Reddit Marketing: The Complete 2026 Playbook (Reddit Experts Weigh In)

[00:00] Reddit just hit 121 million daily active
[00:03] users and most marketers are still
[00:05] ignoring it. That is a massive audience
[00:07] hiding in plain sight. The brands that
[00:09] figure out how Reddit actually works are
[00:11] printing traffic, building trust, and
[00:13] ranking on Google. The ones that don't
[00:15] are getting banned in their first week.
[00:17] I sat down with three people who figured
[00:18] it out and in this video they're going
[00:20] to help me and give me their complete
[00:21] Reddit playbook. Here's what is
[00:23] happening right now. According to
[00:25] Reddit's latest earnings report, their
[00:27] revenue jumped 70% last quarter to $726
[00:31] million. Their advertiser base grew 75%.
[00:35] Google is paying Reddit $60 million a
[00:37] year to surface Reddit content in search
[00:39] results and Reddit posts are showing up
[00:42] everywhere. In AI answer engines, in
[00:44] Google's featured snippets, in the
[00:46] discussions and forums carousel. This is
[00:49] not the Reddit of 5 years ago. This is a
[00:51] platform that's becoming the internet's
[00:53] trust layer. And if you stay until the
[00:55] end, I will give you a complete 90-day
[00:57] playbook to build Reddit into a real
[01:00] marketing channel for your business
[01:02] step-by-step. So, why should you care
[01:03] about Reddit in 2026? You have
[01:05] Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, why add
[01:08] another platform? Because Reddit is no
[01:10] longer just a forum. It is becoming a
[01:12] search engine. Think about how you
[01:14] search for things now. When you want to
[01:15] know the best CRM for a small team or
[01:18] whether a product is actually worth
[01:20] buying, what do you do? You add Reddit
[01:23] to the end of your Google search. I
[01:25] asked Ross Simmons about this. He's been
[01:27] doing Reddit marketing since 2016 and
[01:30] literally wrote the book on it.
[01:31] >> For years, there was not a lot of people
[01:33] who wanted to talk to me when I would
[01:34] discuss Reddit. They thought I was
[01:36] crazy, that I was completely out to
[01:37] lunch. But if you fast forward to
[01:39] probably 2 years ago, there was a shift
[01:42] in a tide that kind of changed in the
[01:43] water. Specifically, it was connected to
[01:45] Google and Reddit coming out publicly
[01:48] with an announcement that they were
[01:49] going to have a partnership. And as a
[01:51] part of that partnership, there was an
[01:53] increase in SERP visibility of
[01:56] reddit.com. So, for the last few years,
[01:59] we've been tracking and monitoring
[02:00] Reddit and how visible it is in the SERP
[02:02] because we started to pick up on a
[02:04] simple nuance. And that was that the
[02:05] vast majority of people were starting to
[02:08] shift the way that they searched for
[02:10] answers to questions like, "What's the
[02:12] best mattress? What's the best CRM?"
[02:14] They were adding the word Reddit because
[02:16] they wanted to hear from people. Google
[02:18] picked up on this trend, too. And when
[02:20] they realized that, they decided to
[02:22] become partners with Reddit, and that
[02:24] resulted in more traffic going to
[02:26] reddit.com than pretty much any site for
[02:29] a short period of time.
[02:30] >> And it goes beyond Google. Ross brought
[02:32] up something that a lot of people are
[02:34] not talking about yet.
[02:35] >> When Google and Reddit launched this
[02:36] partnership, more and more brands
[02:38] started to recognize there was an
[02:39] opportunity there. But then it got
[02:41] compounded even further because the data
[02:43] started to show that LLMs were using
[02:46] Reddit as a primary source. Whether you
[02:48] look at ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude,
[02:50] Grok, you name it, the vast majority of
[02:52] the large language models were citing
[02:54] content on Reddit, and it was impacting
[02:57] buyers on a day-to-day basis. So,
[02:59] marketing teams, C-suite specifically,
[03:02] woke up to the power of this channel
[03:05] that is very much powered by humans.
[03:07] >> So, Reddit is influencing how people
[03:09] find you on Google and how AI tools
[03:12] recommend you. This is exactly why
[03:14] HubSpot hired Krista Doyle to build out
[03:16] their first ever Reddit strategy.
[03:18] >> My name is Krista Doyle, and I have been
[03:21] in organic marketing for over 10 years.
[03:24] The mostly has been in
[03:27] SEO and content strategy and community.
[03:30] So, I've sort of like lived at the
[03:31] intersection of those three things. I've
[03:33] been super lucky. I've gotten to work
[03:35] for, you know, B2C companies like
[03:37] Twitter, AI companies like Jasper, and
[03:40] then most recently, I was at HubSpot
[03:42] helping them build out their
[03:44] first-ever Reddit specific strategy
[03:47] as part of their overall AI search
[03:50] efforts. And then
[03:53] I was there for about a year, um and
[03:54] now, a few months ago, I've just started
[03:56] my own Reddit strategy consultancy. Um
[04:00] so, now I'm kind of helping other
[04:01] companies do exactly what I did at
[04:03] HubSpot. I mean, the major benefits of
[04:05] Reddit for AI search, um
[04:08] obviously, like Reddit has deals with
[04:11] Google and OpenAI where they are
[04:14] training on its content. Um
[04:17] and so,
[04:20] when you're there engaging consistently,
[04:22] um the any conversations you're taking
[04:24] part in are naturally going to be fodder
[04:27] for um any of these AI search tools. Um
[04:31] and so, you know, that's why it's so
[04:32] important because if you want AI search
[04:35] to recommend you,
[04:37] um not only just recommend you, but
[04:39] recommend you the correct way, uh the
[04:42] way you want it to, um
[04:44] then, you know, that's why you want to
[04:46] be in Reddit um talking about the things
[04:48] that are important to your company and
[04:49] your brand.
[04:50] >> Let that sink in. 85% of how AI tools
[04:53] talk about your brand comes from
[04:55] third-party sources, places like Reddit.
[04:58] If you're not in those conversations,
[05:00] someone else is shaping your story for
[05:02] you. And here is the number that should
[05:04] get your attention from a pure business
[05:06] standpoint. Reddit's average revenue per
[05:08] user increased 42% last quarter. Each
[05:11] Reddit user is becoming more valuable to
[05:13] advertisers, which means the audience is
[05:15] engaged, spending money, and paying
[05:17] attention. But here is what makes Reddit
[05:20] truly different from every other
[05:21] platform. On Reddit, your reach is
[05:24] determined by the quality of what you
[05:26] post, not the size of your following. A
[05:29] brand new account with zero followers
[05:31] could get a post seen by 100,000 people
[05:34] if the content is genuinely valuable,
[05:36] and that is the opportunity. Now, here
[05:38] is where most marketers mess up
[05:40] completely. They treat Reddit like every
[05:42] other social platform. Post a link, add
[05:44] some hashtags, wait for clicks, and then
[05:46] they get downvoted into oblivion or
[05:48] banned outright. And look, that fear is
[05:51] real. When I talk to marketers about
[05:53] Reddit, the number one thing I hear is,
[05:55] "I'm scared of getting banned." Krista
[05:57] hears the same thing.
[05:58] >> A lot of um hesitancy and nervousness
[06:01] around this topic right now. So, a lot
[06:03] of companies will come to me very
[06:05] interested in Reddit, but super hesitant
[06:08] because they're either really
[06:10] intimidated by how nuanced the platform
[06:14] is and how kind of potentially risky it
[06:17] could be, or they're hesitant cuz they
[06:19] just don't know how to get started, and
[06:21] they don't know how to prove out the
[06:23] value of Reddit as a marketing channel
[06:25] in order to get, you know, buy-in or
[06:27] budget or any of that kind of stuff. So,
[06:30] really what people are coming to me
[06:32] wanting first is, "How do we get
[06:35] started?" And where should we be
[06:37] engaging, what should that engagement
[06:39] look like, how do we avoid getting
[06:42] banned, um should we start a brand
[06:44] subreddit, should we not? So, really
[06:46] just like
[06:48] Reddit 101 type of information people
[06:51] are looking for from the beginning.
[06:53] >> And Ross has a different perspective on
[06:54] getting banned because he has been
[06:56] banned a lot.
[06:57] >> I've been banned probably 18 times over
[07:00] my lifetime on Reddit, and the
[07:02] difference between me and many others is
[07:05] that I kept coming back with new
[07:07] insights around what the community
[07:08] wanted. Most people get banned once and
[07:10] they're gone. They're like, "I give up.
[07:11] This place is not for me." What I think
[07:13] you need to do is take a couple L's.
[07:15] It's okay to lose once in a while, but
[07:17] learn why you took that L. Maybe you
[07:20] didn't read the rules for why you got
[07:23] banned from that subreddit. Maybe you
[07:25] used a massive M dash when you shouldn't
[07:28] right now on Reddit because it's a
[07:29] filter that's signaling that this might
[07:31] have been written with AI. Maybe you
[07:33] decided that you were going to hire
[07:34] someone who doesn't actually know a lot
[07:36] about Reddit, and they just spammed a
[07:37] bunch of communities with your links,
[07:38] and now your entire brand is wiped off
[07:40] of the internet when it comes to Reddit.
[07:42] You You learn the hard way. So, my
[07:44] advice to folks is to one, start by
[07:47] actually embracing the fact that you
[07:49] should probably work with an expert,
[07:50] someone who knows it, has embraced it,
[07:52] and has used it for a long time. Or,
[07:55] just use it as a channel to listen, to
[07:57] learn. Spend the first month just
[07:59] observing how Reddit interacts with your
[08:02] brand.
[08:03] >> See, I love that. Take a couple L's,
[08:05] learn why, come back better. That is the
[08:07] mindset. So, here is what you need to
[08:09] understand about Reddit's culture before
[08:11] you post anything. First, the community
[08:13] comes before you. Every subreddit is its
[08:16] own micro community with its own rules,
[08:19] its own tone, its own unwritten
[08:21] expectations. What works in the
[08:23] marketing subreddit will get you roasted
[08:25] in the entrepreneur subreddit. You have
[08:27] to read the room before you open your
[08:29] mouth. Krista put it really well when we
[08:30] talked about posting in different
[08:32] communities.
[08:33] >> Really, it depends on It varies
[08:35] subreddit to subreddit. So, some
[08:38] subreddits have more strict guidelines
[08:40] around what they consider high-quality
[08:42] content, um and others are just way more
[08:45] loose. So, definitely make sure to read
[08:47] the rules and and the community
[08:49] guidelines. Um but But, honestly, it's
[08:53] it would be similar to, you know, is it
[08:55] the type of quality that you would be
[08:57] comfortable posting on LinkedIn or um
[09:01] your blog? Maybe not necessarily like
[09:04] exactly, you know, worded the exact
[09:06] same, but like is it Is it good, helpful
[09:09] information? Um is it relevant to the
[09:12] subreddit and the topics that they talk
[09:14] about frequently? Um is it
[09:17] conversational and friendly? I think
[09:19] tone, like understanding the tone of the
[09:22] subreddit you're in, is huge.
[09:24] >> Second, karma's everything. Karma is
[09:26] Reddit's reputation system. You earn it
[09:29] by posting and commenting things that
[09:31] other people find valuable. They upvote
[09:33] you, your karma goes up. You post
[09:35] garbage, they downvote you, and your
[09:37] karma drops. Many subreddits have
[09:39] minimum karma requirements to even post,
[09:42] so you cannot just create an account and
[09:44] start marketing. You have to earn the
[09:46] right to speak. According to Sprout
[09:48] Social's 2026 research, nearly one in
[09:50] three social media users now turn to
[09:53] Reddit specifically to connect with
[09:55] niche communities. These people are not
[09:57] casually scrolling. They're actively
[10:00] looking for real answers from real
[10:02] people. And third, the give before you
[10:03] get rule. Krista has a great way of
[10:05] framing this.
[10:06] >> I would say your first two to three
[10:08] months are strictly trust building. Like
[10:11] this is an upfront investment
[10:13] [clears throat] in building your
[10:14] credibility in the right communities, in
[10:16] the right places,
[10:18] um and adding value to the communities
[10:20] that are important to you.
[10:22] Once you do sort of have that
[10:25] credibility established,
[10:28] it's not that
[10:30] it's not that Reddit hates, you know,
[10:33] marketers necessarily. It just hates
[10:37] when marketers come in with the
[10:39] intention of getting and not giving. And
[10:42] so, I think it's really all about like
[10:45] you get what you give. And so, if you
[10:47] put in the time and you give the energy,
[10:51] then when you do occasionally drop a
[10:54] mention of your brand or, you know, um
[10:57] talk specifically about a scenario that
[11:00] you've seen on your team and mention
[11:02] your brand, people are going to be like
[11:05] very open to that.
[11:08] >> understandable why you would be afraid.
[11:10] But the only reason why you should
[11:12] continue to be afraid is if you were
[11:14] going in with a selfish intention. If
[11:16] you go into Reddit and you have the
[11:18] belief that you actually can add value
[11:20] to the communities in which you want to
[11:22] show up in, you'll win. But you have to
[11:24] understand the rules of the subreddit
[11:26] before you join.
[11:27] >> Both of them said the same thing
[11:28] independently. If you go in to give, you
[11:31] win. If you go in to take, you get
[11:33] banned. That is the entire game. All
[11:35] right, let's get tactical. Here's your
[11:36] step-by-step system for turning Reddit
[11:38] into a real growth channel. Step one,
[11:41] set up your account the right way. And
[11:42] this is where I want to start with
[11:44] something that both Ross and Krista feel
[11:45] strongly about, transparency.
[11:47] >> My stance is that brands should be very
[11:51] transparent. So, I think brands should
[11:54] start from a place of, you know,
[11:57] talking from the standpoint of we are
[12:00] team
[12:02] X brand um or from, you know, I am a
[12:05] team member at this company. Um so, I
[12:08] generally recommend at least having a
[12:11] like a team account. So, let's just
[12:13] continue to use HubSpot as an example.
[12:15] So, like I would recommend having like a
[12:18] HubSpot team handle, um but then if you
[12:20] wanted a individual handle for someone
[12:24] to engage with as an individual, um then
[12:27] I would maybe do um something that's
[12:29] sort of still transparent, but like
[12:31] Krista at HubSpot or something that kind
[12:34] of clearly states who you are.
[12:36] Um that's typically where I lean. Um
[12:39] I know that anonymous accounts have been
[12:41] really popular in the past, but um
[12:45] they just are coming off um very spammy
[12:48] now and like Reddit and all the
[12:50] moderators and stuff are really
[12:51] tightening up um and getting really
[12:54] strict about anonymous accounts that
[12:56] seem like they are marketers. Um so, I
[12:59] would avoid that for sure with account
[13:00] set up.
[13:01] >> I think you have to embrace the
[13:03] transparency. I think by being
[13:04] transparent, it elevates your brand. If
[13:07] you can go in again and be fully
[13:09] transparent about the fact that you
[13:11] represent this organization and this
[13:12] company, it's going to give goodwill to
[13:15] the company. The other thing that I like
[13:17] about this strategy versus like the
[13:19] anonymous accounts and just like
[13:20] creating random accounts and going in
[13:22] and engaging is it actually establishes
[13:24] a little bit more brand equity for the
[13:26] business. Where someone who runs this
[13:28] account, manages this account, could
[13:30] eventually pass the account off to
[13:32] someone else if there happens to be
[13:34] employee churn or some variation of
[13:35] that. So, I'm a big believer in having a
[13:39] transparent and jumping into the
[13:41] conversations and communicating. And
[13:43] then also, if you do need that
[13:45] third-party validation, ideally you have
[13:47] customers. You have customers who you
[13:49] can send to threads, who you can ask to
[13:51] leave you a review, who you can ask to
[13:53] chime in if they have feedback and
[13:54] thoughts. Those are opportunities that
[13:56] you can tap into as well.
[13:57] >> So, to summarize, use a real profile
[14:00] picture, make it clear who you are and
[14:02] where you work in your username or bio.
[14:04] Link your product in your bio, not in
[14:06] every post. And here is something most
[14:08] guides will not tell you, use an
[14:10] existing email when you create your
[14:12] Reddit account. If you create a brand
[14:14] new email and a brand new Reddit account
[14:16] at the same time, Reddit spam filters
[14:18] will flag you immediately. Step two,
[14:21] warm up your account. This is not
[14:22] optional, and Krista has a really
[14:24] specific framework for this that I want
[14:26] to walk through.
[14:27] >> Definitely warm up process, and I think
[14:29] this is where a lot of teams get scared,
[14:30] but you shouldn't be scared. It's very
[14:32] it's not that complicated. It It's
[14:34] really just about
[14:36] um being consistent and being patient.
[14:38] So, I would suggest like
[14:41] 6 to 8 weeks of warming up your account.
[14:44] And that doesn't mean you can't do
[14:46] anything, but I would maybe think of it
[14:48] in maybe three different phases. So, you
[14:50] know, the first um
[14:52] the first two to three weeks, I would
[14:55] really just like get a lay of the the
[14:57] land. So, at this point you've probably
[14:59] chosen the subreddits that you want to
[15:02] be engaged in, so I would just really
[15:04] deep dive and get to know those
[15:05] subreddits. So, you are kind of lurking
[15:08] in there, you're reading the posts,
[15:10] you're getting a sense of what topics
[15:12] are talked about and kind of the group
[15:14] norms. You're maybe upvoting, um
[15:17] you are, you know, potentially
[15:20] commenting here and there if you see
[15:21] anything where you can add value.
[15:24] Um
[15:25] you are not mentioning brands, you are
[15:27] not posting links, um you're not
[15:30] creating actual posts. You're just sort
[15:33] of scrolling, lurking, upvoting. Um and
[15:37] then the next couple of weeks, I would
[15:39] say is where you can really start to add
[15:41] in comments.
[15:42] Um
[15:43] Still like where you can add value. I
[15:46] would still avoid brand mentions um and
[15:48] links. And then, I would say
[15:52] the reason for doing that is because
[15:53] you're wanting to build credibility in
[15:55] these spaces. You're wanting to build
[15:57] trust with these audiences.
[15:59] Um and so, they need to see you around.
[16:01] Like they need to see you in there
[16:02] engaging and adding value um before
[16:05] you're ever trying to create a post or
[16:09] drop a link.
[16:10] Um
[16:11] And the way I kind of tell clients to
[16:13] think about it is upvoting and
[16:15] commenting earns trust and then posting
[16:18] spins it. So, you really want to make
[16:20] sure you've like filled up that trust
[16:22] bank before you ever try to like create
[16:25] a standalone post or extract value from
[16:27] the communities.
[16:28] >> I love that framing. Think of it like a
[16:30] trust bank. You are making deposits
[16:32] every time you comment something
[16:33] helpful. You're making withdrawals every
[16:35] time you post your own content. Do not
[16:37] overdraft. Step three, build your
[16:39] subreddit list. You need volume here. Do
[16:42] not just pick one or two subreddits.
[16:44] Build a list of 10 to 15 communities
[16:46] where your target audience hangs out.
[16:48] Here's a trick that most people miss and
[16:49] let me show you. Go to Reddit's ad
[16:51] platform, start creating a campaign, you
[16:53] do not need to pay for anything, and in
[16:55] the targeting section, search for
[16:57] communities related to your niche.
[16:59] Reddit will suggest dozens of related
[17:01] subreddits you'd never have found on
[17:03] your own. Once you have your list, sort
[17:05] them into two tiers. Primary subreddits
[17:07] are the ones most closely aligned with
[17:09] your product. Secondary subreddits are
[17:11] adjacent communities where your audience
[17:13] might also spend time. And here's Here's
[17:15] pro tip from Ross that I want to add.
[17:16] When you get into those subreddits,
[17:18] study what has already worked.
[17:20] >> My advice to folks is to one, start by
[17:22] actually embracing the fact that you
[17:24] should probably work with an expert,
[17:26] someone who knows it, has embraced it,
[17:28] and has used it for a long time. Or,
[17:31] just use it as a channel to listen, to
[17:33] learn. Spend the first month just
[17:35] observing how Reddit interacts with your
[17:38] brand. What are people saying about your
[17:39] brand? What are people talking about in
[17:41] the industry that is relevant to you? Go
[17:44] into a subreddit where your audience is
[17:46] spending time, and sort the content by
[17:48] top post, and then analyze those top
[17:50] posts, because what you will see there
[17:52] is what I like to call content market
[17:54] fit. These are pieces of content that
[17:56] your audience clearly liked enough for
[17:58] it to rise to the top. It had the most
[18:01] upvotes, it had the most comments. This
[18:02] is the content that your audience wants.
[18:05] And what you might find is that some of
[18:07] that content is from 2020, 2018, and
[18:11] your audience still would benefit from
[18:14] an updated version of that asset, and
[18:16] you can create it, you can repurpose it,
[18:17] you can rethink it, and then give it
[18:19] back to them.
[18:20] >> That's such a smart move. You're not
[18:21] guessing what content will work. You're
[18:23] looking at what already worked and
[18:24] making a better, more current version.
[18:26] Step four, create value-first content.
[18:29] Your posts need to follow a specific
[18:31] structure. Start with a headline that
[18:33] grabs attention. Not, "Check out my new
[18:35] app," but, "I analyzed 50 successful
[18:37] cold email campaigns. Here's what
[18:39] actually worked." Provide genuine value
[18:41] in the body of the post. Share a case
[18:43] study, break down a strategy, teach
[18:45] something useful, then, and only then,
[18:47] mention your product. Not as a hard
[18:49] sell, as a natural part of the story.
[18:51] Say, "I built a tool that does X," or,
[18:53] "Here's the app I used to do this." And
[18:55] Krista made a great point about when and
[18:57] how to mention your brand.
[18:58] >> Once you've sort of established the
[19:00] credibility, look for very natural
[19:02] opportunities. Don't force it, um but if
[19:05] you do come across, you know, somebody
[19:06] talking about a really hard situation,
[19:09] maybe that you've seen on your team,
[19:11] um that involves your tool or your
[19:13] product, jump in, give context, give,
[19:16] you know, give advice. I think the
[19:18] biggest thing I would say is when you
[19:21] are recommending your tool or you're,
[19:23] you know, mentioning your brand, um,
[19:26] I think that's an important time to make
[19:28] sure that you are
[19:30] being transparent about your
[19:32] affiliation. So,
[19:34] um, you know, if the brand name isn't in
[19:36] your username, in the username that you
[19:38] pick, that's a situation where I would
[19:40] say, you know, like, you know, to be
[19:42] transparent, I am with team X, um, and
[19:46] this is what we typically see with our
[19:48] customers.
[19:49] >> For subreddits with stricter rules about
[19:50] self-promotion, mention a complimentary
[19:52] product alongside yours. If your tool
[19:55] handles design, mention a development
[19:57] tool like Cursor alongside it. This
[19:59] signals to moderators that you are being
[20:01] helpful, not just advertising. Step
[20:03] five, post across multiple subreddits.
[20:06] Take your best performing post and adapt
[20:08] it for different communities. Do not
[20:10] just copy and paste the exact same
[20:12] thing. Adjust the framing, the headline,
[20:14] and the angle for each subreddit's
[20:16] culture. Posting to 10 subreddits where
[20:18] each post gets 10,000 views means
[20:20] 100,000 total impressions. And if one of
[20:23] them catches fire and hits a Reddit's
[20:25] front page, you could see millions of
[20:26] views from a single piece of content.
[20:29] Step six, reply to every comment, every
[20:31] single one. Good comments, negative
[20:33] comments, questions, all of it.
[20:35] Engagement signals tell Reddit's
[20:37] algorithm to push your post higher. More
[20:39] comments equals more visibility equals
[20:41] more upvotes equals more reach. It is a
[20:43] flywheel. And Ross made a point about
[20:45] engagement that I think is really
[20:47] important.
[20:48] >> Go in and build connections, add value,
[20:50] and help people in your niche. If some
[20:54] If you offer a payroll software, don't
[20:56] be afraid to go into a community when
[20:59] somebody in your niche is asking, "What
[21:02] webcam should I use?" and give them a
[21:04] recommendation on that. That is an okay
[21:06] thing to do.
[21:07] >> That is how you build a real reputation
[21:09] on Reddit. You're not just a payroll
[21:10] person, you're a helpful human who also
[21:12] happens to know a lot about payroll.
[21:14] That is a completely different dynamic.
[21:16] Step seven, repeat this two to three
[21:18] times per week. Reddit rewards
[21:20] consistency. Post too rarely and you
[21:22] lose momentum. Post too often and you
[21:24] risk getting flagged for spam. Two to
[21:26] three posts per week is the sweet spot.
[21:28] Before we move on, I want to hit the
[21:30] biggest mistakes because Ross shared
[21:32] something that I think is a really
[21:34] important warning for anyone thinking
[21:36] about scaling Reddit with AI.
[21:38] >> Yeah, the biggest thing that I see folks
[21:40] make a mistake with on Reddit is that
[21:41] they go in and they have this
[21:43] expectation that goes one of two ways.
[21:45] Either one, they can use AI and sprinkle
[21:47] it over everything. They're going to use
[21:49] AI to identify threats, they're going to
[21:50] use AI to write the responses, they're
[21:52] going to use AI to create replications
[21:55] of other content assets and submit them
[21:57] into Reddit and they just do this at
[21:59] scale at a massive level and the
[22:02] community picks up on it. The community
[22:05] says, "Hey, this brand is astroturfing.
[22:08] This brand is just filling this
[22:10] community up with with SEO slop, AI
[22:14] slop. We need to do something about it."
[22:17] And what happens is actually quite
[22:18] horrific. They will ban the entire
[22:22] business where no mentions of that
[22:24] company can show up in that subreddit
[22:26] anymore. And I've seen that happen. And
[22:28] to be able to fix that, you actually
[22:31] have to play a very, very high-level
[22:33] strategic game where you have to kind of
[22:36] beg for forgiveness in some ways.
[22:38] >> So, it's not just your account that gets
[22:40] banned, the entire brand can get wiped
[22:43] from a subreddit. No one can mention
[22:45] your company name and that is a
[22:46] nightmare scenario. And the second
[22:48] mistake Ross brought up is equally
[22:50] important.
[22:51] >> Marketers go in with one intention and
[22:53] that is to market. So, they don't
[22:55] respond to anyone who's talking about
[22:58] anything outside of their niche. They
[22:59] don't respond to anyone about anything
[23:01] outside of, hey yes we offer that
[23:03] product we offer this tool. If you go in
[23:06] and you actually remove that concept of
[23:09] sell sell sell sell sell and instead you
[23:11] go in to engage engage engage and add
[23:14] value that's how you win.
[23:16] >> Marketers stop marketing. Go in and be a
[23:18] human first that is the move. Now here's
[23:20] the part that changes everything. Let me
[23:22] show you how Reddit can become your
[23:24] secret weapon for SEO AI search and
[23:27] market research. Remember what I said
[23:29] about Reddit posts ranking on Google?
[23:31] Let me show you how to use that
[23:33] intentionally. Write your Reddit post
[23:35] with keywords in mind. If you sell an
[23:37] email marketing tool write a detailed
[23:39] post titled best cold email strategies
[23:41] that actually got replies in 2026 in a
[23:44] relevant subreddit. Reddit's domain
[23:45] authority is so high that your post can
[23:48] rank on Google's first page for that
[23:50] keyword within days. Sometimes faster
[23:53] than a blog post you spent weeks
[23:54] optimizing. Now you're reaching two
[23:56] audiences at once. Reddit users see it
[23:58] in their feed and Google searchers find
[24:01] it months later. One well-written post
[24:03] can drive thousands of visits per month
[24:05] long after the Reddit engagement dies
[24:08] down. I created a simple Any.do
[24:09] automation that can flag what Reddit
[24:11] conversations are ranking in Google for
[24:13] your target keywords. I'll link that in
[24:15] the description. Ross takes us even
[24:17] further. He has a process for figuring
[24:19] out exactly which Reddit threads are
[24:20] influencing your buyers.
[24:22] >> When you start with search intent you
[24:23] have to understand that there's
[24:25] different types of queries that people
[24:26] are going to use on search whether it's
[24:28] transactional commercial informational
[24:30] or navigational those are some of the
[24:32] types of intent that people have. When
[24:34] someone is in a commercial intent or
[24:36] transactional intent those are the ones
[24:38] that businesses care the most about
[24:40] because those are the ones that lead to
[24:41] leads revenue SQLs SALs etc. So you
[24:45] start by doing an understanding of your
[24:47] customer or yourself's brands bottom of
[24:50] funnel related queries that have a high
[24:51] conversion rate. You can get some of
[24:53] this data directly out of your PPC data
[24:55] if you're running Google Ads or you can
[24:57] look at your own organic traffic and
[24:59] look at things like comparison pages,
[25:00] alternative pages, bottom of funnel
[25:02] related queries, and see where they're
[25:04] showing up. Once you have that, you're
[25:06] going to do an analysis. An analysis of
[25:08] how you rank for these queries, but also
[25:11] do a comparison between you and
[25:13] reddit.com. A lot of the most popular
[25:15] SEO tools will give you the ability to
[25:17] track this, whether it's Semrush or
[25:19] Ahrefs or Moz, you name it. You can do
[25:21] an overlap that shows your brand versus
[25:24] reddit.com, which is your competitor,
[25:26] and you're going to analyze the bottom
[25:27] of funnel overlap there. In addition to
[25:30] that though, you're going to notice that
[25:31] some of the bottom of funnel queries
[25:33] that you are ranking for aren't all the
[25:35] ones that you want to rank for. Like
[25:37] there are more out there than just the
[25:38] ones that you rank for. So you're going
[25:40] to incorporate those into your search as
[25:42] well to see if Reddit is influencing
[25:44] those bottom of funnel queries. When you
[25:46] do that, you can now start to see
[25:47] exactly which Reddit threads are
[25:49] influencing your buyers. But again, now
[25:51] you have to take it one step further
[25:53] outside of Google and start thinking
[25:54] about citations. So what you then need
[25:56] to do is upload all of those queries,
[25:59] but in a natural language kind of
[26:01] oriented prompt, and upload those to
[26:03] Ahrefs, Profound, Semrush, one of the
[26:05] tools that actually tracks citations of
[26:08] Reddit through the LLMs. So you're going
[26:10] to take those um prompts, you're going
[26:12] to upload them, and you're going to
[26:14] track them for 30 days. And from that,
[26:16] you're going to start to see whether or
[26:17] not Reddit actually is cited directly in
[26:20] the source.
[26:20] >> So you are not just posting on Reddit
[26:22] and hoping for the best. You are
[26:24] tracking which Reddit threads are
[26:25] showing up in Google and in AI answers
[26:28] for your most important keywords. And
[26:31] then, you are making sure your brand is
[26:33] in those conversations. Now let me show
[26:35] you another tool that Krista turned me
[26:37] on to, Reddit Pro.
[26:38] >> I would say this is where um Reddit Pro
[26:41] comes in handy. So if you don't know
[26:43] what Reddit Pro is, Reddit Pro is
[26:47] sort of like a Reddit's own like
[26:50] analytics dashboard for you to gauge
[26:52] kind of your performance on Reddit and
[26:54] um you can actually track keywords and
[26:58] topics um and then it will surface, you
[27:01] know,
[27:02] uh mentions of those keywords, how how
[27:04] many like mention trends, like um you
[27:07] know, are people mentioning your brand
[27:09] more over time um and then it will it
[27:12] will also um
[27:13] analyze sentiment. So, I think all of
[27:16] this is very like in beta right now, but
[27:18] I have to assume um uh Reddit will be
[27:21] investing a ton in this moving forward.
[27:23] Um but right now today, you could go on
[27:25] Reddit Pro and you could add your brand
[27:28] name
[27:29] um to the tracking um and it will
[27:31] surface where you're being talked about,
[27:33] how you're being talked about, and then
[27:35] over time it will show you whether that
[27:37] is um increasing or not um and then I'm
[27:41] really excited about the the new
[27:43] sentiment feature that um that I found
[27:46] on it the other day because that's where
[27:48] I think uh brands will get the most
[27:50] value because then you can track
[27:52] sentiment over time as well.
[27:53] >> Reddit Pro is still in beta, but it is a
[27:55] really useful free tool for
[27:57] understanding how your brand is being
[27:58] talked about on the platform. Set it up,
[28:01] add your brand name, add your
[28:02] competitors, and just start watching.
[28:04] Now, if you want something more
[28:05] comprehensive than Reddit Pro, I want to
[28:07] show you a tool called Karmatic that
[28:09] actually operationalizes everything
[28:12] we've been talking about in this video.
[28:14] I sat down with Robert Johns, the CTO
[28:16] who built it, and he walked me through
[28:18] the entire platform.
[28:19] >> I'm a co-founder and CTO at Karmatic.
[28:22] And yeah, I mean we created Karmatic
[28:24] initially as an internal tool. Like I'm
[28:26] also CTO
[28:28] at a venture capital firm called Venture
[28:29] Kite.
[28:30] And we have a portfolio of websites, and
[28:33] those websites were understandably hit
[28:35] like everybody else was in the last 18
[28:37] months, 24 months with regards to core
[28:38] updates, but also AI
[28:41] AI arriving and the
[28:43] obvious emphasis on Reddit. It became
[28:45] clear to us that Reddit was becoming
[28:46] very important, and we needed to make
[28:48] that a part of our strategy. So, we
[28:50] started internally working on Reddit.
[28:52] Then it became clear this is going to be
[28:53] something that's going to affect a lot
[28:55] of people.
[28:56] So, we formalized that into the product
[28:58] that is Karmatize today, which is
[29:00] essentially a Reddit marketing operating
[29:02] system. That's how we tend to describe
[29:03] it. It's for any brand in any industry
[29:06] to try and operationalize Reddit in a
[29:09] way where they can hopefully have the
[29:11] impact they want without the fear, the
[29:13] scare.
[29:14] >> What I like about this tool is it's
[29:16] built around three columns: listen,
[29:18] understand, and engage, which maps
[29:20] directly to what Ross and Krista have
[29:22] been saying this entire video. You have
[29:24] to listen first, understand the
[29:26] community, then participate.
[29:28] >> You have listen on the left, understand
[29:31] in the center, and engage on the
[29:33] right-hand side. And essentially, it's a
[29:34] 1-2-3 procedure. You start on day one by
[29:37] setting up your listening. That's
[29:38] configuring what you want Karmatize to
[29:40] listen for you. It then begins
[29:42] collecting data immediately, and that
[29:44] gets fed into the understand column,
[29:46] which I'll dive into some detail, which
[29:47] shows you everything that's happening in
[29:49] Reddit that matters to you right now.
[29:51] And the engage column is where you go
[29:53] after you've understood your audience,
[29:55] so you can start participating. So, it's
[29:57] very simple. It's listening first,
[30:00] understanding what's happening, then
[30:01] choosing to engage when you feel that
[30:02] you understand how to participate. So,
[30:05] in listening, for instance, you have
[30:07] four sections. You've got subreddits,
[30:09] keywords, brand, and competitor. And the
[30:11] idea is you just say, "Okay, these are
[30:13] the subreddits that I think matter to my
[30:14] brand. I want to listen to those." You
[30:16] select the ones that you want. We give
[30:18] you some preselected options, or you can
[30:19] add your own. You simply enter the name
[30:21] of any subreddit, click add, you'll get
[30:23] a box. So, if I put in SEA, for
[30:25] instance,
[30:27] you'll get a confirmation box. Great,
[30:29] you want to listen to this one. Just
[30:30] confirm it's the right Reddit. Is this
[30:31] the size, the year, the description? Are
[30:33] we on the right one? If yes, track. And
[30:35] then you begin listening to subreddits.
[30:37] So, that's stage one. You can also, if
[30:39] you like, enable daily email summaries,
[30:41] where you'll get an inbox message every
[30:43] day giving you a summary of what's
[30:44] happened in that subreddit.
[30:46] Keywords is the next stage. So, your
[30:48] brand is naturally going to be thinking
[30:50] about certain keywords that matter to
[30:52] it, and it's the same on Reddit. And
[30:53] what you can do is list all the keywords
[30:55] that you think matter. You can choose to
[30:58] get keyword ideas if you're not sure
[30:59] where to start.
[31:00] And we'll give you some suggestions. But
[31:02] you create your keywords, and then once
[31:04] you've done that, Reddit, or rather
[31:06] Karmalytics starts listening and
[31:07] scanning Reddit for those keywords. But
[31:09] the one thing it does that's super
[31:10] important is that it has a semantic
[31:12] relevance layer. So, what it tries to
[31:14] say is, "Okay, you care about this
[31:15] keyword, but we know your business is
[31:16] focused on this. Let's make sure the
[31:18] things that we surface to you are
[31:20] relevant to your business." A great
[31:22] example we've had, and we've said this
[31:23] on nearly every call we've ever had, is
[31:24] that we had one company who focused on
[31:26] coding, and they like the programming
[31:27] language Python.
[31:29] Excellent. Now, without semantic
[31:30] relevance, you could be servicing stuff
[31:32] about zoos or snakes, not coding. So, it
[31:35] seems super simple, but it's that extra
[31:37] layer of reasoning that allows the tool
[31:38] to get you the information that matters.
[31:40] So, keywords are fairly understandable
[31:42] for most brands. Um then you have brand
[31:45] tracking. And this is where you enter
[31:46] your brand name and your brand website.
[31:49] With this information, we can generate a
[31:50] brand summary for you. And this brand
[31:53] summary is the kind of secret sauce
[31:54] that's used behind the scenes to say,
[31:56] "Great. This is how we're going to
[31:57] semantically check and gut check any
[32:00] content we find for you. Is it relevant
[32:02] to your brand based upon what we think
[32:03] your brand does?" And you have the
[32:04] option to change this at any stage. And
[32:06] you also have the option to dial in or
[32:08] dial out how harsh filtering is. If you
[32:11] feel like you're getting too much noise,
[32:13] turn that number up. If you're getting
[32:14] too few results, turn the number down.
[32:16] And you just figure this out over time.
[32:18] And usually we help our clients figure
[32:19] this out, too.
[32:21] I'd also mention that in each of these
[32:23] options, you have the ability to toggle
[32:24] generate tasks. And tasks are the
[32:26] real-time alerts that would appear in
[32:28] your inbox. And these are updating every
[32:31] 10 minutes. So, if you're following your
[32:33] brand, if your brand's actively
[32:34] discussed on Reddit, you might want to
[32:35] know as soon as someone's mentioned it,
[32:37] so you can be there really quickly. You
[32:39] haven't got time to hover on Reddit, but
[32:40] we'll hover there for you. The same goes
[32:42] with keywords. There may be a keyword
[32:43] that you're really hot on right now, and
[32:44] you want to participate in all the
[32:46] threads that make sense. The inbox is
[32:47] the great place to do that.
[32:49] So, you've got brand tracking, and then
[32:51] finally, competitor tracking. And this
[32:53] is essentially anyone that you think is
[32:55] your direct competitor, they're likely
[32:56] on Reddit, and if they're not, that's
[32:58] fine, you need to know that, too. You
[33:00] can add all of your competitors and
[33:01] begin surfacing what people are saying
[33:03] about them, too. And that allows you to
[33:06] get a picture as to how are they
[33:07] received, what strategies are they
[33:09] using, what's working for them. A great
[33:11] way to kind of reverse engineer success
[33:12] of people that you want to be like. So,
[33:13] if you're a challenger brand, you've got
[33:15] a brand that you really think is
[33:16] crushing it on Reddit, how are they
[33:17] doing it? This is a great way to figure
[33:19] that out.
[33:20] >> In the listen column, you can figure
[33:21] everything you want Karmatic to monitor
[33:23] for you. Your target subreddits,
[33:25] keywords that matter to your business,
[33:26] your brand mentions, and your
[33:28] competitors. It is an always-on engine
[33:30] scanning Reddit and sending you
[33:32] real-time alerts when relevant threads
[33:33] appear.
[33:34] >> What you can do is list all the keywords
[33:36] that you think matter. You can choose to
[33:38] get keyword ideas if you're not sure
[33:40] where to start,
[33:41] and we'll give you some suggestions. But
[33:43] you create your keywords, and then once
[33:45] you've done that, Reddit, or rather,
[33:46] Karmatic starts listening and scanning
[33:48] Reddit for those keywords. But the one
[33:50] thing it does that's super important is
[33:52] that it has a semantic relevance layer.
[33:54] So, what it tries to say is, "Okay, you
[33:55] care about this keyword, but we know
[33:57] your business is focused on this. Let's
[33:59] make sure the things that we surface to
[34:00] you are relevant to your business." A
[34:02] great example we've had, and we've said
[34:03] this on nearly every call we've ever
[34:05] had, is that we had one company who
[34:06] focused on coding, and they like the
[34:08] programming language Python.
[34:10] Excellent. Now, without semantic
[34:11] relevance, you could be servicing stuff
[34:13] about zoos or snakes, not coding.
[34:15] >> Here's the part that I think is really
[34:17] clever. Remember when I said you need to
[34:18] match the tone and format of each
[34:20] subreddit? Karmatic's understand column
[34:23] does that analysis for you
[34:25] automatically.
[34:26] >> Understand is really where all of the
[34:29] huge value is in figuring out what's
[34:31] happening on Reddit. And this is divided
[34:33] into four sections. So, you have
[34:35] subreddits, keywords,
[34:37] brand, and competitors. So, the same as
[34:40] we mentioned in listen, you track all of
[34:42] this, you can then understand all of it
[34:44] individually. And if we're focusing on
[34:46] subreddits for instance, you would have
[34:47] decided to follow a range of subreddits,
[34:49] and you can choose which one you want to
[34:50] look at at that moment in time, and all
[34:52] the information is tailored to that
[34:54] subreddit. So, you can get into each
[34:56] subreddit by subreddit, each one's
[34:57] obviously got its own community, its own
[34:58] vibe, its own norms. And you also have
[35:01] the option to look at this on a daily
[35:03] basis, on a weekly basis, and you can
[35:05] scan back through days to figure out
[35:07] what happened
[35:08] every day in the last week.
[35:10] So,
[35:11] I'll spend a bit of time talking about
[35:12] what's in this section, cuz this is I
[35:13] think where a lot of our clients get
[35:14] massive value. And that is topic
[35:17] clusters. What is going on in a
[35:19] subreddit today? What are the topics
[35:21] that are getting the most upvotes, the
[35:23] most comments, what are people caring
[35:24] about? So, you've got the topic cluster,
[35:26] keywords related to that, the current
[35:28] sentiment, also an example post. So, you
[35:30] can go and have a look at what's going
[35:31] on.
[35:32] Beyond that, you have a sentiment
[35:34] analysis. What is prevailing sentiment
[35:36] in this subreddit today?
[35:37] Is it predominantly neutral as it is
[35:39] here? Is it positive? Is it negative? Is
[35:41] that any different to the weekly
[35:42] picture? And as we can see, not too
[35:44] dissimilar.
[35:45] And one of the big things we tell our
[35:46] clients is that the sentiment analysis
[35:49] enables you to have a sense for how do
[35:51] people communicate in this subreddit? If
[35:52] they're mostly neutral, it's probably
[35:54] not going to be beneficial to you to
[35:55] come up and be hugely negative, or
[35:57] hugely positive. Understanding the norms
[35:59] and the vibe in your community enables
[36:01] you to become one of them, rather than
[36:03] an outlier or an invader they look at
[36:05] with a raised eyebrow. So, the sentiment
[36:06] is a great check for that.
[36:09] Then you have topic trends. What's
[36:10] trending in that subreddit?
[36:13] What day did that happen? You can look
[36:14] at this based on upvotes, or comments,
[36:17] or combined, so depending on what your
[36:18] focus is.
[36:19] And then this is also super helpful,
[36:21] it's the content formats that are
[36:22] working in that subreddit right now. So,
[36:25] stances, niche hacks, comparisons, help
[36:27] articles. These are the types of format
[36:29] that people respond positively to in the
[36:32] subreddit. So, if you have a subreddit
[36:33] you want to make your mark, you want
[36:34] your brand to be present, understanding
[36:36] the sentiment, understanding the format
[36:38] enables you to formulate a strategy to
[36:40] think, "Great, I know how I'm going to
[36:41] stick myself in here and feel like I'm
[36:43] one of the people, not I'm going to
[36:45] force my Pinterest or my Instagram or my
[36:48] X strategy. I'm going to do the strategy
[36:49] that works for the subreddit."
[36:50] >> It shows you topic clusters, what people
[36:52] are actually talking about right now in
[36:54] each subreddit. Sentiment analysis,
[36:57] whether the community skews positive,
[36:59] negative, or neutral. The content
[37:01] formats that are working, whether people
[37:03] respond better to, say, comparisons,
[37:06] how-to guides, niche hacks, or hot
[37:08] takes. And it even has a heat map
[37:10] showing the best times to post by day
[37:13] and hour.
[37:13] >> Leading on to that is the best posting
[37:15] times. This is a really helpful way for
[37:16] you to get a feel for, "When am I going
[37:18] to get the most impact? Do I want to be
[37:20] posting at a time when no one's
[37:21] participating or posting at a time when
[37:23] people care the most?" And you can look
[37:25] at this heat map to say, "Great,
[37:26] Wednesday 9:00 a.m., people are really
[37:28] active and are voting in the subreddit.
[37:30] I should probably consider being there."
[37:32] >> That is exactly what Krista was saying
[37:33] earlier about matching the tone, and
[37:35] this is my favorite feature. At the
[37:36] bottom of the understand column, there
[37:38] are community signals that surface unmet
[37:41] needs in real time.
[37:42] >> Then you have the top posts in that
[37:43] subreddit, which is fairly
[37:44] self-explanatory. And at the bottom, the
[37:46] thing that a lot of our clients get a
[37:48] huge lightbulb moment with is the
[37:50] community signals. And this is
[37:51] essentially
[37:53] what is happening right now in English
[37:56] terms. So, we've got unmet needs,
[37:57] debates, and confident claims. Which
[37:59] needs are unmet for this audience right
[38:01] now in the subreddit? This is a great
[38:02] way for you to figure out, "What do they
[38:04] actually genuinely want?" And if you
[38:06] have a product, you have a brand that
[38:07] aligns with this, it can help you figure
[38:09] out your own strategy to align your
[38:11] product with their needs,
[38:12] whether that is product-related or even
[38:14] maybe it's content-related. If you want
[38:15] to create content, great, there's an
[38:17] unmet need in this. I can create a
[38:18] content if I have expertise in in area.
[38:20] So, this is an awesome way to figure out
[38:22] what do people want right now in this
[38:24] space.
[38:24] >> Think about how powerful that is.
[38:26] Instead of guessing what to post, you
[38:28] can see exactly what people in your
[38:30] target subreddits are asking for right
[38:32] now. And it also surfaces debates people
[38:35] are having and confident claims the
[38:37] community holds strongly. So, you know
[38:39] what to lean into and what to avoid. And
[38:41] when you are ready to post, the engage
[38:43] column generates draft ideas that are
[38:45] directly fed from those unmet needs.
[38:48] >> And the engage column can help with that
[38:49] in lots of different ways. So, one way
[38:51] is to generate
[38:53] ideas. So, you might be looking for post
[38:54] ideas. You could pick a subreddit that
[38:56] you want to post in, click on generate
[38:58] idea, it will send off a request, and
[39:01] then within a few seconds your inbox
[39:03] will update and you'll get a new idea.
[39:04] So, this is from the marketing
[39:06] subreddit, does resample convert to
[39:08] paying customers? If this seems like
[39:09] something that you want to participate
[39:11] in, you could then create a draft. When
[39:13] you want to create a draft, you then get
[39:14] this option here to decide how you want
[39:17] to draft this information. What tone do
[39:19] I want to use? Well, there's information
[39:20] on tone in the understand column. It
[39:22] makes sense to pick a tone that is
[39:24] positively received. What format?
[39:26] Similarly, what is positively received
[39:28] right now? And the same for length.
[39:30] You can set these up, add any additional
[39:33] notes, click generate draft, it sends
[39:36] that request off, and within a few
[39:37] seconds in our draft inbox over here, we
[39:40] get a new draft that is basically the
[39:42] starting part for you to create your own
[39:45] content. We would say that this is
[39:46] obviously AI generated, but the key is
[39:49] to put your human touch and your human
[39:51] voice on this.
[39:52] >> You pick a subreddit, generate an idea
[39:54] that addresses a real unmet need, set
[39:56] your tone and format to match what works
[39:58] in that community, and it creates a
[40:00] starting draft for you. But here's the
[40:02] important part.
[40:03] >> When you have your draft here,
[40:05] you can have a read through, figure out
[40:07] if you want to change it, if you want to
[40:08] keep it, whatever it is that you think
[40:10] sounds good, keep whatever you want to
[40:11] discard, discard. You can then copy
[40:13] that, and you can click on one of these
[40:14] buttons here to go and post it on our
[40:16] marketing. But before doing that, what
[40:18] we like to share as well is this danger
[40:20] review. So we give you a view into how
[40:23] likely is this content to be received in
[40:25] the subreddit. Now, we're going to try
[40:27] and draft for you something that we
[40:28] think has a really high likelihood of
[40:30] acceptance, but if you make your own
[40:31] changes, you can rerun the review and
[40:32] see if you're moving the needle one way
[40:34] or the other. And one way that we do
[40:35] that is to check rule compliance, make
[40:37] sure there's a lower probability of
[40:38] being flagged for spam, try and ensure
[40:41] that your tone matches up with the
[40:42] subreddit, and just giving you again
[40:44] another gut check and another confidence
[40:46] point to say, "Okay, I think I can post
[40:49] this. I'm not going to get flamed. I'm
[40:50] not going to get banned. My brand isn't
[40:52] going to be harmed by doing this."
[40:54] >> That is exactly right, and that is
[40:55] consistent with what Rob said earlier
[40:57] about AI slop getting brands banned at
[41:00] the brand level. Karmatic gives you the
[41:02] research and a starting point, but you
[41:04] still need to put your voice on it and
[41:06] post it yourself. One more thing that is
[41:08] really useful, they have a danger review
[41:11] feature that checks whether your post is
[41:13] likely to get flagged for spam or
[41:16] violate subreddit rules before you post
[41:18] it. It checks rule compliance, spam
[41:20] probability, and tone matching, so you
[41:22] get that gut check before you hit
[41:24] publish. So between Reddit Pro for free
[41:27] basic analytics and Karmatic for full
[41:29] Reddit marketing operating system, there
[41:31] are real tools now that make this
[41:33] manageable. If you want to try Karmatic,
[41:35] Robert mentioned everyone gets a 10-day
[41:37] free trial at karmatic.ai.
[41:40] You'll get full access to everything I
[41:41] just showed you. I'll put the link in
[41:42] the description. Now, beyond SEO and AI
[41:45] search, Reddit is the best free market
[41:48] research tool on the internet. Want to
[41:50] know what your customers actually think
[41:51] about your competitors? Search their
[41:53] name on Reddit. You will find brutally
[41:55] honest reviews, feature requests, and
[41:57] complaints that no survey could ever
[41:59] surface. Want to validate a new product
[42:01] idea before you build it? Post about it
[42:03] on Reddit. If people upvote it and start
[42:05] asking where to sign up, you have
[42:06] something. If they tear it apart, you
[42:08] just saved yourself months of building
[42:10] the wrong thing. Now, two more things
[42:12] before I give you the 90-day playbook.
[42:14] Should you create your own subreddit and
[42:17] should you run Reddit ads? On branded
[42:19] subreddits, I got very different but
[42:20] complimentary answers from Kristen Ross.
[42:22] >> I would say more often than not the
[42:25] answer is you should not start your own
[42:26] branded subreddit. I think most brands
[42:30] get more value from engaging in existing
[42:34] subreddits where their audience already
[42:36] lives. This is because, you know,
[42:38] standing up your own branded subreddit,
[42:40] it just it takes a lot of consistency
[42:42] and it takes resources. And so, I think
[42:46] when you should start your own is when,
[42:50] you know, you're probably a bigger brand
[42:52] and there's probably a lot of organic
[42:54] conversation about you and your product
[42:57] on Reddit already. So,
[43:00] this is where the social listening thing
[43:01] comes in handy, right? So, like go on
[43:03] Reddit Pro, um see how how many mentions
[43:07] there are, you know, today of your
[43:09] brand. And if you're big enough, if
[43:11] there's, you know, that organic demand,
[43:13] then maybe maybe it's time. And maybe,
[43:16] you know, you use it as a way to kind of
[43:18] funnel all of those mentions into a
[43:20] place where you have a little bit more
[43:21] control of what is served up.
[43:23] >> Yeah, it definitely depends on the size.
[43:25] Like, I don't think any early stage
[43:27] startup, early stage company should be
[43:29] thinking right now unless they are
[43:31] publicly traded, have massive growth,
[43:32] massive traction about starting up a
[43:35] subreddit and really like trying to
[43:37] build from the ground up. However, if
[43:39] you are already winning, if you're the
[43:41] market leader, if you are the contender,
[43:43] if you have tons and tons of traction
[43:44] and customers, I would strongly
[43:46] encourage you to create a subreddit. I
[43:47] think brand ownership is key. You should
[43:50] have set up the subreddit 5 years ago,
[43:52] but the second best time to do it is
[43:53] now. So, create your brand subreddit.
[43:56] Then, in that subreddit, you are going
[43:58] to seed the content and the materials
[44:00] and the story that goes there. Some
[44:01] people might run into a spot where
[44:03] they're like, "Wait, my subreddit
[44:04] already exists." Send a DM to the mod
[44:07] that exists today and ask them if they
[44:09] would be open for you to be a co-mod.
[44:11] They might say no, and that's just a
[44:13] part of Reddit. And in those cases, I
[44:15] encourage you to just try to build a
[44:17] relationship where you're allowed to be
[44:18] active in your subreddit, and you can
[44:20] engage with other people within the
[44:22] niche.
[44:22] >> So, the framework is this. If you're
[44:24] early stage, focus all your energy on
[44:26] engaging in existing subreddits. If you
[44:28] are an established brand with people
[44:30] already talking about you, create your
[44:32] branded subreddit and consider building
[44:34] a category subreddit for your audience.
[44:36] Now, what about Reddit ads versus
[44:39] organic? Here's where it gets
[44:40] interesting. Reddit's active advertiser
[44:43] base grew 75% last quarter. That tells
[44:46] you brands are finding real ROI there.
[44:48] But, here's my take. Start organic,
[44:50] build trust first. Once you know which
[44:53] subreddits respond to your content, use
[44:55] ads to amplify what is already working.
[44:57] Organic builds trust, ads buy reach. You
[45:00] need both, but in that order. All right,
[45:02] let's pull everything together into a
[45:03] 90-day playbook that you can start
[45:05] today. Weeks 1 through 2, lurk and
[45:08] learn. Join 10 to 15 subreddits, read
[45:10] the top posts from the last year. Study
[45:12] the tone, the rules, the culture.
[45:14] Comment on posts where you have genuine
[45:16] expertise. Build karma. This is Krista's
[45:19] trust bank phase. Deposits only. Weeks 3
[45:23] through 6, start posting. Two to three
[45:26] value-first posts per week. No
[45:27] self-promotion yet, answer questions,
[45:30] share insights, use Ross's content
[45:32] market fit method. Find top posts from
[45:35] the past, create updated versions,
[45:37] become a recognized name in your
[45:39] subreddits. Weeks 7 through 10,
[45:41] introduce your product naturally. Use
[45:43] the post formula. Lead with value,
[45:46] mention your product as part of the
[45:47] story, be transparent about your
[45:49] affiliation, and track which subreddits
[45:52] drive traffic using UTM parameters. In
[45:54] weeks 11 through 12, scale what works.
[45:57] Double down on the subreddits and
[45:58] content types that performed best.
[46:00] Consider testing Reddit ads on your top
[46:03] performing organic content and set up
[46:05] Reddit Pro to track your brand mentions
[46:07] and sentiment. Start thinking about
[46:09] creating your own subreddit if you are
[46:11] building a community. Now, before we
[46:13] wrap, I want to share one prediction
[46:14] from Krista about where Reddit is
[46:16] heading because I think it is going to
[46:18] affect everyone watching this.
[46:19] >> I think they're going to really lean
[46:21] into building out functionality in um
[46:24] Reddit Pro because like I think it's
[46:26] going to become a more and more
[46:27] important social listening tool. I think
[46:29] they will also really start investing
[46:31] more in Reddit Answers, which is their
[46:34] their own search engine on the platform.
[46:37] Obviously, I think that is a no-brainer
[46:40] because AI search has become so
[46:43] important over the past, you know, uh 12
[46:46] to 15 months and they realize the value
[46:50] of what they have, you know, there's a
[46:51] reason why all these other AI search
[46:53] platforms are training on on their on
[46:55] their content. So, I think they'll
[46:57] really invest in becoming a a player in
[47:00] that space.
[47:01] >> And then I I also think we will see
[47:05] the LinkedIn-ification
[47:07] of Reddit. And I don't mean that in a
[47:10] negative way. I hope to not offend
[47:12] Redditors who are strictly
[47:14] anti-LinkedIn. What I mean by that is I
[47:17] just think we're going to see a lot more
[47:19] marketers learning how to use it kind of
[47:22] like creators. Like I think we're going
[47:24] to see a lot of marketers who are
[47:26] creating, you know, accounts that are
[47:29] not not are not anonymous, um where they
[47:32] can, you know, offer their expertise and
[47:36] advice in different subreddits. I think
[47:38] we'll see people um like individuals and
[47:41] brands start to create more subreddits
[47:45] that are more less about this is my
[47:49] brand and more about this is a topic
[47:51] that is important to my industry. So,
[47:53] yeah, I think we'll see a little bit
[47:54] more more like a creator flavor.
[47:56] >> I think she's right. Reddit is becoming
[47:58] less anonymous and more creator-driven,
[48:00] and the marketers who get in now, while
[48:03] the playbook is still relatively
[48:04] unknown, are going to have a massive
[48:06] head start. 121 million daily active
[48:09] users, revenue growing 70% year over
[48:11] year, posts that rank on Google, AI
[48:14] tools citing Reddit threads in their
[48:16] answers, an audience that actually reads
[48:18] what you write and tells you honestly
[48:20] what they think. Reddit is the most
[48:22] underrated marketing channel in 2026,
[48:25] but only if you respect how it works.
[48:28] Lead with value, earn your karma, and
[48:30] play the long game. A huge thank you to
[48:32] Ross, Krista, and Robert for sharing
[48:34] their expertise. I will link to all of
[48:36] their businesses in the description
[48:37] below. If this was helpful, hit
[48:39] subscribe, drop a comment telling me
[48:41] which subreddit you're going to start
[48:42] with, and if you want more breakdowns
[48:44] like this on channels that actually move
[48:46] the needle, I will see you in the next
[48:48] video.