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by eli 1088 days ago
Many (most?) of the categories are not desirable to advertisers and the user base is hostile to advertising.

A google ad that appears when someone searches "car insurance" is very different from an ad in a car insurance subreddit. It's also different from Facebook where you could target based on demographics.
1 comments
joshstrange 1088 days ago
Are you joking? Reddit has hyper-focused niche communities, this should be a cake walk to advertise to. You can see exactly which book series I'm reading, which TV shows I'm watching, what my hobbies are, what my profession is, etc. If you can't figure out how to advertise to Reddit users then I can't help you.

In addition to ads they have Reddit Gold (or whatever their membership program is called, it's bad that I've been on the platform for a decade and I have no idea). They made the same mistake Twitter did with Twitter Blue: "Why would I subscribe?". At least Reddit gives you "No ads", Twitter gives you "Less ads". Ok, so no ads but the UI/UX of the official app is trash, it's messy and inconsistent. If they had said "Buy our subscription to keep using 3rd party apps" I would have paid in a heartbeat.

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rchaud 1088 days ago
> You can see exactly which book series I'm reading, which TV shows I'm watching, what my hobbies are, what my profession is, etc. If you can't figure out how to advertise to Reddit users then I can't help you.

These are very bold claims to make, considering that Reddit is at the bottom of every advertiser's priority list, despite being a lot cheaper.

Have you considered that Reddit users simply do not like being advertised to? Asking for a product recommendation on a message board is fundamentally different from seeing an ad for a product on said board.

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slipshady 1088 days ago
> Have you considered that Reddit users simply do not like being advertised to?

Does anyone like being advertised to?

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eli 1083 days ago
Sure. All of HN is marketing for YCombinator.
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eli 1088 days ago
Not joking at all. Reddit has had a self-service platform that lets you target ads to subreddits for a very long time. Why do you think it's not popular?
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disgruntledphd2 1088 days ago
If I had to guess, because their self service tools suck and they haven't invested in agency relationships.

If you want a successful internet ad business you need to do one of those, but preferably both.

That being said, it's wild to me that Twitter never managed to build a DR (i.e. selling clicks/conversions) business, so maybe Reddit is equally as badly managed (which again, is really surprising to me).

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