# Coverage meets judgment.

Compare continuous signal monitoring with manual merchant research and learn how the approaches work together.

People are good at understanding context. Monitoring helps direct that attention toward new developments.

## How they work together

Let monitoring identify changes worth a look. Let researchers verify the source, understand the merchant and decide whether an action would be useful. Automation should improve the starting point for judgment.

## Evaluate on your own workflow

Choose representative merchants and define what a useful event looks like. Review the source, timing, relevance and work required to act. These comparisons describe approaches, not a feature audit of any named vendor.

Question: Primary question

Manual research: What can we learn about this merchant?

Ecommerce signals: Which merchants have a relevant new development?

Question: Starting point

Manual research: A person investigates selected sources.

Ecommerce signals: A detected change starts an investigation.

Question: Useful for

Manual research: Nuance, interpretation and deep qualification.

Ecommerce signals: Finding timely reasons to investigate at scale.

Question: Requires judgment

Manual research: Which information matters and why.

Ecommerce signals: Whether the event is meaningful for your offer.

## Related pages

- [See the signal model](https://signaltally.com/product/how-it-works): Understand detection, context and action.
- [Plan an evaluation](https://signaltally.com/contact): Discuss your requirements with sales.

Canonical source: [SignalTally](https://signaltally.com/compare/manual-research)

[Data and attribution guide](https://signaltally.com/llms.txt)