In February 2024, Google and Reddit announced a partnership that involved Google’s access to Reddit’s content through official APIs.
Ever since Reddit has been enjoying unprecedented visibility on Google’s search result pages, both through organic rankings and separate “discussions” sections which would often be featured in SERPs.
The partnership raised a lot of questions in the digital marketing community as it obviously made Reddit an unavoidable part of buying journeys. But there’s even more to it than immediately meets the eye.
Why Did This Partnership Even Happen?
Understanding the why’s is important for seeing the broader picture and knowing what the future may hold for organic visibility. Like for any important business partnership, there are several reasons for this one to have happened:
1. Happier Google’s Users
Google was very transparent about this reason for the partnership: Lots of searchers add “reddit” to search queries making it obvious that they wanted to see what others were saying about problems they were trying to solve.
2. More Traffic for Reddit
In its official announcement, Reddit didn’t make it a secret that its objective behind the partnership was to increase organic visibility for Reddit content. More traffic translates into more revenue. Reddit became a public company a few months after the partnership, so the deal was very timely indeed.
Reddit’s organic traffic growth, according to Semrush (as of December 2024)
3. Google’s Access to Real Human Conversations
For years Google has been lacking one key element: Access to real human conversations. We’ve seen it correct this disadvantage many times: Google Wave, Google Plus, and recently Google Notes – all of these projects had one distinct purpose: Giving Google access to actual live conversations real people exchange in real life.
All those projects failed, and meanwhile, the Internet has been moving towards letting people talk to each other for decades now.
The quick development of generative AI technologies made this gap even wider. Suddenly Google faced one huge risk: Having access to millions of AI-generated documents and little to no exposure to what real people say or need.
And that’s when the Reddit partnership happened: Google got access to actual people’s conversations giving its AI models to learn from real people, in real time.
For marketers, it is crucial to understand this higher-level goal behind the partnership.
It is an early sign of what is going to happen to digital marketing: In the sea of smart AI platforms that can take just about any role (sales, customer support, content, promotion, etc.), customers will be seeking alternative channels to find solutions to their problems, from real people.
And that’s why human-first marketing is going to win.
So now that we know why this partnership happens, what can we, marketers do to benefit from this knowledge?
1. Reddit Reputation Management is Crucial but Challenging
Over the past several months Reddit has become an integral part of just about any buying journey. Whether you are investing in TV or social media ads, be prepared people checking your reputation on Reddit because Reddit threads rank for most branded searches:
Even people who did not intend to search for your brand name on Reddit will likely read Reddit discussions after discovering them through a simple Google search.
We get lots of businesses asking us how to go about these results.
There is no simple answer.
The nature of Reddit is that no happy customer will go there to create a thread boasting their positive positive experience with your business. As a result, mostly negative threads rank for various branded searches. And there’s no easy way to protect your reputation because you risk being attacked by trolls and make things worse? Reddit marketing is not an easy thing to implement.
I have written multiple books that include sections around the power of interacting with customers and prospects in any kind of discussion board forum, conversational venue, Reddit, and even just simple forums. I think that’s a no-brainer and has to be done.” – Jay Baer (via the Social Pros Podcast 600th episode)
Things you need to be doing to manage your brand reputation on Reddit:
The first thing to do is not to get despaired. Keep in mind that any brand out there is facing the same issue. You are not alone.
Next, use these threads to collect negative feedback and learn from it:
Make sure you close all the real gaps redditors are reporting. Whether it’s poor customer service or product deficiencies, make sure you’ll get that fixed;
Use Reddit complaints for on-site content inspiration. Create a detailed FAQ page to address all those problems and questions.
Implement Reddit feedback in the buying process: Make sure your buyers are well aware of shipping terms, return procedures, etc. before they complete the payment.
Once you have everything done, comment on negative feedback with links to your official FAQs. Don’t get defensive or sarcastic. Apologize and calmly explain what may have gone wrong and why. The worst you can do is to mock redditors even if you think what they are saying is false.
Reddit has another interesting phenomenon to blame for: People are trained to research brands and products more and more. Even if they just type a brand name to navigate to its site, they are encouraged to read about it through Autocomplete results:
Google’s Autocomplete suggestions for a brand name I found through Instagram ads.
Make sure to monitor your brand mentions and be everywhere where you are discussed. Be part of every conversation, and learn from each one. This will also build the brand’s trust and recognizability.
Branding statistics claim that it takes at least 7 touch points for your brand to be remembered. Being part of every conversation is the best way to achieve it.
2. Reddit as Content Ideation and Research Tool
The future of winning content is human-driven. As more and more content gets AI-generated, people will more and more long for real first-hand experience and human content. The popularity of Reddit is the best proof of that.
That’s why Reddit is such a great tool for content ideation. You can always see which topics resonate with people and which angles get their attention.
Ways to utilize Reddit to build your content strategy:
Rand Fishkin, CEO of the audience research tool SparkToro, shares a great example of the way the brand Chartr found a creative way to reach more audiences by utilizing the subbreddit r/dataisbeautiful. Listen to the conversation via the Data-Driven Decisions podcast below.
The best way to find great content ideas on Reddit is to be part of relevant communities. Subscribe to relevant subreddits and be there often to read and comment. We use Reddit for all our linkable asset brainstorming processes. A great advantage of doing that is that we are able to then utilize Reddit for our infographic promotion. Reddit is the best platform to position your content in front of link amplifiers and generate traffic and links.
Making Reddit as part of your content strategy can take all kinds of forms, for example:
Covering trending news and rumors
Providing expert advice based on personal questions in threads
Creating competitor-driven content (based on questions and complaints about your competitors’ products). This is also a great way to find a more effective product positioning for your own brand.
All of this can also be repurposed as newsletter content. If those topics excite Redditors, it will surely boost your newsletter engagement.
Reddit monitoring is another great way to know which topics tend to be popular on Reddit.
3. Being Part of the Community
Finally, and I have already briefly mentioned it, being part of Reddit community is the best Reddit marketing strategy you can think of. It is fundamental. Sometimes you don’t even need to post your own threads or try to promote anything.
Reading and keeping an eye on what resonates with your audience is a great tactic in itself. It will train you (or your team) to come up with more interesting human-first content ideas.
Learn more about cultivating consumer loyalty from a Reddit expert himself: Rob Gaige, Global Head of Insights at Reddit, shares some great advise in this related article.
Being part of Reddit will teach you to do what Google has been trying to convince us to do for decades now, i.e. create content for people.
Need Help With Your Reddit Content Strategy?
The strategists at Convince & Convert are experts at creating content marketing plans that can take your brand to new heights. They also have a team of trained speakers who can present at events or deliver effective team trainings. Request an introductory call to learn more.
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