Discord expands ad business with mobile-first Video Quests and new Ads Manager

Discord is expanding its advertising business with a new mobile-first rewarded video format and its first campaign management platform, as the company looks to open its ad inventory to a broader range of marketers.

The company introduced Video Quests, a performance-focused ad format that rewards users for watching video, alongside Discord Ads Manager, which brings campaign creation, bidding, budgeting and measurement into a single platform.

The expansion targets Discord’s audience of more than 90 million daily active users as of the second quarter of 2026, while reducing its previous reliance on direct sales relationships for advertisers seeking to run campaigns on the platform.

Video Quests is designed primarily around Discord’s mobile experience and allows users to voluntarily engage with video advertising in exchange for the platform’s virtual currency, Orbs. Users can tap a Video Quest and receive their reward after watching for approximately 15 seconds. The format is intended to support repeatable, performance-oriented campaigns rather than requiring viewers to complete an entire video. Advertisers can currently optimize Video Quests toward outcomes including impressions and clicks, with Discord planning to introduce additional campaign objectives.

The format builds on Discord’s existing Quests advertising business, which uses rewards to encourage users to engage with branded content. According to Discord’s internal data, Quests have recorded a 97% median ad completion rate among game studios using the format. The figure is based on Discord’s own measurement and should therefore be viewed as company-reported performance data rather than an independent industry benchmark.

Discord is also repositioning its previous video offering as Video Quests Reserve. Unlike the new performance-oriented Video Quests format, Video Quests Reserve will operate as a premium, reservation-based product. Rewards and delivery for those campaigns are tied to full video completion.

The distinction effectively gives Discord two approaches to rewarded video: a reservation product designed around larger brand campaigns and an always-on format intended to accommodate performance advertising.

Alongside the new video format, Discord is launching its first dedicated campaign management platform. Discord Ads Manager covers the campaign process from forecasting and campaign setup to objective-based bidding and performance reporting.

Advertisers can create campaigns, adjust budgets and monitor results using first- and third-party reporting rather than relying solely on post-campaign reports provided through Discord’s sales organization.

A significant change is the introduction of auction-based delivery. Instead of selling campaigns exclusively through fixed CPM arrangements, Ads Manager uses dynamic pricing in which advertisers compete through an auction. Marketers can adjust bids based on campaign delivery and performance.

The model brings Discord closer to the buying systems commonly used across larger digital advertising platforms, where marketers can continuously manage budgets and bidding rather than purchasing inventory primarily through negotiated campaigns.

Ads Manager is currently available through managed access for a selected group of advertisers. Discord plans to introduce fully self-service access in early 2027. That rollout is expected to broaden the advertiser base beyond companies with sufficient budgets or resources to establish a direct relationship with Discord’s sales team. Smaller game studios and other marketers will eventually be able to create and manage campaigns through the platform themselves.

The additions mark another step in Discord’s move toward performance advertising. Discord historically generated much of its revenue through paid consumer products such as Nitro subscriptions rather than conventional advertising. The company began introducing ads through Quests in 2024 and has gradually added targeting, measurement and additional formats since then.

The latest changes add infrastructure needed to make those ads available on a more continuous basis. For mobile advertisers in particular, Video Quests introduces a format similar in principle to rewarded video advertising already widely used across mobile games, where users opt into advertising in exchange for a digital benefit.

Discord’s implementation uses Orbs, its platform currency, as the reward. The company is differentiating the format partly through engagement time. Rather than requiring full completion for the performance-oriented product, users become eligible for the reward after approximately 15 seconds.

That creates a different optimization signal for advertisers: the amount of time a user voluntarily continues watching can provide an additional indication of engagement beyond an impression. Discord says Video Quests will initially support impressions and clicks as campaign outcomes, with additional objectives planned.

The introduction of self-service tools also changes who can potentially advertise on Discord. Until now, access to its advertising products has largely depended on direct relationships with the company. Ads Manager is intended to remove that requirement once full self-service access becomes available.

Advertisers will be able to forecast campaigns, select objectives, place bids, monitor performance and adjust spending through one interface. The platform’s auction model also means participation will not be tied to a single fixed CPM, potentially allowing campaigns with different budget levels to compete for inventory.

Discord VP of Product, Business Nabib El-Rahman said the company wants the system to work for both smaller game studios and large advertisers, with Ads Manager shifting more campaign control directly to marketers. The initial managed rollout means that broader access will not happen immediately. Full self-service buying is scheduled for early 2027.