Reddit: The social-media dark horse gaining momentum with advertisers

Reddit has been around as long as Facebook, yet it has remained largely overlooked by advertisers—until now. Emerging as a late bloomer, Reddit is steadily proving itself a dark horse in the social-media advertising landscape.

Its growth is impressive. According to Singular's 2025 Return on Investment (ROI) Index, Reddit experienced 47% year-over-year user growth and achieved its first profitable year. Reddit Ads now appears on 18 top performance lists, with particularly strong results in gaming and fintech sectors.

Key to Reddit’s appeal lies in its ability to foster authentic engagement through highly engaged communities. Its organic visibility has surged as well, with a staggering 1,328% increase on Google searches from July 2023 to April 2024, making it impossible for brands to ignore.

In the APAC region, Reddit shows significant promise. GWI reports that about 60% of Reddit’s user base is now in APAC. Local subreddits such as r/India, r/Singapore, and r/Philippines have become vibrant hubs for everything from local memes to fan communities.

“Reddit's APAC footprint is growing and capturing more attention, but it still represents a relatively modest market share—hovering around 5% of our social media spend,” says Arun Kumar, director of activation & experience, APAC, Assembly. “That said, it's quickly gaining momentum, and we're exploring opportunities for sectors like gaming, tech, ecommerce and B2B, where niche communities thrive and conversations run deep.”

What makes Reddit unique?

Unlike other social media giants, Reddit operates as a full ecosystem centred on community, conversation, and cultural sorting. While platforms like Facebook and TikTok focus on algorithmic discovery and infinite scroll, Reddit’s users engage deeply around shared interests, debating, trading knowledge, and shaping subcultural identities.

“Reddit centres on topics, shared passions, and collective curiosity,” explains Miki Sim, director of platforms & culture at VaynerMedia APAC. “You don’t follow creators; you join subreddits. You don’t chase viral trends; you upvote what feels valuable and relevant. This makes Reddit a standalone force in today’s social landscape.”

For brands, this means adopting a radically different mindset—one focused on listening, learning, and meaningful participation.

“What makes Reddit so valuable in any social media mix is its ability to function as a live cultural insights engine,” Sim adds. “Reddit is a gold mine for emerging cultural signals with underpriced attention, since it’s where culture is shaped and debated before hitting mainstream, helping brands stay ahead of the trend curve across all other channels.”

Reddit in the APAC market

Despite its promise, Reddit remains a tier below dominant social-media platforms in APAC. Markets here are largely controlled by Google, Meta, TikTok, and regionally popular apps like LINE in Japan and Thailand, KakaoTalk in Korea, and WeChat in China.

“Reddit, like Pinterest, falls into that next tier. Both have engaged communities and strong in-platform behaviour but have not yet reached the scale that brands expect from their core channels,” says Hiren Kumar, strategy & planning director, Jellyfish.

With tighter budgets in APAC, marketers tend to prioritise platforms proven to drive reach and conversions. “Reddit usually does not make the first cut,” Kumar notes. “Instead, it is seen more as a niche play for brands looking to reach specific interest groups or test deeper community engagement.”

Delivering ROI and quality engagement

Although Reddit doesn’t command the lion’s share of advertising budgets, it is carving out a niche for brands seeking quality engagement over sheer volume.

“Think of it as the clever middle child of the social-media family—quiet, but influential,” says Carly O’Grady, national social lead, Kinesso Australia. “While Instagram poses, TikTok entertains, and Meta covers the bases, Reddit delivers authenticity and community depth.”

Increasingly, Reddit is viewed as a complementary channel, especially for brands aiming to drive consideration and advocacy.

“It’s rarely the ‘hero’ platform, but it plays a critical supporting role, especially in campaigns targeting niche interests, thought leaders, and decision-makers,” O’Grady explains. “As brands look deeper at a variety of metrics and seek quality conversations, Reddit is becoming less of a ‘why?’ and more of a ‘why not?’”

User engagement on Reddit in some APAC markets is notably high. According to We Are Social, Singapore ranks among Reddit’s top markets globally, with users spending an average of three hours and 56 minutes monthly on the platform and opening the app about 117 times.

“Reddit's user engagement does seem to convert into more qualified traffic at a competitive cost, which is a strong start,” says Assembly’s Kumar. “We're seeing promising signs especially with upper-funnel and traffic-driving campaigns yielding positive results. The real test will be lower-funnel performance, which we're excited to explore as Reddit rolls out more advanced ad tools. It’s not a plug-and-play channel yet, but the foundation is solid.”

Reddit has shown higher conversion rates for niche B2C and B2B campaigns where context and relevance matter more than volume.

“Fintech, crypto, gaming and consumer tech brands in particular have seen good ROI when tapping into subreddits with active self-selecting communities,” says Jellyfish’s Kumar. “However, the issue is scale. High-performing communities are limited in size, so saturation kicks in fast. While ROI may be strong, volumes remain modest.”

Navigating risks and challenges

While Reddit offers niche targeting and an audience eager to learn, explore, and buy, its anonymity and limited targeting data can be a double-edged sword.

“It forces us to get more creative,” adds Assembly’s Kumar. “Still, it makes precision trickier for brands seeking precise audience segmentation.”

Reddit users are famously resistant to overt advertising, requiring advertisers to be thoughtful and respectful with their messaging.

“On Reddit, you are not simply marketing to an audience; you are stepping into a conversation,” says Sim. “Because Reddit is an open forum driven by honest (often anonymous) commentary, brands have to be prepared with their risk management strategy.”

Reddit thrives on depth, trust, and community. Its lifeblood comes from users and moderators who live and breathe their subreddits, rather than brand gatekeepers or media publishers dictating content. For brands entering this world, the challenge is clear: earn your seat at the table by adding real value, building credibility, and respecting each community’s cultural nuances.

“The brands that succeed here tend to follow the simple rule of listening first, posting later,” says Sim. “That means spending time observing community dynamics, learning insider language, memes, rituals, and shared consumer pain points.”

Some brands have found success by contributing meaningfully. Spotify, for example, invited Reddit users to co-create emotionally themed playlists, turning passive listeners into active collaborators. Xbox used Reddit as a customer support channel, directing users to relevant threads and deepening relationships. In both cases, brands acted as participants who showed up to serve rather than sell.

Reddit’s system of upvotes, downvotes, and open threads rewards transparency and exposes anything that feels off.

“Reddit takes time and a bit of humility, so brands have to earn their place and not just show up,” says Jellyfish’s Kumar. “That often means engaging like a user, not a marketer-doing AMAs, replying to comments, or sharing content that adds real value. Some brands in the region are starting to test this with Reddit Pro, particularly in tech, gaming, and finance.”

Amaury Treguer, co-founder, Bread, says clients should approach it less like a media buy and more like joining a conversation: “Formats like 'ask me anything Q&As', long-form sponsored posts, and educational threads work well because they align with how users naturally interact. Listening first is key to understand the culture of the subreddit and ensure any engagement feels genuine, not forced.”

Kumar at Assembly APAC emphasises that advertisers must follow the audience, as with any new platform.

“Refrain from testing it just because it’s emerging. Once established, brands must prioritise authenticity, transparency, and genuine value exchange,” he says. “Success on Reddit isn’t about polished campaigns; it’s about relevance, transparency, patience, sustained testing, and sensitivity to the community-driven environment. If you earn the community’s trust, the payoff can be significant.”