Top Keyword Monitoring Tools for PR Pros in 2025

Where I am from, there is a superstition that every time you hiccup, someone, somewhere, just mentioned your name. Imagine you did the same every time someone talks about you online.

The truth is that you don't have to imagine it, because there are keyword tracking apps that do exactly this: alert you every time someone mentions you.

Today, we’re covering ten of the very best keyword monitoring tools in the industry, along with their pros, cons, and pricing.

What is keyword monitoring?

Keyword monitoring is the process of tracking mentions of a certain keyword online, on websites, social media, forums, online communities, and on offline platforms such as newspapers, magazines, and TV broadcasts.

Keyword monitoring, media monitoring, and social media monitoring are often bundled together, which is fair, as they overlap quite a bit. But there are distinct differences too:

Wanna know more about the differences between these three? Read these articles:
➖ What's the Difference Between Social Listening and Social Monitoring in PR?
➖ Top 15+ Social Listening Tools for PR Pros
➖ How to Create a Powerful Social Listening Strategy for PR?

What makes PR keyword monitoring different from SEO keyword monitoring?

Keyword monitoring is used in both PR and SEO contexts, but it has different meanings in each.

In PR, keyword monitoring involves tracking all instances of a specific keyword (whether branded or another keyword) as it appears across different online platforms.

In SEO, keyword monitoring is about tracking the search engine performance of certain keywords. In other words, who is ranking for a certain keyword in the top results (in search engines like Google) and how your business or your clients are ranking for that keyword.

PR keyword monitoring is about what’s being said about you out in the world.
SEO keyword monitoring is about how people find you through search engines.

Top keyword monitoring tools (with PR-specific use cases)

Whether you work in-house as a part of a marketing or PR team or in an agency, a keyword monitoring tool is an excellent addition to your tech stack. Let's help you find the best keyword tracker for your needs.

#1 Prowly

Prowly is a dedicated PR software suite built for media monitoring, journalist outreach, press release publishing, and reporting. Prowly's keyword monitoring capabilities are explicitly tailored to track brand mentions, product names, executive references, and more across digital media and both online and offline platforms.

Pros:

✅ Built specifically for PR teams and agencies
✅ Combines media monitoring, pitching, and campaign reporting in one place
✅ Filters by sentiment, language, region, or domain type
✅ Lets you build custom media lists and track pitch engagement
✅ Helps build highly visual reports for stakeholders
✅ Covers both online and offline (print and broadcast) mentions

Cons:

❌ Media monitoring is only available in higher-tier plans

PR-specific use case:

A comms team launches a new product and wants to track where the brand and product names are being mentioned across the news. Prowly provides real-time alerts and sentiment analysis and lets users bundle this into a campaign report to show stakeholders engagement the release received.

💸 Pricing: Starts at $339/month with media monitoring included.

#2 Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a simple, free tool that lets you track mentions of specific keywords across Google-indexed content; such as news, blogs, and websites.

Pros:

✅ Completely free
✅ Easy to set up
✅ Delivers mentions to your inbox

Cons:

❌ No analytics or sentiment analysis
❌ No coverage of social media or paywalled content
❌ High risk of irrelevant results or missed mentions

PR-specific use case:

A small PR team sets up alerts for a brand name and competitor to stay updated on basic media coverage without needing a full monitoring platform.

💸 Pricing: Free

#3 Brand24

Brand24 is a media and social monitoring platform that tracks mentions of keywords across websites, forums, blogs, and social media. It’s popular among PR, marketing, and brand teams.

Pros:

✅ Covers social media, blogs, and forums in addition to news
✅ Real-time alerts with sentiment analysis
✅ Influencer scoring and reach metrics
✅ Team collaboration tools

Cons:

❌ The interface can be overwhelming for beginners
❌ Historical data and premium features are only available in higher plans

PR-specific use case:

A PR team managing a brand reputation campaign uses Brand24 to track the volume and tone of media mentions across different online channels, including Reddit and Twitter.

💸 Pricing: Starts at $199/month

#4 Mention

Mention offers media and social listening tools to monitor keywords, track sentiment, and analyze conversations in real time across digital platforms.

Pros:

✅ User-friendly dashboard
✅ Good real-time capabilities
✅ Includes social listening and analytics
✅ Offers automation rules for alerts

Cons:

❌ Limited historical data in lower plans
❌ May miss some smaller media outlets

PR-specific use case:

A boutique PR agency tracks client brand mentions across the web and Twitter and uses Mention’s sentiment filter to flag potential reputation risks.

💸 Pricing: Starts at $49/month

#5 Meltwater

Meltwater is a high-end media intelligence platform offering extensive global coverage across news, broadcast, print, social media, and podcasts. It’s designed for large PR and comms teams.

Pros:

✅ Access to premium and paywalled news sources
✅ Broadcast and print coverage
✅ Strong analytics, share of voice, and campaign tracking tools
✅ Integrates with newsroom and CRM tools

Cons:

❌ Expensive and complex to set up
❌ Locked-in contracts with custom pricing

PR-specific use case:

A global PR team needs to monitor a brand crisis across multiple markets and languages. Meltwater provides cross-platform media insights, historical context, and customizable dashboards.

💸 Pricing: Meltwater pricing is estimated at $15,000/yr to $20,000/yr.

#6 Talkwalker

Talkwalker offers powerful media and social listening features, plus visual recognition tools to track brand logos and keywords in images and videos.

Pros:

✅ AI-driven sentiment analysis and trend spotting
✅ Visual brand recognition
✅ Tracks across social, news, broadcast, and podcasts
✅ Competitor benchmarking

Cons:

❌ Enterprise-level pricing
❌ Setup and onboarding can take time

PR-specific use case:

A brand manager uses Talkwalker to detect logo placements and mentions during a sponsored event, monitoring both text and image-based content across media.

💸 Pricing: Starts at ~$9,600/year (custom plans)

#7 Semrush

While primarily an SEO platform, Semrush includes a brand monitoring tool that lets users track mentions of any keyword across the web, including backlinks and media sites.

Pros:

✅ Combines PR and SEO visibility in one dashboard
✅ Tracks new backlinks and brand mentions
✅ Shows domain authority and estimated traffic

Cons:

❌ Limited social media coverage
❌ Not PR-specific, it lacks sentiment and journalist insights

PR-specific use case:

A digital PR team uses Semrush to track the number of backlinks and mentions earned from their latest campaign and evaluates media authority.

💸 Pricing: Starts at $139.95/month

#8 Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an SEO tool that includes alerts for brand mentions and backlinks, helping digital PR teams keep track of earned media value from campaigns.

Pros:

✅ Strong backlink monitoring
✅ Tracks unlinked brand mentions
✅ Includes SEO metrics like domain rating

Cons:

❌ No sentiment analysis or PR dashboards
❌ Not focused on traditional media or journalist relationships

PR-specific use case:

A PR team running a link-building campaign uses Ahrefs to track which articles mention the brand and whether they include a link — helping them follow up with journalists.

💸 Pricing: Starts at $129/month

#9 Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a social media management platform with strong listening features. It helps PR teams track keyword mentions and sentiment on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

Pros:

✅ Strong sentiment and trend analysis
✅ Unified inbox for team collaboration
✅ Visual reports for brand health and awareness
✅ Competitor comparison tools

Cons:

❌ No coverage of traditional media (news, blogs)
❌ Price scales quickly with team size

PR-specific use case:

A PR team monitors public sentiment around a new ad campaign, tracking hashtags and branded keywords in real time during rollout.

💸 Pricing: Starts at $199/month

#10 Social Searcher

Social Searcher is a lightweight social media monitoring tool that lets you track keyword mentions across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and web blogs. It focuses on real-time insights and is a good fit for individuals or small teams who want simple monitoring without enterprise-level complexity.

Pros:

✅ Free tier available with basic monitoring
✅ Tracks keywords across multiple social platforms
✅ Sentiment analysis included
✅ Exports to Excel and offers basic analytics

Cons:

❌ Limited media coverage outside social channels
❌ Dated interface and limited automation
❌ No journalist database or PR-specific outreach features

PR-specific use case:

A small business or solo PR pro uses Social Searcher to monitor real-time reactions on social media to a product launch or press coverage, especially looking for user sentiment and influencer engagement.

💸 Pricing: starts at 8.49EUR/month

Free vs. paid keyword tracking tools

Free keyword tracking tools offer tons of value, but they have certain limitations. If you're just keen to try out keyword tracking, starting with a free tool makes a lot of sense.

However, if you're looking to utilize a keyword monitoring tool on a daily basis, considering paid tools is the smarter move. Here is how to know which one to go for.

✅ Go with a free tool if you:

• Only need basic alerts (e.g., mentions of your brand name or a campaign hashtag)
• Are okay with limited sources (most free tools focus on the web or the news, not forums, podcasts, or social)
• Don’t need detailed metrics or analytics — just want to be notified when something pops up
• Have a tight budget and can afford to miss some mentions or dig manually for insights
• Are testing the waters or running a short-term campaign

🛠 Examples: Google Alerts, Talkwalker Alerts, Social Searcher (basic plans)

💼 Choose a paid tool if you:

• Need real-time alerts across multiple channels, including news, social media, blogs, and podcasts
• Want access to sentiment analysis, audience reach, or share of voice
• Manage multiple campaigns or clients and need dashboards, tags, or exports
• Want to measure PR impact over time with consistent tracking and reporting tools
• Need reliable support and integrations (e.g., Slack, email digests, or media lists)

🛠 Examples: Prowly (media monitoring), Brand24, Meltwater, Mention

Four tips to make the most of your keyword monitoring

To make the most out of keyword monitoring in your PR and marketing team, you need to treat it as a crucial marketing activity, not as an afterthought. Here are some of our top tips to get the most out of keyword monitoring.

1️⃣ Set up alerts for spokespersons, execs and other relevant people in your business.

This way, you'll get a notification every time they're mentioned by bloggers, content creators, and other businesses.

2️⃣ Monitor campaign keywords in real time.

Instead of waiting for reports to come in every week or month, monitor your keywords as they come into your dashboard. This helps you prevent crises and spot opportunities as they appear.

3️⃣ Track competitors and industry trends.

Monitoring your own branded terms is a great start, but you can also keep an eye on the competition and broader industry terms.

4️⃣ Pair monitoring with media outreach for optimal results.

If you see certain outlets covering relevant keywords (e.g., your competitors or important industry terms), use outreach tools to get in touch with the journalist(s). They might be interested in talking about you too.

Conclusion

Keyword monitoring can help you stay on top of who mentions you, when, and in what context. The best keyword tracking tools are those that combine keyword monitoring with other PR-specific features, such as sentiment analysis, press release and pitching tools, a media database, and others.

In other words, your PR team needs Prowly. It lets you monitor, create beautiful and comprehensive reports, and prove the value of ROI to every stakeholder involved.