Reddit adds 15-second engaged video views goal for longer-form ad creative

Reddit has opened a new video buying option to advertisers worldwide. The 15-second engaged video views goal, now in public beta, sits alongside the platform’s six-second video views objective and is aimed at brands whose creative needs more time to land than a quick skim of the feed allows.

The mechanics are simple. For clips of 15 seconds or shorter, a completed play counts as an engaged view. For anything longer, the view is logged once a user has watched at least 15 seconds. Advertisers pay per engaged view, can choose between Lowest Cost and Cost Cap automated bidding, and get view-through rate and cost-per-view figures in post-campaign reporting, according to Social Samosa.

Reddit is pitching the objective at film, TV and gaming trailers, product demos, feature explainers, testimonials and brand storytelling, which are formats that rarely make sense in a six-second window. In its own words, the company says a 15-second view signals that someone stayed long enough to absorb more of the message.

Why it matters

The launch comes with early performance claims. Alpha testers saw an average 51% lift in 15-second view-through rate and a 71% lift in video completion rate compared with their previous set-ups, BestMediaInfo reported. The Times, one of the early testers, said the 15-second strategy improved both view and completion rates, raised click-through rate and lowered costs when tested against the six-second goal.

Those figures come from Reddit and a small group of testers, so buyers will want to verify them on their own accounts. Reddit has built that check into the product: its Split Testing tool can compare the two video goals head to head, with tests set up at the ad-group level and run for a minimum of two weeks.

The broader context is Reddit’s steady effort to look more like a full-funnel video platform. Six-second views are a lightweight proxy for reach; a 15-second threshold is closer to the completed-view currencies that YouTube and connected TV buyers already work with, and it gives Reddit a metric that fits more naturally into cross-platform video plans.

What’s next

Because the goal is in public beta, advertisers should expect changes to defaults, reporting and pricing as Reddit gathers data. The practical first step for most teams is a two-week split test on a campaign that already runs video longer than 15 seconds, comparing cost per engaged view and downstream click-through against the existing six-second objective before shifting budget.