Nextdoor Ads
New product challenge: Create a local ads platform for small and medium sized businesses
When I joined Nextdoor, they only had a niche local ad product built specifically for real-estate agents called Neighborhood Sponsorships.
While it was a popular product for agents, it couldn’t be used by other local professionals as it was built to live on our Real Estate page with property specific inserts in the feed.
Neighborhood Sponsorships ad product for real estate agents
Nextdoor was also running Google Ads on its site. This meant we couldn’t build a local ad tool since Google’s the external ad system required custom fields.
This meant we were splitting ad revenue with Google, and we were siloing our only in-house built ads product for real estate customers only. We were leaving money on the table.
We needed a 3 pronged solution
Create our own robust ad bidding system to replace Google Ads on our site (Nextdoor Ad Center).
Build it for professional marketers who understand CPM based bidding and complex ad auction models.
Create a simple ad buying tool for SMBs powered by our in-house ads system (Nextdoor Ads)
Build it for non-tech savvy, time-crunched local business owners
Sunset the Neighborhood Sponsorship product and move those customers to the SMB product
For the sake if this study, we will focus on the SMB product called Nextdoor Ads. I led the UX content strategy to ensure a seamless, scalable, and user-centric experience.
I had two key challenges
Create a mobile friendly ad buying platform that served both novice advertisers and experienced local marketers.
Simplify the complexities of CPM bidding and ad auction mechanics into a simple, intuitive, and accessible interface.
Because this needed to function as a one-size-fits-all solution, we had to strategically surface only the most essential controls, while our engineering team ensured that the system dynamically optimized ad performance on the backend.
Research-Driven Simplification of a Complex System
Partnering with User Research and Customer Success Operations leads, we conducted voice-of-customer analysis and data analysis to deeply understand advertiser pain points, behavioral patterns, and expectations.
We found that local business owners were extremely overwhelmed by all the decisions they needed to make for one ad on our powerful Nextdoor Ad Center platform that was built akin to Google Ads.
They didn’t understand ad platform jargon like “Image Carousels,” “Right Hand Rail,” “CPM,” or the complexity of bid adjustments and how they work.
Ad buying screens in Nextdoor Ad Center, like the two below this paragraph, had them feeling overwhelmed, confused, and resulted in them abandoning the platform all together.
SMB customers were overwhelmed by Nextdoor Ad Center’s placements and media requirements.
Budget distributions and bid adjustments were way too confusing for local SMB ad customers.
Using qualitative and quantitative insights, I streamlined our approach to information architecture, interaction flows, and language clarity.
Through iterative testing, checkins with my customer success team to review help tickets, and collaboration with my product designer, I distilled the ad-buying process into five streamlined steps, balancing simplicity with the flexibility needed for more sophisticated advertisers.
Steps 1-3
Steps 4-5 and success screen
Outcomes & Business Impact
🚀 Launched Nextdoor Ads, an easy to use, scalable solution for all local businesses
📉 Reduced cognitive load by concealing ad auction complexities behind an intuitive, guided experience
📈 Increased advertiser conversion rates which increased our company revenue
By integrating system-driven automation with an empathetic UX content strategy, we transformed Nextdoor’s ad platform into an accessible yet robust tool, empowering local businesses to leverage digital advertising with confidence and ease.
