Social media marketing makes people think of well-known platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. Lesser-known platforms like Reddit are not traditionally considered as a prime location for digital marketing. But it is possible to use the platform to drive traffic to your website. This article will cover how to market on Reddit, including:
- What is Reddit?
- Who should consider marketing on Reddit?
- How to use the platform
- Reddit Ads
- Tips for creating an organic presence on Reddit
- Multi-media posts
- Tracking your messaging
What is Reddit?
Reddit brands itself as “the front page of the internet.” It is a network that lets people connect based on their interests. The platform contains a front page with news and other popular posts along with a series of discussion boards called “subreddits” centered around various topics. Users moderate the posts by upvoting or downvoting.
Who should consider marketing on Reddit?
Businesses that sell direct to consumers will likely find more marketing success than business-to-business users. According to Statista, most users of Reddit are young (between the ages of 18-49) and male. If your target demographics are older and female, your marketing budget would likely be better spent on a different social platform like Pinterest.
How to use the platform
Since Reddit content is determined based on user votes, the regular rules of social media marketing don’t apply. You’re more likely to be successful marketing on Reddit with a Reddit Ads account and a series of promoted campaigns.
Engaging with customers organically through this platform is trickier. All posts are moderated by users who can upvote and downvote on posts. If your post receives too many downvotes, it will be hidden from other users. For this reason, it is important for Reddit content to be engaging and high quality. Simply posting sales pitches in message boards will get you downvoted and hidden from viewers.
Reddit Ads
If your primary interest for Reddit is to create sponsored campaigns and promoted content, create a Reddit Ads account. Start with your username. Be aware that this cannot be changed, so you might want to brainstorm a variety of names before setting up your account. At the least, it should reference your brand. You can include the word “official” or a similar term to signal that it is a corporate account.
When you have set up your Reddit Ads account, you will have access to a variety of tools. For example, you can specify your industry, and Reddit’s team of experts will help you determine what kinds of posts are most appropriate. They can also help you with campaigns that will reach the right Redditors for your business.
On Reddit, you can post anything from case studies to a series of embedded videos. With a few exceptions, there are no specifics regarding the length of a post. If you want to include an entire case study within one promoted post, you can.
With a Reddit Ads account, you can create segmented campaigns targeted toward different subreddits to reach people who will likely respond. Campaigns can be posted by feed (which will be displayed in various user feeds) or in conversations, meaning that your ad would appear on different subreddits, but not in the user feed.
If you are creating campaigns for conversations, you will need to make separate ads for mobile vs. the desktop Reddit site, because each device has different character limits for subject lines.
There are a variety of ways to segment your ads. You can segment based on:
- Placements: “Soccer_Feed” vs. “Soccer_Conversations_Desktop”
- Targeted personality type: “Interest_Lifestyle” vs. “Interest_Entertainment”
- Device: “Interest Restaurants_Desktop” vs “Interest Restaurants_Mobile”
- Type of media: “Interest Sports_Video” vs. “Interest Sports_Static”
- A combination of any of these
After you have determined your ad group and your desired segments, make a name for your ad group. The name should clearly identify your target group and the device that you’re targeting. If you’re designing a campaign for US-based Redditors interested in foreign cars who are using the mobile site, you could call your campaign “USA_ForeignCars Interest Group_Mobile.” Naming your groups this way makes it easier for you to track each ad campaign without having to open the post.
Next, you will tell Reddit where to place your ad: in conversations or on user feeds. Finally, you will specify your target audience. You can choose from a large list of interests that align with your company, or you can let Reddit decide which audiences to target. Using the automated system could help you reach more people with your post, but choosing your own target audience is better for tailored ads with a specific audience.
When you have designed your ad and set a maximum bid for the number of impressions, you can add tracking information before the ad launches. This allows you to see which messages are more successful in terms of impressions and upvotes.
To make the most of your Reddit ads, you should aim for a maximum bid of no less than $50. Bids for promoted posts start at $0.95, so this number might seem a little high. However, you will likely get a higher return on investment if your ad is placed on a higher number of user feeds and/or conversations.
Tips for creating an organic presence on Reddit
Organic interaction on this platform is difficult. The best way to engage customers is to set up a user account and maintain a high-quality presence on the platform. Don’t use your posts as sales pitches. Instead, contribute to the discussion by establishing yourself as an expert on various topics.
Reddit is focused more on discussions than content. Customer interactions on Reddit should be helpful. If you are addressing a negative review, you may be tempted to respond in a defensive way or at least to explain why you chose to make the product the way that you did. On Reddit, these posts are likely to be downvoted and moved down on the board or hidden altogether. Rather than being defensive, use the subreddit to show users that you are listening to their feedback.
It is tempting to copy and paste posts from other social media marketing and paste them into various subreddits, but these will be quickly identified and downvoted. Instead, start meaningful discussions about your products on various topical subreddits. For example, if you own a clothing store that caters to young men, start discussions on various men’s fashion subreddits to get people talking about your products. These posts will provide valuable information to other potential customers, and they can help you make decisions on your inventory based on comments.
People might not interact with you at first. On Reddit, users with a long history of posts tend to be more trusted than newbies. On this platform, it is important to contribute valuable comments on active discussions.
Multi-media posts
Along with discussion topics, Reddit lets you post photos, videos, and links. While having an image attached to your post will not move it up the feed, it is more likely that people will notice a post with a vibrant photo included. Funny videos also tend to get noticed on this platform, but they need to be authentic and not gimmicky.
Reddit now lets users post videos directly to a site rather than simply posting a link. Posting a video in a subreddit to distribute useful information about your products is another method of customer engagement. You can post more than one video within a post. Try a series of short videos to cover complicated topics.
Tracking your posts
Reddit has a number of analytical tools you can use to monitor the quality of your content. Each user is given karma points based on the number of upvotes on their comments. If your profile has a high number of karma points, then you are probably on the right track with your engagement strategy.
Reddit will also let you track your “hot posts,” or posts with the highest number of upvotes. Using these tools to see which of your posts have the best community ratings will help you see what kinds of discussions resonate best with Reddit users. You can use this information to better contribute to subreddits and build brand awareness.
Your Reddit inbox not only functions as a space to see replies to your post, but it also includes suggestions for content you might like and hot posts in subreddits that you have joined. Once you have been an active user for a while, you can use your inbox to find new discussions to join or find other subreddits that might be of interest to your potential customers.
Try something new
Reddit may not be as well-known for marketing as other platforms, but it lets you promote your business to an avid group of passionate users. And, while it is more difficult to generate organic engagement on this platform, if done well, having a presence on Reddit can establish you as a valuable resource for your customers. This platform is great for creating a brand personality and engaging with customers on a more personal level.