5 ms·

I've had experience successfully monetizing all sorts of low-quality traffic, and I can tell you that it's possible to get decent CPM from any type of users, ev

by il 16y ago

I've had experience successfully monetizing all sorts of low-quality traffic, and I can tell you that it's possible to get decent CPM from any type of users, even users like redditors who don't click on ads as much. You should be able to easily pull at least $2 CPM from general/frontpage reddit traffic, and probably closer to $10 CPM from specific subreddits. At 280M pageviews, that's over $500K a month in revenue you're missing out on. If I had to monetize reddit right now, I would throw up some CPM ads from a premium display network, and then begin aggressively going after big brand advertisers and media buyers. This might mean spending money and hiring at least one ad sales person- but the investment will recoup itself many times over when media buys from big brands start coming in. Right now, reddit is doing a TERRIBLE job of managing ad inventory, particularly remnant inventory. It also doesn't look easy for advertisers to place ads on reddit. I see a contact form for more information about advertising, but where is your media kit? User demographics? Not all ads are bad, only untargeted ones are. Why aren't there ads for Newegg, or Snorg tees, or collegehumor, etc on reddit? You're in a position to demand premium CPM from advertisers and you're squandering the opportunity. Right now the ad I see on the front page is "advertise on reddit". This is a terribly wasteful use of remnant impressions, as 99% of your users won't be interested in buying ads, and there is no reason to show them this ad. It will take a few minutes to fill that remnant inventory with a reputable brand ad from a display network. I understand that you don't want to piss off your users with ads, but Digg manages to generate revenue with strategically placed banner ads without any outcry from users. I think this problem isn't unique to reddit- it seems like a lot of startups run exclusively by engineers have trouble monetizing intelligently, even when they get significant traffic. My email is my profile if you want to chat about this further, I can send some links to the kinds of offers redditors might respond to or help you reach out to media buyers who might be interested in doing large buys on sites like reddit.

staunch 16y ago
For another perspective from someone with experience: I'd say $500k is about 2-3x times higher than what's reasonable to expect, without a really good direct sales.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- il 16y ago
  You don't think throwing up a 300x250 banner on the front page from somewhere like RightMedia could get a premium site like reddit $2 CPM? I bet even low traffic quality sites like icanhazcheesburger or cracked are getting more than $2 CPM. By the way, reddit can really learn from Demand Media sites like Cracked, who are very very good at monetizing the same type of low quality social media traffic.
megablahblah 16y ago
It's because they don't know shit about advertising. Take a look at their "sponsored link" system. It's impossible for an advertiser to predict what impressions or click-throughs they will get for their ad spend.
- ig1 16y ago
  While I wouldn't have put it as crudely as megablahblah he has a point, the unusual ad pricing structure probably puts off quite a few potential ad buyers.
- code_duck 16y ago
  You appear to be claiming to know more than 'shit'. A such, your suggestions are undoubtedly welcome.
  - megablahblah 16y ago
    Sorry for the tone, but I explained this to them in one of their Reddit announcement posts about their sponsored links, and their response was such that they had no concept of how advertising worked and acted like I was the one that was wrong. Now a few months later, they're begging their users for donations. il lays out exactly what they need to do, so there isn't much else to suggest. Simply set up some ad placements on the site and get set up as a publisher with the ad network of their choice. The network does all the sales. (Edit: Later on, they can get into do their own direct sales, sponsorships, etc.) They actually were signed up as a publisher for an ad network for a while, I think, because I remember some ad taking over the screen and everyone freaking out. Maybe that scared them away from the idea because they couldn't control the ad types, I don't know. I don't know what their mobile numbers are, but they need to get set up as a publisher with a mobile ad network too, such as Ad Mob, Millennial or Quattro. And since they don't know how anything works, they need to get a few thousand dollars and hire a consultant to explain it all to them. I know they are sensitive about pissing off users, but I suspect that their conversations with Conde Nast and any ad network have ended up in frustrated conversations that go nowhere because they don't understand each other. They need a marketing consultant that understands both worlds to bridge the communication gap. Yes, I'm available.
earl 16y ago
I'm dubious. I don't use reddit, but I just skimmed the site. You're totally right, reddit has done a shit job allowing people to advertise. That being said, I have some experience with monetization, and forum traffic, dominated as it is by page refreshes, monetizes like shit. For starters, pv per user is way higher than almost any other type of site. All display advertisers cut individual users off pretty quickly -- IME often under 3 pv per day -- after which you're purely displaying remnant inventory at $.1 to $.3 ecpm. That said, they should immediately experiment w/ adsense, pubcenter, ideas ala stack overflow of embedding amazon referrals onto all books (not at all obnoxious IME), and some of the better display advertisers. Most of these are free and come with basically no commitment so why not. Also, they should embed quantcast's tracking pixel to get some idea about their demographics in a much cheaper fashion than comscore (NB: this could be misconstrued as an advertisement but I think it's good advice.)

by il 16y ago

staunch 16y ago

For another perspective from someone with experience: I'd say $500k is about 2-3x times higher than what's reasonable to expect, without a really good direct sales.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
il 16y ago
You don't think throwing up a 300x250 banner on the front page from somewhere like RightMedia could get a premium site like reddit $2 CPM? I bet even low traffic quality sites like icanhazcheesburger or cracked are getting more than $2 CPM. By the way, reddit can really learn from Demand Media sites like Cracked, who are very very good at monetizing the same type of low quality social media traffic.

megablahblah 16y ago

It's because they don't know shit about advertising. Take a look at their "sponsored link" system. It's impossible for an advertiser to predict what impressions or click-throughs they will get for their ad spend.

ig1 16y ago
While I wouldn't have put it as crudely as megablahblah he has a point, the unusual ad pricing structure probably puts off quite a few potential ad buyers.
code_duck 16y ago
You appear to be claiming to know more than 'shit'. A such, your suggestions are undoubtedly welcome.
- megablahblah 16y ago
  Sorry for the tone, but I explained this to them in one of their Reddit announcement posts about their sponsored links, and their response was such that they had no concept of how advertising worked and acted like I was the one that was wrong. Now a few months later, they're begging their users for donations. il lays out exactly what they need to do, so there isn't much else to suggest. Simply set up some ad placements on the site and get set up as a publisher with the ad network of their choice. The network does all the sales. (Edit: Later on, they can get into do their own direct sales, sponsorships, etc.) They actually were signed up as a publisher for an ad network for a while, I think, because I remember some ad taking over the screen and everyone freaking out. Maybe that scared them away from the idea because they couldn't control the ad types, I don't know. I don't know what their mobile numbers are, but they need to get set up as a publisher with a mobile ad network too, such as Ad Mob, Millennial or Quattro. And since they don't know how anything works, they need to get a few thousand dollars and hire a consultant to explain it all to them. I know they are sensitive about pissing off users, but I suspect that their conversations with Conde Nast and any ad network have ended up in frustrated conversations that go nowhere because they don't understand each other. They need a marketing consultant that understands both worlds to bridge the communication gap. Yes, I'm available.

earl 16y ago

I'm dubious. I don't use reddit, but I just skimmed the site. You're totally right, reddit has done a shit job allowing people to advertise. That being said, I have some experience with monetization, and forum traffic, dominated as it is by page refreshes, monetizes like shit. For starters, pv per user is way higher than almost any other type of site. All display advertisers cut individual users off pretty quickly -- IME often under 3 pv per day -- after which you're purely displaying remnant inventory at $.1 to $.3 ecpm. That said, they should immediately experiment w/ adsense, pubcenter, ideas ala stack overflow of embedding amazon referrals onto all books (not at all obnoxious IME), and some of the better display advertisers. Most of these are free and come with basically no commitment so why not. Also, they should embed quantcast's tracking pixel to get some idea about their demographics in a much cheaper fashion than comscore (NB: this could be misconstrued as an advertisement but I think it's good advice.)