Ahead of IPO, Reddit blends advertising into user posts
(2024/03/16)
- Reference: 1710577628
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/03/16/reddit_promoted_posts/
- Source link:
Ahead of its stock market debut, Reddit has said it's going to make it easier for advertisers to craft normal user posts and run them as ads on the social network.
Called "free-form ads," Reddit claimed in a [1]statement this week that the "all-new, completely unique ad format" is designed to improve click-through rates and upvotes – by making adverts look as much like user posts as possible.
To be clear, we understand these free-form ads will be labeled as promoted posts.
[2]
What's really happening here is that advertisers can use the Reddit Ads Manager to create normal user posts and then pay to make them appear prominently on the site and in the app as promoted posts, aka adverts. Up until now, it's been a bit more of a fiddly affair for brands. As we understand it, they've had to book an ad that links out to an external site, such as a landing page selling some stuff, or an ad that links to a separate user post on Reddit, or a banner ad.
[3]
[4]
Free-form ads instead look just like normal posts in people's feeds, with a promoted label, rather than a link off to somewhere else, and are crafted via the Ads Manager. There's no need to create a separate user post that an ad links to; the user post is the ad in free-form mode.
"Free-form ads are designed to look and feel similar to the type of content redditors share with each other, inviting maximum engagement from the community," Reddit explained, inviting companies to "advertise like a Redditor."
[5]
The social media monster pointed to companies already trialing free-form ads, which include Just Eat Takeaway, Kraft Heinz, and Leica, all of which found the format capable of "driving upper funnel results." Reddit claimed free-form ads tested so far achieved a 28 percent increase in click-through rates, which the biz noted "outperform[ed] all other ad types."
When comments are enabled on free-form ads, there's an increase in community engagement, Reddit claimed, without indicating whether that increase was positive or not. Reddit said Philadelphia Cream Cheese, a brand owned by Kraft Heinz, had success with the format though it declined to go into specifics about that trial.
"The brand leveraged our free-form ad format to showcase the refrigerator staple's versatility, with product details and recipe inspiration," Reddit said. "This effectively prompted the Reddit community to 'get a big list going and bond over' their shared love of cream cheese."
[6]
Reddit claimed in its bumf about the new ad format that a Philadelphia post had "a 91 percent upvote rate and a 42 percent higher click-through rate from the brand's previous Reddit benchmark," and that the post generated "over a thousand comments in a single month."
[7]Thar be safe harbor: Reddit defeats third attempt to unmask digital pirates
[8]Reddit rolling out AI bouncer to halt harassment
[9]Elon Musk's Twitter moves were 'reaffirming' says Reddit boss amid API changes
[10]Reddit confirms BlackCat gang pinched some data
Those numbers don't mean much if Reddit doesn't contextualize them with more information about Philadelphia's typical click-through rates, and Reddit again declined to share specifics.
We were able to locate two posts from Philadelphia Cream Cheese accounts on Reddit that fit Reddit's description of free-form ads: One from u/PhillyCanada posted a year ago, and the other by u/PhillyCreamCheese posted six months ago, later confirmed by Reddit staff as the free-form ads.
The PhillyCanada [11]post seems to conform to Reddit's mentions in the blog post. It has 1.5K overall upvotes and 1.1K comments. The [12]more recent one from PhillyCreamCheese, on the other hand, got 617 comments and zero points, though it's likely to us that score was fixed at zero.
FTC wants info on Google AI training deal
Reddit filed an amendment to its S-1 form with the SEC late Friday revealing it's been asked by the US Federal Trade Commission to share details about its deal with Google to provide user content for training LLMs.
"On March 14, 2024, we received a letter from the FTC advising us that [it] is conducting a non-public inquiry focused on our sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models," Reddit [13]said in addendum to the risk factors section of the IPO filing.
Reddit said it wasn't surprised by the inquiry given the evolving regulatory nature of AI training on public data, that it doesn't believe it has done anything wrong, and that the FTC also asked for a meeting to learn more about its plans.
Leica's [14]test of free-form ads doesn't indicate a whole lot of success to us - it has just three points.
All free-form adverts are supposed to show some kind of sponsored label, though that doesn't appear to be the case on the three posts included in this story. While Leica's shows it, neither Philadelphia post includes a tag indicating it's sponsored content. We understand that's because the Philadelphia posts are no longer boosted by ad spending, so are back to just being normal user posts.
Reddit, which is planning to [15]go public on March 21 having [16]never turned a profit in nearly 20 years of existence, has been doing everything it can of late to drum up support from investors. Most notably, the outfit signed a [17]$60 million deal with Google to ingest user content for the purposes of training AI models after making its Data API a paid service last year, ostensibly to [18]prevent AI models from ingesting user data.
Users [19]haven't been thrilled with Reddit's behavior running up to its IPO, and whether ads-as-posts will help isn't clear, though we know a thing or two about how devoted readers feel about web adverts generally. ®
Get our [20]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.redditinc.com/blog/advertise-like-a-redditor-with-our-all-new-completely-unique-ad-format-free-form-ads
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZfV7yMPRXf4mTLB9h6shtAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZfV7yMPRXf4mTLB9h6shtAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZfV7yMPRXf4mTLB9h6shtAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZfV7yMPRXf4mTLB9h6shtAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZfV7yMPRXf4mTLB9h6shtAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/reddit_pirates_win/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/07/reddit_introduces_aipowered_harassment_filter/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/19/reddit_ceo_musk_twitter/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/20/reddit_confirms_blackcat_extortion_attempt/
[11] https://www.reddit.com/user/PhillyCanada/comments/12ykrp1/help_us_fill_this_thread_with_unexpectedly_tasty/
[12] https://www.reddit.com/user/PhillyCreamCheese/comments/16hxm0s/help_us_fill_this_thread_with_ways_you_use_philly/
[13] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1713445/000162828024011448/reddit-sx1a2.htm#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20on%20March%2014%2C%202024%2C%20we%20received%20a%20letter%20from%20the%20FTC%20advising%20us%20that%20the%20FTC%E2%80%99s%20staff%20is%20conducting%20a%20non%2Dpublic%20inquiry%20focused%20on%20our%20sale%2C%20licensing%2C%20or%20sharing%20of%20user%2Dgenerated%20content%20with%20third%20parties%20to%20train%20AI%20models.
[14] https://www.reddit.com/user/leica_camera/comments/1b9rpam/in_focus_crafted_in_germany_perfected_with_your/
[15] https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/ipos
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/11/reddit_wants_to_raise_748m/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/22/reddit_google_license_ipo_altman/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/18/reddit_charging_ai_api/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/12/reddit_api_outage/
[20] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Called "free-form ads," Reddit claimed in a [1]statement this week that the "all-new, completely unique ad format" is designed to improve click-through rates and upvotes – by making adverts look as much like user posts as possible.
To be clear, we understand these free-form ads will be labeled as promoted posts.
[2]
What's really happening here is that advertisers can use the Reddit Ads Manager to create normal user posts and then pay to make them appear prominently on the site and in the app as promoted posts, aka adverts. Up until now, it's been a bit more of a fiddly affair for brands. As we understand it, they've had to book an ad that links out to an external site, such as a landing page selling some stuff, or an ad that links to a separate user post on Reddit, or a banner ad.
[3]
[4]
Free-form ads instead look just like normal posts in people's feeds, with a promoted label, rather than a link off to somewhere else, and are crafted via the Ads Manager. There's no need to create a separate user post that an ad links to; the user post is the ad in free-form mode.
"Free-form ads are designed to look and feel similar to the type of content redditors share with each other, inviting maximum engagement from the community," Reddit explained, inviting companies to "advertise like a Redditor."
[5]
The social media monster pointed to companies already trialing free-form ads, which include Just Eat Takeaway, Kraft Heinz, and Leica, all of which found the format capable of "driving upper funnel results." Reddit claimed free-form ads tested so far achieved a 28 percent increase in click-through rates, which the biz noted "outperform[ed] all other ad types."
When comments are enabled on free-form ads, there's an increase in community engagement, Reddit claimed, without indicating whether that increase was positive or not. Reddit said Philadelphia Cream Cheese, a brand owned by Kraft Heinz, had success with the format though it declined to go into specifics about that trial.
"The brand leveraged our free-form ad format to showcase the refrigerator staple's versatility, with product details and recipe inspiration," Reddit said. "This effectively prompted the Reddit community to 'get a big list going and bond over' their shared love of cream cheese."
[6]
Reddit claimed in its bumf about the new ad format that a Philadelphia post had "a 91 percent upvote rate and a 42 percent higher click-through rate from the brand's previous Reddit benchmark," and that the post generated "over a thousand comments in a single month."
[7]Thar be safe harbor: Reddit defeats third attempt to unmask digital pirates
[8]Reddit rolling out AI bouncer to halt harassment
[9]Elon Musk's Twitter moves were 'reaffirming' says Reddit boss amid API changes
[10]Reddit confirms BlackCat gang pinched some data
Those numbers don't mean much if Reddit doesn't contextualize them with more information about Philadelphia's typical click-through rates, and Reddit again declined to share specifics.
We were able to locate two posts from Philadelphia Cream Cheese accounts on Reddit that fit Reddit's description of free-form ads: One from u/PhillyCanada posted a year ago, and the other by u/PhillyCreamCheese posted six months ago, later confirmed by Reddit staff as the free-form ads.
The PhillyCanada [11]post seems to conform to Reddit's mentions in the blog post. It has 1.5K overall upvotes and 1.1K comments. The [12]more recent one from PhillyCreamCheese, on the other hand, got 617 comments and zero points, though it's likely to us that score was fixed at zero.
FTC wants info on Google AI training deal
Reddit filed an amendment to its S-1 form with the SEC late Friday revealing it's been asked by the US Federal Trade Commission to share details about its deal with Google to provide user content for training LLMs.
"On March 14, 2024, we received a letter from the FTC advising us that [it] is conducting a non-public inquiry focused on our sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models," Reddit [13]said in addendum to the risk factors section of the IPO filing.
Reddit said it wasn't surprised by the inquiry given the evolving regulatory nature of AI training on public data, that it doesn't believe it has done anything wrong, and that the FTC also asked for a meeting to learn more about its plans.
Leica's [14]test of free-form ads doesn't indicate a whole lot of success to us - it has just three points.
All free-form adverts are supposed to show some kind of sponsored label, though that doesn't appear to be the case on the three posts included in this story. While Leica's shows it, neither Philadelphia post includes a tag indicating it's sponsored content. We understand that's because the Philadelphia posts are no longer boosted by ad spending, so are back to just being normal user posts.
Reddit, which is planning to [15]go public on March 21 having [16]never turned a profit in nearly 20 years of existence, has been doing everything it can of late to drum up support from investors. Most notably, the outfit signed a [17]$60 million deal with Google to ingest user content for the purposes of training AI models after making its Data API a paid service last year, ostensibly to [18]prevent AI models from ingesting user data.
Users [19]haven't been thrilled with Reddit's behavior running up to its IPO, and whether ads-as-posts will help isn't clear, though we know a thing or two about how devoted readers feel about web adverts generally. ®
Get our [20]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.redditinc.com/blog/advertise-like-a-redditor-with-our-all-new-completely-unique-ad-format-free-form-ads
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZfV7yMPRXf4mTLB9h6shtAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZfV7yMPRXf4mTLB9h6shtAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZfV7yMPRXf4mTLB9h6shtAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZfV7yMPRXf4mTLB9h6shtAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZfV7yMPRXf4mTLB9h6shtAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/reddit_pirates_win/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/07/reddit_introduces_aipowered_harassment_filter/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/19/reddit_ceo_musk_twitter/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/20/reddit_confirms_blackcat_extortion_attempt/
[11] https://www.reddit.com/user/PhillyCanada/comments/12ykrp1/help_us_fill_this_thread_with_unexpectedly_tasty/
[12] https://www.reddit.com/user/PhillyCreamCheese/comments/16hxm0s/help_us_fill_this_thread_with_ways_you_use_philly/
[13] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1713445/000162828024011448/reddit-sx1a2.htm#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20on%20March%2014%2C%202024%2C%20we%20received%20a%20letter%20from%20the%20FTC%20advising%20us%20that%20the%20FTC%E2%80%99s%20staff%20is%20conducting%20a%20non%2Dpublic%20inquiry%20focused%20on%20our%20sale%2C%20licensing%2C%20or%20sharing%20of%20user%2Dgenerated%20content%20with%20third%20parties%20to%20train%20AI%20models.
[14] https://www.reddit.com/user/leica_camera/comments/1b9rpam/in_focus_crafted_in_germany_perfected_with_your/
[15] https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/ipos
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/11/reddit_wants_to_raise_748m/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/22/reddit_google_license_ipo_altman/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/18/reddit_charging_ai_api/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/12/reddit_api_outage/
[20] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
in no way an ad, I'm just a random commenter
Walt Dismal
While we're talking here about writing bug-free code in Erlang, I just want to point out when I have a rest break snack, I put delicious Smark Jelly on my biscuits. Delicious Smark Jelly, the only jelly made from exotic scrumtious organic beetle larvae.
My post isn't an ad for delicious Smark Jelly, don't be silly. Click here for a 15% off coupon for delicious Smark Jelly. Mmmm! Like Mom used to make, until that fatal day when she was hit by a delivery van for our competitor's product, the awful Turdini's Jelly made from dead snails.
I am not a bot and I do not hallucinate or auto insert search words like Delicious Smark to clog up the thread text. smark smark smark rhinoceros pting pting elderberries Norwegian blue
Re: in no way an ad, I'm just a random commenter
biddibiddibiddibiddi
You forgot to make it white text on the white background.
Re: in no way an ad, I'm just a random commenter
Andy Non
Thank you for your unbiased review into Smark Jelly. I've just subscribed to a lifelong supply which gave me an incredible 30% off the normal price. I've opted for the crunchy version which has organic live beetles in the jelly. I'm so looking forward to trying this on toast. Thanks again for your recommendation.
So nobody gives a shit about your stuff and your ads aren't of any interest to anyone and people are tired of seeing them? Trick them into thinking they're not ads! Mislead your potential customers! Pretend that your misuse of outdated slang is cool! As long as they still have to come from an obviously corporate username, associated with nothing but obvious advertising posts, I guess it's still tolerable, but barely.
What's the over/under on how long it takes after the IPO before Reddit actually implodes? It IS pretty massive so it will probably take quite a while, but I don't think it will be like Twitter just going on and on with an owner that is just using it as a personal vanity platform with a target demographic and not being concerned about profitability or how people perceive it.