For how massive Reddit is in terms of user base, it’s really gotten by for a long time having a product that advanced about as quickly as Drudge Report. That’s been changing lately, as the company has looked to mature their platform with user-centric features that make surfing content easier and keep everything a bit more connected.
The company didn’t raise $200 million from top investors just because they thought the company could deliver memes more beautifully. The company has — in fact — barely touched advertising, and few entities know more about its users interests than Reddit.
Next week, the company will launch native promoted post ads on its Reddit iOS app with an Android version following soon after. The company informed advertisers of this in an email, MarketingLand reports. The apps have had rocky starts but have proven to offer a vastly improved user experience over what came before it. There are still some blind spots here and there, but for how slowly the company moved previously, the apps are fairly impressive.
Few user bases are more vocal or hesitant to change than the hundreds of million of monthly active Redditors, and advertisers are likely similarly hesitant to get involved with a platform that has churned out controversy at a steady pace over the past few years. Nevertheless, Reddit has already set its course toward building out a better ads product and native promoted ads represent a big step toward that.