In the world occupied by social media, Reddit somehow manages to snuggly fit between the giants.
This happens because people come to Reddit for countless reasons: to learn, to fuel passions, to seek recommendations, to ask for advice and to solve problems. The list just goes on, and all that thanks to its engaging community.
Whatever the reason, Redditors are deeply engaged in the topics that interest them.
Reddit knows this very well, and for that reason, it's eyeing on making money from that fact.
In a blog post, the so-called 'front page of the internet' introduces 'free-form' ads, which are meant to empower advertisers to easily engage on the platform in the same way as users.
To do this, the ads are designed to look like normal ads.
The 'free-form' layout means that advertisers are allowed to share in-depth information with Reddit by combining multiple media types, including image, video, and text, using ready-made templates.
Considering its "most native ad format yet," Reddit said that its 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 continued to explain that the ad style is inspired by one of the most popular user post types, which is called the megathread, a post type known by Redditors as a one-stop shop for discussions about popular topics.
Just like the megathread, the free-form ads encourage multiple users to come together, get the information they need and deep dive into the topic at hand.
Due to the possible high engagement, "this makes it one of the best formats to launch a product, introduce a brand to a new audience or share a seasonal shopping guide," Reddit added.
And because of the open-ended nature of the ad style, advertisers have the freedom to explore different types of creative to build a bespoke brand experience, facilitate an in-depth conversation with Reddit audiences and share a comprehensive voice on the platform.
To help advertisers in their campaign, Reddit introduces a new building capabilities within the Ads Manager, which include topic templates they can choose from.
This way, it would be much easier for businesses to get their name and new products in front of an audience.
According to Jim Squires, EVP of Business Marketing and Growth at Reddit:
"Free-form ads are unique to Reddit and its one-of-a-kind communities. As we continue to invest in our ads product roadmap, it’s important to draw from what people love most about Reddit and create opportunities for businesses to be a part of that."
Early results suggest the effort is working.
According to numbers from Reddit, free-form ads can get 28% more clicks than all other types of ads on the site and saw a jump in community engagement.
Free-form ads are meant to be as native as possible.
The only way to notice them, is by looking for the 'Promoted' banner that appears next to the username in faint text.