Guide to Reddit, one of the most visited websites globally, has become a significant platform for marketers, especially following its recent IPO. As a hub of diverse communities and discussions, Reddit offers unique opportunities for brands to engage with audiences meaningfully. This guide provides an overview of Reddit’s potential for marketing, updated with the most relevant Subreddits for marketers.
What is Reddit?
Reddit is a social news aggregation and discussion platform where users share and vote on content, including links, text posts, images, and videos. The platform is organized into thousands of user-created boards called “Subreddits,” each dedicated to specific topics. Reddit is known for its highly engaged community, making it the 11th most-visited website worldwide and the 6th in the U.S.
With over 100,000 Subreddits, content quality can vary, but many Subreddits are respected forums for expert discussions, such as r/askscience and r/askhistorians. The platform’s most famous feature is its Ask Me Anything (AMA) events, featuring prominent figures from various fields. In December 2023 alone, Reddit hosted over 1 billion posts and more than 16 billion comments.
Guide to Reddit’s Demographics
Reddit’s user base is diverse, but specific demographics stand out:
- Gender: 63.6% of Reddit users are male.
- Age: 44% of U.S. users are between 18 to 29 years old, with 31% aged 30 to 49.
- Location: 50% of users are from the U.S.
- Income: 64% of users have a household income of $75,000 annually.
Traffic and Usage Statistics
Reddit continues to grow in popularity, boasting impressive user engagement statistics:
- Daily Active Users (DAUs): Averaging 73 million in Q4 2023.
- Monthly Active Users (MAUs): 1.2 billion in February 2024, up from 430 million in 2019.
- User Reach: 22% of the U.S. population has used Reddit.
- Unique Audience: Over 50% of Reddit users do not engage with other social media platforms like Pinterest, Snapchat, or X.
Despite its vast reach, Reddit’s average revenue per user (ARPU) in 2023 was about $0.80, significantly lower than Facebook’s $9.62.
Effective Marketing Tactics on Reddit
Engagement is critical to successful marketing on Reddit. While many brands rely on image and video ads, deeper engagement is crucial for success. Reddit is a unique platform with its culture and community guidelines, often posted at the top of each Subreddit.
For example, no advertising is allowed on r/advertising. Adopting a humanistic brand voice that resonates with Reddit’s user base is essential. Knowing your audience is particularly beneficial for B2B marketers. Tailored, high-quality creatives are crucial, and using Reddit-specific jargon can be effective when done subtly.
Reddit’s community values expertise and informed commentary, making it an ideal platform for B2B marketing. Participating in AMAs and engaging in relevant Subreddits helps build credibility and fosters trust among users. This is particularly important as many users turn to Reddit for product recommendations, which can serve as early indicators of market trends.
Managing Brand Reputation on Reddit
Given Reddit’s influence, it can significantly impact brand reputation. Brands should actively monitor discussions related to their industry to stay ahead of any potential issues. Reddit’s community appreciates authentic engagement and expertise, whereas overt self-promotion is generally frowned upon.
To manage your brand’s presence on Reddit, create a profile using your brand’s name and adhere to Reddit’s general rules and those specific to each Subreddit. A consistent, Reddit-specific strategy will help maintain a positive brand image on the platform.
Tools and Features for Marketers
Reddit offers several tools to help marketers optimize their campaigns:
- Mobile Optimization: With 75% of the global audience accessing Reddit via mobile devices, ensuring your content is optimized for mobile use is essential.
- Third-Party Analysis Apps: These tools help identify and target the right audience within Reddit’s vast user base.
- Reddit Ads Manager: Recently updated, this tool assists in generating ad copy, editing assets, optimizing campaigns, and managing budgets.
New Marketing Features on Reddit
Reddit has introduced several new features to enhance its advertising capabilities:
- Dynamic Product Ads: These ads combine shopping signals with machine learning to serve relevant products to users who are likely to purchase them. The ads auto-populate in real time with the latest product details and support retargeting and prospecting.
- Lead Generation Ads: This format, integrated with Zapier, allows advertisers to collect user information directly on Reddit, potentially improving lead quality and campaign performance.
- AI-Powered Ad Optimization: Reddit’s acquisition of Memorable AI enhances its ability to optimize ad creative based on previous campaign performance, putting it on par with other major platforms like Google and Meta.
Reddit’s evolving tools and features and its engaged user base make it a powerful platform for marketers looking to connect with audiences in meaningful and effective ways.
The best marketing Subreddits
These are the top Subreddits for marketers, ranked by number of users and a brief description.
- r/Marketing (1.3M members) This is a high-traffic sub with its own Discord channel and many useful links
r/SocialMedia (1.3M members) A heavy-traffic sub for discussing social media, news, and best practices. It has a list of very helpful links
- r/eCommerce (474K members) A high-traffic sub for anyone from veterans to newbies interested in the design and implementation of E-commerce sites.
- r/Digital_Marketing (208K members) and r/DigitalMarketing (181K members) I have no idea why there are two huge digital marketing Subreddits. Both are high-traffic and have a lot of experts answering questions.
- r/Advertising (188K members) Medium traffic sub for ad creators, students, copywriters, affiliates and “anyone else who is finely honing their reverse banner blindness for professional reasons.” Very good ratio of answers to questions asked.
- r/Affiliatemarketing (188K members) Medium-traffic sub on affiliate marketing, paid traffic, SEO, email marketing, and more.
- r/Analytics (176K members) A medium-to-high traffic sub dedicated to web analytics, data and business analytics. Be sure to look for subs that focus on particular analysis platforms.
- r/Content_marketing (123K members) A high-traffic sub for content marketers helping each other improve by providing feedback, sharing advice, and resources. Also has a Discord channel.
- r/SocialMediaMarketing (118K members) The other social media marketing sub is light traffic, which means posts are more likely to be seen and well-moderated.
- r/Emailmarketing (63K members) This light-traffic sub is a great place to get answers on technical concerns and strategic issues.
- r/Marketingmentor (40K members) Very-light traffic sub where you can ask for help from experienced marketers. Some questions get answered, but a lot don’t.
- r/WebMarketing (36K members) An incredibly light traffic sub focused on web/digital marketing, including email marketing, online PR, social media, SEO, etc. The number of questions that get answered is impressively high.
- r/SEO_digital_marketing (29K members) Light-traffic sub for focused on SEO, content marketing, backlinks, article blogs, WordPress Plugins, and link building.
- r/GoogleAnalytics (24K members) Medium-traffic sub with heavy expertise on the ubiquitous Google tool. Also has a Discord channel and list of resources. Much more user-friendly than GA4.
- r/MarketingAutomation (24K) Niche subs like this tend to attract people with specific types of expertise. Very valuable if that niche includes you.
