The dos and don’ts of running crypto ads on Reddit

Would you believe us if we told you that the subreddits r/cryptocurrency and r/bitcoin were created nine years ago? Since then, Reddit’s become home to more than 500 cryptocurrency communities with over 335 million views per month.

But that doesn’t mean every crypto advertiser is bullish—or even welcome—on the platform.

“We’re not trying to work with every single new startup that’s out there in the crypto space,” Neal Hubman, Reddit’s head of mid-market and SMB growth for North America, who leads its crypto ads team, told Marketing Brew.

The platform is careful about which companies it allows to advertise. Businesses related to decentralized finance and cryptocurrencies—such as crypto wallets, crypto debit and credit cards, crypto exchanges, NFTs, and NFT marketplaces—are allowed to advertise as long as they have “proper licensing and registration from applicable government agencies and regulators,” according to Reddit’s ad policy. For example, American crypto exchanges seeking to run US ads need to either be registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) or rely on an exemption to FinCEN’s regulations.

Some crypto-related ads are completely off-limits. Ads for crypto loans, for example, are never allowed on Reddit.

Plus, the crypto set isn’t able to use Reddit’s self-serve advertising service, Hubman told us. Instead, every crypto advertiser must have a dedicated rep to help them run ads—the platform even built a sales team entirely dedicated to them.

For the most part, three crypto marketers we spoke with found Reddit’s advertising policies simple to navigate. But some aren’t necessarily spending a lot of money on the platform, relying on organic efforts and other platforms instead.

Reddit gets it

John Vance, who is the director of growth marketing at Web3 marketing agency Serotonin and has run paid ads on Reddit for crypto brands, told us it has “absolutely” been easy to get crypto ads up and running on the platform.

“I think they’re very good at what they do,” he said, adding that Reddit’s reps are willing to work with advertisers on messaging and creative for ads, too. “They also have a creative team in house that, if needed, you can utilize,” he said. According to Vance, Reddit’s in-house agency, KarmaLab, works with crypto advertisers to massage assets, edit videos, and give tips on how to best work on the platform within its parameters.

“Reddit openly, without an extra charge, will do that for you,” Vance said. Beyond that, Reddit can test ad performance with multiple audiences and find feedback on new product launches, according to Vance.

Andrew Tam, chief marketing officer at cryptocurrency exchange and crypto financial services firm BlockFi, told us that although the company only recently sought (and gained) approval to run paid ads on Reddit, his team has also had a positive experience with the platform’s ease. “I think, so far, we’re happy with what we’re seeing. We plan on continuing our presence there,” Tam told us.

“They’re doing a good job, we think, all things considered,” VaynerNFT’s SVP of investment Jon Morgenstern added. Specifically, he said Reddit being comparatively early to the Web3 world—and as well as the Reddit team’s general understanding of the space—makes its paid advertising process all the smoother.

However…

Just because the process of getting paid ads to run on Reddit seems pretty straightforward to these marketers doesn’t mean they’re doing a ton of paid advertising on the platform.

Tam told us that Reddit’s advertising offerings don’t include the same “bells and whistles” that more established platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter do. Reddit just isn’t at the top of his team’s priority list, he told us. “That said, I would say it’s an extremely promising platform,” he noted, adding that BlockFi is, in fact, doing a lot of organic marketing on Reddit.

Morgenstern also told us running paid crypto ads on Twitter, or even TikTok, is more of a priority, noting that Twitter’s ad platform is “more mature” than Reddit’s as a whole.

From an agency perspective, Morgenstern said clients aren’t as bullish on platforms like Reddit, explaining that they’re more comfortable agreeing to spend money on platforms they’re more familiar with.

“Reddit typically still needs more education with clients,” he told us. “It would surprise you how much decisions can be made off of if everyone in the room is really into TikTok or not. Things like that matter.”

He also said Reddit’s many Web3 communities make it easier to market organically on the platform. “The way this community works and Web3, it’s so momentum-built that [organic] can often just get the job done. And then if it doesn’t, you’ll often want to reassess and not inject paid,” he said.

“[Reddit’s] just a smaller entity,” Morgenstern noted. But he added that once paid social media advertising grows in the crypto sector as a whole, Reddit will get their share of it. “Part of it will be [a] waiting game,” he said.