Reddit is a community network where users may explore their passions, hobbies, and interests. Founded in 2005, the platform features a massive range of topics, better known as subreddits for everyone. These categorized forums allow users of Reddit to share, discuss, and vote on specific topics they are interested in. Other factors contributing to Reddit’s daily usage by millions of users across the globe include its strong niche communities and strict moderation requirements. In other words, Reddit has a huge potential for brands to reach a massive audience. In this article, you will learn more about what Reddit offers to Asian brands as a marketing tool & strategy to reach consumers in North America. The question is, how should brands get started?
Understanding the platform
Before any strategy development, it is essential to understand what you are dealing with. Unlike other traditional social media platforms, Reddit is a forum-like platform with a strong focus on its communities while having its language and culture among the community. This distinctive feature makes Reddit a unique social media platform which requires a different marketing strategy and approach.
What is a subreddit?
Reddit primarily consists of subreddits, usually referred to as communities, where people gather to discuss the many subjects listed in the subreddit’s title. Reddit’s core communities are what this seeming to be crucial for both its success and appeal. It is safe to assume that there is a subreddit for almost any topic under the sun, ranging from broad issues like technology and the environment to extremely specialized niches.
Participating in these subreddits will help you understand what your target audience is talking about and their interests if you consider using Reddit for marketing.
Here are some global key Reddit statistics marketers should know:
- In 2022, Reddit’s average daily active users (DAU) hit 52 million globally. (Statista, 2022)
- Reddit is more popular among English-speaking communities. Nearly half of its desktop traffic (47.5%) originates from the US, followed by the United Kingdom and Canada with around 7% each, and Australia with 4%.
- Reddit users spend, on average, 10.5 minutes per visit on the site. (Similarweb, 2022)
- As of today, there are over 3 million subreddits. (Reddit Metrics, 2022)
- The number of active communities on Reddit exceeds 130,000. (Reddit, 2022)
- Regarding its gender demographics, most Reddit users are male (71%), with 29% of users being female.
According to DataPortal, there has been a surge in usage in Singapore over the past year:
- Reddit was the top 8th most-visited website in 2022.
- The channel shows a +150% (+22 million) year-on-year increase in total traffic and a +240% (+5 million) increase in unique visitors.
- On average, Reddit users spend 18 minutes per visit on 4 pages.
- Regarding traffic, 42% comes from mobiles, while 58% comes from desktops.
What does TL;DR stand for?
There are specific terms Redditors use that not everyone would understand. For example, Redditors would use a “TL;DR” (Too Long; Didn’t Read) version to summarize long-form content to help others understand the topic and its context quicker. It is also worth noting that the majority of the subreddits are well-moderated. Discussions are civil and, most importantly, respectful, which is critical for brand safety.
In 2009, the platform started welcoming advertisers with its paid advertising functions. This function empowers advertisers to promote sponsored content in a feeds format, similar to other paid social platforms, or a Premium Takeover format reserved for managed advertisers only. However, this can be a new frontier for advertisers as the platform is not commonly used as a traditional paid channel.
What are the main reasons people use Reddit?
According to Statista’s report on leading Reddit usage reasons according to users in the United States:
- The top usage of Reddit users is for entertainment purposes.
- Other common reasons include staying updated with the news and following brands and companies.
- The least common use of Reddit is for professional purposes.
Reddit: A venue to resolve questions
Reddit is a platform where people sign in to get information answered and be inspired. Users typically don’t tolerate content they find overly promotional or sales-y and will flag it as spam without hesitation. Simply participating in the community and interacting with others is Reddit’s finest form of marketing. As an alternative, think about employing Reddit advertisements. Since Redditors don’t prefer hard sells, and most subreddits don’t allow promotional content, isn’t it contradictory to Reddit’s paid content?
This is where a thoughtful and creative content team needs to think out of the box. You would have to abandon the traditional marketing mindset. This specific audience is trying to avoid signing on to the platform to see how good your brand or products are, but instead looking to resolve their questions.
It is essential to understand how your services or products could help them tackle issues they may face. Instead of telling your audience how awesome your offers are, try addressing what they could be experiencing. In Reddit, this tactic would be more appreciated and often perform better.
In the ad’s title, the advertiser directly answers the audience’s pain point with a personal copywriting style,
making it more appropriate and relatable for the platform.
Reddit: Paid marketing solutions
Like other platforms, Reddit paid marketing strategy covers a range of objectives you could select to fit your bidding strategy. For example, you could use its Brand Awareness and Reach objective to bid on CPM or implement a Conversions objective as your lower funnel placement that bids on CPC.
Regarding targeting, it is recommended to start with Reddit’s pre-set interest targeting. This allows you to start big and reach a broad audience. After the results, you can start trimming your targeting and removing things that are not performing.
Is that it? Not quite. Reddit does have a unique targeting feature that no other platform could do, which is its Community Targeting. As mentioned above, communities are the bread and butter of Reddit. Redditors join a particular community to participate in the most specific and relevant discussions. Using Community Targeting is the best way to reach a targeted audience if you have a service that fits a specific community. However, only some communities are approved to serve ads. Here are the platform’s advertising policy & targeting guidelines to consider before launching your campaign.
Last but not least, retargeting also plays an important role here. Like Facebook and LinkedIn platforms, Reddit has a pixel you could implement to your website or app. These implementations help the platform to capture meaningful actions completed by the users, such as viewing certain pages, signing up for your newsletter, etc. In other words, this enables you to retarget qualified audiences for your paid strategy.
For advertisers from specific sectors, such as alcohol and cryptocurrency products, they must work directly with a Reddit Sales Representative to ensure all the ads follow Reddit’s advertising policy. It’s also good because it will protect your brands from relevant local laws and potential risks.
As for creatives, you may choose from text-only, static banners and videos. Click here to read the complete ad unit specifications if you want to know more.
To summarize, here’s a TL;DR version:
- Experience the platform firsthand to understand thoroughly how things work, as Reddit is quite different from other channels.
- Reddit marketing strategy requires thinking out of the box and, sometimes, abandoning the “traditional” advertising mindset. Focus on answering common questions and communicating them casually.
- Like using all advertising channels, define your objectives and goals as the first step of your plan.
- Install Reddit Pixel even if you’re not running a campaign soon. This enables the platform to start collecting necessary data for the future.
- Diversify creative approaches and test more variations.
- Check the ad policy and see if you can use the platform’s self-serve advertising. If not, you will have to find a way to work with the representatives directly.
- Last but not least, keep your campaign fun, thoughtful and creative!
