Reddit Ads: Are They Worth It?

Although Google and Meta are my go-to ad platforms for the vast majority of my clients to reach a desired audience with low budgets (plus some dabbling into the Linkedin ads, Yelp ads, and Microsoft/Bing ads space), I wondered if Reddit was an "untapped" ad platform that could be beneficial for helping clients reach success.

Do Reddit ads work?

I had to find out for myself. So of course, I used my digital marketing agency as a "guinea pig" to test it out.

Without any research on best practices, or really ANY Reddit usage in general, I put out a generic ad promoting my marketing agency to see what happened.

Here's what I did:

• Objective: Traffic

• Creative Type: Image

• Placements: Feed and Conversations

• Copy: "Stop the B.S. Work with a marketing partner that [actually] helps you reach your goals."

• Image: Simple and to the point about being a "Small Business Marketing Agency" with tagline and logo. Bright colors. Big text easy to read.

• Communities targeted: SEO_Digital_Marketing, RealEstate, socialmedia, digital_marketing, Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur, SocialMediaMarketing_, DigitalMarketing, SmallBusinessOwners, marketing, realtors, InstagramMarketing, SocialMediaMarketing, startups, PPC, SEO, ecommerce, smallbusiness, business, advancedentrepreneur, ecommerce marketing, Entrepreneurs

• Keywords targeted: ad agency, advertising agency, business marketing, consulting, content creation, content marketing, digital marketing, ecommerce marketing, email marketing, facebook ads, google ads, home services marketing, instagram ads, marketing, marketing advice, marketing agency, marketing consultant, marketing help, marketing tips, ranking on google, real estate marketing, search engine, search engine optimization, seo, small business marketing, social media, social media ads, social media content, social media management, social media marketing, social media post, social media tips, website help, website marketing, website updates

• Interests: Business

• Location: United States

• Budget: $160

• Bid Strategy: Lowest Cost

• Timeframe: 1 month

Here's how it performed:

• Total Spend: $119.60

• Total Impressions: 75.5k

• Total Clicks: 165

• Average CTR: 0.43%

• Average CPC: $1.44

The visualization and performance metrics suggest that while the campaigns reached a significant number of viewers, the engagement levels (CTR) remain relatively low, which could imply room for optimization in ad targeting or creative content. Or the fact that Reddit users just don't want to engage with ads, period.

I checked my Google Analytics and found correlating traffic from Reddit during this timeframe, so I know people did visit my website from the ads.

Was it successful?

Zero conversions or leads came from it, but that also wasn't my objective doing the ads. I was curious (and hoping) it would lead to at least one new prospective client, but not really surprised to see that nobody had filled out my contact form or estimate form from my Reddit ads.

Overall, because it was my first Reddit ad, I built it out with "testing" as my mission, and traffic was the objective of the ad (not conversions or leads), it's hard to say if it was truly "successful" — I am not even sure I can draw major conclusions from Reddit ads at large with those simple campaigns with LOW budgets.

Would you recommend Reddit ads for a small business?

From simply dabbling into the Reddit ads platform, I can say that it's a hard sale for a small business owner to adopt this into their ad strategy. Like LinkedIn ads, it can be effective if you have a larger ad spend budget AND the platform clearly reaches your ideal target audience. Otherwise, platforms like Google Ads and Meta Ads are overall cheaper per reach, click, etc.

Reddit is also a tricky space where you're not exactly sure who the target audience really is, because it's designed to be a public forum where people ask questions and seek advice.

I thought Reddit would be a great space for reaching small business owners searching Reddit (or even Google, who populates Reddit related queries near the top) looking for DIY small business advice to reach growth and success. According to Gemini, "Reddit users are diverse, with a significant number falling within the 18-29 age range, representing 64% of the user base. The site is also popular among 30-49 year olds, making up 22% of the user base." But even if your ideal target audience is in this age range, it seems Reddit is a space where people are looking strictly for education, advice, entertainment or news — maybe not as much looking for services or products.

To summarize, if your ideal audience fits this range and you think you provide a product or service that directly speaks to those using Reddit for education, advice, entertainment or news, then it might be worth testing out and investing a few hundred bucks to see how it does for your business.

Need help strategizing, advertising and reaching your ideal customers?

Contact The Digital Perch today for "No B.S." digital marketing services that are rooted in strategy and built for flight.