Reddit introduces a new ad format that looks similar to posts made by users | TechCrunch
Reddit is introducing a new ad format that looks similar to posts made by users on the platform, the company announced on Thursday.
I don’t visit Reddit much anymore, but isn’t that the way ads have been for awhile over there?
It is...but they need to highlight it to investors now.
Yes, they're taking from the Apple playbook so people who don't know will think they actually do things that don't involve leather or sheep at Reddit HQ. It's IPO shenanigans.
It used to be, they were called sponsored links, but the comment sections got filled with angry comments about the ads and people would downvote the shit out of them, then they removed comments, and after the redesign ads didn't have threads/engagement but now they do.
One of my friends tried advertising that way and it went poorly, and the ads weren't even for a real product just a test balloon for the concept.
Pepe also got very mad when your ad replaced the moose in the sidebar.
Ironically, it was spez who introduced sponsored links with comments then, so what's old is new again! I wonder if this time will be different... (Not really, I know how this will end)
When I was still using Reddit, I used to report those ad posts for terrorism, inappropriate content or whatever term like that.
On "old reddit" the posts were highlighted so you could tell
I think with the new Facebook style feed it might not be.
The difference is companies used to just run their own super cheap bots to spam fake "engagement" to the site. Now since the API is gone they have to pay Reddit directly for the privilege.
Yes, but reddit wasn't getting paid for it
I think the differentiation is in who's placing the ad.
There were sponsored ads before where a company reached out to Reddit and bought advertisements and read it took the money for them and posted them. They were labeled as sponsored.
But since the beginning of Reddit, advertising firms have just posted nearly blatant ads without notifying anyone.
Sounds to me like reddit's just removing he sponsored indicator from their sponsored ad sales.
I just go to freegamefindings
Organic advertisements that look similar to user posts on reddit? How could they do such a thing?
Anyway, fellow lemmings, for no apparent reason, Today I Learned that Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated movie, "Barbie", is now available on Blu-ray and select streaming services.
All I know is, they pay me every time I say it. Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
Fuck you! I'm eating!
I was about to tag Margot Robbie, but of course it's you
The subreddit /r/hailcorporate has existed for ages pointing this out. Shills have been around since forever and buying upvotes is trivial.
Eh, no shame in self promotion lol
I doubt the movie companies would ever try patronizing to Lemmy. The select streaming services will be links from division by zero users to pirate streaming sites.
In early testing of the new format, Reddit found that free-form ads outperform all other ad types in average click through rate (CTR) by 28%, along with increased community engagement when comments are enabled
so they're bragging how much more misleading the new format is, gotcha.
I bet the "community engagement comments" are just people warning others that it is an ad
Uhmmm based on my behavior before I left, the engagement is probably "click the three dots, hit report, select spam and block user". That worked at least for a short while before they got rid of that feature...
I don't believe that number, the average reddit clicks one of every 4 ads shown?
No way.
Edit: I misread the post to be 28% CTR, you can ignore my comment.
They might not click it on purpose, but that's beside the point.
What, are they gonna, pfft . . what, like . . make it up since there’s nobody watching? Like, oh yeah we’re saying way more people like ads just to, what, make more money?! As if! Pssh! Noooo. That’s . . that’s just crazy talk.
Advertising plateaued in terms of effectiveness a long time ago, so now it’s gotta be about fraud.
So if ads are just like user posts, why would companies pay for advertising when they can just have an intern, paid in "experience and exposure", make regular posts and maintain any different aliases?
Ads get shown because they're paid. Regular posts compete with all other posts, and user filters and subscriptions.
Eh, not too hard to fix. Make it so that paid ads will automatically get 10,000 up votes, that would do it.
Why are people still using Reddit ?
Why are people still using Reddit?
Looking at the first page of my latest comments on reddit, I have some from /r/Wichita, /r/dndmemes, /r/titanfall, /r/KSPMemes, /r/wendigoon, /r/HeyRiddleRiddle, /r/DungeonMeshi, /r/Mythbusters, /r/TheLastAirbender, /r/gurrenlagann, /r/astrophotography, /r/haibanerenmei, /r/yourlieinapril, and /r/LandOfTheLustrous. There are far more, but that's just the first page.
A few of these have fediverse equivalents, most of them don't. None of them ever see active discussion on this platform. Even the ones that do will often go weeks or months between posts. Contrast that with /r/Wichita, which let me know 6 hours in advance that a capsule returning astronauts from the space station was going to fly over us at 4:38 AM on March 12th. Being able to see that made using reddit that day absolutely worth it.
Artificial ranking. Without an API it’s much less reliable for botnets to astroturf; now they’re said “if you can’t beat em, join em” and closed the API and everything is for sale: Even the honesty of the site.
This is the exact same thing Digg did when they released 4.0, which caused the huge Reddit migration almost 15 years ago.
the problem is companies have weaponised complacency, there's too many people that don't care and that's why they keep getting away with it. do it enough times and people will begin to think it's inevitable and just put up with it.
A core principle of enshittification
Yep, I'm a former Digg user who left at the v4 launch because of this exact thing - they made ads indistinguishable from normal user posts.
People are saying this isn't that big a deal, that Reddit won't just die after this. The thing is, Digg still exists but it's a shadow if its former self and nobody cares about it. It's present, but its presence isn't relevant. This change is likely to push more of the users who submit quality content to Reddit away from it, degrading the site community even more than last year.
Lesson not learned, apparently.
Right, but weren't there a bunch of other changes at the same time that other people didn't like? This seems like more frog boiling.
Plus digg wasn't as ingrained and established as Reddit is now.
Plus Reddit had some really clear things about it that people liked better.
And while there are some actually really good Reddit alternatives now, most don't have a BIG draw for most people. And a bunch of people still complain about lack of content being the big problem (same with why millions of idiots are still using Twitter)
I mean, look how few of us actually moved over permanently after the Great Migration last July, and that pissed off way more people than this probably will (with mass protests and everything).
Digg still exists but it’s a shadow if its former self and nobody cares about it
As far as I'm concerned, so is Reddit. The only reason to go there anymore is for Q&A that get SEO spammed on Google. All the communities I was a part of either died after they changed the API (the only people left are the lurkers and low-effort posters) or had their mods replaced by boot lickers who immediately proceeded to not moderate the subs (which made them dead or full of spam).
But hey, now it sure looks like Reddit is alive and well! Just look at all those ads, bots, AI replies, totally legit user posts!
Prepare the instances!!!
Digg was also much smaller than reddit is today, with an even smaller amount of content contributors. Once the contributors moved to reddit, Digg was all but dead and everyone followed suit.
If the ads allow me to comment and say "your product sucks" then I don't mind.
They delete those
There's probably even a 'sentiment' tracking system to automatically remove negative comments at this point.
I still use it for some of the niche communities I can't get here but I'm more than happy to drop it if these new ads somehow manage to get past uBlock
They probably will. The next evolution in ads is going to be serving them within other organic content, your browser can’t block them if it can’t tell the difference. Now you can just pay Reddit to astroturf for you.
Drop them, they’re literally QVC.
I remember when blog network Federated Media pulled this and it didn't work for them, it was a straight march into an acquisition.
How long before the new wave of reddit immigrants here lol
Realistically, this likely won't piss off their userbase nearly as much as the API fiasco last summer. A significant amount of users stayed in light of a number of subs going dark, so I have a feeling an influx in ads won't really grind too many gears (or they will but will just bitch and nothing more).
Reddit is much more mainstream these days, and your average Melvin is just used to ads at this point.
"If your username was a username, how username would username username?"
They're here.
Oh, woe 🙀 It's bad enough that we're stuck with me (ba-dum tssh, self-deprecating humour there :D ) but now we're gonna get even worse critters from Reddit because it's gonna be ones who stayed with it during the previous exodus. Bleh!
I cannot wait to see this Reddit IPO fail, it will be the fucking most glorious thing when fuck face spez has to face the music.
Don't worry, the rich always get golden parachutes.
Pretty sure ads have to be identifiable as ads almost everywhere, against misinformation (because ads usually lie).
the platform’s most popular post types, the megathread, which is a sort of one-stop-shop for discussions about popular topics. Similar to megathreads, free-form ads are meant to help readers get the information they need quickly. The company says the new ad format would be a good way to do things like launch a product or introduce a brand to a new audience.
imagine seeing a new mega thread each time a brand releases a new flavor of deodorant or something
flavor of deodorant
Something isn't right about that...
Edible deodorant of course.
I don't know about the people still on Reddit, but I personally do not eat my deodorant.
That's because you haven't tried cool ranch yet
Your missing out. Old Spice is like a pumpkin pie.
The worst thing is when you open the sidebar. If you click too fast on a sidebar item it registers as a click on the first ad in your feed.
I report the ad as offensive every time this happens which is almost every time.
Why stay there? Make the shift permanent!
I used nails in the past and I never went around telling people how I keep hitting my thumb with the hammer 😭. 😂. I just learned to not put my thumb there and problem solved! So just take your thumb and bring it here! No ads here! I can't believe they finally did put ads there.
I haven’t been there in a long time but i remember ads being all over the damn place and they had a certain feel where i knew it wasn’t a regular post and if you looked closely it said promoted. So is this the same thing or are they straight up not even including the promoted tag anymore ?
It's so annoying when your reading a comment and realize your reading an add god loved so wash feet add you are making me hate Jesus
But maybe if you keep reading you'll find out it was actually leading into telling you about the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table.
All those moderators spent all those years fighting bot spam, and now the admins are deliberately opening the floodgates for the IPO.
I wish I could say I was shocked, but this was 100% foreseeable given their behavior since the third party app fiasco.
Subverting the will and attention autonomy of the user is a premium feature now.
The site has so many ad posts and shilling mods that this is basically no change at all
New? There used to be a whole sub dedicated to calling out astroturf ads on Reddit. We always got shouted down lol
Yeah I remember this shit happening already, even mimicking the writing style of a typical Reddit title.
TIL: Chumba Casino is a great place to play all my favorite social casino games! They even gave me a free 100$ just for signing up!
"Piss on my leg once, well.. you pissed on me. Piss on my leg three times? Well.. Well.. maybe I like getting pissed on"
George Bush Jr. (probably)
Its like still being on Twitter. All the data you need is there. If you are still using these platforms, you support these kinds of polices and behaviors.
People who still are there kinda deserves it.
They have been trying SO hard lately. A featured section on After Midnight, absolutely riveting, totally 100 percent factual posts being discussed by very real unpaid people on Tiktok and Instagram.
Real glad I'm here instead.
Hot garbage site does hot garbage stuff. Reddit makes it too easy to take dumps on itself.
Edit: I misread the post to be 28% CTR, you can ignore my comment.
There's absolutely no fucking way CTR for those is 28%.
I do not believe that.
Posts don't even have a CTR that high, that would mean the average user goes no further than 4 ads before clicking one.
Now I wish I bought some stock so I could get in on a shareholder lawsuit about them cooking the books on this shit.
Edit: for context, it's 0.9% on FB, 1.9% on Google.
What's more likely, someone at reddit fucked up an analysis, or these ads are 14x better than Google or 31x better than FB?
Improved by 28%, not at 28%.
That would be some awful idiocracy type of future and we’re not there… yet.
...but it's got electrolytes!
I think maybe a re-read is in order. They’re claiming the new format outperforms the (presumably) old format by 28%, not that the CTR is 28%.
What’s more likely, someone at reddit fucked up an analysis, or these ads are 14x better than Google or 31x better than FB?
What's most likely is that you misread or misinterpreted what was stated. It says the new format outperforms other types of ads by 28%, not that they get 28% CTR.
Yes... It was me... I read it wrong
I replied to you you elsewhere in this thread, but they never claimed to be getting 28% CTR. They only claimed that this format performs 28% better than alternatives.
If a different ad format was getting 1% CTR, then a 28% improvement is still only a total 1.28% CTR.
Thanks, I've updated both comments.
I mean, generally I'm all for shitting on reddit, but there's also a third option: Reader's not understanding what 28% better than other ad types means.
Yep, I misread it and have updated my comment
Didn't they already have that?
Definitely. Except companies just did it themselves.
'Course they do
Is this something that uBO can detect?
I bet these ads will be very well moderated
Purchased upvotes and downvotes that make criticism invisible
We should start a viral campaign promising to boycott anything advertised on Reddit just before the IPO
Earlier I was wanking for no reason, but now I get to showcase my c*m to investors - yaay
[Caveat lector: Irish Cream-fuelled comment]
There's a sad future out there where the "Fediverse forums" thrives not because they're good, but because Reddit became so fucking bad that even your typical redditor - as in, braindead trash - left for the fediverse.
I mean we're all here because we don't like Reddit, it's very pertinent to us
Yeah the ads were always just a reddit post places on top of the page.. I guess this is for new reddit?
So reddit is going to start selling the thing literally every company has been doing for free?
As if I didn’t have enough reasons to visit the site.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Reddit is introducing a new ad format that looks similar to posts made by users on the platform, the company announced on Thursday.
Advertisers can use the format to combine multiple media types, including image, video and text with the help of ready-made templates.
The company says the new ad format would be a good way to do things like launch a product or introduce a brand to a new audience.
“Free-form ads give advertisers the flexibility to build an ad of any length, using multiple media types, with a look and feel that’s native to the platform,” said Jim Squires, Reddit’s EVP of Business Marketing and Growth, in a blog post.
Reddit is likely seeking to add more brands to its platform and possibly convert them into paying advertisers.
The launch marked the first time that Reddit offered free tools to help businesses with their social strategy.
The original article contains 383 words, the summary contains 148 words. Saved 61%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
We're laughing over here at Lemmy.
Look, Reddit users! I have access to a frontend API. OoooooOooooo. We're partying like it's 2012 again.
What’s “reddit”?
