Reddit to feature native video ads starting today

Reddit, the world's third most popular website after Google and YouTube, is starting to roll out native video advertising across its website and mobile apps following a site-wide redesign. The company is launching the new ad format with select partners, but plans to eventually open it up to all advertisers later this summer, according to a blog post.The video ads will only be served to redditors that are using the expanded card display layout which is the default of three new modes in Reddit’s latest redesign, which has been met with mixed reactions from users - many are opting to use the old design instead of the new one.Reddit noted some interesting stats about video consumption in the blog post announcing the pre-roll ads:More than 2x video views, growing 23% each month since the start of 2018.The website is now averaging more than 5 million minutes of views per day.Since launching, videos uploaded via our native player receive twice as many views as YouTube videos on Reddit.Native video has taken off in a variety of communities and now accounts for as much as 20% of content in a number of major 'subreddit' communities such as r/oddlysatisfying, r/aww and r/FortniteBR for example.The native video ads will be offered on a cost per view basis and is also offering video-only campaigns for the first time. VP of brand partnerships Zubair Jandali believes that the new format is adding to the utility that the company offers marketers, which are eager to tap the company’s base of 330 million monthly active users.While Reddit’s website has remained relatively unchanged for the past five years, recently it has increased its product growth with a redesign of its mobile apps and desktop site. Part of that redesign includes giving users the ability to host images and video natively on the platform.