Digital Marketing on Reddit: Ads + Organic

Doing digital marketing on Reddit is not an easy task for a number of reasons.

However, professionals who aren’t just looking for convenience, but rather for strong results and unique, out-of-the-box strategies, will find some very interesting opportunities on Reddit.

Opportunities that, in many cases, are impossible to replicate on other platforms. In fact, even ad campaigns on Reddit differ significantly from those on Google Ads or Meta Ads.

That’s what we’ll discuss in today’s article. What are the possibilities for digital marketing on Reddit? What does it offer in terms of ads, and what can you achieve organically?

Let’s start with the basics — what tools does Reddit offer to digital marketing teams?

Then we’ll explore topics like audience, content strategies, guerrilla marketing, and alternative approaches.

Let’s go!

What Marketing Tools does Reddit Offer?

Like most social platforms, Reddit has its own advertising platform: Reddit Ads.

Reddit Ads is quite interesting, but it offers fewer targeting features due to Reddit’s very nature.

Most targeting options are tied to Reddit users’ profiles, not cookie-based or third-party data.

In other words: you’ll mostly be targeting Reddit users. It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to run advanced targeting like you can with Google Ads. But this limitation comes not from the tool, but from Reddit and its users.

Very few users add personal info like their location to their Reddit profiles.

But those same users are usually active in subreddits related to their cities, hobbies, or favorite media. And that’s where the targeting really happens.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, let’s look at how Reddit Ads actually works:

Can you Advertise on Reddit Ads and pay in Brazilian Reais?

Unfortunately, Reddit Ads doesn’t have a Brazilian version. Payments must be made in U.S. dollars, and you need an international credit card.

However, it’s totally possible to create ads in Portuguese and add Portuguese CTAs.

Reddit Ads features

First, let’s go over the main features Reddit Ads provides for advertisers.

The platform is far from limited. As we saw, the constraints come from how Reddit is used by its users.

In fact, Reddit’s ad platform is one of the most naturally aligned with its native user experience.

It’s quite common to mistake ads for regular posts, both because of their positioning and due to solid targeting work.

Here are the main ad formats Reddit offers:

Link Ads: direct users to external websites.
Promoted Posts: image or video-based posts that appear in users’ feeds and can allow comments.
Conversation Ads: appear as the top pinned comment in popular threads.
Takeover Ads: banner or top-of-community ads to maximize visibility.

These formats are closely tied to Reddit’s bidding strategies.

Let’s dive into that next:

Reddit Ads Bidding Strategies vs. Ad Formats

Reddit ad formats are partially based on campaign objectives, but there is some flexibility.

When creating a campaign, you first select your marketing goal:

Brand Awareness & Reach
Traffic
Conversions
App Installs
Video Views

Depending on your chosen goal, the platform recommends (or limits) specific ad formats that best optimize for that objective. Here’s how it works in practice:

Brand Awareness & Reach — optimized to reach the most people. Most common formats: Promoted Posts (image, text, or video) and Takeover Ads. The platform recommends autoplay video. Bidding strategy: CPM.
Traffic and Conversions — focused on redirecting users to websites or landing pages. Bidding strategy: CPC. Recommended formats: Link Ads and static image with link.
App Installs — requires formats compatible with deep links or app stores. Short videos with a clear CTA to download are recommended. Bidding strategy: CPC.
Video Views — solely focused on maximizing views. Only video formats are accepted. Bidding strategy: CPV.

🔎 Learn more: Cost Per Click — 5 Optimizations to Apply Today

What Targeting Options does Reddit Ads Offer?

Reddit Ads offers a few targeting options, all providing acceptable levels of campaign customization:

You can target based on:

Interests (e.g. tech, gaming, health);
Specific communities (subreddits);
Geographic location;
Device type and operating system;
Estimated demographic data.

Even with Reddit’s more limited user data (compared to other platforms), you can still segment your ads effectively.

One of the most interesting options is targeting by keywords and specific communities, the subreddits.

If you don’t select any community but add keywords, your ad will appear to users who have interacted with that keyword.

Example: if you add “Apple” as a keyword, your ads will be shown to people who have commented on or created threads about Apple.

If you don’t add keywords but choose specific subreddits, your ads will show to members of those subreddits, based on other targeting criteria.

If you choose both keywords and subreddits, your ad will be shown to users in those subs who have interacted with the keyword.

Subreddit targeting is one of Reddit Ads’ most popular and exclusive features. Google Ads doesn’t work with communities, and Meta Ads only uses Facebook Groups — which are nowhere near as active as Reddit’s subs.

The majority of your work on Reddit Ads will involve understanding your audience and their preferences. The best way to do that is through quality audience research.

This topic is so important that it deserves its own section. Let’s dive in:

Audience Research for Reddit Ads: How to Do It

Audience research on Reddit is a unique case where you can actually research user intentions and interests directly.

That may sound bold, but it’s true. On Google Ads, for example, audiences are rarely built from actual searches made on Google.

Instagram does allow some audience analysis by identifying relevant profiles, but truly understanding your audience is a long-term, cross-disciplinary task.

If you tried to build an audience on Instagram by analyzing profiles one by one, you’d waste a lot of time and miss a lot of data.

Reddit works differently because of subreddits. Let’s look at them now and see how you can conduct audience research directly through the famous r/something communities.

And we’ll also explore the importance of creating ads specifically tailored to those subreddits.

Let’s go:

What are Reddit Subreddits?

A subreddit is a community within Reddit. It’s also the only way to make public posts and receive replies on the platform.

It’s a legacy of old internet forums and the community-based model from early social networks, like Orkut in Brazil.

There are subreddits for an endless variety of topics and in many languages.

For example: there is r/music and r/musicaBR. The former is international; the latter is focused on Brazilian content.

Similarly, there is r/Brasil and r/Brazil. The first is for Portuguese-language discussions, mostly with Brazilian residents. The second is for English-language discussions, usually aimed at foreigners curious about Brazil.

These subreddits have anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of registered users.

Similarly, there are very niche subreddits with only a small number of users but a highly active community. In these, it’s common to find members who are friends, married couples, and even parents and children.

Audience research gets very intense with these subreddits. All have long histories, allowing marketing professionals to analyze key responses to common questions about the topics the /r represent.

Let’s suppose you are creating an ad for an AI-powered simultaneous translation platform for foreigners visiting Brazil.

After a few days of research on r/Brazil, you will understand not only the main communication barriers these foreigners face but also their overall experience living in Brazil as foreigners.

This lets you know much more about your audience in a structured, simple, and highly effective way.

Is it Possible to Advertise to Multiple Subreddits at the Same Time?

Absolutely, and very easily.

Reddit ads are fascinating because of this. You can select multiple subreddits simultaneously to run your ad without major issues.

And as we discussed earlier, you can also run ads using keywords, deciding for whom within these subreddits your ad will appear.

In our example above, we could use keywords to run an ad in the r/Brazil subreddit and set the keyword “Portuguese,” for instance.

This way, the ad will primarily show to users using that word in the sub, indicating a need to learn Portuguese or limitations in their current knowledge.

The Level of Personalization of Reddit ads is Astonishing

When we say there are subreddits for everything, we’re not exaggerating.

In Brazil alone, there is a subreddit for every state. And there are many subreddits for specific cities, far beyond just the big metros.

For example, r/Ipatinga, a city in the interior of Minas Gerais with 200,000 inhabitants.

And there are highly niche subs like r/a7arte (cinema), r/arte, r/violão (guitar), r/investimentos (investments), and so on.

But besides these very niche subs, there are also subs that concentrate specific demographics, even if they’re not necessarily niche topics.

In politics, for example, r/brasilivre gathers main right-wing opinions in the Brazilian Reddit sphere, while r/BrasildoB brings together left-wing views.

There are meme subreddits that gather distinct audiences, ranging from Gen Z memes to millennial memes.

It’s all a matter of research — but strong research — to understand exactly how to position your brand on Reddit.

But before we talk about how to create your first ad, we also need to talk about the organic possibilities Reddit offers.

Let’s go:

Organic Possibilities on Reddit

Besides ads, Reddit also offers great organic opportunities.

However, this work is much more participative and far less technical than SEO for Google, for example, or content production for other social networks.

Reddit is a social network for discussions. People go there to talk among themselves, within topics confined to a specific community.

In other words: if you start organic work, you have to go all the way. If you post an image and encourage discussion, you need to be part of that discussion.

Below are three suggestions on how to work the organic side of Reddit:

Community Marketing

Reddit is one of the most interesting places for community marketing, but with one caveat: bigger brands, with consolidated and generally tech products, do better here.

For example, look at subreddits focused on specific products like r/Salesforce, r/Hubspot, r/Zoho, etc.

These communities are created by the brands themselves or, in the case of more niche and independent products, created by the users themselves.

In these communities, conversations revolve around everything you can imagine your product can do.

You’ll find people willing to create guides and tutorials about your product, users with questions, suggestions, etc.

We dive much deeper into this topic, including how to do Community Marketing on Reddit, in our dedicated article on the subject:

➡️ Community Marketing: Why You Should Be Doing It

Acquire Media Literacy

Even if you don’t post on Reddit, you can use it as a research source to acquire media literacy on subjects you’re unfamiliar with.

Media literacy relates to how well you understand a specific media style.

For example, we don’t try to save someone who dies in a play because we understand the medium and know what’s happening on stage isn’t real.

In digital marketing, this term usually refers to how well you master a given topic. And some topics are extremely complex.

On Reddit, both in Brazilian and global communities, you’ll find true experts on practically any subject.

Every subreddit has its stars — users recognized for deep knowledge about the sub’s topics.

Look for these people and follow them. This way, you’ll always get new insights on complex subjects to apply in any marketing strategy, even outside Reddit.

Join the Conversation About Your Product and Competitors

You can also enter subreddits about your product and be part of the conversation, whether you identify yourself as part of the product team or not.

Not identifying yourself, however, is a bit risky. Reddit users are sharp, and the post history is just two clicks away. If someone suspects suspicious behavior on your account, you lose credibility as a brand.

Interestingly, you don’t even have to seek communities about your product. You can participate normally, even making it clear you provide the same product, in competitor subreddits.

But be very careful what you say. Remember, this is true organic — not what makes users come to your brand, but what makes you a user too.

How to Create Your First Reddit Ad — Advanced Step by Step

So, we understand that Reddit offers many possibilities both organically and through paid ads.

Just one point about organic: on Reddit, the idea is not to generate lots of visitors to your site, as SEO does for organic traffic.

Actually, the idea is to generate brand awareness by actively participating on Reddit as a user or as a brand.

In other words, it’s a long-term effort requiring people who understand Reddit to make sense. The entry barrier here is very high.

However, when it comes to ads, that barrier is easier to overcome.

There are still several technicalities in building an ad, especially in creating GTM tags to properly track Reddit conversion events in Analytics, which don’t have a standard event for the platform.

To learn more about this topic, check our related article below:

➡️ Google Analytics 4 Events: What They Are and How to Set Up

All set? Then follow our tutorial below on how to create your first successful Reddit ad:

Set up the Reddit pixel

Go to Reddit Ads and open “Events Manager”.
Install the Reddit Pixel on your site via:
- Google Tag Manager (recommended) or
- Manual code directly in HTML.
Configure the standard events:
- ViewContent
- AddToCart
- Purchase
Check if events are firing correctly using the Chrome extension “Reddit Pixel Helper” (or similar).

Define the Target Audience

Research relevant subreddits for your niche (highly segmented communities).
Create a list with at least 5–10 subreddits to test.
In Reddit Ads, choose targeting by:
- Specific subreddits (preferred)
- Geographic location
- (Optional) Interests or keywords
Save this targeting to apply to your ad groups.

Produce the Creatives

Use images or videos with a 4:3 ratio (ideal for mobile).
Create variations of:
- Headlines and calls to action
- Visual styles
- Formats: static image, GIF, video
Write natural copies adapted to Reddit’s style (authentic, direct, without “forced advertising” language).

Structure the ad Account

Create 1 campaign with the objective “Conversions” (recommended).
Within the campaign, create at least 3 ad groups:
- People who never visited your site.
- People who saw your ad (engagement).
- People who visited but didn’t purchase.
- (Optional) People who added to cart but didn’t purchase.
In each ad group, add 3–4 different creatives.
Set a minimum budget of $5/day per group (less can work with very small audiences).

Add UTM tags

Go to Campaign URL Builder.
Fill in:
- Campaign Source: reddit
- Campaign Medium: cpc
- Campaign Name: something descriptive (e.g., “product_launch_may”)
Copy the final link and use this URL in all your ads.

This will ensure traffic appears correctly in Google Analytics or other tools.

Creating Custom Audiences

After publishing the campaign, go to Audience Manager.

Click on “New Audience” → “Custom Audience.”

For remarketing based on engagement:

Choose “Reddit engagement audience”
Select the campaign and the type of engagement

For website visitors, add to cart, and purchasers:

Choose “Website retargeting”
Select the event and set the lookback window (preferably 90 days)

Adjust Attribution Settings

Go to Events Manager → Attribution Settings.

Click Edit and set:

Click-through: 28 days
View-through: 28 days

This ensures Reddit has wide windows to correctly attribute conversions.

Optimize the Advertiser Profile

Go to your business profile on Reddit.

Add:

Profile picture (logo)
Custom cover image
Website link
Clear and professional bio

This builds more trust with users who click on your name.

That’s it!

With this knowledge, you are ready to explore the world of Reddit — both organic and paid.

However, to start, I highly recommend you focus on ads. Especially if you’ve never heard of Reddit before or never used it.

Ads are not very mysterious and allow you to fail a few times with smaller budgets before getting it right.

But always remember Reddit is community-focused. Ads targeted to specific subreddits will be seen by Redditors multiple times per day and on different days.

Always keep that in mind, okay?

And if you have any experience to share with us, leave it in the comments!

Thanks for reading and good luck, Redditor!