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Be honest, has your company ever tried to advertise on Reddit?

The answer is likely "no". This is strange given that Reddit has 330 to 430 million users per month. So you'd think more business owners and marketers would be using Reddit as a legitimate advertising platform.

The fact is that it is not. But they really should be.

Reddit is one of the most widely used social media websites in the world and more successful than you might think. According to Statista, Reddit even has more monthly users than Twitter, Pinterest and Snapchat. It may remind some people of the online forum platforms of the 90s and early 2000s, but it is much more complex than ever.

Why should I advertise on Reddit?

Aside from the fact that Reddit has millions of regular users, it has one very big advantage for marketers …

Reddit is organized into subreddits, which are the various discussion topics that people post about. This organizes the conversations and ensures that one topic of discussion does not pass into another.

Reddit calls itself the "front page of the internet" for a reason. With 2.2 million subreddits, there is a subreddit theme for almost everything. From subreddits to marketing to subreddits to sports to subreddits of images of bread pinned to trees. There's a thread for every topic you're interested in or want to learn more about.

For marketers, this makes micro-targeting easier than ever. There's no job of finding qualified leads – they organize themselves into subreddits for you. To dominate Reddit advertising, all you need to do is find the right communities. Not even Facebook can promise such an effective advertising method. 🤯

All it takes from there is to know who would be interested in your product (cough, your customer avatar, cough). If you're someone trying to sell kitchen products and recipes, or trying to get more traffic for your content on a food blog, r / cook (and its 2.1 million members) might be the place for you. For us, R / Marketing would be the right place. If you're selling tools and equipment or other useful resources, r / DIY has nearly 18 million members who may be interested in your offerings. And if you could convert 2% of them into paying customers … well, we let you do the math! 😉

Of course, there's a bit more to Reddit advertising – it certainly isn't as simple as it sounds. It has the potential to change the course of your business, but it couldn't mean anything (as many companies that tried found out). You need to make sure you are taking the correct approach so that you have a good understanding of the platform.

What should I remember when promoting on Reddit?

Take the sales pitch one step down

Reddit is designed as a group of communities that revolve around a common interest. It's really meant to be a community where you can talk to your friends about all the cool things you do when it comes to the topic of the subreddit.

Therefore Many Reddit users don't want to be sold to. They think Reddit should be a place of charitable engagement in the community, not a place where you just fit in to try and take people's money.

The downside is this: if you're a dedicated community member and people like your posts, they don't mind reviewing your content and your offers. But if you just go into R / DIY and say you have a sale for your hammers and nails, chances are you're not going to get new customers …

It takes time

For the above reason, Reddit advertising takes time. You can't just log into your account and expect to convert Reddit users into customers. You need to generate organic traffic by actually becoming part of the community that you want to advertise. You have to get known in the community, post a lot and offer a lot of content for free. The paid advertising route on Reddit may be easier (more on that later), but Bio will surely help you find leads who are not only interested in your product, but also in your business.

Offer a lot of free content

This shouldn't be underestimated. In order for people to really like you on Reddit, you need to offer lots of free content to generate interest. People in subreddit communities are really interested in what other community members have to offer. So if you prove your skills and give tactical advice for free, you will become very popular. Once you collect them with your free stuff, you can try to get them to make purchases.

How do I advertise on Reddit?

There are two methods of Reddit advertising: organic and paid.

Organic traffic

It's important to note that the tips above are about organic traffic. Paid advertising will always bring you qualified leads, but the organic traffic on Reddit can help you achieve your full potential.

The above things are true: it will take time. Before we dive into mastering your organic advertising on Reddit, however, you should understand the stats that quantify your engagement and prove to people that you are an active community member posting quality content.

Upvotes and Downvotes

Upvotes and downvotes quantify how much other Reddit users like a particular post. The more upvotes there are, the more likely the post will be featured on the front page of the subreddit and, in some cases, the front page of Reddit. Whenever you post something new to a subreddit, it will appear on the homepage. The more upvotes you have, the more likely it is to stay there.

This post has 115 upvotes in a day which is pretty good for 24 hours on a subreddit. Notice how the user is giving something away for free – the community likes that, and upvoting is the way they let you (and everyone else) know about it. Likewise, you want to avoid getting a lot of votes. The best way to avoid this is simply: post good content.

karma

Your Karma Score on Reddit is the net total of all upvotes and downvotes your posts received.

Karma technically has no weight on whether a particular post appears at the top of a subreddit – only upvotes and downvotes determine that. However, since it is essentially a rolling list of the number of your upvotes, people who visit your profile will see that you are an active member of the Reddit community. This gives you social credibility and increases the likelihood that they will keep up with the content you post.

Now that you understand the metrics to track your success, you can start promoting organic on Reddit:

1. Find your subreddit communities

There are tons of subreddit communities out there that could be related to your business. It's really just the process of identifying your customer avatar and then figuring out what content that avatar will like. Once you do, it really is that easy to find the subreddit communities that work for you.

Here's a tip: Finding the right subreddit communities is like finding the right keyword for SEO – making it big isn't always the best option. The chances of becoming a household name on a 2.2 million subreddit are pretty slim, especially if you have a low karma score. Starting out with more specialized and niche subreddit groups will make it easier for you to consistently interact with people. Once you have some social credibility, you can move on to the larger groups.

2. Start engaging with the community

The best time to start out in your subreddit communities is the best place to comment on other people's posts. This is the easiest way to get to know people in the community and get some positive votes. Again, Reddit is a community-centric social media website, and a lot of users don't like it when random people come in and try to take over everything. Start by getting in touch with your community members within weeks. Then you can start posting your own original content.

3. Publish your own content

Once you become familiar with the communities you are engaging in and people are starting to recognize your name, it's time to start adding your own content. When you start posting your own content, just make sure you remember to post content that will actually be helpful or fascinating to the people in the community. Offer something of value and offer it to them right away. If not, like any other form of copy, they are more likely to shut down.

4. Play the long game

After a few weeks or months of adding your own content to the conversation, you will likely become a very recognizable and vocal member of the community. The longer you are active in the community, the more content you can publish. Eventually, after a while, you can start having little sales pitches and encouraging people to make purchases. You never want to be overbearing or just promoting sales – you should still publish and provide high quality content on a regular basis free. While it's that easy to link to a blog post on your website, the content can get people interested in your brand.

This whole process will take a while, but it will be worth it in the end. You can't just get known overnight, and the last thing you want to do is advertise too early. If you do, you will lose all of your social credibility (and this will be reflected in your karma score). Most importantly, make sure that you post only quality content. And if you don't want to have time, you can always go the paid advertising route.

Paid Reddit Advertising

Just like with paid advertising on any social media website, Reddit makes it relatively easy to get people to see your advertisement. This route is as easy as creating advertisements that will intrigue and engage the right people. Reddit allows you to choose where you want these ads to appear.

First, create a Reddit ad account. Once you've given them all the information they need, you're ready to create campaigns and ad groups. Ads appear on Reddit like this …

You also have the option to have your ads appear in the sidebar of the main Reddit page. All ads are displayed with "Promoted" in the top left corner, making it extremely transparent that this is a paid ad within a subreddit community.

This is by far the most effective way of reaching people on Reddit as it is right on their timeline. Whether you're promoting a post that is doing well or designing a post like an ad and then promoting it, it will definitely expand your reach. However, since it is also linked to your regular account, there is one more thing to keep in mind:

Think of this method as a cocktail of organic and paid advertising. People will be able to see your karma and the last thing they want to see is an account that created a post and promoted it with no commitment whatsoever before it happened. Being active on Reddit will always Get better results even if you go the paid advertising route.

The beauty of promoted posts is that you can choose which pricing model you want to pay Reddit with – CPC, CPV, or CPM. It will, of course, take time to figure out which method works best for you, but it is always good to have options. Regardless of your choice, however, set a specific budget per campaign to make sure you are only spending as much as you want.

It's up to you whether you set your budget by daily amount or by lifetime amount. Your budget may vary depending on the campaigns you want to promote. For the same reason, you can customize when and where you want your campaigns to appear. Reddit doesn't have a one-size-fits-all approach to advertising, and the amount of customization you can make is pretty impressive.

You can also run sidebar ads just like you would see on Facebook or any other social media website. They can be effective, but they only appear in selected places. To do that, you'll need to reach out to the Reddit advertising team and spend a lot of money (often over $ 50,000) to get the ball rolling. We leave it at that. 😅

What does it all mean?

Every time you approach the Reddit advertisement, you always have to make an effort. Even the most effective paid advertising route is improved with organic work beforehand, and the paid options would likely be better suited for platforms other than Reddit.

Reddit's advertising potential is extremely evident: the ability to target potential customers through subreddit groups is really something that no other social media platform can match. It might be a little more complicated than paying money, uploading an ad, and clicking a few buttons, but it's well worth it when you're ready to invest your time.

When choosing a Reddit advertisement, there are two important things to keep in mind: there is relatively little competition, and it is not particularly expensive. Both of these are exactly why you should at least try Reddit Ads. Then if you find out that you don't have the time or bandwidth to do it effectively, stop at any time. However, if you can find a plan that works for you, your potential exposure to qualified leads will be as big as the subreddit groups you can find.

Take the chance on Reddit. You never know what can happen.