How to Advertise on Reddit and Pick Relevant Subreddits

Charlie Scholz - April 7, 2015

You might have heard of a site with a lot of cute pictures of cats, interesting “ask me anything” interviews (known as AMAs) and an infinite amount of topics to browse. This site is called Reddit, and when it comes to linking & social sharing online, it has become the go to platform. Over 151 million unique visitors were “redditing” in February 2015 alone. The best part? You can run paid advertising to reach users relevant to your business. No topic, industry or niche is untouched!

Users generate all of the content on Reddit and engage heavily on the topics they are interested in. These discussions take place on sub-communities called subreddits. Finding the right subreddits for your target audience is key, but first, let’s talk about what you need to start a Reddit advertising campaign.

• A clear understanding of your target audience and how your product/service is valuable to them
• An appealing landing page to fit your goals & target audience’s interest
• An understanding of what Reddit users respond well to
• Engaging ad copy or graphics

For this example, let’s say you own a business that caters directly to small business owners. Your target audience may be looking for cost-effective, efficient services to boost their small business. Keeping this in mind, you need to find the right subreddits to target through Reddit’s search tool and craft an ad that will grab their interest.

After conducting a search for “small business” on Reddit, I was given a results page with a list of posts containing the keyword. You will see an area right under the search bar that lists suggested subreddits for your keyword, this is what we are looking for.

Some of these subreddits are too broad and not specific enough for our needs (/r/AskReddit and /r/jobs for example). However, /r/Entrepreneur, /r/smallbusiness and /r/startups might be right up our target audience’s alley. When researching subreddits, you should always look around and see what topics are trending and popular within the community. This is key in deciding where to place ads.

There are two types of Reddit Ads: Sponsored Links and Sidebar Ads. Sponsored Links look like any other post on Reddit, but they are always at the top of a subreddit when served to a user. Sidebar ads will be on the sidebar of the subreddit and are always images. Both types of ads will allow you to set a landing page of your choosing. The sponsored link ad type allows you to engage with redditors directly and get real feedback directly on your ad.

Once you select a subreddit that you want to advertise on, you can get started with the advertising platform. You will notice that there are a lot of options when creating an ad. Make sure you have a landing page and ad copy that appeals to the subreddit’s interest and can drive conversions. There are also options to advertise on the front page (homepage) or anywhere on Reddit by serving ads based on user interests or location. In most cases, subreddit targeting can be more effective.

Reddit charges you a set rate for every 1,000 impressions (CPM), so if you are seeking a cost per click option, you may need to look elsewhere. With that in mind, make sure you review the options closely and understand exactly what you are paying for.