Using Reddit for Marketing: We Researched So You Don’t Have to

Reddit marketing is a tricky challenge. The community-driven platform does not suffer pushy marketers gladly. At the same time, if you can get traction in a few relevant subreddits, you’ll generate a lot of brand awareness, trust, and traffic from your target audience—many of whom aren’t active on other social networks.

We wanted to know: Are the results worth the effort? We spent a few months diving deep into the corners of Reddit’s culture to see which brands are making headway there and how they’re doing it. We learned the peculiarities of the platform and found some great examples to follow. We’ve shared it all here.

So, is Reddit marketing right for you? Let’s find out.

Contents

• Why consider Reddit marketing?
• What makes Reddit marketing so tricky?
• How to succeed at Reddit marketing (with and without a budget)
• 5 brands doing Reddit marketing right

Why consider marketing on Reddit?

Reddit isn’t a place for quick wins, so why put in the effort? Because if you navigate it well, you can connect with one of the most dedicated and engaging fan bases on the internet. And you can build the type of brand loyalty from a high-intent audience that most businesses only dream of.

It’s purpose-built for audience targeting

Reddit is comprised of over 100,000 topical discussion boards called subreddits. A subreddit topic can be broad, like r/marketing, which has over 1.6 million members and covers a huge swath of marketing topics.

Subreddits can also be super niche, like r/FordPinto, where people share pictures of a vehicle that was last produced a year before the first Millennial was born.

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With so much specificity comes an incredible opportunity for audience targeting. Search a bit, and you’ll find a group of people who care deeply about a topic that’s relevant to your business.

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People trust Reddit

Reddit users go to the platform for unfiltered ideas and opinions. The anonymity and voting system on Reddit (we’ll cover those in a bit) lead to open discussions while pushing out bad actors (mostly).

Here’s how one Redditor explained it when asked why people trust the site over the likes of Facebook or Twitter (now X).

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That trust extends to brands. 90% of users say they trust Reddit to learn about products and brands. And 27% of Redditors are more likely to buy a product they see advertised on Reddit versus other platforms.

Reddit content is all over the SERPs

Recent Google core updates gave Reddit a huge boost, making it the third most visible website in results pages and quadrupling the traffic it got from Google.

Check it for yourself. Search a “how to” question on Google, and you’ll often see a “Discussion and forums” section high up in the SERPs featuring Reddit content.

Many searchers even append “Reddit” to their queries to find human-created content and avoid the AI-generated answers on results pages.

All this means that if you’re the one giving these answers on Reddit, you could push past other links on Google SERPs and drive a lot of traffic from the site.

It’s less crowded on Reddit (for advertisers)

You’ll soon see that Reddit marketing isn’t fast and can indeed be furious. That keeps many marketers from treading there and leaves less competition for you.

We see that play out in ad costs. For example, the average cost per click of a Facebook ad is $1.88. Reviews of Reddit ads show costs-per-click in the $0.59 to $0.95 range.

It’s fair to point out that Reddit’s user base is much smaller than Meta’s. But you’ll be fighting with a LOT more advertisers on Facebook and Instagram.

What makes Reddit marketing so tricky?

If we wet your whistle on giving Reddit marketing a try, let’s level set a bit with the challenges of doing it. Hopefully, this will help you decide if it fits your brand and marketing plan.

The community is in control

On most social media sites, algorithms do the heavy lifting of surfacing content for your feed. Much of that work on Reddit falls to the people in the forum.

That’s accomplished through an upvote/downvote system. When visitors see a post, they have the option to click an up or down arrow to say if it’s useful and relevant.

As a brand, you don’t want to be on the business end of a pile of downvotes. That’ll relegate your content to near invisibility and could even get you kicked off the forum (not to mention damaging the brand trust you were hoping to build).

Video game maker Electronic Arts (EA) is the unwitting poster child for how to rack up a ton of downvotes by not reading the room and giving a very unpopular answer.

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Don’t worry; we’ll explain how to avoid EA’s fate and keep your content on the good side of upvotes.

Each subreddit has its own promotional rules

Subreddits are mostly community-run and have their own set of guidelines. Some are pretty open to promoting products as long as you follow the rules. For example, you can list your creations for sale on the r/ArtisanGifts subreddit.

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However, don’t even try and hawk your wares over on r/SocialMediaManagers. You’ll get a message like this from the moderators.

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All those varying rule books make creating a cohesive Reddit marketing strategy a little more challenging.

Anonymity encourages candid feedback

When you create an account on Reddit, you’re given a random name and an option to include an avatar—no personally identifiable information is included. As we mentioned, when no one knows your name, there are fewer filters on what you’re willing to say (the voting system keeps comments somewhat on the rails, though).

As a marketer, this anonymity matters because you will get absolutely skewered if your post or comment comes off as anything but authentic and helpful.

You’ll also notice that users can name a subreddit anything they want. That’s why you’ll see a bunch of accounts with popular brand names in them.

All that candid feedback in an unofficially branded subreddit can cause some headaches for marketers.

It can also present an opportunity to deepen your connection with your audience, which brings us to our next topic.

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How to succeed at Reddit marketing (with and without a budget)

Despite the potential downvote and negative comment minefields, it’s actually not that complex to successfully market on Reddit. You just need to follow a few strategies and best practices.

Find the right subreddits

Step one is to figure out where you want to engage. With over 100,000 subreddits to choose from, you shouldn’t have a problem finding your people.

Get started by entering some terms relevant to your business in the Reddit search bar. Try terms that describe your industry, people, and the ways your products are used.

Say you sell marketing software, search for things like “marketing,” “social media marketers,” and “marketing tools.”

Now, you don’t just want to jump into the first group you stumble across. Here are a few other ways to narrow down the list:

• Look at how many members the group has.
• See how active the group is (how many new posts there are from the last day, week, etc.).
• Look to see if another brand is active there and how they’re received.
• Read the subreddit’s community guidelines, especially the rules on promotion.

Be genuinely engaging

We can’t stress this one enough: do not go into a subreddit and start promoting your product. Do not share links to your content. Don’t even mention your company unless the conversation explicitly calls for it.

What can you do? Share personal experiences and insights. Show your knowledge by contributing to conversations. Respond to other commenters with the intention to help and support the community.

Here’s a great example of a car salesperson jumping in to shine some light on a tricky question.

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Look for opportunities to learn and comment

There are millions of conversations happening on Reddit at any point. You’ll need to actively and consistently search the forums to find conversations worth jumping into.

Three popular types of conversations to look for:

• Conversations about a problem you can solve (e.g., “How can I improve my gut health?”
• Conversations asking for recommendations (e.g., “What’s the best orthotic for back pain?”)
• Conversations that mention your brand or products (e.g., “How do I find good keywords in Ahrefs?”)

Have a look at this response from the co-founder of a marketing software product.

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This subreddit has rules against promotion. But the comment was allowed because the original poster directly asked for recommendations. That’s why it’s so important to keep an eye out for the right opportunity.

And even if you don’t engage, you can still use Reddit as a market research tool. The conversations that come up in your searches will be full of customer pain points, business reviews, and industry trends you can use to inform your marketing strategy.

Host an AMA session

Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions are one of Reddit’s most popular types of content. During the event, someone offers to share their experience by answering questions the subreddit’s followers pose.

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There are few limits to what you can talk about in an AMA. As always, though, prioritize helpfulness over promotion.

AMAs are a great option when you’re launching a new product or brand. To get the best response, try to tie your AMA into something topical in your industry, like a new regulation or other headline.

Create a branded profile page or user community

You can create an account dedicated to your business on Reddit. Then, use that account as a hub to share important brand or product information or as a brand community where users trade ideas and comments (or both!).

Purple (the mattress company) created a subreddit for its brand.

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Users ask about choosing a product, typical shipping times, and even competitive products.

You can also use your profile as a blog of sorts, where you publish long-form educational posts, talk about product launches, and ask for feedback.

Invest in paid ads

Paid ads are the most direct way to market on Reddit. They’re a great complement to your organic engagement strategy. You can also target niche subreddits so your ad dollars aren’t wasted.

There are two general types of Reddit ads: promoted posts and what Reddit calls “high impact offerings.”

Promoted posts

Promoted posts look more like organic posts and appear in a subreddit thread or discussion feed. The big difference is they’re tagged as “Promoted.”

Here’s a discussion feed ad from tastytrade placed on a thread in the r/personalfinance subreddit.

See the “Add a comment” bar? That means people can comment on your ad. It’s a good reminder to make sure you’re placing the right ads in the right subreddits.

Promoted posts can be video, image, text, AMAs, or carousels (or some combination).

High impact ads

High impact ads are more like banner ads and come in three types:

• Reddit Takeover Ads show up on the user’s Reddit front page and trending conversations for 24 hours.
• Category Takeover Ads let you brand a subreddit’s page.
• First View Ads appear at the top of the page and are the first ads seen on Reddit’s Home and Popular pages.

The NBA Cup ad in the sidebar is an example of a Category Takeover Ad.

5 brands doing Reddit marketing right

One of the best ways to learn about Reddit marketing is to analyze how other businesses do it. Here are a handful of the best examples we found while digging through Reddit.

Semrush

We’re marketers, so of course we spent a fair amount of time on marketing subreddits, and it seemed like Semrush was ever-present in them.

For starters, the brand has an active branded subreddit with over 4,000 members.

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Scroll through it, and you’ll see users posing questions and sharing tips. You’ll also see educational posts by internal Semrush influencers.

Their work doesn’t stop there. We lost count of the number of times we saw Semrush jump in and answer questions on other related subreddits.

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This is how you promote your product on Reddit without being downvoted to oblivion!

Chevrolet

Many of the promos we saw look similar to what you’d see anywhere else, meaning they were high-quality video ads like this one from Chevrolet.

The use of emojis was a nice touch for a social media platform. But what stood out wasn’t what was in this ad; it’s where we saw it—smack dab in the middle of a user-moderated Ford truck fan subreddit. That highlights one of the strengths of Reddit marketing: You can helicopter your ad right in front of just about any niche group you want.

Marketing for Founders

Here’s proof that Reddit marketing isn’t just for big brands with deep pockets. This marketing consultant built a significant presence on the platform just by being super helpful in marketing-related threads.

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Scroll through his comments, and you’ll see how he cleverly adds links to his website and content, but only when it makes sense in the conversion.

Schwab

Matching your message to the subreddit topic is critical on Reddit. Not only will a mismatched ad get ignored, but it could also get downvoted and hurt your credibility.

With that in mind, we didn’t expect to see a promoted post from one of the largest financial services companies on a subreddit about outdoor travel and RV life. But the ad is perfectly aligned with the audience and topic, so it fits right in.

When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Many RVers are retired or headed that way. They’ll be Schwab’s target audience. This ad melds their need to protect finances with their love of the open road.

Peg City Car Co-op

We specifically looked around for unlikely brands hitting it big on Reddit. After all, it’s not easy for most of us to emulate billion-dollar businesses. One of the best examples we found was this AMA session with the CEO of a carsharing company based in Winnipeg.

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The event garnered hundreds of upvotes and questions. Queries ranged from tips on car sharing to a deep discussion about the project’s feasibility.

The CEO held the AMA on r/Winnipeg, so the audience was exactly who the business needed to connect with. The open communication helped him curb misunderstandings, reinforce value, and introduce the solution to more local drivers.

Make Reddit marketing work for you

Reddit marketing isn’t like marketing on other social media platforms. There is more candor, quicker feedback, and a patchwork of promotion rules to contend with. That said, many brands are taking advantage of the platform’s high-intent fan bases and lower competition to find new followers and customers.

If you want to give Reddit a try for your business, keep these tips and tactics in mind:

• Find the right subreddits
• Be genuinely engaging
• Look for opportunities to learn and comment
• Host an AMA session
• Create a branded profile page or user community
• Invest in paid ads