After revealing it had ditched programmatic ads earlier this year, Reddit has today launched Conversation Placement – a new ad unit that will sit within the conversation thread.
Reddit is calling the new ad unit its most engaging ad placement ever, with advertisers now able to tap into a relevant and highly engaged audience.
Conversation Placement ads will sit in between the original post and the first comment in a thread and advertisers will be able to target based on their interests and the topics discussed in the posts.
There are also brand safety tools in place so advertisers can prevent their ads from appearing alongside any undesirable content.
“Reddit users thrive on conversations and are highly engaged in unique dialogues around their passions. Conversation Placement is an opportunity for all Reddit advertisers to drive engagement on the platform, positioning themselves right where people are connecting with one another, in a way they can’t on any other platform,” said Reddit Global EVP and President of Advertising, Harold Klaje.
“This launch is an outcome of our close and continued collaboration with Reddit advertisers to ensure solutions that tap into what makes Reddit special. It’s the latest example of our Ads business continuing to meet the needs of advertisers. We’ve invested a lot in the past year to evolve our product offering to ensure brands can best leverage the power and value of Reddit, and creating opportunities for advertisers to meaningfully engage with users is key to delivering on this.”
Reddit says it has beta-tested Conversation Placement with more than 600 advertising partners for almost 12 months, running campaigns across entertainment, consumer tech, finance, publishing and CPG.
Conversation Placement ads have been successful across the board, with beta test partners seeing an aggregate 9 per cent average increase in clickthrough rate (CTR), 10 per cent higher downstream conversion rate (CVR), and 23 per cent lower Cost Per Click (CPC) rate when using both Conversation placement and Feed.
Conversation Placement ads will be added to Reddit’s existing options across Home, Popular and Community Feed placements.
Last month Reddit revealed it had recorded its first $US100 million ($136 million) revenue quarter from direct advertising, a 192 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.
