– Advertisers around the world can now engage users in more than 100 countries;
– City-level targeting is currently available for U.S. cities in 210 metro areas;
– reddit offers 200 free ad campaigns to international advertisers, read on to find out how to claim one.
reddit – the front page of the Internet – has just launched country and city level targeting for all promoted posts, extending the capabilities of its advertising platform to serve a global array of users and advertisers.
Advertising on reddit has been possible since late 2009, when the company opened up its advertising platform to all US credit card holders. While the platform continued to evolve throughout the years , the targeting of promoted posts on reddit (as reddit’s native ad placements are called) used to be possible only at an interest-based level, that is at [tooltip text=”subreddit” gravity=”nw”]reddit is made up of thousands of sub-communities, each focused on a specific topic – they are called “subreddits”.[/tooltip] level.
With the new targeting feature, reddit users will benefit from an increased relevance of the promoted posts they are shown, while reddit advertisers can optimize their budget and maximize ROI by targeting only those territories that are most relevant for them. Location targeting will come in handy for many advertisers in many contexts, including:
[one_fourth]global advertisers
looking to add a layer of geographical relevance to their campaigns and streamline ad impressions[/one_fourth]
[one_fourth]global advertisers
with offers that differ from one territory to another[/one_fourth]
[one_fourth]niche advertisers
looking to reach smaller audiences at city level[/one_fourth]
[one_fourth_last]reddit interest-based communities
subreddits looking to expand their user base in specific countries or U.S. cities[/one_fourth_last]
Ad inventory on reddit
reddit boasts an impressive ad inventory, thanks to the 5 billion pageviews generated by nearly 115 million unique visitors from over 190 countries – that’s the kind of monthly traffic and reach reddit has*. “Front page city and country-level targeting opens up additional inventory for countries and US metro areas on reddit to advertisers looking for inventory beyond specific location based subreddits.”, explains Jena Donlin, senior product manager, advertising at reddit.
Ad targeting on reddit
Following the launch of the [tooltip text=”location targeting” gravity=”nw”]reddit determines and serves ads on a city or country level based on a user’s IP address[/tooltip] feature, there are now multiple possibilities for advertisers to target their ad campaigns on reddit:
– Open targeting, where a promoted post runs on the reddit frontpage across all territories;
– Location targeting, allowing for a promoted post to run on the reddit frontpage, displayed only to users within a certain country or city;
– Interest targeting, where advertisers can target specific subreddits associated to specific user interests.
“Being able to target ads by country or city is an existing capability that is built into reddit’s ad server; we are customizing and enabling this capability to serve reddit’s native ad unit of promoted posts”, continues Donlin.
Ad formats on reddit
reddit is far from being a standard player in the world of user generated content. While that landscape is commonly populated by display advertising in all its forms (and in large amounts!), reddit has put their community needs first and as a result has refused monetization through obnoxious or intrusive advertising. reddit’s native ad unit – the promoted post – comes in numerous shapes and forms which ultimately are all in line with reddit’s strict policy of making ads user-friendly and well integrated into the content.
The ad formats available off-the-shelf to all users of the advertising platform are, in fact, similar to actual reddit posts:
– The promoted link, which will re-direct users to a URL of your choice. This promotion includes a headline copy, thumbnail image, and landing page URL (see image below). This type of promotion is great for driving traffic to a specific landing page.
– The promoted text, which is an embedded text box with a message of your choice that redirects users to the “comments” page of the promotion, where the expanded text body is displayed. This type includes a headline, a thumbnail image, and a text box of unlimited size that can also contain links. This type of promotion is great for adding more context to a campaign and driving conversation.
Further types of promoted posts are available to premium advertisers and can include many forms of embeddable content, such as videos, forms or even whole games.
Advertising and user privacy on reddit
In line with reddit’s commitment to user privacy, any reddit user who may be commenting on an ad that has been targeted to a specific country or city will be notified via a message above the text area of the respective ad page.
If a sponsored post is targeted to either a country or a city, you will see a matching icon: a globe if a country is being targeted and map if a city is being targeted.
Display advertising on reddit
In addition to its native promoted headline ad placement, reddit is also offering a single display ad placement. The unit, located on the right sidebar of all pages, is a standard IAB size of 300 x 250 (the classic island or MPU) and a 300 x 100 unit. Location targeting has been available in these ad units for some time and the newly launched feature does not impact them in any way. Currently, the display ad placements are available for campaigns with a min. spend of $20,000 – contact advertising@reddit.com for questions and requests.
Ad pricing on reddit
reddit does not differentiate, in terms of price, between global and country-targeted campaigns: current price is set at $0.75 CPM with a minimum of $5 spend. City targeting, available for U.S. cities in 210 metro areas, is priced at $5 CPM. The payment method accepted is credit card, and the amount can be anything in the [tooltip text=”$5-$9,999″ gravity=”nw”]contact advertising@reddit.com for larger campaigns[/tooltip] range.
Want a trial run of reddit ads?
In honor of reddit’s international friends and this new ability, there is an offer for 200 small ad campaigns for companies who want to set up some of the first ads targeted based on country viewing from. Do you have an ad that you’d like to show Canadians? Aussies? Swedes?
To claim your chance at a free international campaign:
1. Create an ad using your reddit account by visiting reddit.com/advertising. Click “create an ad.”
– You can choose “link” or “text”. These work like organic reddit posts — a link ad will link externally to your project’s URL.
– A text post will link to the comment section with your text displayed in a box at the top. The text box provides space for describing your project or including other information with your link. Fill out the two boxes, then click “next”.
– When you’ve done the above, and clicked “next”, you will arrive at your campaign dashboard.
– Copy the URL of the campaign dashboard page.
2. With that URL handy, please fill out this form.
To learn more about advertising on reddit, visit reddit.com/ad_inq or email advertising@reddit.com.
* source: http://www.reddit.com/about/
