One of the core advantages of digital advertising is the ability to hone-in on engaged, defined audience segments where they are spending time online. Social networks probably do a better job of this than most, with users self-identifying based on interest and experience, taking much of the guesswork out of targeting. Facebook and Instagram rely on likes and profile data; LinkedIn on detailed career information; and for sites like Reddit, its “subreddits”—forums dedicated to both broad and niche topics alike. These sub-forums, and the myriad of additional targeting options available, make it a great time to start testing advertising on Reddit.
Reddit: An Overview
Like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, Reddit is a social network where users—known as Redditors—share and discuss content in niche forums known as subreddits. The categories of subreddits are wide-ranging, with forums dedicated to everything from business ideas and pets to weird Spotify playlists. Redditors can subscribe or browse through any of the estimated 1 million-plus subreddits (an estimated 140k of which are active) with a free user account, vote on content, and interact with other users in a bulletin board-style format.
Launched back in 2005, Reddit was founded as a centralized community platform around niche interests. The company went public early in 2024, and the platform currently hosts 73M active daily users. Subreddits can have their own set of rules, and not all allow for advertising, nor are all open to the public.
Advertising on Reddit
Reddit ads are fully self-serve, with only a Reddit username and credit card required to sign up. Once registered for the ads platform, users will find a similar setup to those found on Meta and LinkedIn, with campaign, ad group, and ad level settings. Reddit ads campaigns can be optimized to various goals, including traffic, conversions, and app installs, and depending on the objective chosen, the advertiser will be billed on a CPM, CPC, or per app install basis. Note that if you’re optimizing your campaign to conversions, you will be charged on a cost per click model.
Advertising on Reddit, in the past, meant you were limited to subreddits and interest targeting based on a user’s interactions; just this month, however, Reddit has rolled out a form of keyword retargeting, which enables advertisers to position their product or service in front of users who have interacted with content containing defined keywords in the past. The keywords chosen for your Reddit campaign can be similar to those used in paid search, though there is a limit of 1000 keywords on Reddit.
Advertisers additionally have the option of geotargeting down to the zip code level, and layering on additional targeting by gender, mobile device type, and service provider. There are brand safety guardrails in place as well that allow advertisers to prevent their ads being shown in selected subreddits or near content containing certain keywords. Advertisers can also import first-party data from their CRM or add a Reddit pixel to their website for tracking and remarketing purposes.
Reddit enables brands to close commenting on ads, preventing spammy and/or explicit comments from showing to other users, and removing the need for moderation on the advertiser’s side. This is not without downsides, as Reddit is a social platform, and A/B testing with comments on/off is recommended for new advertisers to the network.
Finally, it is important to note that to advertise on Reddit there is currently a minimum budget requirement of $50/day in media spend, but there is no minimum length of time to run a campaign.
The Advantages of Reddit Advertising
In making the determination to add yet another network into the mix, digital media strategists will often consider the audience of said platform, in order to ascertain whether or not they might already be reaching those people in another place, i.e. via search or through Meta. Reddit is quite interesting in this sense, as the community boasts several unique user stats vs. the competition:
- 34% of Redditors aren’t on Facebook
- 52% aren’t on TikTok
- 72% aren’t on LinkedIn
The opportunity to reach unique users not seen on some of the most popular social network provides advertisers an additional means of growing their business online. Reddit also claims its users are 27% more likely to make a purchase after seeing an ad on the platform.
Getting Started with Reddit Ads
Advertising on Reddit can offer some distinct advantages, such as reaching unique audiences that do not overlap with other digital efforts, intermediate audience targeting options, and the ability to run social ads without worrying about extensive moderation. Reddit offers a self-serve advertising platform; however, as with other digital media networks, there is a bit of a learning curve to setting up and optimizing successful campaigns with the Reddit UI.
If you’re interested in learning more about advertising on Reddit, paid social, or advertising your Central Coast small business online, contact Screechy Cat Media for a free consultation and more information.
