2. Monitor and Strengthen Your Brand Reputation

If your brand isn’t brand new, chances are Redditors are already talking about you.

Try Googling:

• “[Your Brand]”

• “[Your Brand] reviews”

• “[Your Brand] experience”

If Reddit threads show up in the results, they’re already influencing how potential customers perceive you, and probably affecting your conversion rate.

Done right, Reddit becomes more than a reputation risk—it becomes a trust-building engine.

Here’s how to take control of the narrative, both for past mentions and future ones.

🔍 Managing Existing Reddit Mentions

• Find threads where your brand is mentioned, especially those ranking on Google.

• Join the conversation by replying directly in the thread:

  • Be calm, honest, and human—avoid corporate-speak.

  • Don’t respond defensively, even to harsh criticism.

  • Own up to past issues, if relevant, and share how you’ve improved.

• Amplify the good by thanking users for positive comments and adding context.

🧭 Staying Ahead of Future Mentions

• Use Reddit Pro to set alerts for your brand keywords.

• Monitor new conversations and respond in real-time using the same playbook above.

🚀 Bonus Moves for Proactive Reputation Building

• Write a blog post that transparently addresses common concerns and highlights recent product improvements.

• Run Reddit Ads targeting your brand keywords and link them to the blog post for context.

• Mobilize your engagement pod to upvote and comment on your replies to increase visibility and credibility.

3. Contribute High-Value Comments to Strategic Threads

Start with self-promotion on Reddit, and you’ll lose fast.

Reddit’s community is quick to downvote, report, and block anything that smells like marketing. But if you lead with value, you can build trust, visibility, and influence in the conversations that matter most to your niche.

Here’s how to do it the right way:

🔔 Set Up Keyword Alerts

• Track high-priority, non-branded keywords relevant to your industry or category.

• Tools like Reddit Pro or third-party Reddit monitors can help you catch relevant threads early.

📌 Follow and Monitor Key Subreddits

• Pick 2–3 Subreddits where your audience spends time.

• Engage consistently—Threads from these Communities will start appearing in your main feed.

💬 Add Value ASAP

• Jump into relevant threads as early as possible. Threads on Reddit have a short half-life (~24 hours), so timing matters.

• Share useful, experience-based insights rooted in your ICP or niche.

• Be specific. Be human. Be helpful.

🚫 Don’t Pitch

• Never promote your product or drop links in early-stage engagement.

• If you’re offering real value, people will check your profile—and from there, discover your brand organically.

🤝 Build Relationships with Moderators

• Carefully read Subreddit rules before posting or asking questions.

• Reach out to moderators with thoughtful questions about how you can contribute meaningfully without breaking the rules.

• Establishing goodwill here can open doors for future brand-friendly posts.

🚀 Boost Comment Visibility

• Use your engagement pod (team accounts) to upvote and reply to your brand’s comments.

• This lifts your responses to the top and signals credibility to other Redditors.

4. Promote—the Right Way

I know, I know, – I said don’t promote yourself on Reddit.

But once you’ve spent a few months adding real value, building Karma, and earning trust, you’ll have earned the right to carefully spotlight your brand—without undoing your progress.

Here’s how to promote without looking like a pro:

🎤 Host a Founder AMA (Ask Me Anything)

• Choose the most relevant Subreddit where you’ve already been active.

• Reach out to the moderators (hopefully you’ve built rapport by now).

• Let them know you’d like to host an AMA and explain your value upfront.

• Block off 2–4 hours for your founder to authentically engage and answer questions.

• Keep it honest, human, and genuinely helpful—not salesy.

📢 Share “Most Valuable Content” Threads

When your team publishes high-value, non-promotional content like original research, survey data, or industry reports, Reddit is a great place to amplify it.

• If the Subreddit allows links: Post a short summary and link directly to the content.

• If the Subreddit doesn’t allow links: Break down the key insights in a native Reddit Thread, then hyperlink contextually to the full report (if permitted).

Promoting on Reddit isn’t about pushing your product. It’s about proving your expertise and showing up with something truly useful.

Do that, and your brand can stand out without looking out of place.

5. Launch Your Own Subreddit

Commenting in existing Threads is great for visibility and SEO, but you’re still playing in someone else’s sandbox. You can’t control the keywords, the narrative, or when promotional content gets filtered out.

Creating your own Subreddit changes that.

As the moderator, you set the rules. You can create Threads optimized for specific keywords, post branded content, and shape the conversations around your niche.

Here’s how to do it right:

🧭 Choose a Strategic Topic & Community Name

• Don’t name it after your brand—make it interesting to your ideal customer profile (ICP).

• For inspiration, try starting with a the biggest existing Subreddit in your niche. Take that idea and carve out a sub-niche, one layer deeper

  • Example: Use r/Pottery as inspiration to create r/HomePottery aimed at hobbyist potters at home.

👥 Create a Few Alt Accounts (or Involve Your Team)

• You’ll need non-brand-affiliated accounts to post neutral, keyword-optimized content.

• These accounts help make your community feel more organic early on.

📆 Build a Targeted Content Calendar

Focus on two types of posts to get momentum:

• From your Brand Account:

  • Share helpful, existing brand content (e.g. blogs, guides, reports).

• From Non-Brand Accounts:

  • Post SEO-optimized threads that target high-priority keywords and attract search traffic.

🎯 Launch Your Posting Strategy

• Use your brand account to respond helpfully and naturally, including promotional content when relevant.

• Run “alley-oops”: Have a non-brand account ask a smart, keyword-rich question → then respond from your brand account with valuable input (and soft promotion).

No moderators = full freedom to promote—as long as it still provides value.

🚀 Bonus: Promote What’s Working

• If a thread starts gaining traction and includes a strong brand comment, use Reddit Ads to boost it.

• Amplify posts that already have organic engagement to maximize reach and ROI.

Reddit Ads 🎯

Why run a Reddit Ads Program:

Reddit Ads has a poor reputation among growth marketers.

The common refrain I hear is "I tried them and they didn't work."

However, we've found Reddit Ads to be competitive with Meta for more than half our clients. Most negative perceptions stem from either outdated experience with the platform or unsuccessful attempts to directly copy Meta Ads strategies onto Reddit—an approach that's destined to fail.

Here's how we make Reddit Ads work for our clients.

Direct Response

Reddit drives real conversions. Nearly half of its users don't use other social media, 40% of conversations seek recommendations and opinions, and CPMs cost 4-10x less than Meta.

Let me walk you through how we set up direct response campaigns for our Reddit clients.

Align on Conversion Event

Since Reddit knows less about its users than Meta does, you need to feed as much useful data into the algorithm as possible.

🗺️ Map your conversion funnel

• Configure your Reddit Ads reporting columns to match it

🆙 Start optimizing higher in the funnel

• Begin with campaigns that optimize for your first data-capturing event (like "Sign Up")

👇 Move deeper into your funnel over time

• As you gather more data, test optimizing for deeper funnel events until you find the most efficient setup

Get Your Creative Together

Launch each ad group with 6–9 total ad units. Use creative assets you already have, and focus on writing compelling headlines—they're more important than ad text is on Meta.

1. Select 2-3 proven creatives from other channels

   • Include a mix of formats—video, static, and carousel

2. Craft three ad headlines

   • One short, one medium, one long

3. Create your ad variations

   • Mix and match headlines with each creative

Figure Out What Targeting Works For You

Unlike other platforms, Reddit requires proactive media buying—you can't rely on broad audiences and wait for the algorithm to find customers.

1. Start with one campaign

   • Divide into 3 ad groups by targeting type

     • Community → Select 3-5 relevant Subreddits and enable "Automated Targeting" to include related Subreddits

     • Keywords → Choose your brand's most relevant non-branded keywords and enable "Automated Targeting" to include related Subreddits

     • Interest → Pick a relevant Interest Group from Reddit's options

2. Pull winning Communities into their own ad group

   • Review the "Community" breakdown to identify Subreddits with the most efficient conversions

   • Create a new ad group for top performers and remove them from your original prospecting ad group

Promoted Threads

Eventually, most brands hit a ceiling with Reddit Direct Response ads where they can't increase spend without hurting their customer acquisition cost (CAC). That's when platform-native Promoted Content becomes valuable.

Using Reddit's Free Form ad unit, you can promote questions or thought leadership that spark discussion and help shape your niche's conversation in a way that benefits your brand.

As your content accumulates Upvotes and Comments, something remarkable happens—your click-through rates skyrocket while your cost-per-click plummets. When executed properly, this creates genuine brand awareness for a fraction of the usual cost.

Thought Leadership

You've probably already invested in long-form content that shapes the narrative in your space. Let's reuse it.

🏆 Identify your best content

• Most brands use their highest-performing blog posts or founder thought leadership from LinkedIn

🍿 Make it snackable

• "Reddit-ize" it by leading with key insights and making the content scannable through bullet points, headings, and bold text. Keep it concise.

🔌 Add a subtle brand plug

• A brief bio and hyperlink at the end is sufficient

💬 Work to increase Comment count

• Respond promptly to every Comment, occasionally introducing thought-provoking perspectives to spark engagement

Comment Elicitation

You don't have to create content for your Reddit audience—you can curate it. Asking your audience to contribute to conversations is an excellent way to drive engagement while showcasing your positioning and expertise.

🧠 List out potential topics

• Use Reddit, Google Search, or your own FAQs to brainstorm questions that your ICP will care about

• Focus on the fears, controversies, predictions, and experiences of your current and former ICP members who can contribute valuable insights

🪝 Craft your hook

• Make it attention-grabbing by tapping into the emotional core of the question

🚸 Help guide commentary

• Use the body copy to provide thought starters that spark discussion, keeping it brief (1-3 sentences)

🔌 Add a subtle brand plug

• A short bio and hyperlink at the end is sufficient—avoid sounding promotional

💬 Work to increase Comment count to improve reach

• Respond promptly to every comment and ask personal follow-up questions when possible. Redditors love to share their experiences, and more comments lead to cheaper engagement rates

Measurement 🧪

Reddit drives a much higher proportion of off-platform and view-through conversions than other social platforms. To track these effectively, marketers need to zoom out and measure both direct and indirect revenue impact.

Pixel & CAPI

Track conversions on the Reddit Ads platform. We strongly recommend implementing both—Reddit's pixel misses significant conversion data due to indirect paths and longer buyer journeys.

Post-Purchase Survey

Ask users directly where they heard about you, especially when running Organic and Promoted Threads. While this adds friction, it's crucial for accurate attribution.

Branded Search

Monitor your branded search volume (when people Google your company name) in Google Search Console. Look for spikes that coincide with your Reddit campaigns. To accurately measure impact, try to concentrate your budget changes into clear increases or decreases—this makes it easier to spot corresponding changes in search volume.

Choosing Your Strategy

If you want to DIY, here's how. If you don't, start with a Reddit Strategy Sprint - a process designed to identify your brand’s unique Reddit opportunity while building a detailed playbook to help you capture it.

If you have more time than money

Start building your organic presence on Reddit. Monitor your engagement metrics closely and survey your customers to track attribution. Focus on becoming a genuine part of the community, and trust that marketing results will follow naturally over time.

If you have some money, some time

Start building your organic presence on Reddit as described in More time than money, while also experimenting with Direct Response Ads. If your daily budget is limited to 1x Target CAC, focus on one ad group targeting 3-5 of your highest-potential Subreddits. With a larger budget, expand into Keyword and Interest targeting.

If you have more money than time

Follow the Some money, some time approach while adding Promoted Content on top. Implement robust off-platform attribution tracking to measure total ROI. Focus on driving engagement in your Platform-Native content to minimize distribution costs.