Reddit Launches Cost-Per-Click Bidding

On January 30, Reddit announced that it’s launching cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, the platform’s first performance-based bidding strategy. The CPC ads will join the previous cost-per-impression (CPM) and cost-per-view (CPV) ad units.

What you need to know

Reddit originally created an ad platform based on engagement and brand awareness—CPC bidding marks the company’s first foray into direct response advertising. Campaign objectives for the new ads include reach, video views, traffic, and conversions.

Regarding the announcement, Zubair Jandali, Reddit’s VP of Brand Partnerships, said, “While cost-per-click advertising isn’t innovative, in itself, the launch marks a big moment for the Reddit Ads business. This is a point of inflection that helps get us to parity in the market and will change the way advertisers think about our capabilities.”

CPC ads can show across both desktop and mobile and will be delivered as a link or a Promoted Post. Similar to Facebook ads, Promoted Posts allow for both image and video content.

Advertisers can access the new bidding strategy through the Reddit Ads dashboard. Accepted bid values range from $0.25 to $100.00.

What to expect

Given the newness of Reddit’s CPC bidding, there isn’t a lot of data regarding early results. That being said, a select group of brands, including Wayfair, Hired, and Kabam, were given early access to the feature.

“Reddit began testing the CPC bid type in early November with more than 50 performance advertisers across a number of verticals including gaming, B2B and e-commerce,” a Reddit spokesperson said.

According to Reddit, most of the advertisers in the beta group have increased return on ad spend (ROAS) by up to 50 percent.

Reddit also says that CPC bidding is just the first of many new performance-based features. The company has also mentioned improvements to ad targeting, reporting, and management tools coming in the near future.