Disqus announced that it has been testing Sponsored Comments for the past month, and that it’s now expanding the new ad unit so that “it’ll be more likely that you come across” one. Here’s what one might look like:

If you use Disqus, but have ads turned off, you don’t have to worry about them appearing.

This follows another ad format Disqus launched earlier this year called Featured Comments, which let publishers highlight things at the top of a thread.

“Because Disqus now helps websites make money from engagement and discussion, a natural question came up – can we use the concept of Featured Comments in order to allow brands to reach specific audiences? This was the idea behind Sponsored Comments,” Disqus says in a blog post.

“Sponsored Comments let businesses deliver a message to the people they need to reach,” it adds. “A Sponsored Comment can use all types of media to get their point across, just like any other Disqus comment. But they’re not part of the discussion happening on that thread or community itself. That’s too disruptive. So instead, they’re pinned to the top of the discussion environment where things are just getting started. It’s like movie previews. It’s not the thing you came for, but if done well, it adds a little bit to your experience without being intrusive. We’re testing whether or not we can make this true.”

Early reaction to the ads is generally positive. Users seem to appreciate that they respect the sites that turn off ads. People are interested in targeting options and potential clickthrough rates.

Image via Disqus