Perplexity Pauses New Ad Deals: What B2B Marketers Do Now

Perplexity has been one of the answer engines B2B marketers watch closely because it sits at the intersection of search behavior and AI-generated answers. When a platform like that signals a change in how it wants to monetize, it matters immediately—especially if you’ve been planning test budgets, partner conversations, or “AI search” channel experiments.

Right now, the signal is clear: Perplexity is pulling back from new advertising activity and rethinking its direction. That doesn’t just affect media buyers. It affects how you think about visibility across answer engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity, Brave, and Meta AI—because it’s a reminder that paid access isn’t guaranteed, and the rules can change quickly.

The news: Perplexity pauses new ad deals and shifts focus

Two verified updates from Google News coverage of Perplexity’s advertising efforts point to a meaningful pivot.

First, Perplexity has paused new advertising deals. The coverage frames it plainly: “Perplexity Pauses New Advertising Deals to Reassess Ambitions” (Google News: Perplexity Ads).

Second, Perplexity is now less focused on advertising. Another piece is explicit about the direction change: “Why Perplexity is now less focused on advertising, and what’s next for the AI search platform” (Google News: Perplexity Ads).

Taken together, these claims indicate Perplexity is stepping back from expanding ad relationships while it reassesses what it wants advertising to be (or whether it wants it to be central at all).

What this means for B2B marketers (and media buyers)

1) Treat Perplexity paid media as “uncertain inventory” for now

If Perplexity has paused new advertising deals, you should assume near-term constraints on launching new partnerships or expanding into new paid placements there. Even if you’ve been excited about Perplexity as a test channel, the practical implication is that it may not be available to you in the way you expected.

For B2B media planning, that means you should avoid building a quarter around Perplexity as a must-have line item. Keep it in the “watch and revisit” bucket until the platform’s ambitions are clarified.

2) The bigger lesson: AEO can’t be dependent on ads

Perplexity being less focused on advertising is a useful forcing function for your strategy across answer engines.

In answer-engine discovery, you don’t control the interface the way you do on a traditional ad platform. If the platform deprioritizes ads, pauses deals, or changes how commercial results appear, your paid lever can disappear—or at least become harder to access.

So the durable approach is to build for “earned inclusion”: content and positioning that answer engines can confidently cite, summarize, and recommend. This applies whether the user is in Perplexity, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, Brave, or Meta AI.

3) Expect more divergence in monetization models across answer engines

Perplexity’s pullback is also a reminder that “AI search” is not one uniform channel. Different answer engines will experiment with different monetization paths.

You should plan for fragmentation:

• Some experiences will lean more commercial.
• Some will lean more utility-first.
• Some will shift back and forth.

The operational takeaway: your visibility plan has to work even when monetization changes.

Action items: what to do right now

1) Audit your Perplexity assumptions in your media plan

If you had Perplexity earmarked for net-new spend, update your plan to reflect uncertainty. Specifically:

• Remove any “guaranteed” Perplexity launch dates.
• Move Perplexity tests to contingent experiments.
• Reallocate that budget to channels you can execute immediately.

This is not about abandoning Perplexity—it’s about not letting a paused deal flow block your pipeline goals.

2) Double down on AEO fundamentals that don’t depend on paid access

If Perplexity is less focused on advertising, the best hedge is to improve your odds of being referenced in answers regardless of ad products.

Prioritize:

• Clear, direct explanations of what you do and who it’s for (written for summarization).
• Pages that answer high-intent questions your buyers ask (pricing approach, implementation, integrations, security, ROI).
• Proof points and claims that are easy for an answer engine to restate without ambiguity.

The goal is simple: make it easy for Perplexity (and other answer engines) to understand your category, your differentiation, and your credibility.

3) Build an “answer engine visibility” reporting baseline

When platforms shift, you need a baseline so you can tell whether visibility is improving or slipping.

Start tracking, at minimum:

• Your brand presence in answers for your category terms
• Competitor mentions in the same prompts
• Which pages (or messages) appear to be driving inclusion

This is especially important across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity, Brave, and Meta AI, because your buyers don’t use just one.

4) Prepare a fast-response content cadence

Perplexity pausing new advertising deals is a signal that change can happen quickly. Your content program should be able to respond quickly too.

Operationally:

• Maintain a backlog of “buyer question” posts you can ship fast.
• Refresh your most important pages on a schedule.
• Keep messaging consistent across your site so answer engines don’t get conflicting signals.

Bottom line

Perplexity has paused new advertising deals and is now less focused on advertising (Google News: Perplexity Ads). For B2B marketers, that’s a clear reminder: build your answer-engine visibility so it survives platform monetization shifts—not just when ads are available.