wolfgang.peters

Copywriting is on the rise!

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I grew up in a world where targeting and personalisation were at their peak. In the 2010s, Facebook had thousands of targeting options. We had a level of precision targeting that let us reach exactly the people we wanted to reach. As a result, marketing copy didn’t always need to do the best in class – targeting could compensate for messaging that was good enough. Copywriting took a back seat.

The “Mad Men” world of broad-market messaging, where one could be applauded for a “It’s toasted” headline, had nothing to do with the industry I was in at the time.

Then Cambridge Analytica, third-party cookie blocking, GDPR, ATT, etc. marked the end of unique identifiers and hyper-targeted advertising. Privacy regulations are pushing us back toward a marketing world that looks more like mass marketing. And that’s where great copywriting is rising in importance again.

Copywriting returns as a competitive edge!
The message itself is becoming the targeting. Since we’re speaking to broader audiences, the strength and clarity of copy matter more than they have in years. At the same time, AI is rapidly changing content creation – which opens up new questions about who writes what, and what role copywriters will play in this ecosystem.

Can AI replace your copywriter?
Yes. In interviews, I ask candidates how they use AI tools like ChatGPT. In 100% of the cases “writing ad copy” is part of the answer. AI lets every marketer level up in copywriting. People who struggle with writing can become solid writers, non-native speakers can articulate ideas clearly, and skilled writers get more ideas and angles.

Is the job of the copywriter going away?
No. The role isn’t just about writing ads, landing pages, or blog posts. Copywriters need to move away from daily content execution and focus more on crafting guidelines, structures, and strategies that empower others – like media buyers using AI – to produce on-brand copy at scale.

Copywriters need to…  

  • to get comfortable with data and research, like understanding audiences, diving into customer insights, and shaping raw information into usable structures.
  • become experts at identifying core customer problems and translating them into messaging frameworks.
  • work hand-in-hand with AI tools. AI isn’t a threat, it’s a collaborator. By feeding AI with the above – precise guidelines, audience insights, brand voice standards – copywriters can use AI (and anyone using it!) to create content that aligns with the brand.

Copywriting doesn’t go back to being just about the words, but in a world where great messaging is again the primary means of targeting, copywriters who step into this expanded role will be a competitive edge for brands.

Perplexity Ads: What Marketers Should Watch

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Perplexity has been positioning itself as more than a curiosity-driven search engine. Since late 2024, the company has been testing a model for advertising that looks very different from the banner-and-click systems marketers are used to. The basic idea is simple: keep the integrity of AI-generated answers intact, while introducing paid placements that feel native to the experience.

Ads appear in two places: as sponsored follow-up questions at the bottom of a response or as placements in the sidebar. Both are marked “Sponsored,” and the copy is still generated by Perplexity’s AI. Clicking on an ad doesn’t take a user to a landing page. Instead, it prompts the system to continue the conversation with the advertiser’s brand in view. Perplexity stresses that advertiser influence stops at the placement level; answers are not edited or supplied by brands themselves Perplexity blog.

The Commercial Logic

Subscriptions and publisher partnerships alone won’t keep the lights on. In 2024, Perplexity generated about 34 million dollars in revenue while burning through almost twice that amount to cover infrastructure costs Digiday. Ads are intended to provide a steadier stream of income and give brands a transparent way to engage with the platform’s growing audience. Early partners included Indeed, Whole Foods Market, Universal McCann, and PMG.

The ad model is sold on a cost-per-mille basis, typically ranging from 30 to 60 dollars per thousand impressions, with Perplexity initially targeting CPMs above 50 WebFX. For now, opportunities are limited to select brand and agency partners as the company builds the product.

Audience and Scale

Perplexity reports around 22 million active users, which is a fraction of ChatGPT’s estimated 400 million or Google’s AI Overviews, which claims over 1.5 billion monthly users. What makes the platform interesting for advertisers is the composition of its audience: mostly college-educated, relatively affluent, and with a significant portion in senior roles WebFX. In other words, small scale, but attractive demographics.

This positioning creates a tension. Advertisers see the promise of reaching high-value users in a less crowded environment, but they also want reach and measurable ROI. Several agency buyers told Digiday they’re holding back spend because the platform is still awareness-driven, lacks performance metrics, and offers little efficiency compared to established channels. CPMs in the 50 dollar range only sharpen that concern.

Early Impressions From Buyers

The reaction after six months of testing is mixed. Marketers are curious, but many feel Perplexity hasn’t moved fast enough. As Robert Kurtz of Basis Technologies put it, brands are waiting for lower-funnel ad options before they can justify significant investment Digiday. Ryan Bopp of Eden Collective highlighted concerns around brand safety and ROI, noting that his team hasn’t advanced any actual buys yet.

There is recognition, though, that Perplexity was the first AI answer engine to make a real push into advertising, and that it continues to test ways to integrate commerce directly into its conversational flow. Debra Aho Williamson of Sonata Insights described it as “a small fish in a big AI pond” but credited the company with popularizing the notion that AI platforms can be ad destinations Digiday.

Why This Matters

Perplexity’s model hints at what advertising in AI-native environments may look like: context-aware, conversational, and less about clicks than about engagement inside the system. For now, the opportunity is limited. The audience is relatively small, the buy-in expensive, and the product still being defined. But it offers a preview of how brands might interact with users once AI platforms grow beyond experiments and into daily habits.