The next attention-grabbing post you see in your Reddit feed might just be a paid 'free-form ad'.

Calling them “free-form ads,” Reddit said the new advertisements are its most native format ever, designed to look and feel like community content shared by real people.

The ads, meant to mimic the site’s megathreads, will enable advertisers to utilize a variety of formats in one post, including images, videos, and text.

According to numbers from Reddit, free-form ads got 28% more clicks than all other types of ads on the site and saw a jump in community engagement.

The next time you see an interesting post in your Reddit feed, take a closer look - because it might just be a paid advertisement.

  • @phxEnglish
    2•2 months ago

    Yeah, I figure it does two ways

    1. They get called out quickly and result in a bunch of shitposts or actively blasting the product

    2. They block posting which makes it obvious they’re ads and get little too no engagement anyhow

    • @[email protected]English
      2•2 months ago

      Reddit will program new mod bots to deal with organic responses the advertiser doesn’t consider constructive. That opens another revenue stream: charging advertisers for sub-specific bot tweaks.

      The interesting question to me is, when does normie realize his sub has been co-opted to function as a focus group, and decide to look for a new forum.

      • @phxEnglish
        1•2 months ago

        Oh, they’ll try, but that just means trolling needs to get more creative, like certain Amazon reviews