Which Brands Are Winning with Reddit Ads and What Can You Learn from Them
Brands Winning with Reddit Ads
Quick Answer:
Major brands like Jack Daniel's ($5M in holiday sales), Walmart, OREO, and Bonobos are winning with Reddit ads by targeting niche subreddits, respecting platform culture, and using authentic, community-first content instead of traditional ad copy. Success comes from treating Reddit as a community platform, not just another advertising channel.
Reddit is having a moment. While other platforms fight over the same saturated audiences, smart brands are quietly building powerful advertising engines on Reddit that deliver results traditional social media cannot touch. And the data backs it up: Reddit's ad revenue is projected to grow 30.9% in 2025, outpacing every other social platform.
But here is what makes Reddit different. The brands winning on this platform are not the ones with the biggest budgets or the flashiest creative. They are the ones who understand that Reddit advertising requires a completely different playbook. You cannot just repurpose your Instagram ads and expect results. Reddit users see through that immediately.
What You'll Learn
Jack Daniel's: The $5 million holiday season
Let me start with a result that will get your attention. Jack Daniel's attributed $5 million in incremental sales during a single holiday season to their Reddit advertising campaign. Not brand awareness. Not engagement metrics. Actual revenue.
What did they do? They targeted specific subreddits where their audience already hung out: r/cocktails and r/country. But more importantly, they created ads that felt native to those communities. They were not selling Jack Daniel's. They were sharing cocktail recipes and participating in conversations about whiskey culture.
That is the first lesson. Reddit ads work when they do not feel like ads. The platform's users are notoriously ad-resistant, but they will engage with content that adds value to their community. Jack Daniel's understood this. Most brands do not.
What Walmart and OREO taught us about perception shifts
Walmart's "Who Knew?" campaign on Reddit achieved something most marketers consider impossible: they shifted brand perception on a platform where users pride themselves on seeing through corporate messaging. OREO's Star Wars takeover showed that even playful, branded content can work if it respects the platform's culture.
Both campaigns succeeded because they understood Reddit's unwritten rules. Do not interrupt conversations. Add to them. Do not lecture. Listen first. Do not promote. Provide value. When you understand how Reddit marketing differs from other platforms, these rules become obvious.
"The brands that win on Reddit treat it like a community platform that happens to have advertising options, not an advertising platform that happens to have communities."
How small brands compete and win
You do not need Jack Daniel's budget to win on Reddit. Alchemy, a streaming platform, found their customer acquisition cost on Reddit was 50% lower than any other platform they tested. Bonobos, the menswear brand, discovered Reddit delivered their best ROI across their entire paid social mix.
The secret? They started small, tested relentlessly, and learned fast. Alchemy discovered that single-image ads outperformed video on Reddit, the opposite of what works on Instagram or TikTok. A solo game developer reached 3,000 Steam wishlists by engaging with gaming subreddits authentically before ever running a paid ad.
These brands prove that understanding how to build an engaged Reddit community matters more than budget size. Platform knowledge beats big spending every time.
The tactics that actually drive results
After analyzing dozens of successful Reddit ad campaigns, patterns emerge. Here is what consistently works:
Subreddit-specific targeting beats broad demographics every time. The brands that win do not target "men 25-45 interested in fitness." They target r/bodyweightfitness, r/running, and r/nutrition individually, with different creative for each community.
Native content formats outperform polished ads. A promoted post that looks like it belongs in the subreddit feed will always beat a slick video that screams "advertisement." Reddit users scroll past anything that feels out of place.
Testing matters more on Reddit than other platforms. What works in one subreddit fails completely in another. Alchemy learned this when their video ads flopped while simple image ads drove conversions. There are no universal best practices, only subreddit-specific insights.
And if you are wondering about what a good Reddit CPC looks like, the answer depends entirely on how well you understand these tactics.
Where most brands fail
I have watched brands with massive budgets completely bomb on Reddit. The mistakes are predictable. They treat Reddit like Facebook. They prioritize reach over relevance. They forget that Reddit users can downvote ads, and they do, ruthlessly.
The biggest mistake? Not understanding that Reddit advertising requires different creative, different messaging, and different success metrics. You cannot measure Reddit campaigns the same way you measure Instagram campaigns. Engagement rates matter less. Comment quality matters more. A thousand engaged Redditors beat ten thousand passive impressions.
Why Reddit advertising is different in 2025
Here is something most marketers miss: Reddit content now appears in ChatGPT results, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity answers. When you advertise on Reddit successfully, you are not just reaching Reddit users. You are positioning your brand for AI-powered search discovery.
Brands like The Home Depot and Castlery are already seeing performance gains from Reddit's new dynamic product ads. Major advertisers including Kraft Heinz, Mars, and Hims & Hers are ramping up Reddit ad spend specifically because of this AI search visibility. The platform is not just growing. It is becoming critical infrastructure for how consumers discover products.
That means Reddit advertising services need to account for both immediate campaign performance and long-term search visibility. It is a completely different ballgame than it was even six months ago.
What this means for your brand
Look, Reddit advertising is not plug-and-play. It requires understanding platform culture, testing relentlessly, and accepting that what works everywhere else might fail here. But for brands willing to put in that work, the results speak for themselves.
Whether you are a Fortune 500 brand like Walmart or a bootstrapped startup like Alchemy, Reddit offers something increasingly rare: audiences who actually engage with content they care about, in communities they trust. You cannot buy that kind of attention. You have to earn it.
At RECHO, we help brands navigate Reddit's unique advertising landscape. We understand which subreddits deliver results, how to create platform-native content that resonates, and how to build campaigns that respect community culture while driving measurable ROI. Because winning on Reddit is not about bigger budgets. It is about smarter strategy.
Talk to Our TeamTL;DR - Key Takeaways
- Jack Daniel's drove $5M in sales by targeting niche subreddits with community-native content
- Walmart and OREO succeeded by respecting Reddit culture and adding value, not interrupting
- Small brands like Alchemy achieve 50% lower CAC by understanding platform-specific formats
- Reddit ads work differently - native content, subreddit-specific targeting, and quality engagement matter more than reach
- AI search visibility makes Reddit advertising more valuable in 2025 than ever before
Frequently Asked Questions
Which brands have the most successful Reddit ads?
Jack Daniel's ($5M in holiday sales), Walmart (perception shift campaign), OREO (Star Wars takeover), Bonobos (best ROI across paid social), and Alchemy (50% lower CAC than other platforms) are among the most successful Reddit advertisers.
What makes Reddit advertising different from other platforms?
Reddit requires community-native content, subreddit-specific targeting, and authentic engagement. Users can downvote ads, platform culture demands value-first content, and what works on Instagram or Facebook often fails completely on Reddit.
Can small brands compete with big advertisers on Reddit?
Yes. Platform knowledge matters more than budget size. Small brands like Alchemy and solo developers have achieved exceptional results by understanding Reddit culture, testing formats, and engaging authentically before advertising.