Reddit as a Traffic Source for Affiliate Marketing

Reddit is a great alternative to Twitter or Facebook. According to Statista, about 1.7 billion people visit it monthly. Founded in 2005, this website is among the top-30 visited websites of all time, with the majority of the traffic volume coming from the USA.

Basically, Reddit is a social network with forum elements. Reddit Ads do not have conventional targeting options by age or gender. Communication is paramount here, and the members can start seeing red whenever they detect blatant attempts to sell something.

Reddit is based around forums, each including several Subreddits. This is what you should focus on to gain some “Karma” points, which is the difference between upvotes and downvotes. 600 Karma points would give your account some credibility and social proof. It is also important to follow the “Reddiquette” to avoid bans.

Target audience

When it comes to establishing a campaign, the topic of Subreddit will matter the most. The general portrait of a “Reddittor”: 25-30 years, with a decent income and good education. The Reddit users enjoy good sense of humor and will not tolerate any aggressive brands that try to impose themselves.

On the other hand, the respect towards the rules of the community, plus a bit of creativity is the right way to get free tips and hints on how to optimize an ad campaign and product.

Campaign preparation

Before promoting anything on Reddit, you really should get to know the basic rules of the community. There are two main ways of promoting the ads:

• Promotional posts, a.k.a. Ask me anything (AMA)
• Sidebar ads, which are unavailable under dashboard and are promoted via direct sales team

Fill in the information about your account. Under the username section, input the name of your company or offer. There are several payment models to choose from, like Cost-per-Mille, Cost-per-View, and Cost-per-Click. An average CPC is $0.1-1 for B2B. Also, note that Reddit works on a post-payment basis, so there will be no need to make a deposit. All the campaigns can be grouped into 4 categories:

• Brand Reach
• Brand Awareness
• Traffic
• Conversions

Reddit Ads

When it comes to targeting, you can pick your audience based on the GEO, Devices, Subreddits, or Topics.

GEO-targeting is set to worldwide if no country is selected. We remind you that the majority of the users are from the USA, just saying.

Same story with the devices, if no particular group is chosen, your campaigns will target all the devices. Of course, you can settle for just mobile or desktop traffic.

Subreddits are devoted to some specific topics. The advertisers can target somebody who interacted with the Subreddit recently or simply the subscribers.

Topic-based targeting is very similar to the previous option, but is somewhat more general. These topics can vary and include animals, vehicles, gambling, entertainment, fitness, traveling, etc. As you can see, gambling is not forbidden, but has to be launched through the direct sales team.

Establish your budget next. CPM is the default system, meaning you have to specify your daily budget. Usually, it is no less than $5 per day. When it comes to the total budget, the number above is simply multiplied by the number of days. CPM rate is within the range of $0.5-100, plus Reddit is allowed to spend 20% more than your daily budget suggests.

There are two ways where to redirect your leads: either to a separate website or to a Reddit post. If you need the former, pick the Link Post option and make an ad. The size of the ad text should be not more than 300 symbols and the size of the picture, not more than 1200×628.

Commentaries can be turned off, in case you are afraid of negative replies. Next is the moderation, which is conducted manually and takes about a day. In case of failing the test of moderation, you will be informed about it with a detailed reply that lists reasons for declining your campaign.

Helpful hints

When it comes to creatives in your ads, you really should pay attention to headlines and creative assets.

Redditors do read, a lot. Therefore, the headlines and messaging that manage to highlight the product benefits and offer a real value are among the top performers. When it comes to pitching your ads, treat your audience as if they were your long-standing and well-informed buddies. You should be approachable and conversational, but loyal to your brand nonetheless.

Next, feature both images and videos in your ads, because if users wanted just to read, they would go to a library. 80% of the most successful video campaigns reveal the brand logo within 3 seconds. Make sure to take it into account. Finally, here are a bunch of more tips as the cherry on the of cake:

• Leverage conversation placements — hit the places where users are most engaged.
• Use KarmaLab, Reddit’s in-house assistance team, which can help with creative support.
• Humor and culture references — Redditors will appreciate that.
• Show your knowledge of Reddit by calling out to specific Subreddits, themes etc.
• Avoid hashtags and emojis, because they are not used in the Reddit community.
• Your ads must carry real value, because Redditors are no fools.
• Show the users examples of using your product in real life: videos, screenshots, links to a website, etc.
• Try out writing “How to…” guides. They are a great source for Karma points.
• Ask to estimate the website usability. This way you will get free feedback and traffic.
• Creative rotation is as important as ever. Do not let your ideas go stale.

Conclusion

Reddit is a great platform for promoting your Tier-1-oriented products. Just remember that the users there are somewhat experienced in life and are there to have fun. If you try to ruin it with a blatant sale attempt, you will most likely gain a lot of bad reputation for yourself. If you are still not certain how to approach Reddit, check out the guidelines with best practices, made by the network creators. This way, you will always be certain of how to make your campaigns successful.