Reddit appoints ex-Googler as first VP of Ads Product

Reddit named Jyoti Vaidee as its first VP of Ads Product, a newly created role overseeing the platform’s monetization engine.

Vaidee joins from Google, where she spent over 11 years leading ads products and monetization, most recently as product lead for Google’s Display Ads business. She also served stints working at Microsoft on Xbox and Outlook.

The new role underscores Reddit’s focus on scaling its ads business globally following its March IPO.

Why we care. Reddit Ads fans that love the platform and use it will be encouraged to learn of Vaidee’s hiring. It demonstrates Reddit’s commitment to improve the platform and add much needed functionality – especially when it comes to AI ad creation.

Reddit has been eyeing entering the search market after achieving 1 billion monthly searches, due at least in part to it’s content licensing agreement with Google. They’ve even introduced Dynamic Product Ads that connect users with products they are looking for or may be interested in.

What Reddit advertisers are saying. Reddit advertisers said the platform needs improvement.

Kyle Golembiewski, Founder at 4Chord Marketing, told Search Engine Land:

“If you want to compare performance/ease of use to that of Meta or Google, it’s heavily lacking in AI creative optimization, which appears to be the future. I’ve found the only way around bots/click farms on Reddit is by breaking an ad group out for each subreddit I’m targeting. That’s unfortunate but not unlike the “hacks” we used to use on other platforms.”

He added, “Reddit, in general, is lower CPC with lower conversion rates. The audiences are quite engaged with organic conversations but less receptive to sponsored ads.”

Gil Gildner, Co-Founder at Discosloth said, “I am a big fan of Reddit Ads in terms of targeting subreddits (very similar to intent-focused searches like Google Ads offers) but the platform itself is very crude and doesn’t offer a lot of fine-tuning or insight. Reddit still has a lot of work to do in terms of branding. Many of our advertisers want to be super cautious with their placements, and Reddit etiquette is notoriously low.”

The intrigue. Vaidee replaces Shariq Rizvi, who built Reddit’s ads platform from scratch over the past five years as EVP of Ads Monetization. Rizvi is leaving the company.

What they’re saying. “Jyoti’s two decades of product management and engineering experience make her uniquely poised to lead Reddit’s Ads products as our business continues to scale globally,” said COO Jen Wong when announcing Vaidee’s hiring.

Vaidee will be responsible for driving the product strategy, execution, and management of the Ads Product organization at Reddit. She will report to Roelof van Zwol, the VP of Ads Product and Engineering.