💥 Performance without the doom loop

💥 Reddit's COO Claims Performance Ads Work Without Manipulation

Jen Wong's pitch sounds like heresy in 2025: Reddit runs performance ads without infinite scroll, without an identity graph, without influencer theatrics. The platform that looks like it was designed in 1997 is positioning itself as the antidote to algorithmic manipulation.

The core claim? Intent over identity. Context over surveillance. Ads that work because they appear in conversations where people are actively researching purchases, not because they exploit outrage mechanics.

Reddit's upvote/downvote system creates what Wong calls natural content moderation. A post with 100 upvotes and 100 downvotes goes nowhere. Controversy doesn't automatically equal visibility. That's fundamentally different from platforms where engagement of any kind feeds the algorithm.

I'm skeptical of any COO claiming their platform solved digital advertising's ethics problem. But Reddit's constraints created something interesting by accident.

No identity graph means no surveillance infrastructure. That's not a moral choice, it's a technical reality. But in 2025, with privacy regulations tightening globally, Reddit's contextual targeting looks less like a limitation and more like regulatory arbitrage.

The real insight here: Reddit optimized for depth over virality. Communities self-moderate. Downvotes matter as much as upvotes. The result is a platform where brands can't fake their way in with influencer partnerships or engagement bait.

Wong's framing of "advertising without the doom loop" is corporate speak, but the underlying mechanic is real. When someone posts "What car should I buy?" in r/whatcarshouldIbuy, they're declaring purchase intent. That's a fundamentally different advertising context than interrupting someone's doomscroll.

For brands, this creates a paradox. Reddit offers performance marketing without the manipulation tactics that make performance marketing work everywhere else. No retargeting across the web. No identity-based audience building. No algorithmic amplification of whatever gets the most reaction.

The platform is betting that contextual relevance beats behavioral surveillance. That's either visionary or delusional, depending on whether their ad revenue growth holds.

The bigger strategic shift: Reddit is positioning itself as essential infrastructure for both AI training and search visibility. Google's algorithm changes prioritized forum content. AI systems scrape Reddit for human-authenticated information. The platform that wasn't designed for the generative AI age is becoming central to it.

But here's what Wong won't say: Reddit IPO'd in 2024. They now answer to public market investors who expect quarterly growth. The "no engagement manipulation" philosophy sounds great until revenue growth slows and the board starts asking why they're not optimizing for scale.

The real test isn't whether Reddit's ad model works today. It's whether they can maintain this approach when growth inevitably plateaus. Every platform says they won't compromise their values for revenue. Then the growth curve flattens.

🔍 This Week in 📰 Reddit

🎯 Sonos on Reddit: Stop Talking Like a Press Release

Sonos's Keith breaks down the biggest brand mistake on Reddit: treating it like a broadcast channel instead of a conversation. The key insight? Formal corporate language kills engagement. Redditors can smell impersonal brand-speak instantly-and they'll call it out or ignore you entirely.

Reddit for Business

📈 Reddit Reminder Ads: Two Shots at Re-Engagement Per Campaign

Reddit's expanding Reminder Ads beyond AMAs to all brand awareness and traffic campaigns. Users tap "Remind Me" and get push notifications plus inbox messages on launch day. The real value? "Engaged clicks" metrics now show who opted in (and who bailed), giving you actual interest data instead of vanity impressions.

Social Media Today

📊 The Reddit Newsletter Growth Method That Actually Works

Newsletter operator shares the playbook that took him 0-100 subscribers in 10 days across 5 different niches using Reddit. The method: join 10 niche subreddits, answer real questions with valuable posts, then personally DM everyone who engages. No gimmicks-just genuine conversation that builds trust before the ask.

Medium

Cloudflare's Moltworker: The Bot Apocalypse Goes Mainstream

Reddit's bot problem just got democratized. Cloudflare launched Moltworker-a tool that lets anyone deploy AI agents that browse the web "like humans." No coding required. No technical barriers. Just point, click, and flood. The r/TheoryOfReddit discussion nails it: "The difference between what's been part of Reddit basically from the beginning... is now democratized so anyone can socially engineer anyone else." Corporate and nation-state bot operations had resources. Now? Everyone gets the same toolkit.

I'm watching this shift with real concern. Reddit's already swimming in bots-has been for a decade. But those operations required infrastructure, technical knowledge, budget. Barriers to entry kept the flood manageable.

Moltworker removes those barriers entirely. The dead internet theory isn't a conspiracy anymore-it's a product roadmap. When AI agents can navigate Reddit's interface, pass CAPTCHA, mimic human behavior patterns, and do it all at scale for pennies... the math changes completely.

For brands, this creates a nightmare scenario. Your community insights? Potentially poisoned by synthetic engagement. Your sentiment analysis? Could be measuring bot-to-bot conversations. The authentic community signals you're paying Reddit's ad platform to access might not exist in six months.

Here's what Reddit for Business won't tell you: you can't out-bot the bots. The platform's value proposition-authentic community engagement-evaporates when you can't distinguish real users from synthetic ones.

The play isn't to deploy your own Moltworker agents. That accelerates the death spiral. Instead, double down on verification. Focus on subreddits with active human moderation.

Look for communities that require account age, karma thresholds, manual approval. The friction that keeps bots out is now your competitive advantage. When everyone can flood the zone with AI agents, the last authentic communities become exponentially more valuable.

🎮 Reddit Software & Tools

The Reddit ecosystem for tools, software, and related apps is particularly underdeveloped for the #3 platform in the world.

I’m tracking the new tools that pop on my radar here:

• GummySearch (my favoriate tool right now): The first dedicated Reddit intel suite I’ve seen, great for monitoring communities, tracking change detection (fast-growing communities at different tiers), tracking keywords, and doing more advanced keyword research.

• NotifyGPT: Not specifically a Reddit tool, but Reddit is one of it’s strongest use cases for social listening.

• KWatch.io: An all-source UGC social listening and monitoring platform, includes Reddit.

• RedditInsights.ai: Found this one, a good way to group and approximate topic interest from Reddit. A super scraper. '

• Pulse: This ones new this week and I haven’t tested it too much, but could be an interesting. More positioned to brands marketing on Reddit (connects via Reddit API).

• Subreddit Traffic Tracker: This is an interesting new find that helps optimize post and engagement timing based on when specific communities are most active on Reddit.

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Need help engaging as a brand on Reddit?

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That’s it for this week!