Quora rolls out video ads for brands

Count Quora among the web platforms that are getting more visual.

The knowledge-sharing platform said it will offer video ads for placement within its Q&A format.

Built around crowdsourced questions and responses, Quora already has ad types such as Promoted Answers. Now, it will offer horizontal video ads, ranging from 6-30 seconds. The ads will be paired with a banner in a bid to boost clickthrough, with 16 CTAs available. Quora said CPC and CPV bidding options will be available.

"Video ads offer a rich and engaging experience while delivering superior performance for advertisers,” said Vinay Pandey, Chief Revenue Officer at Quora, in a statement. “We are very excited to see how brands are going to use this new ad format to deliver a more powerful message about their products and services."

Founded in 2009, Quora serves over 300 million readers a month. The brand said it has a “high-intent, affluent and educated audience.” The platform particularly specified that entertainment, travel, automotive and CPG brands stand out on the platform.

"We have always had more video assets than static ones, and Quora supporting video ads helps us showcase our brand videos." said Swapnil Kumar, associate manager of performance and brand marketing at HealthifyMe, in a statement.

The move comes as short-form video is taking a more prominent role within platforms across the web. Gen Z’s embrace of TikTok has led the platform’s growth to skyrocket, and its video-based style to be exported to other platforms. While examples of Quora’s video ads by no means resemble TikTok, the expansion is a sign that content across the web is growing more visual. At the same time, the new offering enters the market as many brands are seeking to diversify advertising channels following Apple's implementation of App Tracking Transparency, which made attribution more difficult.

Quora's announcement came on the same week as Advertising Week New York, where brands from Pinterest to DoorDash were also rolling out new ad features for marketers.

Quora also embraced the creator economy in 2021 with the launch of subscriptions for its Spaces. This allowed creators to collect revenue from memberships to the curated, interest-based collections of knowledge within the platform. Spaces creators can also monetize from ad revenue generated through the communities. It also rolled out Quora+, a subscription product in which revenue was distributed to creators based on how much subscribers engaged with them.