B2B startup marketing is often about getting noticed. That’s no easy task in today’s cluttered marketing world. But done right, Reddit’s advertising platform can give your B2B startup a good boost.

The trick, of course, is in creating ads that work with Reddit’s unique user base. Here is a quick introduction to what to do and what not to do.

Get Familiar With Reddit

Reddit.com often boasts it is “the front page of the internet.” While that may sound a bit puffed up, it’s not far from the truth. According to Alexa, Reddit is the #7 website in the US and the #24 website in the world. Reddit ranks above some other sites you may have heard of, like Twitter, eBay, and Netflix.

Reddit boasts 234 million unique users and 8 billion monthly pageviews. This audience can be a particularly great match for B2B startups due to the user base’s tech-savvy, news-oriented, smart and young demographic. While the character and audience for individual subreddits (topic-themed forums) can vary a lot, the typical user is male, 35 years old, American, with an income of $70,000 a year.

Reddit can be overwhelming for newbies, so it’s a good idea to spend some time getting acquainted with the site and various subreddit communities before investing in ads. Redditors aren’t opposed to valuable, well-tailored advertising efforts. But the community has a reputation for turning up its nose at shameless self-promotion.

Sign up for an account and start lurking in popular subreddit forums and those relevant to your business niche. The site as a whole has rules for users, and each subreddit has its Reddit rules or Reddiquette on top of those. Start liking, commenting, and posting your own posts when you get comfortable. You’ll know you’re on the right track if you gain karma, a gamified point approval system.

Plan an Ad Strategy

When you’ve started to get the hang of Reddit, you’ll want to start planning your ad campaign strategy. Sitewide, there’s a particular tone that tends to do well with all redditors (Reddit users) — interesting, lighthearted, epiphany moments, and/or conversation-starting. You can get a sense of this from the site’s front page content (the most popular content by karma point ranking). However, for each subreddit community, there’s often a unique tone and mood you’ll have to figure out and adhere to.

To get started finding communities that would be interested in your business, start a search for a particular subreddit, or a content keyword search. Another technique is to use a 3rd party tool like metareddit to find subreddits you may want to target with a campaign. These tools are a big help since Reddit boast over 10,000 active subreddit communities.

When you find a particularly promising subreddit, there are a few things to look out for. The best subreddits to target are active with a sizable number of users. Subreddits that haven’t seen a post or discussion in weeks or months may be defunct.

Learn about your target subreddits from the right sidebar. This area lists the number of subscribed redditors, FAQs, community rules, and the usernames of subreddit forum moderators. You may want to observe how moderators run the subreddit and reach out with a direct message before posting content.

Build Your First Campaign

Feel like you have the hang of it? Head over to Reddit’s advertising page to get started creating your own campaign. There’s a lot of information here to walk new advertisers through the process, including ad requirements, best practices, audience, etc.

Your ad will appear as the top post for a particular subreddit. Text post ads and link ads are allowed, both with an option image thumbnail. Reddit uses an auction-based ad platform for its self-serve ads, with the minimum spend starting at $5. CPM is the only cost model option.

One unique benefit of Reddit advertising worth pointing out is timing. While targeting for a platform like Facebook may help you reach a user demographic who likes widgets, there’s no guarantee that user will want to see your ad about widgets during your widget campaign. But with Reddit, users are navigating to a particular subreddit to consume content on widgets. And that’s when they see your ad for widgets.That’s nice timing.

Optimize and Repeat

Like any new advertising medium, especially one that’s self-serve, you may not succeed on your first attempt. The byzantine nature of Reddit’s rules and culture can make it hard to hit a home run your first time.

That’s why measurement, optimization, and iteration are important for Reddit ad campaigns. Analyze the comments and feedback on your ad, the traffic brought to your site and its behavior, and your campaign’s marketing impact. Make adjustments and try again.

Though Reddit may not be the first site marketers think of, it’s not one to sleep on. Many brands have great success with Reddit advertising because they’ve figured out the right mix of content and strategy. With a little experimentation, you too could rule Reddit advertising.

Need help with Reddit’s advertising platform? Call us at 313-338-9515 or email hello@kaleidico.com to learn how we can help.