this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
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I literally made a reddit account a few days before the hullabaloo started, specifically to buy advertising on reddit.
I stopped advertising on blackout day for moral reasons regardless, but it also seemed like it just overall wasn't worth it in general. And, my observation of the ads I see as a user has been that they aren't at all tuned to what I would be likely to want, or constructed so I'd be likely to click on them. Some platforms I have to consciously avoid clicking on ads or scroll past them deliberately when my natural tendency is to click on them. On reddit it's just weird nonsense that I want to scroll past anyway.
In short, my brief experience with reddit ads made me conclude that it's probably a waste of money anyway.
Personally the redditbusiness page marketing to advertisers reads like wishful thinking or something straight from /r/boringdystopia.
"Look there's places where people come to discuss flashlight options and other users/google results trust them! Pay us money to look like you're part of that! It's not creepy to try and co-opt at all!"
I'm not surprised that their interface isn't great, they haven't paid for developers to do anything other than try to look more like twitter/facebook in a long time.
I had no idea about this. This is the weirdest goddamned thing. I found so much that I made a whole separate post. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I had no idea.
Hey, I loved watching people nerd out on their flashlights! Actually, I was there to get insight on how they were building their own awesome lights, and trying to understand what the difference between lights was.
Exactly, that is a useful resource. It came to mind because I used it to figure out what was worth it when I needed to buy a new one. A flashlight company pretending to be part of it makes it less useful.
IIRC the vendors were obligated to identify themselves. Some of the vendors were just people making hardware mods, too.
Too many people ad block everything on Reddit in any decent category that you might want to target.
The real way to do it is an army of paid shills making posts and comments by a third party.
I agree with your comment while I enjoy this piping hot Dominos Cheesey-Cheese Delix Pizza, delivered hot and fresh right to my door.
Eating the Dominos^TM^ Cheessey-Cheese^TM^ Delux^TM^ Pizza^TM^ is better than orgasming and I can't wait to have another one tonight.
Another pizza, right? ... right?
The cheese on this pizza I'm enjoying right now isn't the only cheese in this room.
So I generally agree with you on (a), but I do like to just try stuff and measure how well it works, and sometimes I get surprised. I did try (b) also, and I actually had a pretty hard time sorting out where to post where my promotional posts wouldn't instantly be removed, how to post in a way that made it clear I'm here to sell my stuff without being overbearing about it, etc. I actually did figure it out eventually and had some level of success with it in terms of people engaging with my stuff, but it didn't lead to any sales (for the short time I did it). I mean, it makes sense. Most people don't read a post and come away from it with the idea "I gotta run out and buy that thing!"
Some subreddits actually specifically say that if you want to advertise your stuff, that's what ads are for. I've got no problem with either paying for advertising or just being honest about what I'm there for; mostly I just care that it works, which is far as I can tell reddit's ads didn't for me.
Honestly, advertising on the internet is a big cluster fuck. It isn't like how cable was where it used to he organic and clever. It's just shoved into people's faces wherever, whenever and however the advertisers possibly can. Of course no one wants to see ads and uses ad blockers. I dont care how interested I was in an article if I go to read it and the page is littered with ads I'm leaving and never visiting the site again.
I would assume that almost all clicks are from people on the mobile app accidentally tapping ads while they try to scroll past them, because they're in the main feed. So click quality being garbage doesn't surprise me.
Holy smokes -- I think you're right. I've definitely done that. That would explain this mystifying thing I saw in ad traffic from Facebook and reddit specifically, where 90+% of people stay for literally just a few seconds. If it's pretty much all accidental clicks and then people hitting "back" right away (which is exactly what I do when I do that), then that makes it make perfect sense.
This was my experience. Almost every ad I clicked on was a mistake; either I thought it was a real post and wasn't paying close attention, only to navigate away in disgust, or I clicked on it purely by accident. I had like 50k+ karma (to give you some idea of much I used reddit) and might have honestly clicked an ad once.
Reddit ad targeting is a joke and I dont even understand how. How can they not tell what my interests are when I've literally subbed to them? It's the easiest targeting set up in the world and they still can't make it work.
(1) Because the more irrelevant ads they show, the more accidental clicks they can collect, and the more ad revenue. There will be individual clients (e.g. Adobe) who probably have some measurable results, but my guess is that most of their advertisers show pretty good metrics in terms of "cost per click" etc, and aren't paying close enough attention to realize that their real return on ad spend is extremely low.
(2) Reddit's just as incapable / uncaring about writing good ad targeting as they are about constructing the rest of the site.
Pick one. Aaron Schwartz would be furious at the current state of reddit.