How does this work?
There are two types of links, "targeted" and "untargeted" links.
When you submit an "untargeted" ad, your ad will run site-wide in any and all subreddits. You tell us when you want it to run, and how much you want to pay in total over that time period. When that date arrives, we take everyone with a link running on that day and figure out what the total contribution is of all of those bids. This total becomes the cost for that day of selling out our ad space. Each user gets impressions that commensurate with the fraction of the total that they contributed (so, say, you paid $20 and the total for the day is $200, you will get 10% of the site traffic). In this way, everyone pays the same CPM, though that CPM is variable from one day to the next.
When you submit a "targeted" link, you get two things:
1) Top spot on the subreddit being targeted. If there is more than one person (or more than one link) targeted to that subreddit on the same day, we use the same scheme as above to divvy up pageviews
2) When a user who subscribes to that targeted reddit comes to the front page, we will show your ad in competition with the other untargeted links. To make up for the fact that smaller reddits have fewer subscribers, we will weight your ad by ratio of its traffic to one of the top subreddits. For example, if the subreddit you are targeting gets 1/5 as much traffic as the top (default) subreddits, your ad will get a 5x boost when presented to users who subscribe to that subreddit.
Creating a link
How do I create a promotion?
Go to http://www.reddit.com/promoted/new_promo/ and give us the title (as you'd like it to appear) and the url of your sponsored link. Unlike on the submit page, the link title isn't final until the link is live, so you'll be able to change it.
Why do I have to validate my email address?
All correspondence about the status of your sponsored link is handled via email (though we are planning on adding an option to make it also sent via reddit PM). Since money is involved, we want to make sure to keep you as up to date as possible on progress. We want to make sure that we are dealing with a real person, or at least a reasonable facsimile of one.
How do I validate my email address?
Simply fill out the form and click submit. We'll send you an email within a few minutes with a link in it that verifies you are in fact you.
We ask you for your current password to make sure that someone isn't nefariously trying to change your email address (as it is the only way to get a password reset email).
I haven't gotten my validation email!
It may take a few minutes for your email to be delivered. If you check your spam box and it isn't there, please drop us an email at selfservesupport@… and please include your username and a link to your campaign as it'll prevent us from having to email you back asking for it.
What's an interdomain redirect?
By "disallowing interdomain redirects" we mean that the top-level domain of the URL you submit should be the same as the final destination of the site. We don't mind intermediate redirects for tracking purposes; we just want to make sure the domain of the link matches the domain of the actual page.
Why don't you allow interdomain redirects?
It makes our users sad (they feel like they are being lied to) and they will probably take it out on your link.
Where can I upload an image?
Before you upload an image, you have to submit your title and url and click "next" on the create promotion screen. You'll see the option available on the subsequent "edit" screen.
How big of an image can I upload?
The thumbnail next to the sponsored link can be as large as 70x70 pixels. Anything larger than 70 x 70 pixels will be automatically resized to fit in that area. PNG format images are preferred.
Creating a campaign
What's a campaign?
A campaign is the smallest unit of displaying a promotion. It provides the start date, stop date, and the total bid for those days. The minimum bid is $20/day for untargeted ads and $30/day for targeted ads.
What if I want to run an ad for a website that hasn't gone live yet?
Sorry, unless your website is up and running, we cannot approve it.
How do I pick a good day to run?
We've included a handy graph on the edit page of how many promotions are running on any given day, and what the CPM and average CPC has been historically. Please note that the CPM on any given day is variable (see the discussion on how we weight sponsored links above), and that these numbers should be used as a rough guideline of traffic.
What is the soonest I can create a campaign?
When you create a new campaign, we require it be at least 2 days in the future.
Two days!? isn't that a long time?
Yes it is, but it is only for your protection. All ads are currently approved by hand and we'd hate to have you bank on a date and not get it. So for new ads, we ask that you schedule a couple of days in advance.
Once the link is approved, if you need it to run earlier than scheduled, send us an email with a link to your ad to selfservicesupport@… and we can try and get your ad live as quickly as we can, for whatever date you specify.
Can I run multiple campaigns?
Of course you can! That's what the "+add new" button is for. There are no restrictions from one campaign to the next, and they can overlap and be a mix of targeted/untargeted.
Can I geollocate my ad?
No. At the moment we are only allowing targeting by subreddit, not by geography.
What does "targeting" mean?
Targeting means that your link will be shown only to subscribers of a given subreddit and to anyone who goes to that subreddit's hot page. (see our discussion on how we weight ads).
Paying for your campaign
How do I pay for my campaign?
Once you've set up your campaign, click on the "create campaign" button. This will bring you to a page on our secure webserver for entering your credit card details. All credit card processing is done by Authorize.net (we don't store your credit card numbers). We accept all major credit cards, but currently have the restriction that they must have US, UK, or Canadian addresses.
Why only US, UK, and Canadian credit cards? Redditors are from everywhere!
We know. We don't like it either. The reasons are purely legal, and we are working with our lawyers to ammend the Terms of Service to include other jurisdictions.
My link is paid for. What do I do now?
Sit back and relax. We'll have a look at your link and make sure that everything is in order. If it is, you'll get an email saying that your ad has been approved and we'll keep you posted as it gets charged and later runs live.
Can I change my link?
Of course you can (provided it isn't currently running live). Just be aware that when you change it, it'll have to be reapproved. If it is near midnight and it is about to go live imminently, we can't necessarily guarantee we'll get to it in time and you might lose time, so beware.
Live links
When will my link start running?
We start ads at midnight in the ficticious timezone that is GMT-5 year round (so during Daylight Saving Time, Central US Time, and for the rest of the year Eastern US Time).
Why do we do it this way? We want to guarantee everyone gets their 24 hours without having to deal with time-changing funny-business.
We will send you an email when we charge your credit card (usually 24 hours befor the link is to go live), when the link is live, and when it is finished.
Why I can't edit my link now that it is live?
Editing a link at any time dequeues the link and leads to the need for reapproval. Since we don't have an easy way to comp lost time, and can't guarantee that we are available to reapprove your ad as soon as you've changed it, we've disabled edits as long as the link is live.
That said, if you really need to change something once the link is live, feel free to email us at selfservesupport@… and we'll make the edit for you.
What Happens if I cancel my live ad? Can I pause a live ad?
At the moment, we have no easy way to pro-rate ads if they are paused or canceled mid day.
My ad is doing really well! How can I extend it?
You can't edit a campaign once it is running, but you can add new campaigns. If you'd like to extend a running ad, just create a campaign that starts immediately after the current one ends and it will run uninterrupted.
If you'd like to increase traffic to a running add, just add an overlapping campaign (with the restriction that the new campaign start no sooner than tomorrow).
Why did my ad get rejected?
We have certain strict criteria that we use to accept or reject ads. The main reasons for rejected ads are URL redirects, links that don't work, links to pages that are still under construction, and links that can't be moved away from using the "back" button. We also reserve the right to reject any link we feel is inappropriate or falls into categories that we don't approve of, for instance, dating services, gambling services, stalker services, “spam,” insincere, trickery, or misleading statements/claims about product/service, etc. We also reserve the right to not allow advertisements for services that violate the code of conduct or terms of service of another company, school, or service, and will remove them if notified.