Buying reddit ads to promote streamers

Twitch buys reddit ads promoting streamers

So while visiting reddit this morning, I have seen a promoted thread by 'twitch' which says the following:



"I'm Nick Eh 30, a Canadian-born professional Fortnite streamer & creator. I'll be doing an AMA over in r/FortNiteBR at 1:30pm EST on 11/14. Get your questions ready, please and thank you!"

If you click on the link, it sends you to this URL:

https://www.twitch.tv/?rdt_cid=2754764246642879261

Which is odd because it doesn't send you to the subreddit nor to the Nick Eh 30 twitch page. I don't think I have seen any reddit ads similar to this before done by 'twitch'.  This maybe a new campaign push for Twitch using reddit ads to bring in more visitors over to the twitch platform. I will post up any other new twitch ads if I come across them on reddit.  If you happen to see anything unique in this front, please fill free to comment below. I think this is really interesting that twitch is pushing this way for advertising.

Another Ad from 'twitch" but its 22 days old can also be viewed in different subreddits.



Both Ads focus on the fortnite game and fortnite streamers. This ad was a video, didn't appear to have any upvotes and no comments.

The URL sends you to the Twitch but also has tons of extra parameters.

https://www.twitch.tv/?%243p=a_reddit&_branch_match_id=723473051234974098&ttid%3Deab80f788b=&utm_campaign=Mediahub_REDDIT_Invite_RotationalMedia_Tracker&utm_medium=paid%20advertising&utm_source=Reddit&~campaign_id=762653270706564461&~creative_id=765558173245671464

What is interesting here is the "Mediahub" parameter. Mediahub is a AD buying and planning agency. It appears twitch is using this company to advertise the platform across different websites and social media. The streaming platform war is starting to heat up and 2020 is going to be a very deciding year for all the platforms in this space.

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11/22/2019 - Update on this post, another Twitch Reddit ad that is embedding the live stream of a certain streamer.




This is a really interesting ad because its doing a embed and not a image or video.  The streamer's live view count showed over 74,000+ at certain times. If they continue this embed ad and consistently use the "Lirik" channel as the embed, expect this channel views to compound higher.

Checking 3rd party stats, the "Lirik" channel generally has 100k to 180k video views. During this reddit ad embed, the video views has increased to 1.3 million views and followers for that day also tripled.

More Twitch Streamers have autoplaying embed ads on reddit, check out the following screenshots:

CohhCarnage


I didn't manage to get the screenshot during its live session, but this is also interesting to note here.  The ads are hardcoded with the streamer link, its not dynamic switching to other live streamers.

Nickmercs


DrLupo


Annemunition


Nickeh30


Jericho


There was also a ad for "Timthetatman" but I didn't manage capture that screenshot. This is pretty interesting list of streamers to pick from out of the platform. Tim's stream is marked as mature, so when that Ad with the autoplaying embed shows up, its a black screen pop up that people need to click in order for the stream to start up.

Twitch is spending alot of money on these reddit ads, and its a mix of general twitch ads and these focused autoplaying embeds for a handful of streamers.

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Update to this posting 11/26/2020

Just noticed another streaming ad on reddit but this time it was FB Gaming advertising.  Here is a screenshot of the ad post on reddit.

WOW Classic launch breaks over 1 million viewers!

Amazing turn out for Blizzard's World of Warcraft classic launch on Twitch.  As of 6 PM EST, over 1 million viewers are watching streamers trying to play the game. 

Here is a screenshot of the top most streamers on Twitch who are currently streaming wow classic.

Top 5 Classic WOW Streamers include the following:

1. Asmongold - 220k
2. sodapoppin - 97.8k
3. Method - 45.4k
4. shroud - 45.1k
5. ZeratoR - 34.1k

Sadly so far from what I have seen the World of Warcraft classic servers are not able to handle the load of players. Huge queue wait times, then when people are in the game its really laggy and rubber banding all over the place.

Its going to be very interesting to see how the viewership on Twitch is going to hold out for wow classic.  Usually new games get a pop up in views for the first day and then it starts to dip down in the following days.  I have a feeling things maybe alittle different in the case for wow classic. Their appears to be a synergy of personality streamers and wow players who view these streamers as they play the game themselves.  The race to level 60 is also going to take some time to achieve which is another viewer draw to streams.

This whole event for me personally is something I cant understand. I use to play WOW back in 2006 and was very active in PVP.  I managed to become one of the first Warlocks on the server to get max pvp rank of High Warlord.

Here is my character with the high warlord tag.

I don't have any itch to play world of warcraft again. Its pretty amazing to see so many have the opposite viewpoint.  But as time goes on I guess we will see if people stick with it or if this was one big gimmick that people quit in a week or two.

Subscriber Only Streams feature in beta

Twitch just launched a new feature for streamers that allows them to set their channel to subscriber only mode for viewing.

It is currently in a beta phase, open to partners and affiliates who are eligible. The requirements to have this feature enabled on your account are as follows:

• Must broadcasted at least 90 unique days as affiliate or partner.
• No Twitch TOS, Community Guideline violations in the same 90 day unique time frame.

Once you have the new feature available, you will see a new option show up on your creator dashboard under 'Stream Information" called audience. This is where you will have the ability to enable subscriber only mode for viewing.

 You have to set this option before you start streaming, it will not allow for changing during a active session.

Following are my personal opinions:

PROs for using subscriber only feature

• Additional Monetization
• Gated content barrier, due note their is a 5 minute preview window
• Perk / Loyalty building

CONs for using subscriber only feature

• First time viewers maybe turned off by paywall
• Embedded streams on external websites will show splash subscriber screen, no preview with out login

Additional:

Subscriber streams have a special tag assigned to them which allows you to see all active streams that are currently in this mode.

Visit the following URL to see this in action:
https://www.twitch.tv/directory/all/tags/c22bdbea-f4f9-40b4-9f01-bd6f702a37f8

Notice: Many gaming companies such as Blizzard, Riot, Valve, CCP / EVE Online, CD Projekt Red and more have specific terms against using their IP behind paywalls. Make sure to review all video policies and obtain correct licensing/permission before using content from others in sub only mode. 

Remove Channels from recommendations guide

How to remove or hide channels from the recommendation sidebar on Twitch.


If you find yourself always getting recommended channels that are just not your cup of tea and would like to remove it from showing up then here is how you do just that on Twitch.

First step is to go to the Twitch frontpage, which is the basic url of www.twitch.tv or by clicking on the Twitch Icon on the top left of screen.



Once your on this page you will have a couple of sections, main section block is called, "Live channels we think you'll like". Next will be a section for categories we think you'll like. Then after that will be sections generated based on past viewed streamed categories or games that you have specifically followed.

Next step is exactly how to remove channels from recommendations! You have to go to each section block, and pick which channels you do not want to view anymore and press on the vertical dots. That will then bring up the option called "Not Interested", click on that and keep doing this for all the channels that show up that you are not interested in viewing.



You can expand the main section block by pressing on the show more button.



Use the same steps above to also remove games that you are not interested in which is generally the next section block shown on the frontpage.



And that's all you need to do to get rid of unwanted channels showing up on the sidebar for recommendations on twitch.

If you make a mistake and accidentally remove a channel that you didn't want to, you can go into settings and remove the filters channel so it shows up again. Click on Settings, then go to recommendation tab section which will list the channels. Then you just press the X option to delist that channel from not showing up anymore.


Another additional option to note, if you want this section to populate with channels and games that you like, make sure to follow streamers and the game on the directory.  Alot of viewers may not be aware they can also follow games on the directory so here is how to do that in some quick steps.

On the top of twitch, they have a search section, write in the game that you want to follow.



Then click on the game listing with the box art. After that you will be at the directory page for that game category.



Press the follow button and you should then start to get that showing up on the main category section page.

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Our previous guide, still works but images are outdated and some of Twitch's Layout also has changed.


First step is to go to the discover section on the website or the Frontpage of Twitch ( Note: Discover section appears to have been removed, just go to the frontpage of twitch, its the same thing ). You can do this by clicking on the Discover button on the top menu of the website or by clicking on the Twitch Logo in the top left cover.

Once you get to this area, you will have a bunch of different section blocks like "Recommended live channels", "Live channels we think you'll like", 'Categories we think you'll like" and others.

To remove the channel from the recommendation section on the sidebar can be achieved by clicking on the 3 horizontal dots and selecting the option. "I am not interested in this recommendation".

Views from Outside Twitch update

Update to 'Views from Outside Twitch'

A undocumented change happened in the stats dashboard for Twitch streamers that you should know about! Views from Outside Twitch has a source called "Direct" and you are probably wondering what exactly gets put into the direct section?

Answer is any sub-domain urls that are embedding your stream all get put into direct -see update note. Note: It also include other things but to the best of my knowledge its mostly subdomains. If anyone knows what else is put into the direct bin, please let me know by commenting below!

In the past you would be able to see blogspot and gamepedia being listed in this stat section- see update note. Here is a example of that via the screenshot

Now its more limited, here is a recent screenshot from the "Views from Outside Twitch" section.

What is more helpful for streamers to know? A Bulk number of external views coming from who knows where or knowing each of the URLS of the top most external views. In my opinion its better to know the exact domains / subdomains and URLS of what is showcasing your stream. Right now if any gamepedia wiki features a streamer, they will not have any idea where that viewership traffic is coming from because it will not list gamepedia anymore in the views from outside twitch section.


Having a section called "Direct" just doesnt make sense either. When you are listing views from outside twitch and then put in something called direct, people will be confused. I hope they do some changes in the future to bring back the more detail reporting. The more information streamers know about how and where their streams are being consumed the better planning and decision making can occur.

Update - 6/6/2020 - "Twitch has made changes and now shows subdomain information in the views from outside twitch section. Not exactly sure when they implemented the update, but basically they took the suggestion from this post and fixed it to show subdomains and other helpful information."