Reddit Ads for a small business: what to expect before your first campaign

Why Reddit works differently

Reddit ads appear in the same feeds and conversation pages as ordinary posts, and they are chosen with targeting by community (subreddit), interest, keyword, location, device and your own audiences. The practical consequence is that you can aim at a topic a person is actively reading about, not only at a demographic. A business with a product people discuss, compare or ask for advice about has more to work with than a business that sells something nobody talks about.

Ask four questions before you open an account. Do people discuss the problem you solve, and in which communities? Can you explain your offer in a way that survives a sceptical comment? Is there a landing page that answers the question the ad raises, in a few seconds? Can you count the result that matters, not just clicks? If the answer to the last one is no, fix measurement first; the Reddit Pixel and the Conversions API are covered in separate guides.

Treat the first campaign as a research project. The goal is to learn which communities and which messages produce visitors who do something useful, at a cost you can live with. A narrow test, one objective, a handful of communities and two or three ads, teaches more than a broad launch that spreads a small budget over everything. Plan the review date in advance and write down what result would make you continue, change or stop.

Reddit’s own rules apply to your ads, and the community reacts to them in comments. Ads that read like a headline from a billboard tend to attract criticism; ads that sound like a useful answer, a clear offer or an honest question usually fare better. The goal of the first test is not to be liked by everyone but to find the few communities where your offer is relevant.

What a first test gives you

• A go or no-go decision in an afternoon: you know whether your product has a conversation to join before you create an account.
• A test that can be read: one objective and a few communities, so a result points to a cause.
• Fewer surprises: you meet the tone, review and comment questions on paper first.

A pre-launch checklist

1. List the topics where people ask about your problem and note the communities where those topics are discussed. Read recent posts for tone; do not target a community you have not read.
2. Write the one result that counts, for example a quote request or an application, and check that you can measure it on your site.
3. Create a business profile and ad account in Reddit Ads Manager, add a payment method and install the Reddit Pixel on the site.
4. Pick a single objective and build one campaign with a few communities, a daily budget you are comfortable losing and two or three ads.
5. Preview every ad, publish it and expect a review before delivery starts; check the review status rather than assuming it has run.
6. Review at the date you set, per community and per ad, and decide whether to continue, change the message or stop.

Limits and honest caveats

Sources and further reading

• Reddit for Business: advertising
• Reddit Help: create and manage your Reddit Ads account
• Reddit Ads API: set up a Standard campaign