The popular online forum Reddit is trying out a new way to make money through its internal search feature. The company recently confirmed it is testing sponsored results inside its mobile application and website. This move happens just as the platform is seeing a noticeable drop in visitors coming from outside sources, specifically Google. With external referrals slowing down, the focus is now shifting toward making more money from the millions of people who already log in every single day to ask questions and find product recommendations.
The platform is adding sponsored results to capture shopping intent
During a recent earnings call, the chief executive mentioned that search traffic referrals fell by more than one million visits per week in October. A big reason for this drop points to new artificial intelligence features that answer questions directly on search engines, keeping users from clicking through to forum posts.
To make up for this lost traffic, the forum is testing ads directly in its own search results. The goal is to reach people when they have a high intent to buy something. For example, if someone searches for home office setups, they might see ads for desks or monitors right alongside regular community posts. Currently, this feature is only open to a small group of advertisers while the team checks how regular users react to the changes.
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The company is also blocking content from visitors without an account
Beyond testing new ad placements, the social platform is changing how casual visitors read its content. Soon, anyone trying to read most threads will need to be logged into a registered account. According to company leadership, they are currently one of the only major social networks that still lets unregistered people browse freely, and that policy is coming to an end.
This push for logged-in users ties directly into how they plan to train future AI models and serve more relevant ads. By keeping content behind a login screen, the company can better track what people are reading and searching for.
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