Why Arts Marketers Should Pay Attention to Reddit Ads

The Untapped Potential of Reddit for Arts & Culture

For years, Meta and Google have been the go-to channels for arts marketers. But where can you go to engage in conversations on niche topics that aren’t happening on those platforms—or when you need to reach new audiences?

That’s where Reddit comes in. With 178 million weekly unique visitors and year-over-year growth of 18%, Reddit has become one of the internet’s most trusted spaces for personalized recommendations and authentic conversations. And increasingly, it’s proving to be a powerful channel for arts and culture organizations looking to diversify their digital mix.

Who’s on Reddit?

Reddit’s audience may surprise you:

• Young and engaged: 39% are 18–24, while 34% fall between 35–54.
• Balanced gender split: 49% male, 51% female.
• Affluent: Median household income of $104K.
• Unique reach: 30% aren’t on Facebook, 39% aren’t on Instagram, and 40% aren’t on TikTok.

In other words, if your team has ever asked “who else can we reach?”, Reddit has the answer.

Why Arts Marketers Should Care

Reddit isn’t just another social feed. It’s a community-driven, high-intent environment where users come specifically to ask questions, share advice, and seek recommendations. That makes it an especially valuable space for arts organizations.

• Trust matters: 75% of Reddit users say they have genuine brand discussions on the platform, and 74% use it when doing a deep dive on products or categories.
• Purchase power: Users are 2.5X more likely to trust ads on Reddit compared to other social platforms.
• Impact on decisions: 27% are more likely to purchase something they saw advertised on Reddit.

Every second, two people ask Reddit for a recommendation. Imagine your programming being the answer.

How Ads Work on Reddit

Like other platforms, Reddit offers image, video, and carousel ads. But it also has unique formats, like Conversation Placements (ads inserted directly into active discussion threads) and Free-Form Ads, which let brands tell deeper stories with multiple images, gifs, and up to 40,000 characters.

Targeting is highly flexible and can match your organization’s strategy:

• Communities (subreddits): Reach niche audiences (ex: r/musicals, r/classicalmusic, r/art).
• Interest groups: Broader categories like music, film, or culture.
• Keyword targeting: Connect with users based on the conversations they’re having.
• Demographics & retargeting: Layer in age, location, device, and custom audiences.

And with low minimums ($5 per segment/day), Reddit makes it easy to test without a heavy upfront investment.

It’s hard to overstate how niche and specific Reddit targeting can get–especially when compared against Meta, which just recently just did another removal of specific interests.

We recently got the following questions from a symphony client: Do you know what the minimum membership is? And is it per-subreddit or combined on multiple subreddits? Like for brand, would r/classicalmusic have enough by itself? Or if we were focusing on specific events, would r/piano, r/violin, r/opera or something like that work?

In this case, the answer was: We can layer specific subreddits with keywords and interest groups. All of those subreddits are available options. For example, the r/violin seems to be the smallest of those with 7.8K users, but once we add in the geotargeting, there are only 3.5K people to target in that particular subreddit. In the platform, when we search for one subreddit, it will give us related ones. So r/violinist is much bigger so might be worth including that too, or r/cello.

What Creative Works Best

Reddit has its own culture! As on any channel, ads perform best when they feel native to the platform.

Tips for arts marketers:

• Keep copy short (150 characters or less).
• Skip emojis (not part of Reddit’s culture).
• Embrace “Reddit-isms” like TL;DR or AMA to connect authentically.
• Use “we” and “our” language—it’s expected.

CI campaigns have leveraged everything from quick-hit carousels to deeper storytelling in free-form ads. The key? Meeting users in the same tone they use with each other.

Real Results: Reddit Campaigns for Arts Orgs

Reddit isn’t just good in theory. It’s already driving measurable success for CI clients. All of the campaign examples featured below saw ROIs between 200% and 600%.

Phoenix Theatre Company

Phoenix Theatre Co. ran a top-performing Reddit campaign optimized for purchases.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.)

A.C.T. used Reddit’s community targeting to reach fans of Kim’s Convenience.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Rock Hall tapped into tourism-focused subreddits.

Across CI clients from over the last year, Reddit campaigns consistently delivered positive ROIs, with some at over 1,000%, and a $0.90 average CPC.

The Bottom Line

Reddit is no longer a niche experiment—it’s a proven platform for reaching high-intent audiences you can’t find elsewhere. For arts marketers ready to expand beyond Meta and Google, it offers a rare mix of unique reach, community trust, and measurable ROI.

Ready to unlock new audiences?

Let’s explore how Reddit can fit into your media mix.