Reddit Product Challenge

APR 2021 | Duration: 1 week

The user-centered focus of Reddit is unique, and at other companies, prioritizing a sense of belonging for its users is a plus, not a must. I've chatted folks at Reddit and I really appreciate that Reddit is a product-driven organization. Additionally, this product problem was centered around such a large role in Reddit's monetization structure: advertisements. This was such a fun problem to tackle, and confirmed my excitement for the future of online communities.

In April 2021, I completed a product challenge that focused on improving a central monetization metric within Reddit: Video Ads. I started my approach by asking major questions that I would benefit from researching into, while familiarizing myself with the product. After identifying key metrics and their potential insights, I moved forward with a competitive analysis of similar social platforms. Studying their advertisement forms, avenues, and success led me to better understand where Reddit stands out: community-specific advertising. This is a form of targeted advertising that Reddit could explore, where communities receive advertisements they are likely going to interact with or watch completely. Attributing premature dropoff to lack of relevance and specificity seemed to be a contributing factor in decreased video completion rate, which would make advertising on Reddit feel wasteful for businesses running marketing campaigns. Upon more dissection, I realized that badges that signify that a post is an Ad, hidden unique reactions and gifts, and obscure sorting contributes to a user scrolling past the ad post entirely.

In Slide 5, I prototyped a sample ad post, with some improvements:

+ "Suggested for you" to add a personal touch for users in ad targeting

+ "Service" Category tags to let users know what the ad is advocating for

+ "Relevance" survey buttons to improve the sorting algorithm for ad targeting

+ Decreasing UI that "hides"/ "disguises" the ad as a regular Reddit Post

+ Advertising company required to obtain user status