Reddit to contextualize conversations for advertisers with Spiketrap acquisition

Reddit today announced the acquisition of an object intelligence and context analysis company called Spiketrap. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

With over 100,000 active communities and a wide range of chats, Reddit has become a popular destination for advertisement. The company has been working hard to find ways to help businesses reach relevant and focused audiences, and now, as part of a similar effort, they’re bringing Spiketrap’s technology and people under its patronage.

What does Spiketrap do?

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in California, Spiketrap empowers brands in the media and gaming industries with tailored audience intelligence and media tools.

Previously, the company used artificial intelligence (AI) to extract useful signals from countless unstructured data set and provides audience insights, social media insights, competitive intelligence, and impact measurement for advertisers. It gives audiences great clarity and context, especially in high-speed online environments, the company says.

Meanwhile, communication tools serve as the next service, allowing companies to act on that clarity and context to drive better engagement.

Spiketrap does not share the names of the clients it has worked with, but the company claims to have seen significant demand in its target industries. It also raised seed funds back in 2020 from multiple investors, including Susa, 645, Pathbreaker, and Anorak.

How this is a great deal for Reddit

With the deal, Reddit hopes to bring the contextual engagement and analytics tools of Spiketrap and the team behind them into its ad business. As the company explains, the move will enhance the ability to target users with ads based on their conversations and interests on the platform, and improve ad quality score and models. Interactive prediction for automated bidding.

This will ultimately improve ad relevance and performance on Reddit, drive a higher return on investment, and improve solutions for advertising brands.

“We empower advertisers with the tools they need to connect with relevant audiences and communities on Reddit. Spiketrap’s dominant background NLP / ML [natural language processing/machine learning] technology is a great fit for our platform as we move into the next phase of our ad product strategy and expand our advertiser offerings,” a Reddit spokesperson told VentureBeat. The team from Spiketrap has joined Reddit and will soon begin supporting and promoting projects in the advertising business, the company noted.

Previous Moves for Reddit’s Ad Business

While the decision to acquire Spiketrap makes sense for Reddit, it’s not the first time the company has made an acquisition to enhance its advertising capabilities and drive better engagement. They previously purchased Spell, a SaaS-based AI platform (software as a service), to identify and categorize contextual relevancy of conversations and customize ad placements. fox. Another notable acquisition is that of the NLP company MeaningCloud.

“We believe targeting the right audiences based on interests and with the context of the conversations they’re engaged in helps ensure advertisers are reaching the right people in effective ways. best,” said Shariq Rizvi, Reddit EVP that makes money from ads. “We’ve been actively investing in solutions for this purpose for some time now, and this acquisition will perfect Reddit’s capabilities, taking it to the next level.”