Do Reddit Ads work for small businesses?

Reddit's help page on Reddit Audiences lists three ways to reach people:

• Interest targeting: topics people recently interacted with, grouped using the IAB standard categories.
• Community targeting: communities (subreddits) people subscribed to, or viewed or visited in the last 28 days.
• Keyword targeting: content that contains keywords you choose. Reddit notes this supports English terms only.

Reddit recommends starting with interest targeting to broaden your audience. If you use community targeting, it suggests at least 15 communities per ad group for best results. It also strongly recommends turning on automated targeting.

Reddit's page on Budgets and Bidding says your campaign objective decides how ads are optimized and how you are charged. In a traffic campaign, for example, you pay for impressions with the lowest cost strategy, or for clicks with a cost cap.

Three details are worth knowing before you spend:

1. Reddit says an ad group may overspend its budget by up to 20%, because delivery runs on live auctions.
2. Reddit says it does not guarantee an ad group will spend its full budget.
3. Budget changes may take up to 60 minutes to take effect.

Reddit recommends automated bidding strategies, cost cap or lowest cost, where they are available.

Our read, from running and reviewing campaigns:

• Niche products with active communities, such as hobby gear, software tools and specialist services.
• Offers that survive skepticism. Reddit users are quick to question marketing. Clear, specific ads beat polished slogans.
• Clear tracking. Without conversion tracking, you will only know the clicks, not the customers.

• Very local services with no local community activity.
• Offers that need a lot of explaining before anyone will act.
• Tests too small to tell signal from noise.

1. Pick one objective and one offer.
2. Start with interest targeting, or at least 15 relevant communities, as Reddit suggests.
3. Write ads that sound like a helpful member of the community.
4. Track leads or sales, rather than clicks alone.
5. Judge it against your other channels on cost per lead, after enough results to compare.

Is there a minimum budget? Budgets are set per ad group, daily or lifetime. Check Reddit's current guidance in Ads Manager before you launch.

Can I choose specific subreddits? Yes, with community targeting.

Should Reddit ads look like posts? Our read: write them like a useful post from a community member, while being clear it is an ad.

Reddit Ads can work for small businesses whose customers already talk on Reddit. Use Reddit's own setup advice, track real conversions, and compare the cost per lead with your other channels before you scale.