Comparison
Waldo vs. Adbeat: the spend map and the creative record
Adbeat maps display spend, networks, and placements. Waldo hands agents the social and search creatives themselves, daily.
The short answer
Adbeat is display ad intelligence: modeled advertiser spend, publisher and network placements, and creatives across display, native, and programmatic, on published tiers plus an enterprise plan. Waldo tracks the social and search side raw: Meta and Google ad libraries pulled daily per brand, served to agents through 200+ API and MCP endpoints.
Adbeat is a specialist. It watches display, native, and programmatic advertising, then tells you which advertisers spend where: the publishers their ads run on, the networks and buying paths that got them there, and the creatives themselves, with modeled spend estimates on top. It sells on published Standard and Advanced tiers with an enterprise plan above them, and offers an API.
Waldo covers the channels Adbeat does not lead with, and covers them differently. It pulls the Meta and Google ad libraries daily for every tracked brand, keeps each creative permanently even after it stops running, snapshots the landing pages behind the ads, and serves everything through 200+ REST endpoints and a native MCP server, next to category and audience data.
When each one wins
Choose Waldo when
- Social and search creative is the battleground, and you need every active ad the day it appears.
- The landing page behind each ad matters as much as the ad itself.
- Agents run your competitive tracking, so the record has to arrive over API and MCP.
- Audience conversation and category trends belong next to the paid picture.
Choose Adbeat when
- Display and native are your channels, and you need publishers, networks, and buying paths.
- Modeled spend estimates drive your planning and budget conversations.
- You research direct buys versus programmatic paths across ad networks.
- Published tiers let you buy without an enterprise sales cycle.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Waldo | Adbeat |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Agents and the teams that run them | Advertisers and publishers researching display |
| Primary surface | 200+ REST endpoints plus a native MCP server | An ad intelligence dashboard, with an API |
| What a query returns | The raw creatives, landing page snapshots, or scored analysis | Modeled spend, placements, buying paths, and creatives |
| Coverage model | Brand, category, and audience in one surface | Display, native, and programmatic advertising |
| Paid ads intelligence | Meta and Google ad libraries tracked daily per brand | The core product, centered on display channels |
| Data freshness | Tracked entities refresh every 24 hours; Discover endpoints query platforms live | Modeled data refreshed on the platform’s schedule |
| Pricing | Credit-metered, no per-seat fees | Published tiers, plus an enterprise plan |
Where Waldo is different
The ads as they ran
Waldo returns the actual creatives from the Meta and Google ad libraries, tracked daily per brand and stored permanently, so the record shows what ran rather than an estimate of what it cost.
Landing pages included
/brands/{id}/lp-changes tracks where the ads send people and how those pages change over time, which is often where a strategy shift shows first.
Agents do the tracking
The discover_ads MCP tool and /brands/{id}/ads/active?since= let a scheduled agent diff what is new since yesterday and write the morning competitive note itself.
Context beyond paid
Category trends, audience verbatims, and GWI panels live in the same API, so a new competitor campaign can be read against the conversation it lands in.
Questions teams ask
Does Waldo cover display networks?
Waldo tracks the Meta and Google ad libraries daily per brand, which cover the social and search creative most brand teams compete on. Publisher-level display placements and network buying paths are Adbeat territory.
Does Waldo estimate spend?
No. Waldo carries the creatives, landing pages, and timing raw, with sources attached, and leaves spend modeling to tools built for it. If the deliverable is a spend chart, Adbeat fits; if it is the creative and messaging record, Waldo carries it.
Can I run both?
Reasonably, if display placements and social creative both matter to you. Waldo is self-serve: sign up at /build/get-started, mint a key, and have an agent pull a rival’s active ads before you decide anything.
Keep reading
Put Waldo behind your agents
Brand, category, and audience intelligence over 200+ API and MCP endpoints. Sign up, mint a key, and run it against the brands you actually track.