One of the main reasons people come to Reddit is to be informed by discussions they’re interested in, creating an environment of active discovery ripe for brands to show up and add value. Contextual Keyword Targeting places advertisers at the center of this journey, and at the heart of active conversations taking place, giving them the option to select specific keywords to associate with their brand, or even align keywords with their creative ad copy for added relevance. With so much direct traffic to Reddit conversation threads originating from high intent organic searches or research sessions, Contextual Keyword Targeting unlocks value for advertisers during and after discussions unfold, since we know Reddit threads live on as valuable, searchable resources for our users.

I threw up in my mouth reading this. I don't think any community would enjoy being described as "an environment of active discovery ripe for brands to show up and add value".

If you're like me and haven't deleted old reddit comments because of the valuable information they can give other people, now may be the time to reconsider. Being able to advertise on discussions that have already happened is one of the sales pitches Reddit makes to prospective advertisers.

So fucking brazenly perverse.

The window of success for trusting reddit for product recommendations was just destroyed. What fucking idiots. They can't seek out clients instead of posting to the world that they try to manipulate their users?

They are trying to point to subs dedicated to making smart purchases as an opportunity to advertise for whoever pays? Good fucking luck. They are going to crash their whole model into the ground and they don't care. This is an IPO play to get rich and RUIN the site.

Can you TLDR it cause i don't want to change my DNS rules to allow reddit for this.

The priority of advertisers experience, over user experience, should say it all

Looks like they don't just put off their users, the also screw over their customers. Good job!

I threw up a little reading this. Gross.

So the one remaining way to search the internet that would give me the results I needed is disappearing? Time to head back to the library I guess

I don't think they'll delete this. This is their future.

I mean that was possible before but on a whole new level. It's actually in Reddits interest to get rid of more sceptical mods who stick tightly to rules, because they'd delete an obvious ads thread.

I don't want to hear from products. I want to talk about nothing with people.

Not regretting deleting my 10+ year old account one bit.

I’m so glad I purged all my crap off that network. If you wrote about a brand, your content will be used to show that brand as an advertisement. Now your content will appear like an endorsement and Reddit will definitely laugh to the bank off your words.

I wonder if the “400,000 comments per day” and “2 questions per second” figures are still true (if they ever were).

Edit: I took a screenshot in case it gets deleted.

No worries: https://web.archive.org/web/20230701041325/https://www.redditinc.com/blog/investing-in-what-makes-reddit-unique-introducing-contextual-keyword-targeting-and-product-ads

I love it! Having my decision to leave reddit justified again, and so quickly, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

I'm pretty sure this ties in with the stuff they were promoting at the Cannes Lions conference back when everything kicked off.

Well A) this is not going to get deleted cause B) it’s not that big relative to most advertising.

Previously you could target ads by subreddit or interest (which I’m assuming was subscribers of a subreddit when they were on an unrelated subreddit)

This allows for ads to be served based in keywords on keyword targeting. So a car company could serve ads on “transmission repair costs” or whatever.

The second changes looks like product ads, which is an ecom ad format that you see on Google (top row of products), insta, Pinterest, etc… basically it’s exactly what it sounds like. Products in an ad, you can swipe through them.

If you don’t like targeted ads you’re not going to like these, if you didn’t care before you probably won’t care now.