Nextdoor Ads
Building a Scalable Local Ads Platform for Nextdoor
When I joined Nextdoor, it was transitioning from Neighborhood Sponsorships, a niche advertising product for real-estate agents, to a comprehensive local ads platform for businesses across all industries and sizes. I led the UX content strategy to ensure a seamless, scalable, and user-centric experience.
I had two key challenges:
Create a platform that served both novice advertisers and experienced marketers.
Simplify the complexities of CPM bidding and ad auction mechanics into an intuitive, 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 Research and Customer Operations, we conducted voice-of-customer analysis to deeply understand advertiser pain points, behavioral patterns, and expectations. These insights informed our approach to information architecture, interaction flows, and language clarity.
Through iterative testing and collaboration with my product designer, we distilled the ad-buying process into five streamlined steps, balancing simplicity with the flexibility needed for more sophisticated advertisers.
Outcomes & Business Impact
🚀 Launched Nextdoor Ads, an automated, scalable solution for all local businesses
📉 Reduced cognitive load by concealing ad auction complexities behind an intuitive, guided experience
📈 Increased advertiser conversion rates through frictionless onboarding
By integrating system-driven automation with deliberate 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.
