You have decided to get exposed to "the front page of the internet" (more commonly known as Reddit), so you definitely need some tips to survive in the friendliest of all online communities. All joking apart, this is no laughing matter. A single wrong step and you will be downvoted and eaten alive in comments by redditors, active Reddit participants.
If you don’t take Reddit seriously as a marketing platform you should reconsider your opinion ASAP. With over 50 million unique visitors daily — the power of Reddit is out of the question.
Fact: Redditors do not like direct advertising. They unite to downvote promoted posts, get advertisers banned and kick promoters out of the community.
Yes, marketing on Reddit is a complex process but once you understand the rules of this community, you expose your business (website, promoted services and products, etc.) to the huge and responsible society.
Ok, Reddit users hate direct ads, it is clear. What do Redditors value and appreciate? Humor (memes and jokes), inspiring photo and video posts, technology, animals & nature, and live Question and Answer posts.
Do you have a Reddit account?
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Advertising on Reddit — A Step-by-Step Guide
Reddit launched sponsored posts only in 2016; however, the first ads appeared on the platform in 2009, and sidebar banners were introduced in 2013.
Reddit doesn’t leave you alone in your marketing journey and provides advertisers with some insights into the audience.
The platform offers several options for advertisers:
- Self-advertisement (self-serve ads). This method is effective, flexible, and not expensive. If you are new to Reddit, this is a great option to start paid ads on the platform. You can add links to your website or to your post with links. The good thing is that the minimum daily budget for ads on Reddit is $5. The platform sells ads similar to an auction, with bids starting at $0.20 per bid on a CPM basis.
- Sidebar banners. Banners you can purchase only via the direct sales team. This type of ad is more suitable for established businesses with pre-arranged ad budgets, so we will skip this ad type today.
The interface of the Reddit advertising Cabinet is very similar to Facebook Ads, and the account hierarchy itself is an all-known advertising tool:
- campaigns — advertising campaigns represent the TOP level in the ad hierarchy;
- ads groups — ad groups are created within campaigns and divided by audience targeting;
- ads — ad creation within each group.
To create an ad campaign, you must specify its name and promotion goal (Campaign Objective).
The campaign name is usually set to GEO targeting and the promotion goal (for example, "USA/Conversations").
The next step is to create an ad group. Let's go through the settings that can be set at the group level.
First, you must specify the name of the ad group. It is recommended to specify the targeting options that you will use (for example, "New York/Interests/SEO" or "UK/Subreddits/Marketing").
Next, set audience targeting. There are three types of targeting available on Reddit:
- GEO targeting (Locations),
- targeting interests,
- targeting specific subreddits.
Locations. You target the user's location. You can select a country or city for targeting (unfortunately, city targeting is now available exclusively for the United States).
It is also recommended not to leave the Locations field empty, otherwise, the ad will be delivered to users from all locations. Don't forget that you can exclude certain countries or cities.
Interests. You target the user's interests:
Aspects to remember while targeting subreddits:
- The ad will be seen by subscribers or current users of the specified subreddit.
- Subscribers can see your ad while visiting the target subreddit or other subreddits if they have recently visited the target subreddit.
- For better targeting of the narrow audience, it is recommended to choose more subreddits for one ad group.
- If the system does not allow you to select a subreddit (and you know that it exists), it means that the chosen subreddit is too small for targeting.
- There are two ways to select subreddits: enter the target key and choose from the options offered.
For broad topics, you can create various combinations of targeting based on the principles of "narrow the audience" or "exclude the audience" (for example, set the "Marketing" interest and exclude the "bigseo"subreddit from it).
Now you need to determine what devices you want to display your ads on:
Next, set the ad display schedule (if you want ads to be displayed at a specific time of the day):
Now you specify the ad group budget. There are two types of budgets available: "daily" (suitable for ad groups that will work continuously) and "lifetime budget" (suitable for ad activities with a specific expiration date).
The minimum daily budget that can be set is $5. The minimum budget for the entire duration depends on the number of days when the ad is active but based on at least $5 per day (for example, if an ad group is running for three days, the minimum budget is $15).
Next, you need to specify how much you are ready to pay for 1000 impressions of your ads. The minimum bid is $0.20; the maximum bid is $100.
The last step is to set the expiration date for the ad.
Important: Reddit can spend 20% more than your daily budget. Keep this in mind while setting a budget for an ad group.
There are two types of ads available in Reddit Ads:
- Link Post. This is a type of ad that will redirect the user to the specified URL when the ad is clicked.
- Text Post. After clicking on the ad, the user will switch to the more detailed version of the post (but will remain on the site reddit.com).
As a result, you will see a summary of the configured ad and the "Submit" button to confirm the launch.
Anyway, if you have decided on running paid ad campaigns on Reddit, read the Reddit Advertising Policy to let your ads pass moderation with no problems.
Tips for Beginners
Yes, Reddit has launched paid advertising. If you think you can run ad campaigns on Reddit the same way as you run ads on Facebook or Instagram, you are mistaken. The Reddit community hates ads. To confirm this statement, just open Reddit to see that Promoted (ad posts are marked as Promoted) posts do not get many upvotes or comments. For the most part, ads are ignored.
This is not the reaction that any advertiser needs. Hopefully, you won’t become one of those advertisers after reading this article.
However, there is another, working method to advertise on Reddit — Participation. As easy as that, just become a part of the community, an active member. The tips below will help you become a true marketing redditor.
- The first and the most important in the beginning: Listen (Read), do not Talk (Write). Give yourself enough time to learn more about the Reddit community and the way of interaction on the platform.
- Read Reddiquette, which is an informal expression of the values of many redditors. Once you have read Reddiquette rules, you have a clear idea of what is appreciated in the community.
- Find subreddits relevant to your business. The Reddit community is huge, you can find literally everything there. Thus, just look for several subreddits that match your niche. For example, 2-3 subreddits with targeted audiences. When you earn positive karma (you comment, answer questions, post, and your posts and comments are upvoted), you can share some popular posts with larger subreddits.
- Fill out your profile. Redditors are curious, they will open your profile to learn who you are. Actually, creating a Reddit avatar is fun. In some cases, like in the case study below, it is better to use a profile picture: Eric Bandholz (from the case study below) put his own photo as a profile demonstrating that he is not just promoting beard-care products, but he wears a beard too, so he uses the promoted products as well.
- You can create several accounts for marketing purposes. It will be difficult to collect karma for multiple accounts, but your personal account and one marketing profile should have ranked high enough to get noticed.
- Get out of the shadow. People ask questions on Reddit, so provide the answers if you are into the subject. Sometimes people send private messages and ask for more information. This is a good sign. You can answer via messages, and you can post in dedicated communities delivering useful information. In other words, build your authority.
Hint: Smaller subreddits help you get positive karma faster. Posting or commenting in large communities can pass unnoticed, whereas your participation in smaller subreddits can be appreciated.
- Post and be specific. Posting requires some prep work. You can see the Hot topics, the most popular posts, and questions. Read, study the comment section for the most upvoted replies. This way you won't repeat the topics that have been already discussed.
Below you see the screenshot from the subreddit Affiliate Marketing, note ‘Hot’:
- Be honest and address community members.
For example, Travis Levell predicted a negative reaction to the direct promotion of his Udemy course within his post:
Later he confirmed that Reddit played a significant part in the total traffic:
He notes how important it is to be a redditor, not just a marketer. This is one of the most common mistakes of marketers who are in a hurry to get their products/services promoted.
His honesty played the lead role in getting 652 students after a single post. Travis noted that Reddit was the only platform where he posted his link. Many redditors shared his post, some shared his link in other places, generating lots of traffic. As a result, Travis got an impressive number of signups, while he expected around 50.
- Have fun. Actually, redditors are active and sarcastic, but they indeed appreciate humor and good deeds. You can find tons of comments and awards under ‘aww’ posts and memes. Enjoy being a part of the community and share the fun atmosphere.
- Make sure not to advertise or promote something in your first two or three posts. When you are a newcomer to a subreddit, active members might get suspicious and check your profile for the history of posts. If you have several posts and comments, you will earn the trust of Reddit old-timers.
- Share your posts. No, you don’t need to replicate your posts daily in different subreddits. Ask your friends with Reddit accounts to upvote your posts and share in other, relevant subreddits. When people notice upvoted and shared posts they are more likely to react.
Case Study. Eric Bandholz, Beardbrand
Beardband was a small brand of beard-care products for men. Now it is a well-known, profitable established business. Eric Bandholdz, the Creative Director, became an iconic person for Reddit advertising.
At the very beginning, Eric used his own personal profile to promote the brand. Actually, he is an experienced redditor and knew pretty well the rules of the community. He initiated several discussions about styling beards and bear-care products.
He asked questions. He answered questions. He shared pictures and upvoted pictures of other bearded redditors.
Yes, he used links in his posts, but they didn’t seem like a direct promotion: his recommendations were helpful and valuable for the targeted group of people.
The result is impressive, from $0 to $100k:
Naturally, Reddit wasn’t the only platform for marketing the brand. However, traffic from Reddit played a significant role in the company’s growth.
Eric set up a great example of successful marketing on Reddit. Below is a screenshot of a post in the same niche (beard-care products for men). The post contains a link to the product catalog. But it is not direct advertising, the post is community-friendly and delivered as a personal experience and asking for advice.
Actually, it was successful: in comments, Redditors shared their own beard-care routine and commented on products from the linked catalog.
Applause to the marketer: feedback on products, high engagement rate, and market research in a single post.
Conclusion
The best outline and advice for advertising on Reddit are highlighted in the Guidelines for self-promotion on Reddit:
It’s perfectly fine to be a redditor with a website, it’s not okay to be a website owner with a reddit account.
As you see, when properly used, ads on Reddit can generate traffic, a lot of traffic. By real, be yourself, share your knowledge, and, most importantly, participate.
