Reddit’s CMO on why ‘community marketing’ will drive its next wave of growth

Reddit turned a profit for the first time last year, in large part thanks to its B2B focus and the development of its ad business. It is now looking to drive the next stage of its growth, and while CMO Roxy Young admits Reddit was “a little later to the monetisation game” than its rivals, she believes “community marketing” is where the platform can differentiate, suggesting it will be increasingly important for the brand.

The forum-based social media platform differs from Facebook, Instagram and X in that its users join specific communities to engage with rather than follow individuals. Young believes this gives brands a new way to interact with a potential audience outside of partnering with a creator.

“What community marketing is about is helping brands harness the power of what these communities are talking about so they can continue to build their business, to grow new customers, and to be in the places where people are seeking out information,” she tells Marketing Week.

There are over 100,000 communities on Reddit, all based on different topics that people are interested in. She says this offers marketers a chance to “evolve their marketing playbooks” and show up in authentic ways for consumers looking for advice around a purchase.

Young says its internal research shows in the United States that 88% of social media users are using Reddit as a “decision-making tool” around a particular item or service.

She notes, too, Reddit’s increasing presence in Google’s AI search results – something partly down to Google prioritising user-generated content in its search results – but something that has driven increased traffic to the platform nontheless.

“What Reddit helps brands do is to be authentic and to show them in an authentic way,” she claims. “And what that means to us, and what our community expects, is that you’re really intentional about the things you are sharing and engaging with and that you’re allowing them to co-create and to be part of the process.”

Reddit’s CMO on why being a ‘full-stack’ marketer prepared her for a life in digital brandsShe points to a partnership that Reddit ran with car manufacturer Skoda where the brand turned up in Reddit conversations to ask users to test its latest model – even before the car was photographed for marketing – and report back to the car communities they are part of. These comments and experiences were also at the front of its eventual campaign ‘You Said It’, which shined a light on why the Skoda Octavia should be the petrolhead car of choice.

Reddit is also launching new AI tools to help it capitalise on its growing importance in the media mix. It recently announced its Community Intelligence features, which come in two forms. One is Reddit Insights which is a social listening tool that analyses trending topics and communities to help marketers narrow down what consumers are looking for.

And the second is Conversation Summary Add-ons which takes real Reddit comments around products and allows brands to use them in ads in an instance rather than the lengthy process it was before.

Playing catch-up

Much of what Reddit is looking to accomplish may seem relatively benign when compared to the other social media platforms which have been offering these tools for years. But Reddit has been working hard to bolster its reputation as a channel for brand marketers.

Young admits that Reddit was “a little later” to develop its ad business than some of its competitors and that its only started to take shape in earnest when its COO Jen Wong joined the business in 2018. The tools that it is offering now are a reflection of that work.

“There are a lot of table stakes you have to develop just for a brand to consider working with you,” says Young. “You have to be safe, you have to be able to target, you have to be able to measure. We had to sprint just to be able to sit and have these conversations.”

She admits that in those initial meetings that the brand “didn’t have a whole lot to share” as it couldn’t offer great targeting and it didn’t have great measurement tools – but fast forward to 2025 and the brand is in a much healthier position, she claims.

‘Our heartland’: National brands on using local audiences as a ‘creative muse’“We are really now accelerating beyond those foundational advertising tools and are starting to develop custom tools unique to Reddit,” she explains. “Ways for brands and marketers to reach consumers authentically with tools based on their level of sophistication and comfort.”

All this has meant for a more positive position for the brand’s bottom line. As well as turning a profit for the first time in its history last year, it posted strong growth for Q1 in May. Revenue grew 61% year over year to $392.4m – of which $358.6m came from advertising revenue (itself up 61% on the year). Daily active unique users also increased by 31% to 108.1 million people. Much of this growth is being powered by its American audience and so Young is focused on acquiring more advertisers and more converts as her next challenge.

“With the diversity of our communities, and as Reddit becomes more and more relevant globally, not just to English-speaking markets, but to a broad variety of markets, we have a huge opportunity to bring more businesses on to Reddit,” she says. “There’s still so much headroom and opportunity to continue to grow.”