Reddit’s Efforts Toward A Positive Advertising User Experience

reddit CEO Yishan Wong doesn’t like “business models that are overly dependent on advertising,” which has led to the creation of alternate revenue streams like reddit gold and reddit gifts, but also to a community-oriented take on reddit advertising that prioritizes the user experience over ad revenue, in hopes of aligning “ads and the will of the community.”

So far, reddit’s attempts to foster positive community sentiments toward ads on reddit have included

  1. banning intrusive and retargeted ads,

  2. regularly placing non-ad content within ad units,

  3. allowing users to customize their ad experience, and

  4. positioning ad revenue as a force for community and social good.

Whether these attempts have truly fostered widespread positive sentiment requires further data, but regardless, reddit has done quite a bit to make “ads suck less” (in the words of reddit sales director Mike Cole).

No Intrusive Or Retargeted Ads

As posted on the reddit blog subreddit in April 2013 by Jenna Donlin, reddit advertising manager, “Our primary goal is to make advertisements on reddit as useful and non-intrusive as possible. We take great pride in the fact that reddit is one of the few sites where people actively disable ad blockers. reddit does not allow animated or visually distracting ads, and whenever possible, we try to use ads as a force of good in our communities.”

reddit’s effort toward a non-intrusive ad experience have succeeded: at most there is a single promoted link within post links and a single static ad, often below the fold. Both units also contain discussion threads specific to each ad, where redditors aren’t afraid to praise or decimate.

A sponsored top link and side ad.

The discussion thread for a LEGO sponsored link.

Non-Ad Content Within Ad Units

Non-ad content such as games, silly pictures of moose, and even pictures that thank users for not using adblockers will often be seen within reddit ad units. The resulting user attitude toward the unit is thus hopefully more positive than units on other sites that only display annoying ads.

   

The subreddit r/ads is solely devoted to discussing ad unit content within reddit, and asks that users “please don’t hesitate to let us know if you see anything that’s offensive, malicious, or anything you don’t want to see!” Other major social networks lack a public community like r/ads  to discuss user ad experiences, and it reflects a willingness from reddit to be critiqued by the community so it can improve the experience for everyone.

Community discussions about ads within the r/ads subreddit.

Customized Ad Experiences

Users may upvote or downvote ads which, similar to Pandora votes, will increase or null the likelihood of that ad being served to you. According to Jenna Dolin, reddit advertising manager, “If you ‘thumbs down’ an ad, we won’t display it to you again, and you can give us feedback to improve the quality of reddit ads in the future.”

Users may downvote ads they don’t like.

Ad Revenue As A Force For Good

In a February 2014 post titled Decimating Our Ads Revenue, reddit CEO Yishan Wong announced that “we will donate 10% of our advertising revenue receipts in 2014 to non-profits chosen by the reddit community … We want to show that advertising doesn’t just support the reddit platform, it also directly supports the causes and goals of reddit as a whole.” Giving the community decision-making power is a sign of thanks for users putting up with the ads.

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