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Comment by _lex | Hacker News Reader

What makes it a poor offering?

A response below highlighted some of the key reasons. Extremely limited options, poor interface (I was hoping for something closer to AdWords) and terrible reporting ability. Really missing some 'basics' that turn me off. Plus the few trials I've run generated a very high cost-per-click that wasn't generating an ROI.

Additionally, what would make it a better offering for your industry?

Ahem!!!

Here are the problems with Reddit Ads off the top of my head:

1) either all reddit or one subreddit. 1a) no easy way to advertise on multiple subreddits 2) no way to be an agency. So painful to manage multiple accounts even with RES 3) no API 4) no support 5) limited ad units

In short, I would love to advertise on r/SysAdmin but I can't justify spending $20 a day for <100 clicks. Give me the ability to advertise to all of Reddit or specific subreddits. Seriously, why can't I just advertise on a set of subreddits? They should give it to me for the same price as all of reddit. Why? Because that gives me control of my brand. I don't want to advertise on all of reddit because there are a lot of subreddits I don't want my brand associated with, but if I could bid across multiple subreddits I would use the self-service a lot more.

Admittedly, I haven't looked at the reddit ad units in about a year, and I know they're looking for a softdev to build a new ad platform, but geez, can I get a real ad experience please? Reddit has so many pageviews, let me tap that!

And a better interface with enhanced reporting ability. Hoping for something like AdWords, ended up with amateur-hour.

It is a bit baffling why Reddit's ad buying tools are so primitive. I assume the thinking is that if they shipped a proper ad dashboard that let advertisers target ads the way they want to, there'd be backlash from the community.

Reddit now lets you target multiple sub-reddits at $30/day/sub-reddit.

Right but that's the wrong model. You're penalizing me for wanting to control my brand. What if I want to stack a whole bunch of small population subreddits?

Personally, I think it should be solely by impressions, irrespective of subreddit.

That's a terrible business model. You can't charge people for targeting options

For me, you absolutely must have location targeting. Combined with a subreddit suggestion tool, and the ability to actually choose my own budget/pay per click or per impression, I'd be able to take reddit ads seriously. Right now, I'd only do reddit ads to promote content, or for laughs.

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