Reddit 102: What Audience Uses Reddit?

Reddit has been operating online for over thirteen years—practically ancient, in Internet years. So what? That age means the platform has had a lot of time to develop an audience and style. Even as the Internet has evolved, the platform has retained its popularity. It is currently the fifth most popular social media platform operating online.

But as an advertising platform, Reddit probably isn’t the first social strategy you think of.

How can you know whether or not Reddit is the right advertising platform for you? Unlike the Big Four, Reddit attracts more specific audiences, with its subreddits allowing for hyper-specific interactions.

The best way to determine your compatibility with the platform is to assess its audience. Let’s look into Reddit’s statistics to help you decide whether or not it might be a good fit for your next ad campaign.

TIL: Reddit has a Brainiac History

Mark Zuckerberg may have popularized the youth takeover of the Internet’s social spaces, but he was not alone. Reddit, as one of the Internet’s prolific forums, came from the 22-year-old brains of two University of Virginia graduates: Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman. Their initial aim was straightforward: they wanted to create a forum space in which people with niche interests could interact.

Nowadays, Reddit has retained that initial core, but it has spiked in popularity. It is now a haven for a stunning number of people, generating 168 billion views per year.

If you can harness that kind of attention, you’ll be able to draw a fair number of eyes to your business.

So, Who is Reddit’s Demographic?

Who uses this platform? According to Pew Research’s 2016 poll, the vast majority of Reddit’s users are between the ages of 24 and 34. Similarly, over two-thirds of Reddit users are men.

That demographic divide increased when Pew asked users who among them used the site for daily news updates. When broken down this way, the poll revealed that 71 percent of the men using the site access it to learn more about international and national news.

In the same vein as the rest of this research, the Pew poll also revealed that over half of Reddit’s users are based in the United States.

What Kind of Attention Are You Looking For?

What does that mean for potential advertisers?

As is the case with Reddit, the kind of attention your ad draws will depend on where you’ve posted it. The different subreddits on the platform draw different demographics, allowing you to tailor your ads based on where they’re shared.

That said, ads aimed at young male audiences are likely to do the best on Reddit regardless of the subreddit they’re shared in. Whereas ads on Facebook or Instagram will reach a more diversified audience, Reddit proves it’s an ideal platform for gendered advertising—so long as that advertising is expressed after the advertiser has garnered consumer trust.

Reddit ads are likely to generate even more clicks if they’re mobile-accessible, but it’s the demographic divide that really sets the platform apart.

This isn’t to say that ads directed toward female audiences won’t find success on Reddit. However,  because audience engagement is so important to ad conversion, you might want to think through your ideal audience before considering Reddit.

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