While it may not seem like the most advertiser-friendly platform, and its options for ads are still limited, Reddit continues to boost its credentials as a key social platform to consider, with the company’s VP of brand partnerships, Zubair Jandali, this week noting that the platform is seeing significantly higher engagement rates since its redesign last year, with Reddit ads also seeing improved response as a result.
In an interview with Marketing Land, Jandali notes that they’re seeing “three to seven times better user engagement rates”, and that ad performance also moving in line. Among the brands seeing improved response with Reddit ads, Jandali says that Audi has seen its Reddit Ad engagement rates increase 8x, while Black & Decker also saw big improvements.
“[Black & Decker] targeted hyper-relevant communities, including DYI, yard care, home improvement and parenting communities, and the campaign significantly outperformed Reddit benchmarks and previous campaign results.”
That type of targeting is key on Reddit – the platform, which has more than 330 million active users, hosts some 138,000 active communities, subreddit groups of highly engaged and focused users who are keen to discuss very niche interests. Reaching those communities with relevant ads, as noted, can deliver great results. Again, Reddit has not been viewed as being as advertiser-friendly as other social platforms in the past, but the app is making significant improvements as it moves to boost revenue potential and monetize its rising hold on user attention.
Jandali’s statements also come on the back of reports earlier this year which indicated that Reddit is now growing faster than many other platforms, and is seeing higher engagement rates as well.
While Twitter and Snapchat have faced continual challenges in growing their usage numbers, Reddit has seen its active audience base increase by 30% over the last six months, a significant shift.
And on activity, We Are Social has reported that Reddit users spend, on average, 15 minutes 47 seconds on the platform each day. That’s compared to just over 11 minutes for visitors to Facebook, and 6 minutes 23 seconds on Twitter.
But that’s not to say that Reddit’s for everyone, not all brands are going to succeed on the app. But given its numbers, it should likely be a higher consideration than it currently is – its usage stats compare favorably with almost every platform, yet it’s rarely included within the main social marketing conversation.
It may be worth an extra moment of thought – adding to these usage numbers, within the last year, Reddit has also added:
- Autoplay video ads to boost attention in-stream
- Conversion tracking and data improvements to better quantify the results of your Reddit ads
- An improved ad campaign structure to maximize ad performance
- An expansion of their Promoted Posts ad option to its mobile app
With Facebook continuing to squeeze Page reach, and brands looking for new options to help augment their traffic losses, Reddit may be worth another look.