed once requested by the Team. We would recommend Falcon not only because the product is simply amazing but also because of the level of support we have reached.
    Incentivized
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    SpyFu
    SpyFu comes with a link to tutorial videos. I recommend you watch them. The software is capable of so much you really need to watch the videos and learn how to get the most out of it. When I have a question 90% of the time it's there. When it isn't, and I reach out to them, support is always quick and concise.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Cision
    good knowledge, great tips, although the program seems a bit disconnected. It could improve it they create more free webinars and a good content calendar and tackle little topics in each webinar. Their trainers are top notch and they know a lot about the tool but they fall a bit low on technical level understanding of how the tool actually works
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Cision
    Not that I can think of.
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cision
    If you're using it to monitor your brand's social presence only, or if you're in an agency and using it to monitor existing clients and provide reports to them, then this is a great tool and you're hard-pressed to find something better. But if you're wanting it more for new business and discovery, there are tools that do this much better, including Sysomos and Crimson Hexagon. So it depends on what specifically you're trying to do. My agency was already using this product when I arrived, so I did not have a choice in the matter, but I've evaluated both of these other tools. Crimson is similar enough that the slight increase in cost doesn't justify switching. Synthesio is the most expensive competitor in the market (no matter what they tell you), but you get what you pay for. If you can afford it, go with Synthesio.
    Incentivized
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    SpyFu
    I was surprised to find I preferred Semrush when it comes to keyword research. SpyFu is great (and less expensive than Semrush), but I felt the data Semrush provided was vaster than SpyFu. I was able to get more competitors spending insights in Semrush than SpyFu. Overall, I liked the ability to use both in our keyword research for both paid and organic marketing.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cision
    • At a high level, the biggest impact the Brandwatch Analytics has had is giving us the ability to quantify the impact of social media for our clients. In the world of social, ROI is defined and interpreted differently across clients (particularly where it's more difficult to apply traditional ROI) - so this may mean reporting on earned media for some, while for others it's measuring increasing engagements or social mentions over time.
    Incentivized
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    SpyFu
    • Helping us track our ranking.
    • It helps solve the problem of ambiguity when it comes to Google Ads. It makes the strategy more clear.
    • You can sift through lots of different online analytics to find the information, but it takes way too long. SpyFu has it all in one place!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Brandwatch Screenshots

    Product screenshot