At its first major event as a public company, Reddit is showcasing its strength as a contextual advertising platform at Cannes 2024. Part of that is the reintroduction of Conversation Ads, an enhanced version of the format with redesigned creative where ads can appear when users are researching or discussing the topics they care about.
Jim Squires, Reddit EVP of business marketing and growth, says, “People on Reddit thrive in conversations and the comment threads are where they go to dive deep. It’s the most contextually relevant space on our platform and a huge opportunity for advertisers to reach relevant audiences when they are actively seeking out information on a specific topic. Our latest updates to Conversation Ads will not only drive performance through an elevated design, they will expand advertiser reach and relevancy as our clients can now show up in the heart of these high-intent, highly engaged discussions.”
Reddit is also testing a new ad placement that will appear seamlessly between individual comments in Reddit conversations. The format is specifically designed to reach audiences at the moment they are most leaned in and primed to take action. The ads appear on the conversation page, Reddit’s fastest-growing ads surface where 47% of screenviews happen, according to the platform’s 2024 internal research.
The research also found that layering Reddit Feed and Conversation Ad placements together drives action intent more than twice as strong as feed only, lifting from 2.44% up to 5.46%. Brands with campaigns that included both Feed and Conversation Ads also saw an increase of 83% higher brand awareness compared to Feed only.
One example is a campaign from Reddit advertiser Lenovo. The brand added Conversation Ads to its campaign mix early on as part of its evergreen strategy on Reddit. A multi-placement strategy enabled Reddit’s algorithm to optimize Lenovo’s performance goals across Feed and Conversation Ads, according to the brand. By letting Reddit’s algorithm systems do the work for them, Lenovo’s Conversation Ads provided gains in efficiency including a cost per acquisition (CPA) 40% lower than the campaign average in 2023. Reddit reports that Lenovo’s Conversation Ads strategy continues to improve their CPA 30% YoY and has already helped them achieve their early 2024 campaign goals.
