According to a report from EMARKETER, Reddit’s advertising revenue is outpacing that of any other social media platform. The growth in Reddit’s user base is attributed to its distinctive “social” experience. However, advertisers encounter obstacles on Reddit because of its specialized communities.
The EMARKETER report indicates that Reddit’s year-over-year ad revenue is expected to grow by over 30% this year. EMARKETER, a digital marketing research firm owned by Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider, highlights this impressive growth. Following Reddit, the platform with the next highest ad revenue growth is TikTok, which is expected to see a surge of 25%, while Instagram is projected to grow by 15% year-over-year.
Steve Huffman, the CEO of Reddit, has emphasized that Reddit remains one of the few places on the internet where individuals can engage in communal conversations. During a Wall Street Journal event in October, he noted that Reddit posts are valuable to search engines and AI due to the wealth of “colloquial words about pretty much every topic” that are regularly updated.
According to analysts from EMARKETER, the growth in Reddit’s user base can be partially attributed to its perception as one of the few social media platforms that still retains an authentic “social” feel. “That’s a significant reason why it’s one of the only social platforms seeing time spent gains in 2025, per our forecasts,” the report states.
However, while Reddit’s social atmosphere is drawing new users, it poses challenges for advertisers trying to appear relatable on the platform. The report indicates that Reddit users typically prefer not to involve brands in their conversations, especially if those brands are not transparent about their identities.
Some advertisers have found ways to integrate into Reddit communities, such as creating employee accounts. For example, a Sonos employee known as KiethFromSonos gradually established a presence in the r/Sonos community by engaging sincerely. Additionally, Reddit is providing advertisers with tools to foster a more organic presence on the site. In March of the previous year, the company launched Reddit Pro, a platform that offers advertisers analytics, insights, and publishing tools. Earlier this year, Reddit also introduced a new format that allows advertisers to promote upcoming AMAs (Ask Me Anything).
When contacted for a comment on Friday, a Reddit spokesperson referred Business Insider to the company’s Q4 earnings report. During an earnings call on February 12, Reddit COO Jen Wong stated that the company experienced “broad growth” across advertising verticals, with 10 out of its 15 verticals seeing more than 50% growth year-over-year. Wong highlighted that the sectors with the most significant growth included finance, retail, automotive, pharmaceuticals, gaming, and technology.
Wong summarized the company’s focus areas: “one, driving performance of our ad solutions across objectives; two, improving usability for our advertisers and productivity for our sales force; and three, offering our advertisers Reddit-unique solutions and ad formats.”
