An integral part of every communication agency, including CTA komunikacije, is digital advertising. The development of the Internet and its ubiquity in our lives and public discourse have served as a launch pad for the entire marketing sector – about 15 years ago, most agencies did not have people specialized in placement, monitoring and optimizing ads on digital channels.
Today, not a day goes by without Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, WhatsApp, Viber, LinkedIn and the like, and often new various challengers appear wanting their own piece of the pie. However, there is one social network that has existed for almost 20 years, whose users are extremely loyal to it (including the signatory of these lines), and which is very rarely mentioned in the context of advertising – Reddit.
What is Reddit anyway?
For the uninitiated, although we believe that there are few of them, Wikipedia states that it is a mixture of social news aggregators and forums. All content is created by users, and visibility depends on their engagement with the content itself – upvote and downvote (positive and negative reaction) and comments with the post push the content to more visible positions. Reddit is also divided into countless subreddits, a kind of subforums that bring together people with similar opinions or interests. All in all, it’s a very lively environment that digital advertisers tend to shy away from.
First of all, the claims about the size and importance of Reddit should be supported by some numbers.
According to statistics, Reddit is visited by 430 million users per month, ranking 13th on the list of the most popular social networks – ahead of Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat or Discord. If we remove from this list the social networks whose main market is China, Reddit convincingly enters the top 10, and trends show that the network is still growing.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of users of this social network are between 18 and 29 years old, and the second next age group is the one from 30 to 49 years old (29%).
According to data from 2022, Reddit users spend an average of 15 minutes per session on it, which puts this network far ahead of Facebook, Instagram or TikTok in terms of the length of one visit. Data for Croatian Reddit users is harder to find, but as a reference point we can take the statistics of the r/croatia subreddit (“r/” indicates that it is a subforum) that is followed by over 230 thousand people. Certainly, not only Croats are there, but interested people of other nationalities, too. However, it is not an insignificant number. Still, there are very few ads.
As corny as it sounds, Reddit users or Redditors are a specific group
Above all, they are very negative about open advertising and perceive it as an undesirable addition to their forum in which users themselves determine what is interesting and useful content. If users see something that looks like an advertisement, you can expect a bunch of downvotes that will push the post into the darkest corners of the Internet where the light of day does not reach – if you are lucky.
If you are unlucky and users decide to pick on you, you are in trouble – just look at what they did to Electronic Arts, whose comment is still the most negatively rated in the history of the site, or to the Wall Street team that decided to deal with GameStop shares. However, for this reason (and the need for additional earnings), Reddit has nevertheless enabled some safer alternative forms of advertising.
OK, I want to advertise on Reddit – now what?
If you want to play it safe, Reddit introduced paid ads on homepages a few years ago, where you cannot leave positive or negative reactions, and the possibility of commenting is left to the choice of the advertiser.
Currently, there are three types of ads on Reddit – a classic display ad with 300 characters of text, a sponsored post or a video ad, each of which can be placed on the first page or in separate subforums.
Display and video ads work similarly to their counterparts on other social networks, but sponsored posts have a slightly different purpose – their idea is to encourage users to have a discussion, which can help you find out what think of your product and get them to become interested in it. You can also include links to other channels in the text and thus motivate them to further research.
Targeting the desired group that the ad will reach is also somewhat different from other social networks – it is done by choosing the offered interests of users and the subreddits that users visit. For example, if you advertise a cosmetic product that is available in Croatia, you will target people who visit r/croatia (regional determinant) and r/beauty, r/makeup and the like. This makes it possible to relatively accurately guess the desired audience who will be truly interested in what your client has to offer them. This is why advertising in specific subreddits offers the best return on investment.
Organic Marketing on Reddit – AMA (Ask Me Anything) for the Bravest
The AMA enables perhaps the best type of unpaid two-way communication between the user of the social network and the advertiser, i.e. the client you represent.
If you cultivate an open approach to your target audiences and are not afraid of difficult questions or criticism, the possibilities are incredible. Barack Obama was the first to discover this possibility during the 2012 presidential campaign – his AMA still has the most positive reactions, and he answered only 10 questions (among which were questions from “Who is your favourite basketball player?” or “Can you give us a recipe for the beer produced by the White House?” to “How do you plan to stop the corrupt influence of money on political processes in your second term?”).
In addition to Barack Obama,Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Arnold Schwarzenegger (both as governor and as an actor), Snoop Dogg and Gordon Ramsey also had their AMA – and all of them promoted their products or work in one way or another. In Croatia, the same platform for promotion has so far been used by Tomislav Tomašević, Ivica Puljak, but also Krešimir Sučević Međeral, whose AMA has generated almost 500 user comments.
Ultimately, in accordance with the specifics of Reddit as a platform, it is understandable why agencies and clients shy away from advertising on Reddit – it is easier to set up an ad on Facebook, watch it spin and achieve the required numbers, hide a few unpleasant comments and then bring the client proof of the achieved KPI with a smile on their face. And there is nothing wrong with that!
But if you feel like gambling a bit, create a Reddit account, familiarize yourself with the platform, and see if you can add value to your client through open and two-way communication with users. If this idea does not scare you, we guess we will be seeing you on one of the countless subreddits!
A few well-intentioned tips for the end
In case you decide to advertise on Reddit, remember a few key rules:
- Personalize messages – your ad will reach people who have the specific interests you are targeting. Assume they are already familiar with the topic and customize your posts – there are no carpet-bombing methods on Reddit!
- Encourage user engagement – on other social networks, views or possibly clicks are the most important. On Reddit, your ad will do as well as you manage to encourage users to interact (votes and comments). Also, try to respond to comments where users ask you something.
- Be authentic – do not make your ad scream “ADVERTISEMENT!” Keep your ad in a conversational tone, do not use heavy professional terminology (unless someone asks you) and be approachable, this way you have the best chance of success. If you are not sure how – ask AI!
