What is it actually – Reddit?
Founded in 2005 by Steve Huffmann, Aaron Swartz and Alexis Ohanian, Reddit is a social news aggregator with a rating function and lively discussion on original and web content.
After registering free of charge, users can post links, texts, pictures or videos, which can then be rated and commented on by up- or downvote. The page is organized via so-called subreddits, in which appropriate content can be posted. The subreddits are in turn subject to their own rules that have an impact on the dynamics of the smaller subreddit communities. For example, in some cases it is necessary to be confirmed before publishing new content or starting a new thread. This is to ensure that there is no abuse within the community and that the original topic of the subreddit remains relevant.
The most important information for successful use was already provided by Reddit in the “ Reddit 101″ released. Here you will find answers to all important questions about the functions and specifics of the website.
This is a downloader tool for Reddit users: Reddit video downloader.
Fast data & facts
- 330 million monthly active users
- 150,000 active communities
- 14 billion views per month
In 2018 alone , a total of around 153 million posts, 1.2 billion comments and 27 billion up and down votes had been made by November.
In the ranking of the most visited websites, reddit.com ranks 17th in an international comparison and 29th in Germany. The average Redditor (user of the site) uses Reddit 11:29 minutes a day and generates 7.36 page views.
Unsurprisingly, most of the traffic comes from the United States. Germany follows in fourth place behind the UK and Canada.
These are strong numbers that should justify a trip to this often underestimated website. In the following paragraphs you can find out what else there is exciting to learn about Reddit and especially the current advertising functions.
Video is everything !?
On other platforms it has already become clear that moving image content is playing an increasingly important role on social platforms and within social networks. A corresponding development can also be seen on Reddit. For example, an increase in native video views from 1 billion to 1.4 billion was measured between October and December 2018.
In total, Reddit users provide around 400,000 hours of video content per day and 13 million hours of video content per month. This corresponds to an increase of 38% since the beginning of 2018.
Advertising on Reddit
Depending on the available media budget, users and brands have various options for promoting their products and services with the Reddit structures.
Self-service advertising is possible up to a budget of $ 50,000. With this, all settings of the campaigns with regard to the selection of the target group and the creation of the ads can be made.
In case of problems, users can contact the Reddit Help Center and find a solution through the support ticket system.
The creation of campaigns on your own is very easy, as every registered user can reach the advertising area of the page via the URL https://ads.reddit.com/.
It makes sense to create an account for the brand or company for which you want to advertise.
If you call up the URL mentioned, you are logged in with the account with which you were last logged into the browser. The account can be changed at any time via a menu at the top right.
Campaign creation
In the first step, the campaign should be given a meaningful name so that it can be quickly found in the dashboard later. Depending on which goal the measures are intended to support, the appropriate objective must be selected. Reddit currently offers five destinations to choose from:
- Brand Awareness and Reach (billing according to TKP)
- Traffic (billing per click)
- Conversions (billing per click)
- Video views (billing per view)
- App installs (billing per click)
Ad groups
After this selection, Reddit jumps to the “Ad Group” area. The first ad group should also be given a meaningful name. Settings can then be made with regard to targeting, budgeting and an advertising schedule.
First of all, it has to be defined in which area the advertisements are to be displayed. If you want to advertise specifically in Germany or outside the USA, your options are limited, as geo-targeting can only be broken down to individual countries. For example, only the whole of Germany can be selected. For two reasons, however, this is currently not too bad: On the one hand, the number of users in countries outside the USA is limited. On the other hand, the target group can still be restricted very precisely in the next step by targeting individual subreddits. If you want to display ads in a certain region, it would be conceivable to include a corresponding locally centered subreddit in the targeting. This option can be found in the “TARGET SPECIFIC COMMUNITIES” dropdown.
Reddit also offers the option of restricting targeting to devices, for example only selecting mobile. If you choose this option, the advertising can again be limited to Android or iOS.
In the end, all you have to do is choose the budget and, if necessary, the billing mode and the creation of the advertisement can begin.
Creation of advertisements
The interface for designing the advertisements is also kept very clear. First you have to name the ad, then you have to decide whether you want to create a link post or a video post. As is common on other platforms, the link ad forwards to a URL of your choice and offers the option of storing an image, which is displayed or not depending on the advertising placement. If you decide to create a video ad, the main difference is that instead of an image, a video up to a maximum of 15 minutes in length can be uploaded and the thumbnail image is omitted.
After the created ad has been checked, it can be found in the dashboard within the corresponding campaign. The individual levels can also be edited there after they have been created. Only changing the campaign goal is no longer possible.
Pixel
Reddit also offers its advertising customers the option of tracking the performance of their own campaigns by pixel. This makes it possible to optimize the campaigns according to their success and with regard to the corresponding KPIs and to create a complete reporting.
In order to use the advertising pixel, a corresponding code snippet must be integrated on the corresponding website. As with other tracking pixels, this is integrated between the </head> tags and can be supplemented with the following events according to the campaign goal:
- PageVisit
- ViewContent
- Search
- AddToCart
- AddToWishlist
- Purchase
- Lead
- SignUp
A direct re-approach of users who triggered one of the events is unfortunately not yet possible at this point in time. Since the possibilities of performance-based advertising are also developing strongly on Reddit, it can be assumed that the creation of corresponding remarketing target groups will be possible in the not too distant future.
When creating the pixel, you also have the option of opting for a conversion attribution model. You can choose between view-through and click-through conversion, or an attribution of both variants. By default, this is set to a period of 1 day for VTC and 28 days for CTC. Similar to Facebook, you have the option of choosing the attribution period between one, seven or 28 days.
If the pixel is integrated, you can check the function and the fired events by selecting the item Conversions via the dropdown on the top left next to the “reddit ads” logo. There you can graphically display the course of the performance of individual events, see the total number of fired events and export a report as CSV.
More options
From $ 50,000, Reddit offers two full-service variants in addition to the pure self-service model .
Reservation – The administration of the account is taken over by a team on the part of Reddit and includes a predefined inventory of advertising spaces, which can be used to achieve brand awareness and reach goals.
performance– Here the advertising spaces are distributed by auction, similar to the systems of other platforms. In contrast to the reservation model, some additional features and dashboards are included to control the measures taken. Reddit offers a one-time test over 6 weeks for this ad setup, for which a budget of $ 25,000 must be made available. This variant is ideal for achieving direct response or conversion goals.
Best practice
The American agency 3Q has provided some best practices in its own contribution to Reddit Ads that we do not want to withhold from you. You can find the full article here.
A completed profile page – The profile page of the advertising company should be completed so that users know who they are dealing with. Intransparency has never been cool, and neither is it on Reddit.
Authentic ad design– As on any other platform, care should be taken with Reddit to address users according to their habits. Reddit thrives on organic conversations in the various subreddits. Therefore, one should avoid a lot of buzzwords and dramatic formulation of advertising texts and instead try to choose an address that is appropriate for the community. If you advertise in a special subreddit, you can include its name in your ad copy, otherwise you can also contact “Reddit” as a community directly, as can also be seen in the examples above.
The why– You shouldn’t miss out on Reddit to explain to the user why of all things this product or the brand is worth spending time and getting further information. What can the product do, what does the brand have to offer and why should anyone care?
CTAs – Also on Reddit, a suitable CTA can change the behavior of users according to their own goals. §Q also recommends the option of deactivating the comment function below the ad in order to move the conversation with the user to another level (e.g. your own website).
Test, test, test– That too is a more or less universal wisdom that also applies to Reddit. You shouldn’t get tired of testing different targeting options and ad variants in order to find the best possible combination in order to successfully meet your goals and at the same time not to bore your audience. In smaller subreddits in particular, there is a risk of attracting negative attention if you appear again and again with the same ad.
Reddit itself also provides best practices. You can find help in creating ads that are as performant as possible here.
Conclusion
Reddit may still be underestimated and cannot be counted among the big players in the German market. But the numbers show that Reddit is becoming more and more relevant and the rapid development of advertising options speak for Reddit. The fact that not too many companies advertise on Reddit offers the right product or service a good chance of celebrating success on a platform that is not yet too crowded with marketers. But apart from the advertising opportunities, a visit to the site is also worthwhile, as the many independent subreddits should have the right community and the right content for everyone.
