Perplexity has paused accepting new advertisers as it rethinks how ads fit into its AI search experience, signaling a change in its monetization push.
At Advertising Week in New York City, Jessica Chan, head of publisher partnerships at Perplexity, said that the company is not “taking any new advertisers,” and that ads aren’t currently on the roadmap for Perplexity’s AI browser, Comet.
The move comes after the August departure of ad sales head Taz Patel, signaling a shift from Perplexity’s previous plan to scale its ad business beyond the U.S. In December, Perplexity added The Independent, LA Times, and Blavity to its Perplexity’s Publisher Program that pays publishers when content appears next to ads. At the time, Chan cited international partnerships as key to Perplexity’s growth.
Perplexity launched its ad offering last year and began testing campaigns with brands including Indeed, PMG, Universal McCann, and Whole Foods Market. Those early campaigns let brands sponsor follow-up questions in search results.
“That still exists today, but we didn’t want to inundate our user experience with a ton of ads overnight,” Chan said during the panel. “We’re continuing to scale it very thoughtfully and methodically—probably not at the scale everybody’s hoping for.”
She also noted that brands are rethinking how to spend their budgets. Chan said many advertisers are moving away from performance-focused, traditional search and towards top-of-funnel brand awareness—an area Perplexity may pursue down the line.
Perplexity did not respond to request for additional comment beyond Chan’s comments at Advertising Week.
Advertising appears to make up only a small portion of Perplexity’s revenue. Last year, the company generated just $20,000 in ad revenue out of $34 million in total revenue, according to The Information.
As Perplexity reassesses its ads ambitions, questions remain about how much revenue its model is actually driving for publishers.
Two ad buyers told ADWEEK that they’ve struggled to measure performance metrics like click-through rates and return on ad spend on Perplexity because the platform doesn’t offer tools akin to established ad players. One publisher participating in Perplexity’s revenue-sharing program said the company has generated little meaningful income so far.
“The digital business models that have proven most successful are performance-based,” said Debra Aho Williamson, founder and chief analyst, Sonata Insights. “Companies that launched with a brand awareness model like Perplexity have struggled to maintain momentum.”
Separately from advertising, Perplexity continues to build out its ecosystem around its web browser Comet. Perplexity describes Comet as a browser for “trusted publishers and journalists” including CNN, Condé Nast, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Le Monde, and Le Figaro. Last month, Perplexity made Comet free to all users.
