Reddit is known for having millions of hyper-engaged communities — more than 3 million (130,000 are considered active) It would be great to take advantage of all that engagement. But, here’s the thing. You do NOT want to pitch these people, or they will black-ball you. So, your next best bet is advertising on Reddit.
In this article, we’re going to do a dive deep into the world of Reddit advertising and uncover the secrets to successful campaigns on this unique platform.
Short Summary
- Understand Reddit and its users to create effective ads.
- Tailor your strategy for young, educated males.
- Monitor & optimize campaigns using Reddit’s dashboard & A/B testing.
Understanding Reddit and Its Users
What is Reddit?
Reddit is a platform for communities centered around a topic, where users can post content, engage in discussions, and vote on the most interesting content, allowing the best content to rise to the top. With 52 million daily active users, understanding the platform and its communities is crucial for a successful advertising campaign.
The key to advertising on Reddit lies in targeting your ad group to the right communities, known as subreddits, and creating ads that resonate with the specific user base of each community.
Demographics: Who Uses Reddit?
Reddit’s audience consists mostly of young, educated, and high-earning males. To effectively position your brand and target the right audience, it’s essential to focus on specific subreddits that align with your target audience’s interests. For instance,
By understanding the demographics and interests of your intended audience, you can tailor your advertising strategy to maximize your reach and impact.
Respect and Participate in Reddit Culture
I chose Reddit because of its potential to reach a wide yet niche audience via Reddit communities. My key success tip is understanding and respecting the Reddit culture—it’s about being a part of the community first, providing value, and fostering genuine engagement.
The direct promotion took a back seat to contribute insightful content and discussions, which ultimately strengthened my brand’s resonance with Redditors.
— Ilija Sekulov, Marketing and SEO, Mailbutler
Interests and Behaviors: There’s a Subreddit for everything!
Reddit users have a wide range of interests, including gaming, technology, entertainment, and politics. So, invest a good amount of time to research those communities to see whether the content and community align with your target audience’s interests and behaviors.
Niche Targeting and Personalization
Advertising or marketing in a specific subreddit really targets an audience that will convert, and Redditors tend to be pretty brutally honest (and vocal) in their responses.
Engaging with Redditors and personalizing to the subreddit’s sensibilities is relatively easy because opinions are so openly discussed, and is a group of self-segmented leads.
— Paul Kushner, CEO, My Bartender
By actively engaging with users in a positive and helpful manner, while offering valuable information or experiences, you can establish trust, authenticity, and foster meaningful connections with the Reddit community. Integrating these strategies provides a powerful framework for maximizing engagement, conversions, and long-term success on Reddit’s diverse platform.
Research, Tailor, and Engage
In our experience with Reddit, we have learned a couple of key considerations that can increase engagement and conversions:
Start by researching subreddits and identifying specific communities. Then tailor your advertisements to appeal to those audiences. Each community has its own culture and sense of humor, and leveraging things like inside jokes and memes in your ad copy can be very effective.
Actively engage with the subreddit’s users in a positive and helpful way to establish trust and authenticity. Make sure your advertisements offer something useful, whether it’s information, exclusive offers, or engaging experiences. Always be transparent about your brand affiliation and avoid promotional language.
— Tali Ditye, PHD, Editor-in-Chief and Co-founder, Mommyhood101.com
It’s Not all Rainbows
Like any author platform, even the best promoted posts may not resonate with your Reddit audience.
Lower Ad Competition, Uncertain Conversions
We’ve given Reddit Ads a shot for two different businesses—one in financial services and the other in the SEO backlink-building field. When compared to other social media platforms, we noticed Reddit has less advertising competition. This presented us with an opportunity to reach out to Reddit users and promote our services.
In terms of the results we achieved, we received a decent number of clicks, with lower costs per click and cost per thousand impressions compared to other platforms. When we checked the engagement on Google Analytics, it wasn’t terrible either. Most users spent around 8-10 seconds on the website.
However, despite our efforts in retargeting, refreshing creatives, and providing offers (which performed well on Facebook), we didn’t see a single conversion in months. This leads us to question whether Reddit users have a high enough intention to make purchases through ads, especially when compared to platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
— Paw Vej, Chief Operating Officer, Financer.com
Setting Up Your Reddit Advertising Account
Before you can start advertising and reaping the benefits of Reddit advertising, you need to set up your Reddit advertising account. This involves creating a company profile, adding billing information, and inviting users to manage the account.
With a company profile, you can run advertising campaigns and respond to comments from the company’s perspective, ensuring a seamless experience for your target audience.
Creating a Company Profile
Setting up a Reddit advertising account is a breeze. You’ll need to provide your username, password, company name, business email, first and last name, industry, and country. Once you’ve set up your account, you can add billing information and invite your colleagues to join your advertising account by clicking on “Manage permissions” under your username, adding their emails and permission level.
With your company profile ready, you’re all set to launch your first Reddit advertising campaign.
Adding Billing Information and Users
To add billing information to your Reddit account, click on your username in the top right corner, select ‘Billing’ from the drop-down menu, and add a valid credit/debit card.
To add users to your account, click on your username, select ‘Users’ from the drop-down, and add the user you want. With your billing information and users in place, you’re ready to begin advertising on Reddit and reaching your target audience.
Crafting an Effective Reddit Ad Campaign
An effective Reddit ad campaign begins with choosing the right campaign objective, targeting specific subreddits for maximum exposure, and designing engaging ads with creative assets. Reddit offers five default campaign objectives, including building brand recognition and reach, driving traffic, increasing conversions, getting app installs, and generating video views.
By understanding your campaign goals and the ad types available, you can create ads that resonate with your target audience and achieve your desired results.
Choosing Your Campaign Objectives
Selecting the right objective for your ad campaign is crucial in achieving your desired results. Reddit’s campaign setup is similar to other social media platforms, offering objectives such as building brand recognition, driving traffic, increasing conversions, and generating video views.
By focusing on the right objective, you can ensure that your ad campaign aligns with your overall marketing strategy and delivers the best possible results.
Targeting Your Ideal Audience
Effective targeting is essential for successful Reddit advertising. You can target your ad campaign by interest, community, targeting expansion, device, or location. By focusing on specific subreddits and the interests of your target audience, you can ensure that your ads reach the right users and generate the desired results.
Here’s an example from an email marketing subreddit. In this example, you’ll see that your ad doesn’t have to be complicated. This one is tagged as “self-promotion” and includes a personal message with a link to a landing page. That’s all.
Designing Engaging Ads
Creating compelling ads with creative assets is essential for capturing the attention of Reddit users. There are four main ad creative types on Reddit: Image, Video, Text, and Link.
It’s important to treat Redditors like real people when writing your ads, so take the time to get to know the platform and the individual subreddits that you’re targeting, allowing you to craft copy that speaks to them. By designing engaging ads and utilizing the right creative assets, you can capture the attention of your target audience and drive the desired results.
Navigating Reddit’s Ad Placements
Reddit offers two main ad placements for your campaign: Feed and Conversations. Feed placement refers to ads showing up in a user’s feed, while Conversation placement is a fixed ad spot that appears between the original post and the first comment in a conversation thread, allowing advertisers to reach users who are actively discussing a specific post.
By understanding the benefits of each placement, you can select the most effective ad placement for your campaign and maximize user engagement.
Feed Placement
Feed placement on Reddit allows your ad to appear in the user’s feed, providing a seamless browsing experience for the user. Promoted posts, which look like regular posts but with a “Sponsored” tag, are a popular choice for Feed placement.
By selecting Feed placement, you can ensure that your ad blends in with the user’s browsing experience, increasing the likelihood of user engagement and achieving your campaign goals.
Conversation Placement
Conversation placement on Reddit offers a unique opportunity to reach users who are actively engaged in discussions surrounding a specific post.
By placing your ad between the original post and the first comment, you can target users who are already invested in the new post and the conversation, increasing the likelihood of user engagement with your ad.
Conversation placement allows you to use more creative ad formats, such as video or interactive text ads below, which can be more captivating than regular banner ads. For example, Dollar Shave Club placed a video ad in a conversation thread about shaving, resulting in a significant boost in sales.
By understanding the benefits of Conversation placement, you can create ads that resonate with users and will drive traffic to the desired results.
Upvotes, Downvotes, and Earning Karma
The first thing to understand is that Redditors have no interest in being sold to. Forget sales pitches, clever taglines, or sales funnels.
First, invest time into contributing to the website—aiming to earn credits called “Karma”. The higher your karma, the more places you can post, and the more your insights are credible. When other users upvote your content, you receive karma, and when they downvote, you lose karma.
In order to get the attention of Redditors, your posts should offer unique commentary, be funny, or inspire community discussion. Posing questions related to your business’s products or services is one way to achieve success in marketing your business on Reddit—aiming to engage potential customers and ask for their feedback.
— Gabe Roy, Founder and Creative Director, Zest Media Productions
Here’s another story about why it’s important to build relationships before embarking on ad campaigns.
Build Relationships With Other Users
My best Reddit ads success tip would be to focus on being as active as possible on the subreddits that relate to what you’re advertising. Engage in conversations, do daily updates, and provide helpful advice and content.
Through my experience, I learned that being active on Reddit is key. Write content with a goal in mind, whether that’s driving traffic to a webpage or increasing brand awareness. Finally, be aware of Reddit’s content guidelines and adhere to them as closely as possible.
— Span Chen, Growth Director, Notta
Budgeting and Bidding Strategies for Reddit Ads
Setting a budget and bidding strategy for your Reddit ads campaign is crucial for managing your advertising costs and achieving your desired results. Reddit ads are priced by CPM (cost per thousand impressions), CPC (cost per click), and CPV (cost per view), with a minimum daily spend of $5.
Unlike some other platforms, Reddit does not offer an automatic bidding algorithm, so it’s essential to understand your bidding options and select the right strategy for your campaign.
Setting Your Budget
When setting a budget for your Reddit ads campaign, notice that you can choose between a daily maximum budget or a total budget for the entire campaign. The minimum daily spend for a Reddit ad is $5, ensuring that your ad receives sufficient exposure to generate results.
By setting an appropriate budget for your campaign, you can manage your advertising costs effectively while achieving your desired campaign objectives.
Bidding Strategies
Understanding bidding strategies for Reddit ads is crucial for maximizing your ad’s performance. Reddit is for Reddit. Ads uses an auction system where your bid, targeting options, and ad quality compete against other ads for impressions through CPM, CPC, or CPV. By setting a maximum bid that you’re willing to pay for impressions, clicks, or views, you can ensure that your ad receives the desired exposure while staying within your budget.
By selecting the right bidding strategy for your Reddit ads campaign, you can optimize your ad performance and achieve your marketing goals.
Monitoring and Optimizing Your Reddit Ads Campaign
Monitoring and optimizing your Reddit ads campaign is essential for achieving the best possible results. By using Reddit’s advertising dashboard and measurement and reporting tools, you can track the performance of your ad and make necessary adjustments to optimize its effectiveness.
Additionally, engaging with the subreddit communities and observing user activity can help you ensure that your ad is placed in the most effective spot.
Understand Community and Offer Value
I did indeed run ads on Reddit. My best advice for success is to offer worthwhile material, interact genuinely, focus on pertinent subreddits, and track and change your advertising.
Success depends on knowing the rules of the subreddit, being genuine, and producing meaningful content. Respond to user comments, interact with them, and establish your authority.
— Mike Lees, Chief Marketing Officer, LeaseAccelerator
Using Reddit’s Dashboard
Reddit’s dashboard provides advertisers with valuable insights into campaign performance, including standard marketing metrics and Reddit-specific metrics. By regularly monitoring your Reddit ads campaign through the dashboard, you can track your ad’s performance, making adjustments to optimize its results.
The dashboard also allows you to create new campaigns and customize your reporting metrics, ensuring that you have all the necessary tools to manage your Reddit advertising campaign effectively.
A/B Testing and Optimization
A/B testing and optimization are crucial for maximizing the performance of your Reddit ad campaign. A/B testing involves comparing two versions of an ad to determine which one performs better, while optimization involves making changes to the ad to improve its performance, such as adjusting the copy, targeting, or budget.
By regularly conducting A/B tests and optimizing your ad campaign, you can continually improve your ad’s performance and achieve the best possible results.
Case Studies: Reddit Advertisers Share Their Experience
Learning from the experiences of other successful Reddit advertisers can provide valuable insights into crafting your own successful campaigns. In this section, we’ll share some success stories and tips from Reddit advertisers who have effectively harnessed the power of Reddit advertising.
Incentivize Engagement Authentically
My big “aha” moment came when I launched a campaign offering Reddit Coins and exclusive discount codes to users who interacted with our posts or shared their experiences with our service. The response was remarkable.
Not only did it boost our engagement rates, but it also forged a more personal connection with our potential customers. The lesson learned was that Reddit users value authenticity and engagement. It’s not about hard selling but about fostering a genuine conversation around shared interests.
— Joe Troyer, CEO and Growth Advisor, Digital Triggers
Leverage Communities and Compelling Content
Reddit helps a business reach a large audience because of its extended reach. Having a small business ourselves, we find Reddit can be a helpful advertising tool.
When you’re taking advantage of Reddit’s extensive reach, you must produce great content that goes with current trends and has an interesting message that people have to upvote. That is how you will succeed on this platform.
— Kathy Bennett, CEO and Founder, Bennett Packaging
Timing and Active Participation Matter
Hitting the right moment can be the difference between your post getting lost in the abyss or it hitting the front page. I’ve discovered that engaging and being part of the community also pays off in spades.
– Daniel Pfeffer, CEO, Scrape Network
In conclusion, Reddit advertising can be an incredibly effective way to reach a highly engaged and diverse audience. By understanding the platform, its users, and the various strategies for creating and optimizing ads campaigns, you can maximize your advertising efforts and achieve your desired results.
Summary
In this comprehensive guide, we’ve explored the ins and outs of Reddit advertising, from understanding the platform and its users to crafting effective ads campaigns, navigating ads placements, budgeting and bidding strategies, and monitoring and optimizing your campaign. By leveraging the unique features of Reddit ads and tailoring your advertising approach to the interests and behaviors of its users, you can unlock the full potential of Reddit advertising for your business.
As you embark on your Reddit advertising journey, remember to keep your target audience in mind, engage with the communities you’re targeting, and continually optimize your ad campaigns for the best possible results. With a well-crafted Reddit advertising strategy, the sky’s the limit for your brand’s success. Happy advertising!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Reddit a good way to advertise?
Yes, Reddit is a great way to advertise due to its unique, social media platform offering low-funnel traffic and a highly engaged audience.
It’s cheaper than Google ads and Facebook with advanced targeting capabilities for PPC marketers and great organic promotion opportunities, making it an attractive option for small businesses with small ad budgets.
Does it cost to advertise on Reddit?
Yes, advertising on Reddit does come at a cost. The minimum to advertise on Reddit is just $5 a day. You can also structure campaigns based on impressions, video views or auction-style CPC. Overall, Reddit advertising can be an affordable way to get your message out there. May 20, 2024.
Is it free to advertise on Reddit?
No, it isn’t free to advertise on Reddit. However, the minimum daily ad spend is relatively low at $5 per campaign.
How do I successfully advertise on Reddit?
Advertising on Reddit can be a great way to reach your target audience. To do it successfully, create an account and a campaign, find the relevant subreddits, focus on engagement, and use creative content that resonates with your audience.
Monitor your performance to optimize your strategy over time.
How to advertise on reddit?
Ready to advertise on Reddit? Start by creating your company profile and setting up an advertising account.
Then, research subreddits where your target audience hangs out and ensure they have enough page views to be worthwhile.
Finally, set up your campaign and track its performance to refine and improve it over time. Good luck!
