The next attention-grabbing post you see in your Reddit feed might just be a paid 'free-form ad'.

Calling them “free-form ads,” Reddit said the new advertisements are its most native format ever, designed to look and feel like community content shared by real people.

The ads, meant to mimic the site’s megathreads, will enable advertisers to utilize a variety of formats in one post, including images, videos, and text.

According to numbers from Reddit, free-form ads got 28% more clicks than all other types of ads on the site and saw a jump in community engagement.

The next time you see an interesting post in your Reddit feed, take a closer look - because it might just be a paid advertisement.

  • BeatTakeshi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    7 months ago

    I like how they try to sell the idea that tricking users is in fact a nice and innovative way to advertise

  • NateNate60@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    7 months ago

    If it’s not already the law, it needs to be. It should be required that paid advertising be disclosed in all contexts.

    • Agent641@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      7 months ago

      “How do you do, fellow redditors? Pray tell, of all the Dodge Ram variants, which one is your favorite, and what make it your choice as a discerning American patriot?”

  • Savas@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    7 months ago

    Ads are not the only reason, but if you’re still on reddit, you clearly missed the point why reddit became popular.

  • denast@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    7 months ago

    Recently went on Reddit and laughed hysterically at the amount of religious propaganda I saw in this format. Example:

    1000009776

    • MaxPow3r11@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      -religious propaganda -gambling bullshit (including crypto/crypto adjacent bullshit) -military brainwashing/propaganda -alcohol ads

      Just the worst fucking garbage bullshit.

    • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      I’ll tell you what’s new, pal. The McRib Megaburger, at McDonalds. It’s nutritious and delicious at just $7.99 or $9.99 with fries and a drink of your choice as long as you don’t want a milkshake or anything with actual sugar in it.

      • droans@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        7 months ago

        Wow. Everyone, ignore this guy, he’s also an ad.

        Instead, you should hop on over to your local Chevy Dealership and ask about test driving the all new 2025 Tahoe. Drive one home today for less than $2,000 down!

    • kenopsik@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      7 months ago

      Yep, advertiser don’t care how they got those clicks. They just want the numbers to go up so they feel like their “investment” is doing something. Tricking people into thinking it’s user content, showing half naked girls for a dumb mobile gambling game, showing fake products… they don’t care. Advertisers only have one thought: “Hurr Durr Numbers Go Brr”

  • w2tpmf@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    So they seriously not remember what thousands of people left Digg and moved to their platform for???

    Reddit had a fraction of the users Digg had at one point. Then Digg changed to a new UI no one liked and started putting adds that looked like posts into the main feed.

    • Hammerheart@programming.devEnglish
      0·
      7 months ago

      That was before learned helplessness became a staple of the internet experience, i think a lot fewer reddit users will be motivated to leave compared to the people who left digg for reddit.

      Happy to be proven wrong, though.

    • PoliticalAgitator@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      7 months ago

      Yep. Reddit puts very little effort into preventing vote manipulation and astroturfing because it all looks like user engagement but they almost certainly know how common it is.

      This is just them monetizing the astroturfing as they try and wring every cent from people ahead of their IPO.

      • Sizzler@slrpnk.netEnglish
        0·
        7 months ago

        You’re just splurging lies at this point, reddit has always put plenty of effort towards vote manipulation. I dislike reddit but stop making stuff up just for votes.

        • PoliticalAgitator@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          7 months ago

          People are welcome to try for themselves, which is how I originally learned they do fuck all. They didn’t even clear the lowest bar of “20 upvotes from 20 accounts, on the same IP with no other activity, just switching with RES”.

          Maybe that’s changed in the decade since, but the search results for “buy reddit upvotes” don’t bode well.

          • Sizzler@slrpnk.netEnglish
            0·
            7 months ago

            It has changed since, in fact for me the watershed moment of change came when RES stopped being able to calculate upvotes/dv’s because there was no longer clear feedback that your vote counted.

            • PoliticalAgitator@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              7 months ago

              Does that mean they fixed the problem or did they simply make it impossible for people outside of reddit to see the extent of it?

        • Morefan@retrolemmy.comEnglish
          01·
          7 months ago

          You’re both right. They are FINE with manipulation if it’s something they want to promote. But if it’s not allowed in their dogma then it’s banned.

  • klef25@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    Any ad that starts with TIL or DAE gets an immediate down vote, a cringe, and no further reading