Using Reddit to Promote Your Business

Learn the ins and outs of using Reddit to advertise to your target audience.

If you’ve read our article about what businesses should know about Reddit, you probably know that Reddit is a social media site that is quite different from more traditional sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It follows, then, that you’ll need to take a different approach to promoting your business on Reddit than you do on other social platforms. But what approach is best here?

Back to the Reddit Basics

Reddit’s platform is based on user-generated content. Reddit users, or redditors, as they are called within their community, submit text posts, links, or images to specific forum boards called “subreddits.” There are subreddits for nearly everything – TV shows, food, industries, current events, and more.

Within each subreddit, other redditors comment on posts and vote them “up” or “down” based on how relevant their content is to the subreddit’s topic. These votes are important because they determine where your post appears in the subreddit feed. The more “up votes” your post has, the higher it appears in the feed. At the same time, if your post receives a large number of “down votes” it will be pushed so far down the feed that few people will see it.

To find relevant posts for your company to engage with, use the search bar in the upper right-hand corner. You can search the full site for subreddits, links, and posts or you can search for content within a specific subreddit.

Advertising on Social Platforms

Nowadays users expect to see ads on Facebook and Twitter, sponsored content on LinkedIn, and promoted pins on Pinterest. It has become common place for brands to push their own agendas everywhere. Redditors, however, are not fans of this approach. While you can find a few ads on the homepage, the most common types of ads on Reddit are promoted posts within subreddits. These promoted posts are subject to upvoting and downvoting just like user-generated posts.

In order to gain traction for your promoted posts you must present your product or service in a helpful way. A post about why your product is the best will get downvoted in a heartbeat. Remember, an accumulation of downvotes means that no one will read your posts and redditors will not consider you credible. Instead, focus on creating posts that provide value to readers.

How do I share content in a meaningful way?

First things first, you need to build up credibility as a redditor before advertising on Reddit, otherwise your ads will go to waste. One way to do this is by answering the questions redditors have about your product or providing your product as a solution to more general questions. For example, if you recently launched a mascara line that is hypoallergenic, you could search makeup subreddits for questions about mascara for sensitive eyes and mention your product as a solution for women with this issue.

Reddit can also be a great medium to use if you are implementing a thought-leadership strategy. On Reddit, you have the ability to respond to a large amount of posts that are relevant to your industry, product, or audience. Sharing your knowledge with relevant audiences can work wonders by showcasing your company as an expert in the community. Take the opportunity to answer questions in subreddits about your industry’s issues.

Once you have found subreddits that reflect your target audience and you have responded to posts in a helpful, informative way, you can start advertising on Reddit. You have the option to pay for a sponsored post within the particular subreddits in which you’ve established yourself or within a collection of subreddits that are similar to each other.

How can I make my Reddit ad as successful as possible?

To be successful with Reddit advertising, remember these points:

• Carefully choose which subreddit or collection to advertise in.
• Create copy that is engaging and helpful, not sales-y or intrusive.
• Make sure the ad is relevant to the chosen subreddit.
• Respond to every comment on your ad.

As with all digital advertising, sometimes you succeed on your first try but more often it takes a few tweaks to get it right. Test different copy or images to see what your audience likes best. And, most importantly, keep ads in line with your overarching strategy. Don’t have one of those? Call FrogDog—strategy is our area of expertise!