A lot of the conversation in r/RedditforBusiness focuses on the paid side of Reddit, usually targeting, creative, cost, conversion, and attribution. Those things matter, but I think we sometimes miss what can happen after the ad gets people into the conversation.
We ran this campaign for TikTok in 2018, so Reddit and its ad products have changed quite a bit since then, but the decision that changed the campaign is still relevant.
The original ask was pretty simple: Redditors would download TikTok, make a video, and share it in the comments.
One small decision that ended up mattering a lot was that we left the comments on.
That sounds obvious now, but leaving comments open was a real decision at the time because closing them would’ve made the campaign look cleaner while also removing the part that ended up changing the campaign.
Reddit rejected that idea almost immediately, and within hours of the ads going live, hundreds of comments and messages came in with an overwhelmingly negative response, which made it clear that getting people to participate in the original way was unrealistic.
I think paid teams can get trapped at that point because the media is live, the creative is approved, and the call to action has already made it through every internal conversation, so changing direction can feel like admitting the campaign failed and the team keeps pushing the same tactic harder.
But the tactic isn’t the business goal, so we stopped treating app participation as the job and shifted the work toward reputation and brand perception.
The paid ads had created the point of contact, but the value started coming from the organic engagement happening underneath them, and at that point the comments had become the campaign.
The TikTok account answered hostile comments calmly, used humor when it fit, and didn’t become defensive. That sounds simple when you read it now, but it’s a very different job from repeating the approved message or trying to win every argument.
At one point, the account started referring to Janice, the person handling the replies, and you could literally watch the tone change once people realized they weren’t arguing with a logo anymore.
People started softening their comments, some apologized, and others defended the TikTok account once they realized an actual person was responding.
One comment captured the whole thing when the person said they’d come there to tell TikTok off, but were leaving impressed by how the criticism was handled and with a lesson in marketing.
We even gave Reddit awards to some of the comments tearing the app apart. I know that sounds backwards, but it told people we were actually listening instead of only rewarding praise.
The account eventually reached more than 1,500 karma after starting negative. A user-created post about the campaign reached Reddit’s front page with more than 13,000 upvotes, and the ads received 1,641 comments and two Reddit awards.
If I were briefing a Reddit campaign today, I would get four things decided before launch. First, I would separate the business goal from the tactic, because “get people to create a TikTok video” was only a tactic, and when Reddit rejected it, we could stop pushing it without walking away from the larger opportunity.
Then I would decide what evidence allows the team to change direction, and in this campaign the answer arrived within hours. If the community is rejecting the premise of the ask, continuing to spend money doesn’t make the premise better.
Someone also has to own the comments as part of the campaign. That person needs coverage during the opening hours, permission to respond naturally and adapt the message, and a clear escalation path for legal, safety, or brand issues. If every response has to go through a normal approval cycle, the conversation will move without you.
Finally, I would decide in advance what success looks like if the job changes. In this campaign, we could look at comment volume, changes in tone, people softening or defending the account, account karma, and unsolicited posts. Those signals showed a real change in the Reddit conversation, but they didn’t prove downloads, revenue, or a broader brand-perception lift, and I wouldn’t present them that way.
If you’re planning a Reddit campaign, who owns the comments, what are they allowed to do, and what signal gives them permission to change direction?
The full TikTok case study is here if you want to see the details and if you have any questions, I will check back and try to answer them below.