Advertisers can still target users according to interests and other contexts when they’re accessing the home page.
Campaigns have notched slightly lower impression delivery and consequently, slightly higher CPMs, over the days of the blackout, Johnson said. If the performance weakness continues for a week or two, the agency would start recommending decreasing spend with Reddit or directing it to other platforms. The moderator blackout is supposed to end Wednesday.
Effective CPMs were up about 1%-2% in the past two days, equivalent to a high-traffic day on the platform, said Darren D’Altorio, vp of paid social at Wpromote. Several other buyers told Adweek that they had not noticed a change in their Reddit CPMs.
Reddit’s CEO said the charge is partly to ensure large language models from firms like OpenAI and Google can’t access Reddit data without paying for it.
Notably, the policy would open up another revenue stream for Reddit, which has been exploring an IPO. Reddit has also been on a campaign to woo more advertisers to the platform, nabbing an exec from Meta to deepen ties with small businesses and international advertisers. It recently announced layoffs of 5% of its employees. Reddit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brands go quiet
The moderator boycott is not only affecting auction dynamics but media strategy, as advertisers don’t want to appear tone-deaf during a contentious period for the platform.
Two Wpromote clients canceled two premium, takeover-style campaigns that were supposed to launch this week, and received make-goods for the impressions that had already been delivered, D’Altorio said.
[Advertisers] didn’t want to become the subject of users’ opinions about Reddit’s decisions.
—Anonymous media buyer
The campaigns will relaunch next week, while other standard campaigns remain unaffected, he said.
D’Altorio asked several clients to reschedule Ask Me Anything activations—where brands chat directly with their customers—as “we shouldn’t muddy the waters with our brand,” he said.
The anonymous media buyer source said one campaign turned off comments on their ads today.
“They didn’t want to become the subject of users’ opinions about Reddit’s decisions,” the buyer said.
Accumulated goodwill
For years, brands have been wary of the platform due to Redditers’ hostility toward advertisers. But the platform’s recent outreach has helped shift that narrative, with several sources telling Adweek they’ve increased their investment with Reddit in the past few years.
