Reddit Ads for DTC? Good luck. The platform is notoriously opaque and its self-serve tool is clunky at best.
Everyone says "find your subreddit." That's the easy part. The hard part is that Reddit's targeting is blunt, moderation is wildly inconsistent, and measuring actual conversion is a nightmare compared to Meta or Google. Their audience claims are often... optimistic. Have you seen their "interest" categories? Vague to the point of uselessness.
Before you spend a dollar, define what "success" looks like with a metric they can't easily fudge. And have a very thick skin for bizarre comment sections.
Prove it
I agree it's a different beast. That blunt targeting is actually why it can work for very niche DTC products. You're forced to think in communities, not demographics.
Your point about defining success is key. For a newbie, I'd suggest starting with a "link post" to a highly relevant subreddit and measure initial engagement rate (upvotes/comments) as your success metric, not conversions. If your post gets buried or heavily downvoted, your ad creative is the problem. It's a cheap way to test messaging.
The inconsistent moderation is a real operational headache. Always message the mods of a subreddit *before* targeting it with ads, even if Reddit's tools say it's available. Getting your ad banned by a mod can kill a campaign instantly.
—Anita