Reddit’s Shift from the Internet’s Wild West to Search Marketing Darling

Reddit for SEO. Reddit for AI visibility. Reddit for chopping chives every day until they’re perfect. Until recently, only that last one would feel like it belonged. Subreddits have been self-moderated, super-niche, meme-generating havens for the very online. But now, businesses are starting to give the platform a second look. Traditional search is surfacing posts at the top of the results. AI search is sourcing answers from subreddits. And Reddit users are warming up to the idea of ads and business presence.

Why exactly are marketers turning to Reddit for their search marketing mix? Its influence has become undeniable.

Reddit’s role in traditional SEO

If you’re still using Google for searches, you may have noticed Reddit posts frequently show up at the top of the page. There’s a heavy weight given to user-generated content (UGC) in Google’s rankings. It might not be an official position of Google, but Reddit has seen some of the highest growth in search visibility.  

It makes sense. You’re searching for advice, and there’s a forum full of users ready to share that advice in hopes of upvotes and engagement. Google is crowdsourcing the top of their results pages, and Reddit is the crowd.

Before you go post “[your company name] is the best for [my top keyword]”, some quirks to keep in mind: 

• Spam gets downvoted quickly
• You can’t control the conversation 
• Most users are anonymous, and therefore very candid

Reddit and AI visibility

The whole marketing industry is still trying to figure out exactly how to measure AI visibility. It’s variable and personalized, which makes standard reporting difficult. One thing that’s not difficult to see–Reddit is one of the most cited sites in LLMs. 
It doesn’t hurt that Reddit struck deals with AI giants like Google and OpenAI to train models on its data. If your brand is getting mentioned on Reddit, you’re getting referenced in LLMs. Regardless, if your audience tends to start on Google, ChatGPT, or Claude, your buyers are very likely to see opinions sourced from Reddit. Sounds great! But you’re at the whim of the masses for your brand. And LLMs like to balance positive sentiment with something negative, even if they have to go digging for it.

Reddit Ads

Reddit ads aren’t new. They opened up basic advertising in 2006. But Reddit ads in 2026 are a completely different thing. Reddit has a robust ads offering with all the placement types, targeting, and measurement you’d expect from your ad channels like Meta or Google Ads. 

Reddit’s advertising approach has grown up. Maybe a consequence of going public in 2024, Reddit has been growing its capabilities for both B2C and B2B advertisers. With such a passionate user base, it’s unsurprising to see companies looking for ways to reach and convert them into customers.

Making the most of Reddit in the marketing mix

Eyeballs, engagement, and every niche you can think of. Reddit is an incredibly attractive marketing channel. It’s also kind of scary if your marketing team’s not ‘very online.’

The first step is to decide if testing a Reddit strategy makes sense for you. 

• Look at search results for your keywords; are Reddit posts showing up?
• Review LLM results for your core prompts; are your competitors showing up more often?

Once you decide to dive in, take it slowly. Here’s one approach to adding Reddit to your marketing mix:

Start using Reddit as an individual

Find the relevant subreddits and be a fly on the wall. You’ll be tempted to reply to brand mentions and competitor claims. Don’t start there. Instead, learn how Reddit users engage with each other. See what language they use. 

Then, when you are ready to post or reply, be helpful and be transparent. The worst thing you can do is pretend to be a happy customer and spam your company’s solution. Build trust (and Karma) by providing answers to questions. As unbiased as possible. 

(Optional) Reddit as an organization

You might discover there’s a bigger audience ready to engage with you than you anticipated. If you’re ready for a long-term commitment to Reddit, an active business profile can help. Instead of an individual user being helpful and transparent, you can move that to a branded profile. 

And if you’re really feeling good, you could start a subreddit. Think r/<your niche here>. It can be powerful, but you’ll have to weigh the potential gain with the time and effort needed to stand up, promote, and maintain a community. 

Control your brand’s narrative with Reddit Ads

Advertising on Reddit is a natural progression for the modern marketing mix. You’re likely already maxing out Google Ads, heavily invested in at least one social ad platform, and you’re ready to try to cultivate a new audience. 

Use the insights you learned from monitoring organic posts to write and design creative that speaks the language of your audience. Don’t simply resize your social or display ads. Test for Reddit’s quirks. 

Make sure you’re set up to track conversions. Impression and click reporting is a great start, but you really want to know if Reddit is bringing you business. Send offline conversions from call tracking back to Reddit for accurate reporting and better campaign optimization. 

Measure Reddit’s impact on Search

Reddit is a fun platform, but that’s not the reason why you’re investing your time and budget into it. You want it to drive new business. Take time to think through your measurement strategy for Reddit. It might feel straightforward, but account for the nuance. With ads and organic, you’ll want a mix of short and long-term KPIs.

• Referral traffic from Reddit
• Form submissions from Reddit
• Phone calls from Reddit  

Use call tracking, not just for your Reddit Ads conversions, but to measure the lift your organic Reddit efforts are creating for your other channels. Getting more organic or AI-referred phone calls and form submissions? It might be from Reddit. 

Some more KPIs to consider beyond call tracking:

• Volume of brand mentions in search
• AI visibility for brand mentions against competitors
• Lift in direct, organic, and AI traffic to your site

SEO, GEO, and Reddit-EO

SEO has dominated the attention of marketers over the years, but buyers aren’t only searching on Google anymore. Traditional search is still a big player, but buyers are also looking to AI search more and more. And AI search is looking at Reddit. 

There’s never been a better time to test out Reddit as a part of your organic or paid advertising strategy. Just be authentic, don’t treat it the same as every other channel, and have a measurement plan in place that includes offline conversion tracking. 

Talk to CTM about how to use call tracking to measure your whole marketing mix, including Reddit.