What is Reddit?

Reddit is an American social forum and news platform, founded in 2005, that operates through thematic communities called subreddits. Each subreddit revolves around a specific interest and is identified with the nomenclature “/r/” followed by the topic.

In these communities, users can post links, text, images or videos and participate in open discussions. The system of upvotes and downvotes determines the visibility of content, which makes Reddit especially sensitive to the quality and relevance of what is published.

Unlike other social networks, Reddit does not reward aspirational or empty content. Context, usefulness and respect for the community are very important here. This is key to understanding why advertising on Reddit requires a different mindset.

In 2024, Google and OpenAI announced a partnership with Reddit, allowing it access to their API to train artificial intelligence models and improve search results. A month later, in March 2024, Reddit went public. Both milestones consolidate Reddit as a strategic platform both in terms of visibility and data.

Why is Reddit important for digital marketers?

Reddit has more than 443 million weekly active users, and approximately 90% of them use the platform to educate themselves about products and brands before making a decision. (Source: Reddit Business)

From a digital marketing point of view, Reddit stands out for three main reasons:

✔️ Audiences highly segmented by real interests
✔️ The sales funnel is interconnected in all parts of the process
✔️ Startups with clear value propositions
✔️ Honest and critical conversations that undoubtedly influence the critical phases of the purchasing or comparison process

For a marketing professional looking for new opportunities in paid channels, Reddit Ads becomes an interesting complement within a multichannel strategy, especially for complex products, technical niches or services with a medium-high ticket.

In addition, Reddit is considered one of the most relevant platforms in conversational marketing, with more than 100,000 active communities that directly influence the perception of brands and solutions. (Source: Brandwatch)

💡 Tip: Organically participating in subreddits related to your niche can increase the effectiveness of your future ads, but it requires a lot of work. It is highly recommended to read the community rules and take care of your contributions so that they are not marked as advertising content.

How to prepare an ad strategy on Reddit Ads

Before launching a campaign, it is essential to understand how Reddit’s advertising platform works and what tools it offers. Reddit Ads follows a structure familiar to those who have worked with Google Ads or Meta Ads.

The process is divided into three main phases: understand the measurement, define the campaign objectives and create the ads.

Part 1: Understanding Indicators and Measurement in Reddit Ads

In Reddit Ads we find the following main indicators:

✔️ Amount Spent: total spending within the platform.
✔️ Impressions: number of times the ad is shown.
✔️ Clicks: number of clicks obtained.
✔️ eCPM (effective cost per mille): effective cost per 1,000 valid impressions.
✔️ CPC (cost per click): average cost per click.
✔️ CTR (click-through rate): percentage relationship between clicks and impressions.

💡 Tip: A CTR greater than 1% is acceptable. Between 3-5% indicates a high level of relevance. Keep in mind that context is important. A high CTR in a low-qualified community can generate traffic with no real impact on the business.

Part 2: Create and define campaign objectives

The Reddit Ads structure is organized into three levels: campaign, ad group, and ads.

2.1 Campaign objectives in Reddit Ads

When creating a campaign, we assign a name and select the objective according to what we want to achieve:

✔️ Brand awareness and reach: Maximize visibility and reach.
✔️ Traffic: Take users to your specific website or landing page.
✔️ Conversions: Generate specific actions such as registrations or purchases.
✔️ Video views: Maximize video views.
✔️ App installs: Generate mobile application downloads.
✔️ Catalog sales (beta): Promote products directly from a catalog.

The choice of objective should be aligned with the funnel phase. Reddit works very well in discovery and research, although as we have mentioned before, these phases are connected.

2.2 Ad group settings

Once the first step is finished, we move on to configure the ad group, where we will define everything related to audience segmentation and budget.

✔️ Subreddits and related communities
✔️ Segmentation by country, gender and devices
✔️ Custom audiences based on previous interactions

The placements can be:

✔️ Automatic: greater range, less control
✔️ Manuals: control over specific feeds or conversations

💡 Tip: For control and relevance, choose manual.

We also define budget, schedule and bidding strategy:

✔️ Lowest cost: maximiza clics dentro del presupuesto
✔️ Cost cap: controla CPC medio estableciendo límite

💡 Tip: Start with low daily budgets to collect data and adjust strategy.

Part 3: Create the ad and launch the campaign

Once we have everything defined above, we move on to creating the ad. To do this, we have the option to choose between different formats:

✔️ Image: square images adapted to the feed
✔️ Video: brief and contextual audiovisual content
✔️ Carousel: several visual elements in the same ad
✔️ Free-form: a unique format offered by Reddit that is reminiscent of organic user posts

There are three other types of ads that we will not cover in this article: Conversation Ads, Megapostand AMA.

Once you have selected the type of format, for example the image option, you upload the image and the thumbnail, include a headline that can extend up to 300 characters and then the URL to which you want to send the users impacted by the ad. Remember to use UTMparameters to measure results in analytics tools.

💡 Tip: The Call to Action must be clear and relevant to the objective of the campaign. Something informative and not too commercial works best on Reddit. For example, if you want users to register for a newsletter, a CTA like “Learn more” generates a better response than “Buy now.”

What are the strengths and limitations of Reddit Ads?

Once we have explained what Reddit is and how to create ads, it is worth knowing the strengths and challenges of the platform:

Strengths

✅ Easy to use platform
✅ High segmentation by real interests
✅ Access to audiences in the research phase

Challenges and limitations

❌ Communities sensitive to intrusive advertising
❌ High cultural learning curve
❌ Less scalability than Meta or Google Ads

💡 Tip: Keep these strengths and limitations in mind before launching campaigns on Reddit Ads. The platform requires adaptation and understanding of the culture of each community to obtain effective results.

Conclusions about Reddit Ads

Reddit Ads is an opportunity for digital marketing professionals looking to diversify payment channels.

In a context where AI and conversational searches are gaining weight, Reddit is consolidating itself as a source cited by these models, increasing its relevance.

Payment strategies require analysis, adaptation and understanding of the channel. At Vision by Data we help you design campaigns aligned with your objectives and transform data into decisions. Discover more here.