New Conversation placement ad formats to drive user engagement

We know how important it is that we give brands performative ad products that enable them to tap into the contextual relevance that makes Reddit truly unique. To do that, we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes this year building new formats that enable advertisers to improve how they present themselves to redditors on the comments page. This is where the magic of Reddit happens and our research showed that 78% of redditors use the platform for recommendations more than once a month¹. We’re excited to share the release of a few new products, designed specifically for Conversation placement, that can be included in advertisers’ strategies to reach redditors where they are most engaged and drive strong results.

Carousel ads redesign for Conversation placement

Previously if an advertiser selected Conversation placement when running Carousel ads the experience for both the advertiser and user were limited. The ad was limited to showing the first card and could only link out to the landing page of that first card. To fix that, we released a fully redesigned Carousel ad, specifically for the Conversation placement, with a number of new features. 

First, this new format allows advertisers to display all cards in the ad unit and is fully interactive, giving users the ability to scroll through and tap each card to access its respective landing page. The aspect ratio allowance is flexible, so if a brand has a landscape image they will be able to show the full image without it being cropped.

Next, this unique format gives advertisers the ability to get really creative because multiple cards can be visible together, depending on the user settings. Brands can have some fun designing their ad by making the images flow from one to the other or using GIFs that loop in real time to attract user attention. Take a look at how Amazon used the Conversation placement to highlight multiple products together:

And to add a cherry on top, this new format performs significantly better than the previous design. In our experiments, campaigns optimizing towards clicks saw a 44% increase in clickthrough rate². 

Product Ads placement expansion

Until now, Product Ads - our ad format that allows advertisers to easily create shopping campaigns using product images and metadata pulled from their product catalog - could only run in feed. With only feed placement, we were missing a critical surface in the redditor purchase journey. So, we enabled Conversation placement for Product Ads, making it easier for advertisers to connect redditors with the products they love across their full purchase journey.

What’s more, the Product Ads carousel format for conversation placement features multiple, scrollable product cards making it a great opportunity to build an engaging Product Ad featuring a collection, best sellers, or seasonal product selection.

Combine these new products with keyword targeting

Brands that are looking for a way to add the power of contextual relevance to their Conversation placement ads can use keyword targeting to reach & engage with redditors directly in the conversations where they are discovering new products or services. By selecting keywords that align to the brand & creative, the ads will match with active conversations and reach redditors who are primed to purchase. During testing advertisers saw impressive results with 29.6% higher CTR and 112% lower CPAs compared to community based targeting³!