• by Colin Kirkland , July 17, 2025

Since declaring its IPO last year, Reddit has blossomed as a hub for brands.

With the recent launch of AI ad features that feel native to the platform, brands have flocked to the site, causing its ad revenue to grow three times faster than the wider social-media market, according to a new report by The World Advertising Research Center (WARC). 

“Reddit’s ad business is currently relatively small, but its impressive ad spend growth, its increasing reach, which now surpasses X, and its investment in AI is catching the attention of a wider pool of advertisers,” says Celeste Huang, WARC Media’s Media Insights Analyst and author of the report.

In total, Reddit’s advertising revenue is expected to hit $1.8 billion this year, surpassing the $1.2 billion it reported in 2024, which accounted for just 0.4% of total social ad expenditure.

According to WARC’s estimates, the social discussion network’s revenue will grow 39% in 2026, to $2.5 billion. 

Over the past year, Reddit has invested heavily in its ad business, while attempting to launch tools that feel native to the unique discussion-based user experience. 

In May, the company unveiled Dynamic Product Ads, a subreddit-based ad tool that combines shopping signals with machine learning and advertiser product catalogs to introduce products to users in the right context on Reddit.

The company understood that an average of 40% of new conversations on the platform were related to purchase decisions and product categories, and that 75% of shoppers reported having genuine discussions about brands. 

In Q1 2025, running Dynamic Product Ads doubled advertisers’ ROAS on average. The number of catalogs hosted on Reddit quadrupled between March 2024 and March 2025. 

Reddit has also chosen to power its AI ad tools by analyzing over 22 billion conversations posted by its users. Reddit Insights, for example, identifies the meaning and value of words, phrases and other terms posted on the platform, in order to help brand clients make strategic decisions regarding their Reddit campaigns.

“Research shows that authentic brand participation on Reddit yields tangible results, with one weekly organic brand post increasing positive user mentions by 3.5%, while three meaningful comments under user posts can boost positive brand mentions by 2.2%,” the WARC report states.

As a result of a swath of new ad products, as well as formats like Ask Me Anything (AMA) and Pro Trends, Reddit’s global ad reach has since hit 606 million, with the company reporting 110 million daily active users, while increasing its weekly active users by 31% year-over-year, hitting 400 million. 

Reddit’s growing success with brands is also rooted in its proclivity with top-ranking Google search results.

The platform’s name itself was one of Google’s top 20 search terms last year, and sixth in the last 90 days, according to WARC, which claims that Reddit wants to be the alternative to AI search answers, basing its future in a “community-driven, conversational engagement model.”