In a world where everything is commented on, shared, and analyzed in real time, knowing what is said about your brand on the internet is no longer optional: It is vital. And we are not just talking about mentions on social media, but perceptions, emotions, criticisms, praises, and trends that can affect your reputation (for better or worse) in a matter of minutes.
In 2025, having an online presence is no longer enough. What matters is understanding how that presence is perceived, what is working, what concerns your audience, what sets you apart... and above all, how you can react on time. Because what is not measured, is not improved. And what is not heard, is lost.
This is where Brandwatch comes in, a tool designed so that brands not only listen to what is said about them, but also transform that information into strategic decisions. If you have ever asked yourself “What is said about us out there?”, this analysis is for you. Let’s see how Brandwatch performs.
What is Brandwatch?
Brandwatch is an active listening and social data analysis platform that helps companies understand what is being said about them on the internet. Founded in 2007 in Brighton, United Kingdom, the tool has evolved from being a social media monitoring software to becoming a world-class solution for brand management and social media analysis, standing out for its excellence and superior level compared to other options.
In 2021, Brandwatch was acquired by Cision, a move that consolidated its position as one of the most powerful platforms in the field of social listening and brand analysis.
But what exactly does Brandwatch do? Basically, it collects and analyzes millions of online conversations happening on social media, blogs, forums, digital media, and other public corners of the internet. All this is translated into dashboards, charts, and insights that allow companies to detect trends, understand consumer perception, anticipate reputational crises, and evaluate the impact of their campaigns.
What’s interesting is that it doesn’t stop at the volume of mentions, but analyzes the sentiment, context, and emotions behind the comments. For example, a company can use Brandwatch to monitor a social media crisis, quickly identifying negative comments and adapting its communication strategy in real time.
In other words, Brandwatch is like having a high-precision radar that tells you in real time what the world thinks of your brand. And if you are in the B2B world, this can make the difference between leading your sector or falling behind, since the speed with which Brandwatch allows you to detect and respond to changes in brand perception is key in such a dynamic digital environment. Because understanding your audience and your competition with real data is no longer a luxury, it is part of the strategy.
Why should my company use Brandwatch?
Because today, more than ever, information is power, and Brandwatch gives you just that: visibility into what is happening around your brand in the digital world. It’s not just about measuring likes or retweets, but about understanding the context in which your company is talked about, how your value proposition is perceived, and what emotions you evoke in your audience. This information allows you to make strategic decisions based on real data, not assumptions.
Furthermore, Brandwatch not only helps you react in time to a crisis, but it also provides you with the tools to anticipate it. Imagine detecting a recurring complaint before it goes viral, or identifying an emerging trend just when you can take advantage of it.
For B2B companies, which often have longer decision cycles and more complex business relationships, this type of insight can make a difference in how you communicate, position your offer, and manage your reputation.
Finally, because competing in a saturated digital environment requires more than good intentions: it requires a clear vision, based on data. Brandwatch offers you that clarity, giving you a real competitive advantage over those who still manage their online presence “blindly.” If you take the growth and sustainability of your brand seriously, this tool can become one of your most valuable assets.
Main Features of Brandwatch
Before choosing a platform to manage your brand image, it is vital to know if its functions meet our needs. To that end, here is a summary of the main features of Brandwatch:
- Real-time active listening: Monitors millions of conversations on social media, blogs, forums, news outlets, and other online sources.
- Sentiment analysis: Automatically detects whether comments about your brand are positive, negative, or neutral.
- Data visualization: Customizable dashboards that allow clear and actionable interpretation of information.
- Mention tracking: Identifies when, where, and how often your brand (or your competitors') is mentioned.
- Trend and emerging topic analysis: Discovers what is starting to be talked about before anyone else.
- Advanced segmentation: Filters data by geographic location, language, channel, user type, and more.
- Competitive analysis: Compares your online presence with that of your main competitors.
- Automatic alerts: Receives notifications when there are abnormal activity spikes or relevant sentiment changes.
- Integrations with other tools: Connects with platforms like Hootsuite, Slack, Google Analytics, or CRMs such as Salesforce.
- Automatic reports: Generates periodic reports with key insights for marketing, communication, or management teams.
Pros of Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a social listening platform whose results speak for themselves. In addition to offering new opportunities to improve your brand and connect with your audience, it provides a vast array of content to increase your website’s presence and performance. Among its main advantages are:
- Very wide data coverage: Access millions of sources, from social networks like Facebook or Instagram to forums and digital media.
- Sentiment and emotion analysis: Allows you to understand not only what is said but also how users feel about your brand.
- Visual and intuitive interface: Customizable dashboards that facilitate the reading of complex data.
- Powerful alert system: Real-time notifications for unusual spikes or relevant mentions.
- High segmentation capacity: Advanced filters by country, language, channel, topics, among others.
- Features designed for large teams: Ideal for companies with multiple departments or brands.
- Automated and exportable reports: Saves time by generating ready-to-present reports for different stakeholders.
- Useful integrations: Compatible with marketing tools, CRM, and internal communication.
Cons of Brandwatch
Despite its good results, Brandwatch may not fit your company's objectives. After conducting a study of the platform and reviewing the main opinions of its clients, we have compiled this list of cons:
- High price: It can be a barrier for startups or small businesses with limited budgets.
- Initial learning curve: Some advanced features require time and training to master.
- Too many features for basic needs: In certain cases, it can be excessive if only simple monitoring is sought.
- Dependence on external source connections: Some platforms or channels may have access limitations or API restrictions.
Audience: Who is Brandwatch for?
Now that we know Brandwatch inside out, it's time to ask if it is the online presence solution your SME needs to manage all its social networks.
To clear up your doubts, we have made a list of the types of users who can benefit from this platform. They are the following:
- Large companies and corporations that manage multiple brands or have a presence in various markets.
- Marketing and communication departments that need to monitor campaigns, reputation, and brand perception in real time.
- Marketing agencies and consultancies that offer social listening and data analysis services to their clients.
- B2B companies operating in highly competitive sectors, where reputation, differentiation, and customer knowledge are key.
- Customer service or crisis management teams that need to quickly detect problems and act with clear information.
- Brands with a strong social media presence that must manage an active community and react to key mentions.
- Innovation and product departments that seek to detect emerging trends, unmet needs, or useful feedback directly from the market.
- Companies focused on customer experience (CX) that use social insights to improve processes, services, and relationships.
Why Users Switch to Brandwatch
Many users decide to switch to Brandwatch when their current monitoring tools fall short of their new needs. As a company grows or enters new markets, the volume and complexity of online conversations increase.
This is where Brandwatch stands out, thanks to its extensive data coverage, deep analysis capability, and strength in visualization and reporting. It not only offers more data but also allows for clear interpretation and swift action.
Another common reason is the need for greater customization and control over dashboards and search filters. Users working with large teams or managing multiple brands particularly value the ability to segment data by campaigns, regions, languages, and specific profiles.
In addition, many organizations come to Brandwatch seeking a platform that combines social listening with market intelligence and competitive analysis, all in one place.
Why some users leave Brandwatch
Despite its multiple advantages, there are users who decide to leave Brandwatch, and one of the most common reasons is the price.
For small businesses or teams with tight budgets, the license cost can be difficult to justify, especially if the full potential of the tool is not utilized. In these cases, they often opt for more affordable platforms with basic monitoring features.
Another common reason is the learning curve. Although Brandwatch is very powerful, it can also be complex at first, especially for those without prior experience in data analysis or advanced social listening.
If the team lacks the time or resources to train properly, it is easy for them to feel overwhelmed or not get the most out of it. For this reason, some companies prefer to switch to simpler tools, even if it means sacrificing depth in analysis.
Brandwatch Plans and Pricing (2025)
Brandwatch does not publish fixed rates on its website, as the price adapts based on the selected solution, number of users, data volume, and included modules. But we can tell you that the main available categories are:
- Consumer Intelligence (market research, advanced listening): custom pricing, low annual budget.
- Social Media Management (management and publishing on networks, social calendar): custom pricing.
- Influencer Marketing (discovery, management, and analysis of influencer campaigns): custom pricing.
What we also know is that Brandwatch offers custom contracts, and it is common to get discounts of 30% to 35% off the initial proposed price, especially in multi-year agreements or licenses with large data volumes.
Additionally, you can request a free demo of Brandwatch to explore its features and evaluate the platform before making a purchase decision.
Brandwatch Implementation
The implementation of Brandwatch can vary in complexity depending on the size of the company and the depth with which the tool is intended to be used.
For large organizations, with multiple brands or international presence, it may require a more elaborate initial setup: establishing search terms, connecting social channels, defining custom dashboards, and training the team. Even so, Brandwatch provides support throughout this process, which significantly reduces the internal technical burden.
For smaller teams or those who only want to cover the essentials (such as mention tracking and basic sentiment analysis), the rollout can be much quicker, and in some cases operational within a few days. The implementation curve also depends on the team's prior knowledge of analysis and social listening tools.
An important aspect is that Brandwatch does not require local installations or own servers: it is a cloud-based solution, so the entire process is managed remotely, facilitating access from anywhere and collaboration among distributed teams.
In general, although it is not a "plug and play" tool like other simpler ones, Brandwatch offers a fairly structured implementation, with resources and guidance to ensure users get the most out of it from the start.
Brandwatch Training Resources
Brandwatch has invested significantly in offering quality training materials so users can learn to handle the tool, from basics to advanced features. These resources are especially valuable for speeding up the learning curve and encouraging strategic use of the platform. These are the main resources:
- Brandwatch Academy: Online platform with free and certified courses about functionalities, best practices, and use cases.
- Help Center: Knowledge base with detailed articles, step-by-step guides, and FAQs.
- Webinars and live sessions: Periodic trainings delivered by experts, at different levels of depth.
- Technical support and customer success: Direct assistance to resolve technical doubts, configure alerts, dashboards, or adjust search criteria.
- Personalized onboarding: For enterprise accounts, initial guidance tailored to client objectives is offered.
- Community and user forums: Space to share experiences, resolve doubts, and discover new ways to use the platform.
Thanks to this variety of resources, both technical profiles and marketing or communication professionals can train progressively and autonomously, without relying on external experts for every adjustment.
Usability and Interface
One of Brandwatch's strengths is its modern, clean, and highly visual interface. Despite being a very powerful tool with multiple layers of analysis, the platform is designed with a logical structure and panels that help avoid getting lost in the data.
From the first access, it is easy to orient yourself and start exploring dashboards, mentions, and sentiment analysis.
The visualizations are interactive and allow filtering results, adjusting parameters, and generating reports with ease. The menus are well organized and the navigation system is smooth, even when handling large volumes of data. Additionally, the ability to customize dashboards helps each user focus on what they really need to see.
That said, to take full advantage of Brandwatch's potential (especially in boolean searches or advanced segments), some practice or training is necessary. This is where the previously mentioned learning resources play a key role.
In summary, the user experience is very positive for those looking for a robust yet accessible tool. Brandwatch achieves a balance between sophistication and ease of use, something not all social listening platforms can claim.
Is Brandwatch a secure tool?
Security is a fundamental aspect for any company that handles large volumes of data, and Brandwatch takes this very seriously.
The platform complies with strict international protection and privacy standards, including certifications such as ISO 27001, which guarantees secure information management and the implementation of controls to prevent risks and vulnerabilities.
Additionally, Brandwatch employs advanced encryption protocols for both data transmission and storage, ensuring that sensitive information is protected against unauthorized access. The infrastructure is hosted in cloud environments with high availability and resilience, minimizing risks of data loss or service interruptions.
It also offers personalized access controls, with configurable permissions and roles so that each user has the appropriate level according to their responsibilities. This, combined with periodic audits and internal cybersecurity processes, strengthens the trust of companies that use Brandwatch to analyze critical information about their brand and market.
In short, Brandwatch is not only a powerful tool but also ensures the security and confidentiality that organizations require, especially those operating in regulated sectors or with highly sensitive data.
Customer Service: How to Contact Brandwatch?
Brandwatch offers its users multiple channels to receive help and support, adapting to different needs and service levels. Firstly, it has a customer service team available during business hours, which can handle technical, commercial, or configuration inquiries via email or chat.
For enterprise clients or those with advanced plans, Brandwatch offers a dedicated customer success service, with personalized managers who support teams throughout the entire implementation and usage, ensuring the tool adapts to the specific business objectives.
Additionally, as part of its ecosystem, Brandwatch has an online support portal with resources such as FAQs, tutorials, guides, and user forums where quick answers can be found and experiences shared with other professionals. They also organize periodic webinars and training sessions to resolve doubts live.
Finally, the platform features a direct line for critical issues that require urgent attention, ideal for those needing to respond quickly to problems or special situations.
In summary, Brandwatch combines human support and digital resources to ensure every company has the necessary assistance at any stage of the process.
Competition: Alternatives to Brandwatch
There are several alternatives to Brandwatch that companies can consider depending on their budget needs and ease of management.
Below we present the ones we like the most:
Hootsuite Insights
Social listening platform integrated with the popular social media manager Hootsuite. Allows monitoring mentions, analyzing sentiment, and measuring campaigns. Stands out for its direct integration with social media management and its intuitive interface.
Talkwalker
Powerful tool for social and digital media analysis with a focus on images and video as well as text. It stands out for its sentiment analysis and global coverage. Compared to Brandwatch, Talkwalker excels in its extensive multimedia database and deep sentiment analysis.
Sprout Social
More than just social listening, it is a complete suite for social media management that includes monitoring, publishing, and analysis. Sprout Social is highly valued by marketing teams due to its all-in-one functionality and comprehensive customizable reports.
Mention
Ideal for startups and SMEs, Mention allows tracking mentions in real time and analyzing competitors. It is very easy to use and affordable, as well as offering really useful features like real-time alerts to catch opportunities at the right moment.
Meltwater
Meltwater is a robust tool for monitoring traditional and digital media, with sentiment analysis and trend tracking for large companies. Its coverage of traditional and digital media makes it stand out from other alternatives. Additionally, its support for multiple languages makes it ideal for teams with employees in different parts of the world.
NetBase Quid
We conclude our list of alternatives with NetBase Quid, an advanced social media analysis and market intelligence platform, featuring natural language processing (NLP) capabilities. NetBase adapts to new technologies by enhancing its analyses with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI). That is why it is the perfect platform for businesses focused on market intelligence.
Do We Recommend Brandwatch?
Without a doubt, we recommend Brandwatch for many reasons. As we have seen, Brandwatch is a sophisticated social listening and analytics platform that provides businesses with comprehensive insights into their brand's online presence and consumer conversations.
Overall, Brandwatch receives a score of 4.6 out of 5 from users and is highly recommended for medium and large organizations seeking advanced social listening and analytics, especially those that prioritize detailed consumer insights and data-driven decision-making.
- Who should avoid it?: Companies that do not have a large budget to spend annually on marketing tools of this kind.
- Our favorite aspect: Its advanced sentiment analysis, the tool provides insights into public perception and real-time monitoring of brand mentions
- Major drawback: Steep learning curve for new users.
- The best alternative: A strong competitor to Brandwatch is SproutSocial. It focuses on offering a more streamlined and user-friendly experience with robust social media management features.
