Reddit Launches Free Form Ads Which Replicate the Look of Organic Posts

I’m guessing Redditors will be none-to-pleased with this.

Today, Reddit has announced a new ad format which it’s calling “free form ads”, which are designed to look like organic Reddit posts, with a small disclaimer in place of a username.

As explained by Reddit:

“Free-form ads are our latest ad format that empower advertisers to easily engage on the platform in the same way as our users. Its “free form” layout allows advertisers to share in-depth information with Reddit by combining multiple media types, including image, video and text using ready-made templates. As our most native ad format yet, 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.”

So they’re essentially designed to be more organic looking, which could make them more effective as an ad option, in that they’ll feel increasingly native to the platform and the formats in which users engage.

Free Form Ads will provide more space to share information within your promotion, as they replicate the format of a “megathread”, an expanded post type that can include text, images, video and links in a single promotion.

“Just like the megathread, free-form ads encourage multiple users to come together, get the information they need and deep dive into the topic at hand. All of 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.”

And Reddit says that it has proven effective in testing, with the new format outperforming all other ad types in average click through rate by 28%, while also driving increased community engagement when comments are enabled.

It could be a good option, though again, it could also be a little confusing to Redditors who may not see it as an ad as they scroll through the feed.

In any case, it’s another option to consider, and with 73 million daily active users, all engaging around niche topics, Reddit could be worth experimenting with as an ad option.