Ads Are Coming To Reddit Options

[skore]

Reddit has always been a completely ad-free social network - but when Conde Nast acquired them we didn't think it would be long before that changed... Well the days of the ad-free Reddit are numbered - from their blog today:

Part of the reason reddit was acquired was so that eventually it could be used to sell advertising. We wanted to delay ads until we could debut all the new stuff we're working on, but it's taking longer than expected, and the powers-that-be are getting antsy. So, sometime later this week we'll be flipping the switch to turn a few ads on.

One interesting thing to watch is they think they have found a way to track the ads so they can let Reddit users vote/comment on them (just like using the system).

This post has been edited by skore: Mar 30 2007, 11:28 AM

[joedolson]

One interesting thing to watch is they think they have found a way to track the ads so they can let Reddit users vote/comment on them (just like using the system).

I wonder what that would do for click-throughs/conversions? As a guess, it'll increase click-through but the conversion rate will be quite low. I like the idea of voting and commenting on advertisements - but I'm sure people will also want to know the end destinations to take into consideration in their voting, which will require click throughs...

Just thinking out loud! Thanks for the info -

[skore]

Hey Joe -

Yeah - it's a really interesting proposition and I think it will require the people who advertise with them to do something a bit different to engage people to actually want to vote. It could be great or terrible for an advertiser but at least you can hopefully get some immediate feedback on what you are offering..

I would also imagine that lots of Reddit advertisers will be opening up Reddit accounts and voting/commenting - just thinking out loud

[joedolson]

Oh come now, you don't seriously think an advertiser would have any interest in promoting their own advertisements do you?

[skore]

Oh come now, you don't seriously think an advertiser would have any interest in promoting their own advertisements do you?

Of course not - I meant so they could get involved with the community

[Adrian]

Heh, I bet a load of reddit users will down vote every ad going anyway.

Be interesting if you had say Dell or Microsoft advertise on there though, imagine the comments?

[eKstreme]

I hope their ads will be clearly marked as that. Otherwise it's deceiving the community, which is not the best strategy to take.

Pierre

[skore]

Interesting discussion about this from from the Reddit submission here. It's an interesting thread for marketers to read just to see how people think (some actual intelligent discussion surprisingly enough)...

Some interesting comments:

I think that the only real way to vote for ads is to buy something. Saying, "I like this ad" is completely meaningless to the company if you didn't end up buying whatever it is they were selling.

Au contraire, we are going to have tremendous fun when the sock puppets come out of the woodwork, up voting ridiculous adverts, and being caught, badly.

I wouldn't underestimate the reddit community. It might turn out to be extremely valuable to the advertisers to hear direct feedback from their target audience. Instead of playing the guessing game with CTRs, you can show a very simply sorted chart of liked and disliked ads.

The whole point of internet advertising is to cater to you. Let's say you are into motorcross. You like the bikes, the riders, the events. You post about this at reddit. Odds are you might be interested in ads relating to that. Maybe you want to see the new bike engines, or rims sets, or tires. But the point is that is what you like, so its marketing you can actually use.

If I can vote or comment on ads I might turn adblock off on reddit for a bit. And who knows, I might actually find an ad for something I'd like, or at least want to know more about.

[Adrian]

I might turn adblock off on reddit for a bit

Which is a good point. With the sort of audience reddit has, I wonder what kind of number would even see the ads considering how many are likely to have adblocking software.