Bluesky’s user surge spurs brand scrutiny — just in case it becomes ad-ready

Marketers, ever drawn to shifting attention, are circling. But slow growth for much of the year and no significant revenue streams make it more curiosity than contender for ad dollars right now. Even so, it’s decentralized, federated model offers a unique proposition that keeps it on marketers’ radars — for what it might become, not what it is today, according to 12 marketers interviewed for this story. 

“While Bluesky has the potential to be a great ‘replacement’ for X, and the audience is coming, it’s not yet in a mature enough state for some of the big brands we work with to be active,” said Steph Bennett, social media lead at Responsible Marketing Agency, who works with clients such as Diageo and the World Federation of Advertisers.

Here’s what marketers are noticing about Bluesky so far. 

Bluesky doesn’t have advertising

Currently, Bluesky doesn’t enable advertising, and CEO Jay Graber has made it clear that ads are not in its future plans. Advertisers question how long that’ll be the case because platforms need to monetize eventually. Case in point: When photo-sharing social media platform BeReal took off at the end of 2022, it was ad-free and working with brands didn’t seem to be the priority. 

By July, BeReal had new ownership and of course, ads, and has since sputtered out of the cultural zeitgeist.

For now, at least, there’s only so much marketers can do on Bluesky organically. And even then, some marketers are hopeful that the platform will accept ad dollars someday.

“There’s no reason to plan media around a platform that’s probably a couple years away from launching an ad tier,” said Josh Rosen, president of Hotspex Media.

It’s a familiar playbook: marketers defaulting to wait-and-see mode with the latest platform to gain traction. This time, though, it comes with the baggage of past hype cycles like BeReal and Clubhouse — flashy debuts that fizzled out before delivering real value. 

The Threads conundrum

Even if Bluesky introduces ad products tomorrow, it would struggle to compete with Threads’s appeal to advertisers. The Meta-owned platform is one of Bluesky’s main rivals, as far as text-based social media platforms go, and has already caught marketers’ attention with chronically online brands flocking to the app. With over 275 million users (as reported by Meta’s Adam Mosseri on November 3), Threads offers scale, familiarity with Meta’s ad infrastructure and established relationships between advertisers and platforms, said Colleen Fielder, group vp of social and partner marketing solutions at Basis Technologies.

“Bluesky will need to differentiate to convince advertisers to activate on yet another platform versus just increasing their investment on an existing partner,” Fielder said.

It’s a perspective shared by Jacob Wallach, founder and CEO of Social4TheWin social media consultancy, who said: “Brands want to get on [a platform] and scale. They want to reach massive audiences. They want to get viewership. They want to get non-repetitive reach. If you can’t provide that information inside the strategy, then it becomes more difficult [to justify].”

The longer Bluesky delays addressing these challenges, the tougher they’ll be to resolve, especially if Meta follows through with its plan to introduce ads to Threads early next year.

Navigating Bluesky in a polarized platform landscape

Bluesky’s recent growth is no stranger to political undertones — a red flag for many marketers who are increasingly wary of wading into politically charged conversations. The app is no exception.

For marketers, understanding what’s fueling these discussions, who’s leading them, and where they’re happening will be critical in deciding whether to establish a presence on Bluesky, organically or — if ads eventually appear — paid. Without that clarity, the risks may outweigh the rewards, especially in today’s fragmented and polarized platform ecosystem. 

“So, early adoption on this particular platform feels like there’s a political undertone/choice, simply by being there,” said Holly Willis, founder and CEO of independent ad and marketing consultancy Magic Camp, in an emailed statement to Digiday. 

She added that there’s little insight right now into Bluesky’s data, tracking and return on investment measurement. Meaning, “Bluesky’s current setup leaves brands without the safeguards they’ve come to expect on more mature platforms. That makes it harder to justify investment,” she said.

Bluesky’s nascent pitch to advertisers

Issues aside, Bluesky is trying to position itself for long term growth.

Three ad execs Digiday spoke to for this article all concurred that Bluesky is hoping to entice influencers to make their debut on the platform, and some are starting to take the leap. 

While Ryan Bopp, svp of digital strategy at Eden Collective, noted seeing low-tier influencers talking about the app (though didn’t name specific influencers), it has been reported that celebrities like Lizzo, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gabrielle Union and Ben Stiller are some of the top names to have already migrated over. A handful of brands have been actively posting on the platform, including Hulu, Duolingo and Netflix. Publishers too have made the jump with outlets like The Economist, The Week, Politico and Semafor setting up shop on Bluesky.

And yet, the platform’s deforming moment may still be ahead — it’s “dunk in the dark moment” and hat cements it as more than just another flash in the pan.