Reddit boosts SMB appeal with brand profile tools

The news: Reddit added profile tools for businesses, tapping into the growing brand advertising activity on its platform.

• Reddit can generate suggested profile bios for Reddit Pro businesses based on their websites.
• Businesses can pin relevant community posts or comments on their Reddit profiles and crosspost discussions about their brands.

Prime ad spot: Reddit stated in a blog post that over half of all online purchasing conversations take place on its platform, positioning it as a valuable location for marketing campaigns. Its emphasis on brand safety can help boost its appeal for advertisers. Other measures include:

• Partnering with Integral Ad Science (IAS) to give brands in-depth information on viewability, invalid traffic (IVT), and brand suitability metrics to increase advertisers’ trust in its content.
• Increasing its investments in both human moderation and AI tools.
• Working with DoubleVerify to give advertisers measurements on ad viewability and third-party transparency on ad placements.

The benefits: Reddit’s tools for businesses are paying off.

• Total Q1 ad revenues reached $358.6 million, up 61% YoY.
• The company reported growing traction with mid-market and small and medium-sized business advertisers, showing its reach extends beyond just large enterprises.

The stakes: While SMBs are hopping on board, Reddit is still lower overall on brands’ list for high-value marketing channels.

Only 3% of global technology marketers think Reddit delivers the best organic value as a social media platform, per CMI, compared with 93% for LinkedIn and 24% for YouTube. Making it easier for companies to set up ad profiles could help it capitalize on SMB interest and attract new customers.

Moving forward: Reddit could also explore a guided profile setup wizard for business accounts that walks brands through finding relevant subreddits to engage with and helps them understand its tone and culture to maximize campaigns.