Sponsored follow-up questions will start appearing on AI answer engine Perplexity this week, the company announced. Rumored since April, we previously reported the Perplexity ads would launch in Q4 and here they are.
How it works. The ads will appear as follow-up questions and appear on the side of the answer.
The question will be labeled as “sponsored.”
The answers to the sponsored questions will be generated by Perplexity, not the brand sponsoring the question.
What it looks like. Here’s a screenshot Perplexity shared of a sponsored follow-up question:
Why we care. There are 100 million search queries conducted per week on Perplexity. While that isn’t a staggering number, it gives brands and businesses a new opportunity to reach consumers. However, it remains to be seen how Perplexity users – many of whom ditched Google at least in part because of advertising – will respond.
By the numbers. A Perplexity pitch deck highlighted that:
80% of its users have an undergraduate degree.
30% hold a “senior leadership position.”
65% are in “high-income white-collar professions,” (e.g., medicine, law and software engineering).
First ad partners. Indeed, Whole Foods Market, Universal McCann and PMG are among the first brands and agencies testing Perplexity’s new ad offering, the company said.
Why ads. Perplexity said it is testing ads because:
“Ad programs like this help us generate revenue to share with our publisher partners. Experience has taught us that subscriptions alone do not generate enough revenue to create a sustainable revenue-sharing program.”
Perplexity’s revenue sharing program launched in July.
Perplexity’s blog post. Why we’re experimenting with advertising
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Danny Goodwin is Editorial Director of Search Engine Land & Search Marketing Expo – SMX. He joined Search Engine Land in 2022 as Senior Editor. In addition to reporting on the latest search marketing news, he manages Search Engine Land’s SME (Subject Matter Expert) program. He also helps program U.S. SMX events. Goodwin has been editing and writing about the latest developments and trends in search and digital marketing since 2007. He previously was Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal (from 2017 to 2022), managing editor of Momentology (from 2014-2016) and editor of Search Engine Watch (from 2007 to 2014). He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts.