• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, 8 hours ago

Reddit introduced "Interactive Ads" this week -- a new ad unit that allows brands to build custom and immersive experiences for redditors on the platform. 

The advertising unit goes beyond static images or videos. They are intended to be more immersive than traditional ads by allowing users to interact with content through mini games, quizzes, or participating in countdowns to build awareness and attention. 

These interactive experiences are inserted into conversations on the platform.

Paramount Pictures became an early tester of the ad unit, promoting its new film "The Running Man," featuring a gamified experience with Glen Powell and exclusive content for redditors on the platform. Other early testers include Electronic Arts, the Ad Council and Red Bull. 

Interactive Ads like "Conversation Ads” easily tie into conversations on the platform that might resolve some of the stress advertisers and marketers have around zero-click searches, where engines like Google answer queries in AI Overviews and other search fields rather than link them to websites.

Interactive Ads are placed in relevant comment threads where users are discussing the topic. The organic conversation aims to make the ad feel less like an interruption and more like a relevant suggestion.

Reddit users are often skeptical of traditional advertising, so organic conversations, recommendations, and genuine back-and-forth dialogue build a foundation for trust for brands.

The ad unit also can spark further discussion about the topic through polls, Q&As, and quizzes.

By monitoring the organic discussions around the ads, brands can gather valuable feedback and insights. It might even provide a little more confidence around losing clicks in search engines to features like AI Overviews. 

Users have learned they will get answers to queries from AI assistants rather than blue links.

The shift is disrupting traditional marketing funnels, “moving the battle for visibility from SERPs to AI-generated responses,” according to results from a study by Profound, which was commissioned by Reddit.

"The critical question for brands is no longer 'how do we rank?’ but 'how do we establish authority and become a trusted source'?," according to the findings.

After Profound analyzed more than 4 billion AI citations and 300 million answer engine responses, the data shows that answer engines like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews + AI Mode, and Perplexity are systematically prioritizing human conversation to build trust.

From August 2024 to late October 2025, Profound's data shows Reddit was the most-cited source aggregated across all tracked answer engines. 

It’s clear that much of Reddit’s content for large language models comes from humans in posts on the company’s site. Profound identified that aggregated across all major AI platforms — ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity — Reddit has become the most-cited domain.

Answer engines use conversational content to humanize technical data and generic advice. They supplement "what” -- with facts that historically have come from Wikipedia -- with real-world experience from Reddit.

Profound called Reddit’s niche subreddits the new subject matter expert (SME). “AI treats query-specific communities (e.g., r/whatcarshouldIbuy, r/BuyItForLife) as authoritative sources of peer-driven expertise, often prioritizing them over official brand sites for purchase-intent queries,” according to the report.

The SMEs provide content and citations, and visibility becomes “the long game.” It’s amazing when we see that the “average cited post is one year old.”