Interview Question: PM for Reels; Just introduced ads

Why would we build this?

What goals would we set for this product?

What would be our success metrics?

1. Assumptions

Reels has product market fit and is introducing ads for the first time

2. Product Rationale

Company Mission: Build the future of human connection and the technology that makes it possible

Competition: TikTok, Shorts, etc.

Indirect competition: Youtube, netflix, snapchat, legacy media, news feed for IG/FB/LinkedIn

Why does this exist?

• Entertainment - funny videos, learning,
• News - political movements
• Connecting with friends and seeing what people are up to
• Vs others
• Video based instead of pictures
• Easy interactions with multiple interactions
• Can swipe past videos easily and entire friend videos all at once
• Short snippets that can be consumed in free time

Weaknesses/Threats?

• Ad density - annoying them with too many ads
• Ad relevance - boring or unrelated then its more annoying
• Creepy - ads are too good or relevant

Advertisers

• Focused on discovery and awareness
• Leading to actions or not
• ROAS

Product lifecycle: Mature, beginning to monetize

Production rationale: Provide relevant and non-intrusive ad experiences in Reels without degrading user engagement.

3. Entities

Customer Segments

• Users
• Influencers with big audience
• Casual users and posters
• Viewers
• Advertisers
• Big brands
• SMBs
• Agencies
• Meta

User Journey

• Upload videos
• Watch videos from friends and others
• Watch ads along the way
• Skip through ads that aren't relevant
• Take action on the ad
• Return to app
• Delete app or use other products

4. Objectives

Help users discover new brands and products and help advertisers reach relevant audiences for their products

Allow users to continue to interact and engage with each other and content without annoying them with ads

Don't break trust with how we using data or how ads are perceived

Monetize reels

Support creator monetization through ad revenue sharing or incentives (eventually)

5. Potential Metrics

Upload videos

• DAUs that upload a video
• # of videos upload per week
• # of hours of videos uploaded per week

Watch videos from friends and others

• DAUs on platform
• # of videos watched per week (per DAU)
• # of hours of videos watched per week (per DAU)

Watch ads along the way

• # of ads watched per week
• % of video hours that are ads
• Ad density - % of videos that are ads per DAU p50, p99

Skip through ads that aren't relevant

• % of ads that are skipped
• # of ad video hours that are watched in full (excludes skips)
• Irrelevance rate of ads - surveys and user perception surveys

Take action on the ad

• # of clicks on ads
• CTR
• # of purchases from ads

Return to app

• % of users that return to product after going to ad

Delete app or use other products

• # of deletions

Meta and Monetization

• Ad $ revenue
• Ad $ per ad video hour shown
• ARPU
• CPM; Cost per video; Cost per video second watched
• CPC
• Total Ad revenue

6. North Star Metric

Ad $ revenue

7. Leading indicators / Secondary Success Metrics

# of ad video hours that are watched in full (excludes skips)

Ad $ per ad video hour shown

8. Health / Guardrail Metrics

CTR of ads

Skip rate of ad videos

Ad density - % of videos that are ads per DAU p50, p99

# of hours of videos watched per week

DAUs on platform

Irrelevance rate of ads - surveys and user perception surveys

9. Tradeoff questions