Discord has announced tools aimed at expanding the number and types of businesses that advertise on the platform.
This week, the social media company announced Discord Ads Manager, an ad campaign management platform that allows businesses to manage ads displayed on Discord in one place. The tool can be used to forecast, create “a campaign with target-based bidding,” and monitor the performance of an ad campaign, depending on the ad.
“Self-service access extends Discord advertising to smaller studios and marketers who previously needed a direct sales relationship to run campaigns, opening up the platform to advertisers, regardless of their budget,” Discord said.
Ads Manager is currently available to select advertisers, but self-service access won’t arrive until “early 2027,” Discord said.
The company is also expanding Video Quests, video ads that Discord users can watch to earn in-game rewards. Discord has been showing these ads to browsers in beta format, with limited testing in Discord’s mobile apps. The company announced that the ad format is now called Video Quests Reserve and will serve as “a premium reservation-based offering designed for high-impact brand moments.” The ads will give “advertisers a scalable, always-on way to drive results like impressions and clicks.” Discord will offer advertisers additional targets to track “soon.”
Updated video ads and Discord Ads Manager will lead to “expanded.” [user] aim,” Discord said.
Discord’s advertising adventures
Discord debuted in 2015 and had no ads until 2024, when it launched Quests. The social media company’s publicity adventures relate to its confidential IPO filing in January, according to a Bloomberg report at the time that cited “anonymous people familiar with the matter.” The advertising push is seen as a way to boost Discord’s value beyond premium subscription offerings and game sales.
