Marketing on Reddit: What you need to know

Thanks to its recent IPO, the social media platform Reddit is a hot topic in many circles, including marketing. That’s quite the accomplishment for a company that’s been around for 20 years, which in internet terms is the equivalent of having lived when dinosaurs roamed. 

To help you understand the platform and determine if it’s a good channel for you to use, here is our marketer’s guide to Reddit.

We’ve updated the guide with a detailed look at ad types and formats.

What is Reddit?

Reddit is a social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website where users post content — links, text posts, images and videos —  which can be voted up or down by other members. Content is organized into user-created boards called “Subreddits,” which focus on particular topics. It is known for its engaged community and is the 11th most-visited website in the world and 6th in the U.S.

It has more than 100,000 Subreddits. These are moderated by volunteer users, so the quality of posts can vary. Many, like r/askscience (25 million subscribers) and r/askhistorians (2 million subscribers), are widely respected forums where experts respond to questions. That said, plenty are as bad as the internet can get. Fortunately, because Subreddits are topic-specific, it is easy for brands to avoid those.

Dig deeper: The B2B CEO’s social media checklist

Its most popular feature is the Ask Me Anything (AMA) events which have starred luminaries like President Obama and Bill Gates, as well as actors, musicians, astronauts and more. While those are the top draws in terms of numbers, AMAs with topic experts can draw very well within a particular Subreddit.

In December 2023, Reddit hosted more than 1 billion posts and more than 16 billion comments.

What are the demographics?

• 63.6% of Reddit users are male.
• 44% of U.S. users are in the 18 to 29 age bracket.
• 31% are 30 to 49.
• 50% of Reddit users are from the U.S.
• 64% have a household annual income of $75,000+.

Dig deeper: Reddit testing new tools to help brands boost engagement

How much traffic does Reddit get?

• Average 73 million daily active users (DAUs) in Q4 2023.
  • Meta had 3.19 billion DAU across all apps in January 2024.
  • Pinterest 498 million DAU in January 2024.
• Average 1.2 billion monthly active users (MAU) in February 2024, up from 430 million in 2019.
  • Facebook 3 billion MAU in January.
  • Instagram 2 billion MAU in January.
  • TikTok 1.6 billion MAU (est.) in January.
• 22% of the U.S. population has used Reddit (Facebook 68%, YouTube 83%).
• A significant number of Reddit users do not use other social media: More than 50% don’t engage with platforms like Pinterest, Snapchat, and X.
• Reddit’s 2023 average revenue per user (ARPU) was about $0.80 (Facebook $9.62)

Reddit ad types and formats

There are two different ad types on Reddit, promoted posts and takeovers. 

Promoted Posts

Promoted posts appear in Redditors’ feeds and look like native posts. There are six different formats, which can be mixed and matched as needs and budgets allow:

• Free-form ads allow a combination of text, image, video, GIFs, headlines and dividers in one ad. These function more like a blog post, offering flexibility for creative, long-form content. Can be up to 40,000 characters. However, only 3-6 lines of body copy are seen in feeds. 
• Static image ads. Same resolution and sizes as other major platforms.
• Video ads, aspect ratio options (1:1 square, 4:5 portrait, 4:3 landscape or 16:9), and the recommended video length is between 5 and 30 seconds.
• Carousel Ads provide images or videos within a single, swipeable ad unit.
• Product and shopping ads let you use your product catalog to recommend what to buy. Currently in beta.
• AMA stands for Ask Me Anything and is likely what Reddit is best known for. An AMA (trademarked by the company) is when a person schedules a time to appear and answers questions via text. They can occur in a specific Subreddit (most useful for marketing) or, if you’re feeling adventurous, on r/AMA. In 2012, then-President Barack Obama did an AMA and Bill Gates has done 11.

Takeovers

A takeover is when your brand’s advertising is the first thing seen on certain parts of Reddit for 24 hours. There are four different types:

• Front page takeover is on Home and Popular, the site’s most visited pages. Includes a top banner displayed at the top of the front page and a sticky banner that remains fixed at the top of the page, even as users scroll.
• Reddit takeover places ads on Home, Popular or Search. Everything from the front page takeover, plus trending units on the Popular and Trending pages, your ad is present when Redditors search and explore the latest or most popular content.
• Category Takeover puts your ad at the top of all the subreddits within one or more of 15 verticals. Includes all front page features plus conversation placement that lets you insert an ad within community discussions.
• First View places ads at th

What are the best marketing tactics?

The keyword for marketing on Reddit is engagement — the more you do, the more response you will get. Many businesses run image and video ads and leave it at that, but here’s what the moderator of the company-run r/Redditmarketing says is the best practice.

Reddit is a quirky site and each community has its own do’s and don’ts (helpfully posted at the top of each Subreddit). For example, no advertising is allowed on r/advertising. 

Laura Schiele, head of paid acquisition at Jordan Digital Marketing, says overall you need to have a humanistic brand voice and sound willing to poke fun at yourself. The more you know your audience, the better you will do — a real plus for B2B marketers.

“We have some companies where the audience is specifically engineers and we’ve had success with that,” she told MarTech. “If you have a community you want to get in front of, you can get them on Reddit.”

She also emphasizes that quality, tailored creatives are important on Reddit. It’s good to use or refer to the site’s jargon or activities, but it has to be done in a low-key way.

The user base appreciates expertise and informed comment — two of B2B marketing’s strengths. Doing an AMA with the appropriate community and responding to other people’s posts and questions in a Subreddit will go a long way toward building credibility. 

That’s especially important because many people go to Reddit to get product recommendations from other users. These can sometimes be early indicators of good or bad news. For example, the Subreddit  r/buyitforlife is about the most durable, highest-quality consumer goods. Over the years I’ve seen early signs of brands’ rising as they get discovered and falling as their quality has declined.

What about Reddit and reputation management?

Because Reddit is a platform where people gather to discuss particular topics they’re interested in, it can have an outsized impact on brand reputation. You will find people passionate about whatever area your brand operates in. Of course, their passions can run both positive and negative, so it is essential to monitor the site. Your brand’s engagement will be appreciated by users as long as you focus on sharing expertise and information. Company-initiated hype doesn’t go over well there.

The first thing to do is have a brand profile with the brand’s name. People like to know they are getting info straight from the source. Next, be sure to obey the overall rules of Reddit and any specific to the Subreddit you’re posting in. Develop a Reddit-specific strategy and be consistent in your posting.

It’s important to remember that Reddit doesn’t arbitrate disputes. It suggests posting the correct information on Reddit to counteract any false information. “The Reddit community is usually very supportive of such a response and will likely vote to give the correction greater prominence than the original post,” reads Reddit’s FAQ.

What tools does it provide marketers?

When it comes to the specifics of advertising it’s important to know that 75% of the global Reddit audience accesses the site via mobile, so be sure to optimize for phones and tablets.

Because Reddit is all about finding the right audience it’s good to know there are several third-party analysis apps available. Additionally, the platform has updated Reddit Ads Manager with tools that help generate ad copy, edit assets, optimize campaign results, manage budgets and more.

New feature: What are Dynamic Product Ads?

Reddit has added Dynamic Product Ads to its suite of tools for marketers. It combines shopping signals with machine learning and advertiser product catalogs to serve the most relevant products to the users with the highest likelihood of purchasing.

Features include instant campaign creation as the ads auto-populate in real-time with the latest images, pricing and product images from an advertiser’s catalog. It also has two new targeting options.
Retargeting serves ads to people based on products they’ve previously engaged with on the advertiser’s site. Prospecting serves ads for the most relevant products based on what people engage with on Reddit or advertiser sites. The company says this provides support across the purchase journey with feed and conversation placement and single image or carousel format ads reaching Reddit users in the discovery, consideration or decision-making mindset.

Dynamic Product Ads is now in public beta and available to all Reddit advertisers globally. English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese are supported via the Reddit Ads Manager.

New feature: What are Lead Generation Ads?

Reddit has launched Lead Generation Ads in public beta, available globally for advertisers working directly with the platform.

The new ad format, an integration with Zapier, allows advertisers to collect user information directly on the platform, potentially improving lead quality and campaign performance for businesses across various industries.

Key features:

• Mobile-optimized design with auto-populating email fields.
• Privacy-focused approach for secure data handling.
• Integration with Zapier for direct CRM connectivity.

By the numbers:

• 75% of B2B decision-makers say Reddit has the most influential perspectives on business products.
• 28% of Redditors researched online education programs in the past 6 months.
• 93% of Redditors say the platform helps them make informed tech upgrade decisions.

Reddit’s new ad format, combined with its engaged user base and Zapier integration, could make it a more attractive platform for businesses looking to generate high-quality leads efficiently. This represents a significant step in bridging the gap between user engagement and advertiser needs, potentially reshaping how businesses approach lead acquisition in online communities.

New feature: AI-powered ad optimization

Reddit has purchased Memorable AI, a creative testing company that optimizes ad creative based on previous campaign KPIs. The move is designed to put its ability to enhance campaign performance on equal footing with Google, Meta, Amazon and TikTok. 

“Memorable AI has a proven track record for optimizing ad creative to drive the best possible results before advertisers run a single ad,” Reddit Chief Operating Officer Jen Wong said in a blog post. “This acquisition allows Reddit to accelerate our work in optimizing, generating, and selecting ad creative to deliver even better results for advertisers. We are thrilled to welcome the Memorable AI team to Reddit.”

Memorable AI’s technology analyzes reactions to visual content so advertisements can be better targeted and creatively optimized. It suggests ways advertisers can tweak creative to drive their chosen metrics by analyzing past campaign data derived from ad platforms, DSPs and ad servers. The company’s tools will be integrated into Reddit’s ad stack and available to all advertisers.

The best marketing Subreddits

These are the top Subreddits for marketers, ranked by number of users and a brief description. 

• r/Marketing (1.3M members) This is a high-traffic sub with its own Discord channel and many useful links, including The Big Marketing FAQ You Didn’t Know You Needed.
• r/SocialMedia (1.3M members) A heavy-traffic sub for discussing social media, news and best practices. It has a list of very helpful links
• r/eCommerce (474K members) A high-traffic sub for anyone from veterans to newbies interested in the design and implementation of ecommerce sites.
• r/Digital_Marketing (208K members) and r/DigitalMarketing (181K members) I have no idea why there are two huge digital marketing Subreddits. Both are high-traffic and have a lot of experts answering questions.
• r/Advertising (188K members) Medium traffic sub for ad creators, students, copywriters, affiliates and “anyone else who is finely honing their reverse banner blindness for professional reasons.” Very good ratio of answers to questions asked.
• r/Affiliatemarketing (188K members) Medium-traffic sub on affiliate marketing, paid traffic, SEO, email marketing, and more.
• r/Analytics (176K members) A medium-to-high traffic sub dedicated to web analytics, data and business analytics. Be sure to look for subs that focus on particular analysis platforms.
• r/Content_marketing (123K members) A high-traffic sub for content marketers helping each other improve by providing feedback, sharing advice, and resources. Also has a Discord channel.
• r/SocialMediaMarketing (118K members) The other social media marketing sub is light traffic, which means posts are more likely to be seen and well-moderated.
• r/Emailmarketing (63K members) This light-traffic sub is a great place to get answers on technical concerns and strategic issues.
• r/Marketingmentor (40K members) Very-light traffic sub where you can ask for help from experienced marketers. Some questions get answered, but a lot don’t.
• r/WebMarketing (36K members) An incredibly light traffic sub focused on web/digital marketing, including email marketing, online PR, social media, SEO, etc. The number of questions that get answered is impressively high.
• r/SEO_digital_marketing (29K members)  Light-traffic sub for focused on SEO, content marketing, backlinks, article blogs, WordPress Plugins, and link building.
• r/GoogleAnalytics (24K members) Medium-traffic sub with heavy expertise on the ubiquitous Google tool. Also has a Discord channel and list of resources. Much more user-friendly than GA4. 
• r/MarketingAutomation (24K) Niche subs like this tend to attract people with specific types of expertise. Very valuable if that niche includes you.

Reddit ads inspiration library

As with every popular social media site, Reddit can feel like junior high school. There are unspoken rules about what’s cool and what isn’t. There are popular kids and cliques. What appeals to one group may make another roll its collective eyes. 

Get it right and you win, according to Reddit, which found that the CPAs of ads using “Redditisms” were 70% lower than those that didn’t. Likewise, ads mentioning a specific Subreddit are 1.3 more likely to increase awareness.

To help marketers get it this right, the company added the  “Reddit ads inspiration library” to its Ads Manager. 

It provides a large selection of the site’s best-performing ads in various verticals. You can filter search results by keyword, vertical, ad budget, format, placement and objective.

The post Marketing on Reddit: What you need to know appeared first on MarTech.

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