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Ad Tech

Reddit Will Only Charge When A Video Is Watched For 15 Seconds

Ad Tribe! Bureau1 min read
A halftone paper cutout of a stopwatch and a rounded play triangle, on a flat plum background

Reddit has launched a 15-Second Engaged Video Views bidding metric globally. Advertisers are charged only when a user watches a video ad for at least 15 continuous seconds, or completes it if the video is shorter than that.

  • Metric: 15-Second Engaged Video Views, now live for all advertisers
  • Billing: only on 15 continuous seconds of viewing, or completion for shorter videos
  • Availability: global, inside Reddit Ads Manager
  • Reporting: enhanced reporting and performance tracking, including return on ad spend
  • Aim: viewability transparency, tying spend to active attention rather than passive impressions

What Reddit Is Actually Selling

The pitch is not reach, it is proof. Fifteen continuous seconds is a meaningfully high bar for a video ad, and charging only when it is cleared shifts the risk of an unwatched impression from the advertiser to the platform. That is a confident thing to offer, and it only makes sense if you believe your inventory genuinely holds attention.

Reddit's argument for why it might is structural. Video sitting inside a community thread arrives with context around it, which is a different proposition from video interrupting a feed. Whether that translates into 15 seconds at scale is exactly what the metric will now expose.

The Competitive Read

The move is aimed at global digital video budgets currently going to YouTube, Meta and TikTok, and it approaches them from the mid to lower funnel rather than from reach. For media buyers, the practical effect is that Reddit video becomes comparable on a basis other than CPM, which is the point.

The risk for Reddit is transparency cutting both ways. A metric that only bills on attention also publishes exactly how often attention does not happen. More from ad tech.

#Ad Tech#Reddit#Video Advertising#Viewability#Reddit Ads
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