Almost four years after launching in 2022, the livestreaming platform Kick has rolled out its first full-fledged advertising product.
Although brands have been able to purchase select forms of advertising inventory, like homepage banners, since 2023, the platform has not traditionally offered marketers access to in-stream ad formats, like banners and pre-rolls, that have become standard on streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch. That changed on August 4, when Kick launched Kick Ads, a portal that allows marketers to buy ads on Kick at scale via direct purchasing, programmatic buying, and open auctions.
Kick’s long timeline between launch and the rollout of Kick Ads was intentional, according to Kick head of growth and revenue Ryan Webb, who said in an interview with GamesBeat that the company had waited to launch an ad platform until it was confident it could pull it off without disrupting the experience for both creators and viewers.
“We’re lucky we’ve got the luxury to do that,” Webb said. “We’ve got co-founders that are very passionate about what they’re building, so it wasn’t about how quickly we can turn on advertising — it was, ‘how do we build in the right way?’”
To learn more about the launch of Kick Ads earlier this week, GamesBeat spoke to Webb for Q&A. Here are some of the key takeaways.
The following interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
On the selling points of advertising on Kick over other platforms
“Over 80 percent of our platform sits between that 18-to-34 bracket, and we know they’re hard to reach; we know that the way they operate is different. So, to find a way to authentically engage and get in front of them is quite hard, especially in more long-form content — because that’s the difference with livestreaming, people are watching for longer periods. So, you’ve got the mix of social media and then TV, and we sit somewhere in the middle. We see it as the best of both worlds.”
On Kick’s initial approach to pricing for ads
“When we were testing and learning things, there’s been a few brands that we’ve worked with that we did a token $1 invoice to help them go through the steps one by one. But as far as the generally pricing is concerned, our viewership’s global, so if they’re buying the global viewership, it’s having that blended CPM approach. We think we’re pricing in a way that is premium, but we also understand we’re entering the market, so there’s an opportunity, while we’re still entering that market, to go, ‘this might actually be a bit of a bargain.’”
On the steps Kick has taken to address potential brand safety concerns around Kick Ads
“How do we make sure, from an advertising point of view, we’re giving the advertisers what they need and want and expect? We’re definitely not a black box here; we’re actually trying to lift the veil and go, ‘well, you can buy different categories; you can buy different segments to give that comfort level of knowing where your ads are going to be placed.’ I know that might not necessarily be the case for some other platforms, where it is a bit more of a black box, and you get what you get. For us, we want to be a bit more targeted.”
On the potential for integrations between Kick Ads and the Kick Partner Program
“The goal is absolutely to work out the best ecosystem that involves the creators. For this year, it was, ‘how do we make sure we’re setting up the right foundations for advertising?’ So, we’ve got the traditional formats, whether it’s your video display or native formats. That way, we’ve got that strength and trust that we build with brands. My goal is — and this will happen this year as well — how do we keep integrating brands in a few different ways? The idea is, we get you into the ecosystem, you build the trust, you get the value from advertising without the bells and whistles and other stuff, and then we start to go, ‘well, how do we have a bit more fun with it?’”
On the role of programmatic marketplaces in Kick Ads
The first thing was obviously setting up our ad network, and we’re working with Google on establishing that. The goal now is, we’ve got a few different programmatic SSPs and DSPs that are coming on board, and that will continue to scale. We’re not a closed ecosystem, so for us, we’re very much having conversations with everyone, and wanting to open up for everyone.