Ads in Conversation Replies

In order to avoid ad clutter in replies, we have recently updated the logic behind the frequency and placement of ads in Conversation replies.

Goals

Avoid ad stacking
Decrease ad density by increasing intervals between ads
Mitigate loss of revenue by keeping ads in reply threads with enough spacing to balance the UX.

Logic Updates

Footer Ad

First, check if the last comment has an ad:
- If so:
  - don't load the footer ad
  - apply any CSS related tweaks (eg. remove extra whitespace)
- If not, load the footer ad

Example 1

819 — An example of last comment having an ad which disallows an ad in the footer.

Reply Thread Ads

Let the default ad interval be x.

If the parent comment of this reply thread has an ad OR
if the next comment after the parent comment has an ad:
- 2x - double the ad interval for this thread for less ad cadence
If neither parent nor next comment has an ad:
- 1x - no change to ad interval

Example 2

631 — In this example, the promo interval for replies is 2 but because the next comment has an ad, the interval is overridden and becomes 4.

Special Case

If the final reply in the thread lands on an ad interval AND
if there is a next comment:
- show ad
Otherwise, don't show ad

Example 3

631 — For this special case, if we remove one reply from the previous example, the promo interval is ignored to avoid the ads from stacking.

Updated almost 2 years ago

What’s Next