Reddit marketing: How to get it right—and wrong

Reddit has been a staple of internet culture for two decades, spawning countless memes and offering wildly popular niche communities. (Reddit’s subreddit for sneakers has five million members.) But compared with industry giants like Google and Facebook, Reddit has long been an afterthought for marketers.

Then, in 2024, two things happened: Reddit became a publicly traded company—raising its profile—and its monthly visitors tripled, thanks largely to a change in Google’s algorithm prioritizing the kind of human-created content Reddit specializes in.

With Reddit’s new search engine dominance, the platform has graduated from niche to unignorable for marketers. But while Reddit can be a gold mine for brands, proceed with caution: Redditors are ruthless about marketing and won’t hesitate to call you out (and punish your brand) if you come across as salesy.

To get the most out of Reddit marketing while avoiding the wrath of Redditors, make sure you learn the ropes before diving in.

Table of contents:

Why you should market on Reddit

Reddit already had hundreds of millions of monthly users. Then, this happened:

Between July 2023 and August 2024, Reddit experienced an unprecedented 1,348% increase in visibility on Google. According to Steve Paine of SISTRIX, the analytics company that compiled this data, “There hasn’t been a website that’s grown so much search visibility so quickly in the US in at least the last five years.”

Google algorithm changes aside, there’s another factor making Reddit more relevant than ever: changing user behavior. As AI content has flooded the internet, many users have taken to appending their Google searches with “reddit” to get real human perspectives. This is especially true for product searches, where Reddit discussions are frequently the most prominent result (even without the “reddit” add-on).

But Reddit’s growing prominence is only one reason you should include it in your marketing efforts. Here are other factors to consider:

• Redditors tend to be engaged, open to learning, and tech-savvy. 

• Subreddits are super focused—and their members care a lot about the topics—which makes making targeting easier for brands. (That makes up a bit for the lack of targeting options for Reddit ads.)

• A lot of Redditors don’t use other social media apps—which means you can reach an audience you won’t find anywhere else.

• It’s possible you’ll see a significantly lower cost-per-click (CPC) on Reddit.

So that’s why it’s worth marketing on Reddit—but does it mean you should definitely do it? Let’s look at your options. Like with most social media platforms, there are two ways to market on Reddit: organic and paid. 

Organic marketing on Reddit

The organic side of things looks a lot different on Reddit than it does on other social networks: you can’t just create a business account and post content that shows up in users’ feeds organically. Instead, you find topic-specific communities (AKA subreddits) and engage with them. No matter what industry or niche you’re in, there’s a good chance there’s a subreddit (or two…hundred) on a related topic. 

Here are a few ways to market organically on Reddit:

• Share useful, engaging content. If you create good content, people will share it and engage with it on Reddit. In her article on using social media for your business with no budget, the founder of fashion line Bastet Noir talks about how she did this successfully. Even if you go this route, though, be prepared for some possible negative reactions.

• Host an AMA. Hosting an AMA (ask me anything) allows you to talk about your brand without being sneaky about it: people know what they’re signing up for.

• Create a subreddit for your brand. Here’s an example: Book of the Month Club’s subreddit. It gives your users a place to do some marketing for you (assuming they like your product or service). You can also use a branded subreddit to perform market research and find beta testers.

• Create a support subreddit for your brand. This is where your customers could ask you questions. If you go this route, be sure to monitor it closely so no important issues slip through the cracks. 

These can all be effective strategies, but it’s always possible you may get called out for trying to market—so tread lightly.

Advertising on Reddit

There are two main types of paid ads on Reddit: takeover ads and promoted posts.

Takeover ads

There are several takeover ad packages, allowing you to take over specific subreddits, the entire site, categories, and so on. Most packages include a promoted post, a top banner, and an ad in Reddit’s “trending” category. 

Promoted posts

These are more like standard promoted posts on social media: they show up alongside regular posts with a “Promoted” tag. Businesses can choose to leave the comments on or turn them off. Leaving the comments on allows for discussion, which can be good and is the whole point of Reddit, but make sure to monitor them carefully. 

Types of promoted posts:

• Free-form ads: Text, image, video, and GIFs all in one ad

• Image ads: Text and images

• Video ads: Autoplays in the Reddit feed

• Carousel ads: Multiple swipeable images or videos

• Conversation ads: Unique Reddit ad type that shows up under a post before the first comments

• Product ads: Shopping ads delivered in context (e.g., camping products showing up in a Reddit thread asking for camping advice)

• AMA: Ask Me Anything campaigns are a good way to drive engagement and introduce users to your brand. (But remember, Redditors really will ask you anything. Be authentic and non-salesy in your answers.)

Targeting options

Reddit offers fewer targeting options than other paid social platforms, like Facebook. On Reddit, you can target based on location, gender, interests, subreddit, device (mobile vs. desktop), and the time of day, but you can’t target by demographics like income or connections. (You can target custom audiences, though.)

To make up for the lack of targeting options, subreddits are a unique advantage from a marketing perspective. Hundreds of millions of Reddit users have self-organized into highly engaged communities, making it easy to reach them. For example, if you’re promoting a productivity app, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more concentrated audience than the three million members of Reddit’s r/productivity subreddit.

Objectives

When creating a Reddit ad, the platform will prompt you to select an objective. 

• Brand awareness 

• Conversions 

• Traffic

• Video views

• App installs

Each objective offers different ad types and specific payment and bidding structures. For example, if you choose the traffic objective, you’ll pay for each click and can choose from link, video, or gallery ads. 

Reddit’s ad algorithm uses these objectives to optimize your ads to reach the right audience at the right time based on past Reddit behavior. 

How to market on Reddit without being skewered

Redditors are open to learning about new products and services—that’s part of the reason they’re on the platform. Here’s how to take advantage of that without it backfiring.

1. Get to know Reddit before creating a campaign  

You will be called out if you get your organic marketing wrong—and it will be abundantly clear you’re marketing if you don’t know Reddit well before doing it.

The creators of a hair towel appear to have been attempting to market their product “organically” by posting as a user in a r/curlyhair, where people share products and techniques for curly hair. They got called out for it really quickly.  

Get to know your community. Hang out in subreddits they frequent. And take the time to read the subreddit rules (some don’t allow marketing at all). 

You’ll also want to learn the acronyms your audience uses. Here are some basic ones used in most subreddits: 

• OP: “Original poster” (the person who created the original post)

• ELI5: “Explain it like I’m five” (use plain language)

• TL;DR: “Too long didn’t read” (a short summary of a long post)

• TIL: “Today I learned” (a new fact or interesting info)

• AMA: “Ask me anything” (a Q&A session, often with a founder, industry leader, or someone with a background a community will find interesting)

There are also more specific acronyms for different subreddits; most subreddits have a sidebar containing that info. 

2. Engage on the subreddits your audience frequents 

No matter what industry you’re in, there’s a subreddit dedicated to a topic in your field. Run a particle physics startup? There’s a subreddit for that. Looking for folks who are into reading, computers, AI, Airbnb, futurology, or financial independence? You got it.

Start by searching for key terms in your industry. For example, if I wanted to create a Reddit strategy for Zapier, I might start by searching “marketing automation.” You can then see posts and communities related to that term as well as people who post about the topic regularly. 

Consider searching for your brand name, too. You never know: people might already be talking about you. You can even use Zapier to set up a Reddit automation that alerts you whenever someone mentions you.

Once you’ve found a subreddit, then comes the delicate task of engaging. Remember the golden rule: Redditors hate being marketed to. Be helpful, and don’t be salesy. As you post and engage, Redditors will find their way to your profile; you may be able to generate a trickle of traffic during this stage by including your brand’s URL there.

After you have an established history of posting and have built a reputation in your subreddit, you can tactfully mention your brand as a solution to a problem raised by another user (as long as the subreddit’s rules allow it). But be upfront about your relationship with the brand and keep things authentic (i.e., don’t copy-paste information from your sales page). Since your goal is to be helpful and credible in the decision-making process—and to avoid sounding like a PR robot—consider recommending other brands alongside yours.

One exception to these rules of engagement is if your brand is already being talked about on the subreddit. If so, jump in right away wherever you can be helpful.

3. Be a little different 

Reddit isn’t your average social media app. Most users are anonymous and engage in groups based on interest, not location or friends. That provides businesses with more freedom to think outside the box. That can mean a few things.

You could be funny and irreverent, like this UberEats ad:

Or you could use popular emoji, memes, or GIFs, like nutrition brand Huel does here:

Use casual language, and don’t be afraid to be a little less professional. Share your failures, funny interactions, or anything that might make people chuckle. 

4. Listen to feedback

Redditors may not like your attempts at marketing on Reddit—if they don’t, you’ll know. 

Example: Picsart, a photo and video editing tool, tried to do an AMA. It started innocently enough with the founders offering to answer any questions. 

Then users started complaining about ads on the platform. 

The Picsart team essentially used marketing copy to respond to comments about the price. Which, predictably, also didn’t go well.

I guess you could argue this AMA wasn’t a failure in the end: because it entered Reddit lore as one of the worst AMAs of all time, many people are now familiar with the Picsart brand. 

In general, paid ads don’t get as much backlash, as long as they don’t use memes incorrectly or make outrageous claims. Regardless: there’s a chance your first marketing attempt on Reddit won’t go smoothly. Instead of getting defensive or crawling into an internet hole of shame, listen to that feedback and improve the next one.

5. Be transparent (and ask for advice)

People go to Reddit for authenticity and firsthand advice. Thinly-veiled marketing posts disrupt that dynamic and reduce the value of the community, which is why Reddit mods quickly remove them.

There’s another approach: be as transparent as possible. Once you’ve made authentic connections in your subreddit, you can ask for advice or share your wins and losses. If your brand comes up naturally in this context, that’s ok, but don’t be directly promotional.

For example, Pat Walls, the founder of Starter Story, an entrepreneurship brand, got started with the help of highly-detailed case studies and interviews posted to the r/entrepreneurship subreddit. In classic Reddit fashion, Pat later posted a breakdown of how he grew his business on that same subreddit. This “building in public” approach is a popular genre of content on some subreddits, and can work especially well for entrepreneurs and startups.

Redditors are more naturally skeptical of bigger brands, but if you come from a place of humility—and really want to improve your product with their feedback—then it may be worth asking your subreddit for advice.

Tim Soulo, the CMO of Ahrefs, a marketing tool, asked a relevant subreddit for their feedback on Ahrefs shortly after he joined the company. Tim’s first post generated 116 comments, and he later created a habit of checking in with the subreddit for feedback at regular intervals.

Keep in mind that this strategy can be highly channel-specific. Still, once you immerse yourself in your subreddit, you’ll find certain genres of content come up again and again. Observe what works and emulate it.

Automate your Reddit marketing

Once you get the hang of the content side of Reddit marketing, you can put all the more tedious work on autopilot with Zapier’s Reddit integrations. Send notifications from Reddit, create Reddit posts from an RSS feed, cross-post between social accounts, and connect Reddit to all your other apps. Learn more about how to automate Reddit, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Reddit is now unignorable

If you’re a marketer, it’s time to take Reddit seriously.

But that doesn’t mean you need a full-blown campaign strategy before taking action. If you’re totally new to the platform, create an account and start following subreddits in your industry, so you can learn where your audience hangs out. 

If you can be helpful by answering questions in your subreddit, go for it—but don’t try to market your brand organically before you’ve built up a reputation and have a firm grasp on your subreddit’s culture. If you want to get results fast, start with paid ads instead—you’re less likely to rile up marketing-adverse Redditors that way. And please don’t dive into using memes and GIFs until you understand what they mean and how users will react. 

Most of all, don’t take yourself (or your brand) too seriously on Reddit.

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This article was originally published in January 2022 by Danielle Antosz. The most recent update was in September 2024.