Ads Lighthouse vs The Only Billboard: Which Is Better in 2026?

Ads Lighthouse is paid search ad monitoring software for brand teams, affiliate managers, PPC/SEM teams, and agencies. It records paid text ads observed for selected keywords on Google and Bing, then organizes observations by project, advertiser, keyword, market, device, and date. Google Shopping sponsored product listings have a separate report and are available on Growth plans and above.

Choose country or city locations and desktop or mobile devices. Monitoring can run on a schedule determined by the plan, from daily checks to checks every two hours on higher plans. Teams can also start an on-demand check; scheduled and on-demand checks have separate monthly allowances. Each check is counted by keyword, location, device, and source.

Every saved ad includes its headline, description, advertiser domain, destination URL, search term, engine, location, device, and time. Reports include an overview of observations over time, a paid-results explorer for advertiser domains, keyword and advertiser drilldowns, and ad-copy history. The explorer groups domains with observed affiliate markers, brand mentions, coupon sites, or lookalike domains. Visibility is the share of monitored searches that included a domain; it is not Google impression share. Filters include dates, engine, device, operating system, country, and location, and carry into exports.

Affiliate managers can configure the URL parameter and IDs used by their program. Ads Lighthouse matches configured IDs in saved Google ad links and keeps unknown IDs visible. Teams can define their own policy rules and review cases with status, notes, history, and evidence. Alerts cover new advertisers, advertisers returning after 30 days away, ads that mention a configured brand, and detected affiliate IDs; delivery is by email, Slack, or webhook.

Tables can be exported as CSV or Excel with current filters. PDF project reports are included in every plan and kept for seven days. Teams can invite members and admins who share the account's projects and history. An MCP server is included in every plan; REST API access is available on Scale and higher.

Plans are billed monthly in USD: Starter $49, Growth $99, Scale $299, Business $599, and Enterprise is custom. A seven-day free trial is available. There is no per-seat pricing or overage charge.

What problem it solves

Teams need to know which domains appeared on their brand searches and whether advertisers return across markets. Ads Lighthouse stores each observation with its search, location, device, and time so brand, affiliate, and paid-search teams can review the evidence together. An observed ad shows that it appeared in a monitored search; it does not establish what keyword was purchased, what was spent, or whether infringement occurred.

RELVE became the first paid advertiser at $1 and is live on The Only Billboard now. The next buyer pays $2 to replace it, and RELVE then moves into permanent History. Every takeover raises the next price by $1.

The site has exactly one live ad across the entire website. The billboard itself links to the current advertiser, so a buyer gets the whole visible space instead of one small banner in a grid.

Every displaced ad remains publicly archived with its place in the succession. That makes a takeover both current advertising and a permanent record of having held the internet’s one-slot billboard.