Brave launches Search Ads in key markets, after successful test phase with leading brands

After nearly 18 months of testing and feedback from initial partners, Brave Search Ads have exited their beta phase and are now available in major markets as part of Brave’s innovative privacy-preserving ad platform. Leading brands such as Amazon Ads Sponsored Products, Dell, Fubo, Insurify, Shutterstock, and Thumbtack are using Brave Search Ads as part of their performance marketing strategies.

As of April 2024, a third of the top search advertisers in the US by media spend are either currently testing or have moved to paid Brave Search Ads campaigns. Since the beginning of the year, 89% of customers who started Brave Search Ads campaigns have continued to advertise in consecutive months.

Brave Search is available globally to all desktop and mobile users at search.brave.com, and is also the default search engine in the Brave browser, which has over 65 million monthly active users. It’s the fastest growing search engine since Bing, with over 10 billion annual queries. For advertisers, Brave Search Ads are a vital new channel to augment their existing strategy, helping them reach highly qualified—but otherwise unreachable—audiences.

An example of an ad on Brave Search

I’m grateful to our partners for their contributions to the development of Brave Search Ads. With their insight, we’ve built a highly effective ad platform that, with time and continued support from global advertisers, has the power to challenge Google’s monopoly on search advertising. We’re excited to be expanding our offering to even more of the world’s leading brands, and encourage industry leaders to try Brave Search Ads for free before committing any paid spend.

— Jean-Paul Schmetz, Head of Search Ads, Brave

Building a better user-first search experience

Brave Search is attracting users who have become dissatisfied with the quality of search results from Google and Bing, as well as those concerned with the invasive collection and use of data by Big Tech. Brave Search offers an alternative to Google’s share of the global search market, which has led them to prioritize revenue generation at the expense of user experience and privacy.

Brave offers a fresh perspective by putting users first and maintaining an independent search index—the only one in the Western Hemisphere apart from Google and Bing. In addition to leading privacy and a streamlined user interface, Brave Search offers powerful features to enhance and customize productivity. These features include Code LLM, for code-related queries; Goggles, which allows users to create their own result filters; and, most recently, an AI-powered integrated answer engine that generates detailed and near instant results with cited sources.

Search Ads are available risk-free for brands in major western markets

Brave Search Ads are now available to brands in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany on a managed service basis. To qualify for advertising, prospective customers must meet a minimum threshold of eligible ad impressions in their desired region. Typically, brands that satisfy this requirement possess robust paid search (SEM/PPC) operations and view Brave Search Ads as a vital component of their continuous performance marketing strategy.

Brave offers up to 14 days of complimentary advertising on Brave Search for eligible brands, enabling them to properly evaluate the Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) before initiating paid campaigns. Ads are sold on a cost-per-click basis, with the rate negotiated on a fixed basis prior to the launch of paid campaigns. Brands can verify their eligibility at https://ads.brave.com/register/search or contact adsales@brave.com to discuss search ads.