Perplexity exec: No plans to put ads in Comet
Perplexity’s cautious approach to advertising says a lot.
During an Advertising Week discussion on October 8, Jessica Chan, head of publisher partnerships, confirmed that advertising expansion is on hold and that there are no current plans to add ads to Comet.
“We care a lot about users, and we didn't want to inundate our user experience with injecting a ton of ads overnight,” Chan said during a fireside chat with Rosenblatt Securities’ Barton Crockett. “We continue to scale it up very thoughtfully and methodically…[but] probably not at the scale that everybody is hoping for.”
“As of right now, we do not have advertising on our Comet roadmap,” Chan added.
Barton Crockett of Rosenblatt Securities and Jessica Chan of Perplexity on stage at Advertising Week.
Photo: Debra Aho Williamson
Perplexity was among the first to test ads, but its latest move suggests a realization that there’s no silver bullet for monetizing AI search yet. And since Perplexity usage remains far below competitors, the margin for error is thin.
Perplexity’s Chan said the company is taking a measured approach in order to protect user experience, and that may be true. But it also reflects a broader challenge facing AI platforms: users may love the technology, yet no one has cracked how to integrate ads without breaking the spell.
I’ve written frequently about Perplexity’s ad rollout, and it never really made sense to me. “Results will be spotty and execution will be bumpy,” I wrote in August 2024, shortly after the news broke. Agencies were consistently underwhelmed, and the recent departure of Taz Patel, who led the ads initiative, was telling.
In an ADWEEK article today, reporter Trishla Ostwal again raised the issue of advertiser expectations, writing: “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.”
If a platform as well-funded and well-liked as Perplexity is struggling to define its ad model, it’s a signal for marketers to watch closely. The race to monetize AI search is on—but the ad model is yet to be decided.
