Thursday, July 05, 2018

“Reddit — one of the world's most popular websites — is trying to cash in through advertising” KF Blog #6


Reddit — one of the world's most popular websites — is trying to cash in through advertising

Reddit, one of the 5 most-trafficked US websites, is prime real-estate for advertisers & marketers, but until recently, they were limited to banner ads and promoted posts. Some background: the company has more than 330 million monthly active users and attracts upward of 18 billion page views per month. If advertisers want scale, Reddit has it! But, they’ve been falling far behind the competition when it comes to ad revenue. Now, they are seeking to revamp their ad offers.

Reddit is a forum based site with the moderators being people just like you and I, which could be a potential issue. There are no editors and content cannot be 100% controlled. Advertisers could be turned-off or scared by the possibility of unsuitable content being attached to brands. Reddit is working hard to combat this with the potential to have natural language bots in the future. “Brand Safety” is what they are aiming for.

Funnily enough, unlike Snapchat and others, they are moving away from solely programmatic digital advertising and trying to focus on selling in larger packages (direct sales with branded content). Advertisers can also own their own Reddit pages. Some of the most successful Reddit advertising is when a brand starts and conversation and drives engagement.

Speaking of new offers, one new placement is the “top post takeover” which is a 24-hour takeover on the opening page – highly valuable. This take over can also be combined with promoted ads and banner ads. They also have “ad offerings” which weaves sponsored content into forums, all targeted. Reddit also has a brand strategy team with will write sponsored posts that will be in the correct “subreddits.” AMA (Ask Me Anything) could be organic or brand pages, which are regulated with approvals for comments. These are expensive placements and effective if done right. See example.

This is an exciting time for Reddit, but they have a few things to worry about. Potentially turning off their customers is should always be top of mind.

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