Reddit has been around for two decades, but marketers are paying fresh attention. The platform has quietly become one of the most trusted places on the internet for product research — and it is now testing ads inside its search results, putting brand messages in front of high-intent users at the exact moment they are looking for answers. Its rise as a generative engine optimization (GEO) source, one that AI tools regularly cite, has made it newly relevant for marketers.
Why Reddit is having a moment
The numbers explain the buzz. Reddit logged its first-ever profitable quarter in Q3 2024, with total revenue up 68% year over year to $348.4 million. Advertising revenue, the engine of that turnaround, grew 56% to $315.1 million. The platform now reports roughly 1.2 billion monthly active users, up from 430 million in 2019, and 73 million daily active users in Q4 2023.
What makes the audience valuable is intent. Redditors use the site to ask which product to buy, which tool to adopt, and which brand to trust. Platform data cited in the guide puts 93% of Redditors saying the site helps them make informed tech upgrade decisions, while 75% of B2B decision-makers call Reddit the most influential source for perspectives on business products.
Search ads cap a rapid ad-product expansion
The search-results test sits atop a stack of relatively new formats. Promoted posts come in six flavors: free-form posts that can run up to 40,000 characters, static images, video of 5 to 30 seconds, carousels, shopping ads in beta, and the trademarked Ask Me Anything (AMA) format. Takeovers let a brand own the front page, category pages, or specific placements for 24 hours.
Two products moved into public beta recently as well:
- Dynamic Product Ads pair product catalogs with machine learning, offering retargeting for users who engaged on the advertiser’s site and prospecting based on Reddit activity.
- Lead Generation Ads collect user information natively on the platform, with Zapier integration for direct CRM handoff.
Reddit also acquired Memorable AI, a company that predicts how creative will perform using past campaign data, and folded its tools into the ad stack.
What actually works on Reddit
The platform’s own numbers make a case for native fluency. Ads that use “Redditisms” — the site’s in-jokes, jargon, and conventions — drove cost per acquisition 70% lower than ads that skipped them. Ads that name a specific Subreddit were 1.3 times more likely to lift awareness.
“If you have a community you want to get in front of, you can get them on Reddit,” Laura Schiele, head of paid acquisition at Jordan Digital Marketing, told MarTech. Schiele suggests brands need a voice that sounds human and a willingness to laugh at themselves. The audience rewards expertise, not corporate hype, so responding to questions inside relevant Subreddits and hosting AMAs can build credibility fast.
The marketer’s next move
For teams watching this space, the practical steps are clear. Set up a brand profile so users know they are hearing from the source. Learn each Subreddit’s specific rules before posting. Use Reddit Pro Trends, a free tool that tracks conversations across more than 100,000 “smart” keywords, to find where your category is already being discussed. If you already run social campaigns elsewhere, the platform’s Campaign Import tool brings Meta campaigns into Reddit Ads Manager in three steps.
The bigger shift to watch is a planned paywall for paid Subreddits in 2025 plus a new “hide ad” control that lets users block an advertiser for at least a year. Both raise the stakes on relevance: on Reddit, low-quality creative does not just underperform — it can get a brand voted out of the feed.
Source: MarTech.org
