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Reddit has begun focusing on luring brands and making its site a more attractive ad platform, marking a shift in strategy for the discussion forum, which has historically prioritized user growth over monetization. Reddit has been aggressively pitching brands on sponsorship opportunities and has discussed investing more heavily in combating objectionable posts on the site, according to CNBC.

It is also pitching brands new ad formats, including a “top post takeover” that puts branded content on the front page of the site for 24 hours. Coupled with Reddit’s large and engaged user base, the company’s new ad initiative could help it unlock ad spend from blue chips and small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) alike.

Here's how Reddit’s user base and platform could be valuable to brands:

Reddit is the US' fifth most trafficked website, and its user base rivals Twitter's in size. The platform attracts over 18 billion page views per month and boasts 330 million monthly active users (MAU), just shy of Twitter’s 336 million MAU in Q1 2018. Reddit’s high traffic and reach imply it hosts at least some users who are in the market for products that most brands are selling.

A lot of Reddit’s users can’t be reached on some other top social platforms.Reddit offers value in its unduplicated reach: 81% of US Redditors don’t use Instagram, while 51% don’t have a Twitter account, according to comScore per The Drum. This unique user base means brands spending on Reddit don’t have to worry as much about bombarding the same users with ads they might already be seeing on other social platforms.

Reddit has a young user base that spends a lot of time browsing niche sub-sections of the site. The site’s users, 79% of whom are 18-34 years old, spend over 16 minutes per day on the platform, according to Reddit per CNBC. Comparatively, Facebook users spend over 10 minutes per day on its platform, while the figure for Twitter is over 6 minutes, according to traffic data company Alexa. And, while Redditors are on the site, they're browsing forums dedicated to certain topics, known as “subreddits.” Brands can target certain subreddits to maximize their chances of reaching a user who’s interested in the service they’re promoting.

However, marketers should be aware of potential brand safety issues and Redditors’ general disdain for ads before advertising on the platform. Reddit users can be overt in their disapproval of promotional posts — a subreddit called “/r/hailcorporate” is dedicated to lambasting companies posting ads on Reddit, for example.

Meanwhile, brand safety has been an ongoing issue of concern on Reddit, as Redditors can hide behind an alias (username) and post offensive comments. That said, Reddit’s VP of brand partnerships, Zubair Jandali, confirmed to The Drum that the platform has tools that automatically filter out unsavory comments on promoted posts, which could help alleviate brand safety concerns.

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