by Have you considered advertising on Reddit? Wondering how to get started?
In this article, you'll discover how to set up self-serve ads on Reddit.
What Marketers Need to Know About Reddit Advertising
With 52 million daily active users, Reddit is one platform you shouldn't overlook when it comes to marketing your business. Due to its unique culture and specific user base, people flock to the site to share content and engage with others. Users can upvote or downvote posts, essentially controlling the algorithm by pushing the most interesting content to the top. That means you can greatly increase exposure for your business if you're using Reddit the right way.
When it comes to advertising on the platform, Reddit makes it easy to get your ad in front of the right audience thanks to its powerful settings for audience targeting.
Because Reddit focuses on niche communities (also known as subreddits), you can narrow down who sees your ads. For example, the Oculus ad below was targeted to the r/NintendoSwitch subreddit. When the right people are seeing a quality ad, it's more effective in driving traffic, conversions, and profits. This allows you to get more bang for your buck by running paid ads.
Another benefit to Reddit advertising is that you don't need a lot of money to get started. Reddit's managed advertising is geared toward large-scale businesses that have a minimum quarterly budget of $30,000. For many, this simply isn't feasible. That's why Reddit also offers self-serve ads, which have a $5 minimum. These ads are affordable and less risky for small businesses looking to step up their marketing efforts.
Self-serve ads sell through an auction model, which gives advertisers the chance to bid against each other to compete for impressions via CPM (cost per thousand), CPC (cost per click), and CPV (cost per view) bids. At just $0.20 per bid, these ads can include images or text, a CTA button, and secure ad placement in Feed or Conversations (or both).
If you'd like to run self-serve ads for your business, make sure to read the Reddit advertising policy before getting started. It covers prohibited and restricted advertisements, as well as editorial requirements. Reddit insists all ads be functional, legible, and accurate. Otherwise, you run the risk of your ad getting rejected in the approval process.
Here's how to set up self-serve ads on Reddit.
#1: Set Up a Reddit Ads Account
To begin running ads on Reddit, you'll need to create an ads account. This process is straightforward and doesn't take long to complete. You'll be ready to get started as soon as you provide all of the required information to get the account set up.
If you're already on Reddit, you can use your current account to create and manage ads. You just need to log in via ads.reddit.com. Scroll to the bottom of the page and find the sign-in link to get started. Once you've logged in with your existing account, you may notice the registration form has already populated with some of your details. You'll just need to fill in any missing information.
If you're new to Reddit or prefer to create a separate account for ads, you'll need to register on the page above. Reddit requires you to enter a username, password, company name, business email address, first and last name, industry, and country. There's also a box to check if you're an advertising agency.
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Once you add all of your information, click the Sign Up button, and you'll be taken directly to the campaign management dashboard.
#2: Plan Your Reddit Ad Campaign
Now that your Reddit advertising account is up and running, you'll probably be eager to create your first campaign. Before you do that, it's important to plan the details of your campaign by knowing your objectives, familiarizing yourself with the types of ads you can run, and gathering all of the necessary assets.
When creating an ad, you can choose from these campaign objectives:
- Brand Awareness and Reach: Select this objective if you intend to increase awareness of your brand or product. Pay for: CPM.
- Traffic: This objective is ideal if you want to drive traffic to a specific page on your website such as the home page, blog post, or another landing page. Pay for: CPC.
- Conversions: If your goal is to drive valuable actions on your website, choose this objective. You may be looking to generate email sign-ups or sales. Pay for: CPC.
- Video Views: To get more views on your video, you can run an ad that puts it front and center. Pay for: CPV.
- App Installs: If you're trying to drive more installs for your mobile app, choose this option. Pay for: CPC.
Knowing your objective will play a role in the type of ad you choose to create. Reddit gives users the ability to run text, video, link, and gallery/carousel ads. You may find that one of these options is better suited to your goals than the others. For brand awareness and reach, any type of ad would work well. If you want to drive traffic or conversions, go with a video, image, or carousel.
Once you've figured out those details, you can gather the following assets:
- Written copy
- Visuals (images or video)
- Destination links
- Ad trackers
- Payment method (credit or debit card)
To determine exactly what you need for your ad, Reddit has shared the ad unit specifications to ensure your copy is the correct length and has the proper file sizes and formats for any images or videos you upload.
#3: Create Your Reddit Ad Campaign
Once you have everything planned out, you can begin bringing your ad to life. Log into your Reddit Ads account and access the campaign dashboard. In the top left-hand corner, click the Create Campaign button to get started.
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You'll be brought to a page where you need to enter details regarding your new ad campaign. First, you'll need to name the campaign using up to 200 characters. Users won't see this when your ad appears on their Reddit feeds. It's strictly for internal use.
From there, you'll see the selected funding instrument, which is how you pay advertising fees. You'll also be able to choose one of the five objectives covered in the section above. Choose the option that best suits the goal of your campaign.
#4: Set Your Targeting, Budget, and Schedule
After adding the initial details of your campaign, you'll navigate to a page where you can create an ad group. Segmenting your ad campaigns makes them more effective because you'll be able to target a specific audience interested in the goods or services you're promoting.
To create an ad group, you'll need to add the following information:
- Name your group: Choose a name for your ad group. It can be up to 200 characters long. This name will show up in the reporting interface within your dashboard.
- Audience: Select your audience type (Reddit Audience or Pixel Retargeting), pick interests and communities to target, locations you'd like to reach, and devices you'd like to target. You can also exclude communities and locales if needed. It's important to think about who'll be interested in the contents of your ad during this step. As you edit this, the audience size and bid will automatically adjust. The more specific you get, the smaller the audience size will be.
- Placement: Determine where you'll display your ads on Reddit. You can have them run in Feed, Conversations, or both placements. The Feed placement shows your ads in Home, Popular, and community feeds. Conversation placement means your ad will show between a post and the first comment, making it visible to those engaging with a specific post.
- Budget: You'll need to decide how much you'd like to spend on your ads. You can establish a daily budget, which determines the maximum amount you want to pay each day, or you can set a lifetime budget, which is how much you're willing to spend over the specified time your ad will run. You can also consider CPM, CPC, and CPV auction bids.
- Schedule: The last step is to set your ad's schedule, which is the timeframe in which it'll be live on Reddit. You can have the ad run continuously from the moment it gets submitted and approved or have a fixed start and end time. You can even choose which days and times you'd like users to see your ad. Again, consider your target audience and when they're most likely to be online.
#5: Create Your Reddit Ad
The next step is to create the actual ad that will run across the platform. If you've been following this article step by step, you've already crafted your campaign and ad group. Now you should be on a page to enter the details of your ad. If not, you can click Create Campaign in your dashboard or navigate to a specific ad group you've already set up and choose to create an ad from there.
Reddit allows you to use an existing post for your ads should you have one at the ready. These will appear underneath Post Library. You can cycle through available posts until you find the right one and click Duplicate in the top right-hand corner to review the post and make changes.
If you're starting from scratch, click New Post. A box will appear on the screen, prompting you to choose one of the available post types: video, image, text, or carousel. Select your desired option and fill in all of the necessary details. A simple text post requires a title, body copy, embed type, and the embed URL.
Don't forget to check the box if you'd like to allow comments. Then, hit the Submit button.
Afterward, you'll be able to preview the ad. You can see what it'll look like on both mobile and desktop. Reddit also allows you to see the ad in different view modes including card, compact, classic, and conversation. If you're satisfied with how everything looks, click Review.
#6: Submit and Run Your Reddit Ad
Once you've reviewed your campaign, ad group, and ad details, you can submit it to Reddit for approval. This process can take around 48 hours but can be longer depending on the content. If you submitted your ad over the weekend, the Reddit team won't review it until the following Monday.
Your ad will begin running at the scheduled time, pending billing and approval. An ad set to “run continuously starting today” will begin running as soon as it has received approval. Otherwise, it'll start appearing on Reddit on your selected start date.
Conclusion
Done correctly, Reddit self-serve ads can be a powerful element of the overall marketing strategy for your small business. The key is to spend time exploring the platform and getting a feel for its culture if it's brand-new to you. Once you're familiar with how Reddit works, you'll be able to create incredible ads.
With the ability to target specific subreddits, you can gain massive exposure for your brand and the products or services you offer. Before you know it, you'll be bringing in more traffic and boosting sales.
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