Reddit is one of the world’s most popular social sites, with more than 430 million people in several communities. And yet, with such scale and engagement, most marketers spend their time elsewhere – usually on platforms like Facebook or Google – and have only just started to test Reddit’s ad capabilities.
Reddit is different because it’s based on real dialogue and allows brands to interact directly with their audience in the moment. That makes it a potent yet little-understood platform for advertising. Done right, Reddit ads are much more than product placements; they are engagement drivers and high performers.
This guide will explain all you need to know about Reddit ads in 2025: How they work, what they look like, how much they cost, and how to make campaigns that will produce results. There are also proven best practices, ROI benchmarks, and compliance tips, which will help you operate smarter programs and get the full utility of one platform.
Reddit ads are paid placements that enable brands to reach Reddit’s active community. They are shown natively in feeds and subreddit conversations, along with organic posts, so they don’t feel as invasive but read more like a natural conversation.
In contrast to organic posts – written by redditors and amplified by upvotes and comments – paid advertisements are handled via Reddit Ads Manager. They enable targeted advertising by subreddit, interest, or demographic.
Brands use Reddit because it gets them into niche communities where opinions are shaped and buying habits formed by conversations. When they are integrated into the authentic tone of the site, ads drive real engagement and trust.
Reddit ads function via an organized campaign framework, just like with other online advertising platforms. Campaigns are divided into three tiers: the general campaign, ad groups, and specific ads. This organization helps marketers manage budgets, tweak targeting, and test various creatives with accuracy.
Targeting is Reddit’s most compelling feature. Advertisers can target users by:
The way that Reddit delivers ads follows an auction system. It offers payment options, including CPC (cost-per-click), CPM ( cost-per-thousand impressions), or CPV (cost-per-view) when it comes to video advertisements. The site facilitates the most relevant advertisements to be shown and also lets the advertisers manage the expenditure based on campaign goals and intended outcomes.
Reddit ads are made to appear like normal posts and thus come across as natural within the community. They can be displayed in home feeds, subreddits, or top-tier placements such as banners. Formats range from promoted posts, video ads, carousel ads, to display ads.
What distinguishes them is their native appearance. Ads have the same structure as regular posts – titles, pictures, and links – and can be commented on, upvoted, or downvoted.
This format makes advertisements less intrusive and more interactive. When designed genuinely, they don’t simply advertise – they invite conversation with Redditors, gaining the brand’s credibility and trust.
Reddit has different types of ads, which enable the brands to interact with specific groups without interrupting the natural flow of conversation on the site. The main types of ads are summarized below, and some advertisement examples of the actual style of the ads are presented to demonstrate how the business world is utilizing them in 2025.
Promoted Posts are regular posts displayed within feeds and subreddits with the tag of promoted added. The most suitable is when it comes to the traffic and engagement drives.
Example: A clothing brand used Promoted Posts on the r/malefashionadvice subreddit to advertise a new line of clothing. The advertisements were intrinsically connected to feeds and directed the viewer to the company’s site using a clear call to action.
Autoplay videos that appear in feeds are the best to use when telling stories or creating product introductions.
Example: A Video game maker has advertised in r/gaming, showing a video preview of an upcoming release. The immersive nature created excitement and engagement among potential players.
Read more about: The Ultimate Guide to Video Advertising
Swipeable image cards also allow the advertiser to advertise one or more features, products, or promotions within the same campaign.
Example: A retailer featured a product range of 3–6 swipeable images, each labeled with captions and specific URLs, pushing traffic to various landing pages.
Read more about: Retail Media: Strategies, Trends, and Top Networks
Premium banners appear in high-traffic areas like the sidebar of the home page on Reddit.
Example: Display Ads are used by big brands to conduct mass awareness programs to reach a large number of people, both on desktop and mobile.
Sponsored Posts appear between subreddit feeds, but with a promoted label, and will encourage organic commenting and participation.
Example: Adobe used Sponsored Posts and Video Ads in the subreddits that focused on design, where natural engagement was achieved by discussing designers.
Read more about: Sponsored Content Marketing: Everything you need to know
These instances demonstrate how Reddit’s varied ad formats allow brands to customize storytelling, drive traffic, and create genuine engagement in targeted communities.
The cost of Reddit advertisement in 2025 will depend on the pricing model you decide to use: CPM (cost per thousand views), CPC (cost per Click), or CPV (cost per view on video). The average CPM rates will range between $0.50 and 3.50, and the average CPC will be between 0.20 and 1.50 based on the competition level. Video ads are typically placed on CPV, at an average price of less than $0.10 per view, and are one of the cheaper video placements in social media.
The required minimum of spending on Reddit is 5 USD per day, yet even small brands have the opportunity to experiment with new campaigns. The end prices are based on:
Reddit is typically less expensive to reach and engage with than Google and Facebook, especially in small communities where organic conversation drives success. Facebook may offer a larger volume, and Google is highly effective at search-based promotion, but Reddit offers a unique combination of cost-effectiveness, niche marketing, and unpaid outreach, so it is a good option both in testing and scaling campaigns.
Reddit Ads Manager is the hub of campaign management, authoring, and monitoring of ad campaigns. It is simple to start with, and the site provides both flexibility to small businesses and big brands.
Create a Reddit Business account, and sign in to Ads Manager. You will enter some company information, billing information, and select a goal of your ad (awareness, traffic, conversions, or app installs).
Design a campaign, and then ad groups and ads inside of it. The hierarchy helps marketers to test audiences, creatives, and budgets.
Reddit enables targeted marketing through:
Select the time of your advertisements and the start and finish dates. Maximize bid on target results like impressions, clicks, or conversions.
When using the native analytics capabilities of Reddit, track CTR, CPM, conversions, and engagements. Examine these metrics in order to optimize better targeting, creative, and budget to achieve better performance over time.
All Reddit ads go through a review process to make sure they are okay with the platform’s advertising policies before going live. Approval usually takes a matter of hours, although there are times when it can take up to 24 hours based on volume and the complexity of your campaign.
The following affect whether your ad will be approved:
Maintain the accuracy of your content, abide by the subreddit rules, and avoid the use of spammy wording to avoid rejections. Use clear calls to action, ensure that graphics are relevant, and also ensure that landing pages are in line with what you state in your advertisement. When these steps are followed, it will quicken the approval process and reduce the chances of costly delays.
Are Reddit ads worth it? Yes – when targeted well, they provide high engagement at lower prices than a lot of other platforms.
Average CTRs are between 0.1% and 0.3%. Lower than Facebook, but often from strongly interested users, making the conversions worth more. Cheaper CPMs compared to Twitter and more in-depth conversations in specialized communities.
Case Study: A fitness brand implemented promoted posts and video ads on r/Fitness. Results indicated a 25% decrease in CPC compared to Facebook and better engagement with comments, validating Reddit’s potential for genuine community-driven ROI.
Though Reddit ads are made to blend in with the community, there are users who prefer to browse without them. On desktops, ads can be blocked through browser-based ad-blocking systems such as uBlock Origin or AdBlock Plus. These prevent promoted posts, banners, and display placements throughout the site.
On the mobile platform, ad blocking is harder as Reddit does not have an in-app feature for this. Others use third-party applications or hacked clients, but these might not be supported and can compromise security.
It’s important to mention that ad blocking may inhibit Reddit’s capacity to provide more targeted future campaigns. In the absence of impression data or interaction, ad targeting is compromised. From the advertiser’s perspective, this underscores the need to build honest, value-driven ads to which audiences will want to attend and not ignore or block.
The success of advertising on Reddit cannot occur with running advertisements, but rather with human interaction with the community. In contrast to other ad networks, Reddit favors content that sounds natural and can be integrated into the life of the platform.
By being authentic and engaging as well as continually optimized, the brands can create Reddit ads that will not only capture attention but also be capable of forming enduring relationships between target communities.
Reddit has strict advertising policies, including prohibitions on certain industries such as alcohol, gambling, adult content, and certain financial services. Breaking these guidelines can result in ad rejection or account suspension.
Purchasing Reddit accounts to use to place ads is dangerous and against the terms of the platform. It can lead to wasted spend and permanent bans.
The safer choice is to utilize official Reddit Business accounts and Ads Manager. Adhering to Reddit’s verified resources and links is a measure of compliance, safety for your brand, and assistance for long-term marketing success.
Reddit stands out as one platform where authenticity equals results. As opposed to mainstream social platforms, it survives on real conversation, so it is only natural that brands that prioritize engagement and trust would find it a perfect platform to use. With ad forms that perfectly integrate into the community, marketers are able to reach their audience in places where decisions are made and opinions are formed.
For companies looking into new means of reaching out to prospective customers, Reddit is a low-cost and highly focused answer. Whether through sponsored posts or video ads, the mechanisms exist to generate conversation and bring about measurable results.
The easiest way to begin is straightforward: pilot small campaigns, measure performance, and iterate on tactics with Reddit’s native data. The farther you go, the easier – and more satisfying – it becomes to scale when you have ads that resonate genuinely with the communities where it counts.
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