Reddit ad formats explained: which one should you use?
Every Reddit ad is, at heart, a post. It appears in the feed or inside a conversation, it carries a small "Promoted" label, and it competes for attention with posts written by real people. The format you choose decides how your message is packaged. Picking well makes a real difference to click-through rate.
Image ads
A single image with a headline and a button. This is the workhorse format and the best place to start. It is quick to produce, easy to test and performs well when the headline does the heavy lifting.
Use it for: traffic, lead generation and most first tests.
Tip: simple, native-looking images beat polished stock photography. A clean screenshot of your product often outperforms an expensive design.
Video ads
Video plays automatically without sound as people scroll. The first two seconds decide everything, so open with the point, not with a logo animation. Add captions, because most people will never turn the sound on.
Use it for: product demos, awareness and anything that is easier to show than to describe.
Carousel ads
Up to six images or videos that people swipe through, each with its own caption and link. Carousels work well for showing several features, several products or a short step-by-step story.
Use it for: ecommerce ranges, feature tours and comparisons.
Text-led and free-form ads
This is the most "Reddit" format of all. Free-form ads let you combine a longer written post with images and video, so the ad reads like a genuine community post. When the writing is good, these earn remarkable engagement, because redditors like to read.
Use it for: complex products, B2B offers, founder stories and anything that benefits from explanation.
Tip: write it the way a helpful member of the community would. Our guide to ad copy covers the tone in detail.
Conversation placement
Your ad can appear inside comment pages, right below the original post and above the discussion. People there are deep in reading mode and already engaged with the topic, which makes this placement valuable for considered purchases.
Use it for: reaching people while they research a specific subject.
Product and shopping ads
For online stores, Reddit offers dynamic product ads that pull items from your catalogue and show people the products most relevant to them, including products they already viewed on your site. These depend on a properly installed Reddit Pixel and a product feed.
Use it for: ecommerce retargeting and catalogue sales.
How to choose
Start from the goal, not from the format:
- You want clicks to a landing page: image ads and free-form text ads.
- You want people to understand a new idea: video or free-form.
- You sell many products: carousel and product ads.
- You want to reach researchers: add conversation placement.
Then test. In almost every account we manage, we run at least two formats side by side at the start, because the winner is often a surprise. The same budget can produce very different conversion rates depending on the format and the community it runs in.
A note on comments
Most formats let you choose whether people can comment on the ad. That one switch changes how the campaign behaves, so we gave it a separate article on running ads with comments on or off.
How we use formats for clients
At Team of Monkeys we choose formats per community, not per client. A text-led ad may win in a technical subreddit while a short video wins in a hobby community, for the same product. Matching format to room is one of the reasons the campaigns we run reach click-through and conversion rates that lead the industry across so many industries. And if we look at your product and conclude that no format will make it work on Reddit, we will tell you before you spend any money.
Common questions
What is the best Reddit ad format for beginners?
A single image ad with a clear, honest headline. It is the cheapest to produce and the fastest to learn from.
What image size should Reddit ads use?
Reddit accepts several shapes, with landscape and square the most common. Check the current specifications in the ads dashboard before designing, since they are updated from time to time.
Want to know if Reddit will work for your product?
Team of Monkeys is a Reddit advertising agency that plans, writes, launches and manages campaigns with click-through and conversion rates that lead the industry, across many industries. If we do not think your product will succeed on Reddit, we will tell you before you spend any money. Our goal is repeat business, and we only earn that when you are consistently happy with the results. See our simple pricing or book a 30 minute call.