Millennials and Gen Zers are set to dominate B2B buying committees this year, so keeping up with them is a must.
More than knowing the latest trends, we must continually assess:
- Where this target audience is. (What platforms are they on?)
- Where they are engaging with content.
- What type of material they are consuming.
- And most importantly, how to win their trust and keep it.
On the flip side, all marketers know many platforms today are overcrowded with advertisers.
This is an uphill battle for B2B marketers competing against the often punchier and eye-grabbing creative for B2C brands.
Enter Reddit Ads. B2B marketers can leverage Reddit to stand out from the crowd and stay in front of target audiences.
This article will outline tactical recommendations if you want to test the platform for the first time or need help to improve current campaigns.
1. Conversation placement ads > standard ads
Why use standard promoted ads when you can engage prospects when they are the most engaged?
Conversation placement ads, positioned immediately after the original post and before the first comment, were created in 2021 to get brands where users spend most of their time – in a conversation thread.
Picture this. You’re a business interested in placing an ad on Reddit.
You go to the platform, learn about “Google Ads” and navigate to a conversation thread comparing three solutions you believe are right for your business.
Surprise, you can place your ad right there to add more information about your business.
Since Reddit ranks organically, this increases your chances of showing up at the right time, especially when prospects are actively researching – particularly important for niche searches or verticals.
2. Instead of uploading emails lists, create website remarketing pools
B2B marketers love good email remarketing. While it’s available on Reddit, match rates for business emails are very low.
Since email domains are not a popular option – unless you are paying for a solution like Liveramp – there is only one other alternative.
Set up the Reddit pixel across your website. You only need 50 users to start promoting your ads, and you can say hello to untapped niche audiences.
The Reddit pixel is also a great window to confirm your best audience, whether it’s your current customers (if you have a login section on your website) or customers who land on your confirmation page (if you are a B2B ecommerce site).
Other advantages of using the Reddit pixel include:
- Ability to set up lookback windows between 1 and 90 days.
- Option to include and exclude pixel events to make sure you are not overlapping audiences
- Flexible conversion events ranging from pageviews and view content to lead and purchase.
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3. Find the right subreddits to target
Reddit is formed by communities called subreddits, typically denoted by a “r/” prefix preceding the category’s name.
Subreddits can also be bucketed into larger topics, for example, gaming, crypto, or television, among many others.
You might be wondering how to find the best subreddits to place your ads.
This interactive tool allows users to map out subreddits and see how they connect to other related or more specific subreddits.
For example, you can start by searching for the r/emailmarketing subreddit, and the tool will auto-generate a web of related subreddits, which you can then sort by category (i.e., new, hot, rising, and top).
For marketers, this means easily finding niche audiences that fall under subreddits you may otherwise not have known existed.
On the map above, the starting category is marketing automation which is highly correlated to other big categories such as digital marketing, email marketing, content marketing, and growth hacking.
But the map indicates that marketing automation can also be tied to more niche subreddits such as CRM, B2B SaaS, B2B marketing, and HubSpot, to name a few.
4. Content is king
While all the tactics we’ve reviewed are very helpful performance drivers, at the end of the day, a truly successful Reddit ad is contingent upon content quality.
Reddit users visit the platform to find “their people” – communities with a shared interest.
These communities are the lifeblood of the platform and the source of the raw, honest information users seek.
As marketers, we simply can’t use the same whitepaper or demo we might leverage on Google or LinkedIn Ads.
This doesn’t mean advertising on Reddit or creating powerful content for Reddit has to cost you a lot of money.
Rather, we need to shift our mindset to creating content that will be engaging and interactive, such as:
- Free trials: The Reddit community is all about learning about new products or brands, so let them try you for free! No strings attached. This will boost conversion rates and puts you in a position to target niche communities and untapped audiences.
- Alphas or betas: Get honest feedback you can then upsell. This is magic content for B2B promotions via Reddit Ads. You can also set up a sales nurture track with your business development and product teams (it wins you points internally, too!) to automate follow-up time and get prospects on the phone engaged with the right stakeholders, which makes the prospect feel like a partner versus just another lead. Win-win!
5. Control is key: Inventory types for sensitive B2B markets
Some industries are deemed sensitive within the B2B umbrella (i.e., healthcare, government, and pharmaceutical).
Controlling where your content might appear is of the utmost importance if you’re part of one of these industries.
To address this, Reddit released a feature called “inventory type” in 2020, which allows you to control your reach within the platform.
There are three inventory types on Reddit:
- Expanded inventory.
- Standard inventory.
- Limited inventory.
The limited inventory category, created in partnership with Oracle Data Cloud’s contextual intelligence, goes through Reddit rules and systems and third-party filtering, thanks to Oracle. This ensures advertisers can strengthen their brands through a regulated approach.
Many marketers have also expressed concerns about brand safety on Reddit, which often stem from a lack of understanding and the misconception that Reddit ads can appear almost anywhere and in any community.
This isn’t true. Ads on Reddit can only appear in hand-picked communities, and you can even enable or disable comments on your ads.
For even more control, marketers can include or exclude audiences so only the right people to see your ads.
Your target audience is very likely on Reddit!
Sometimes an overlooked platform, Reddit is a great opportunity for B2B advertisers to reach niche communities while strategically diversifying media plans.
Wondering if your audience is on the platform? Reddit is the fifth most visited website in the U.S., according to Semrush.
Follow the tactics outlined above and experiment with what’s possible on Reddit. It just may be the opportunity you’ve been looking for to fuel your marketing efforts.
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