Reddit is rolling out video ads, redesigning its ad-buying platform, and partnering with media agencies to build self-service ad products
Reddit is rolling out video ads and improving its ad-buying platform — CANNES, France - While Snapchat had its Ferris wheel and Google and Facebook …
Context & Ripple Effects
Announced from Cannes, where Snapchat's Ferris wheel and the Google and Facebook presence set the competitive backdrop, this move is Reddit's bid to be taken seriously by brand buyers: video ads, a redesigned ad-buying platform, and media agencies co-building self-service products. The timing matters because Reddit had just opened the door to user-uploaded video two months earlier, giving advertisers native video inventory to buy against.
First-order effects
- Advertisers get a new video format and a rebuilt self-serve buying flow, while media agencies shift from intermediaries to product co-builders shaping how campaigns are constructed on Reddit.
Second-order effects
- Facebook, Google, and Snapchat face a new claimant for brand video budgets that had defaulted to the duopoly-plus-Snapchat mix, and Reddit followed through with an agency roadshow to convert Cannes interest into committed spend.
Third-order effects
- The pattern held into a full performance stack: cost-per-click bidding arrived in 2019 and shopping-signal-driven Dynamic Product Ads by 2024, suggesting platforms outside the duopoly can close the tooling gap and compete on full-funnel rather than just reach.
The trend: Social platforms outside the Facebook-Google duopoly are assembling self-serve, performance-grade ad stacks — video first, then commerce signals — to capture brand budgets that previously had nowhere else to go.