LinkedIn Isn’t Enough: Why B2B Leaders Need Reddit in Their Media Mix

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Reddit vs. LinkedIn for B2B: The key takeaways

• Reddit now reaches over 1.2B monthly users and 138K+ active communities, including niche B2B subreddits where buyers research tools and vendors.
• While 4 out of 5 LinkedIn members drive business decisions and 78% of B2B marketers already use LinkedIn ads, that concentration makes feeds crowded and CPMs expensive.
• Reddit’s community-first, anonymous culture means B2B buyers show up in research mode, asking candid questions, often before they ever hit LinkedIn or Google.
• Used correctly, Reddit can support both upper-funnel education (native “mega thread” style ad formats) and down-funnel performance (retargeting, pixels, and list uploads).
• The lowest-risk way to start: a 4–8 week test focused on a few high-intent communities, clear ICP hypotheses, and measurable goals like webinar registrations or free-trial activations.

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Why a LinkedIn-only B2B strategy doesn't work

Today, LinkedIn is still the default answer for B2B demand gen.

In fact, 78% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn for paid ads, and they rate it as more effective than other social platforms. This is for good reason, as 80% of LinkedIn members are business decision makers.

But that success has a cost: it means all your competitors are there, too.

CPMs on LinkedIn have steadily risen as more advertisers pile in, and many teams are noticing the classic symptoms of channel saturation: shrinking novelty, an arms race for attention in the feed, and most importantly, higher costs per qualified lead.

The result? A lot of senior marketers end up over-allocating to LinkedIn and Meta because they’re proven and comfortable, even when incremental gains are clearly slowing down.

Meanwhile, an entire universe of high-intent buyers is actively researching on Reddit, with far less B2B competition. Let’s go over why Reddit belongs in your channel mix.

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👉 Want the full story? Watch the webinar on demand

Catch the full conversation featuring Grace Close (Reddit), Nick Andrews (MarketingQL.com), and Kevin Lord Barry (Right Percent).

Watch the full webinar: From Scrolls to Sales: How SMBs Can Win with Reddit Ads.

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Reddit is not just another social platform

Although it is often categorized as a social platform, Reddit vastly differs from its counterparts like LinkedIn, Meta, or X, both structurally and in terms of audience engagement.

“When you join Reddit, you don’t follow influencers or brands. You join one of over 100,000 active communities dedicated to specific topics or interests.” — Grace Close, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Reddit

Instead of polished personal brands and corporate pages, you get pseudonymous and topic-based communities where people ask blunt questions and share real experiences.

Grace highlighted two key dynamics that matter for B2B:

1. Decision makers show up in research mode.‍

“Almost three-quarters of executives actually rank Reddit as a platform for deep research on a product or a brand. They’re here in a purchase research mindset—a high-intent audience.” — Grace Close, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Reddit

Business and marketing subreddits, such as r/sales and r/marketingautomation, are popular research hubs among these execs.

2. The audience is meaningfully unduplicated.‍

“About 40% of business decision makers on Reddit are not on LinkedIn, so there's a truly incremental audience you can’t reach through your standard playbook.” — Grace Close, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Reddit

At the platform level, Reddit has scaled into a major channel in its own right, with over 1.2B monthly users, 91M+ daily active users, and more than 138,000 active subreddits. 

These insights and numbers lead to one unquestionable conclusion: B2B marketers can no longer ignore Reddit, or they’re leaving incremental reach on the table.

Where Reddit belongs in your B2B funnel

First things first: Reddit is not a LinkedIn replacement. It plays a different role in the journey, and that’s precisely the opportunity. Let’s take a look at how it can bring value at each stage.

Upper funnel: Education and thought leaderhsip in native formats

Reddit rewards helpful, transparent, community-native content. In the session, Grace called out formats like Freeform/Mega Thread-style ads that mirror how redditors naturally post:

“We see B2B brands like LinkedIn itself turning long-form thought leadership into ‘mega thread’ ads—essentially native, text-first posts that communicate product value in a format redditors already trust.”
— Grace Close, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Reddit

These formats are ideal for:

• Explaining complex products or categories
• Answering the exact questions your ICP is already asking
• Building credibility before they ever hit your pricing page

Mid and lower funnel: Lead gen and user acquisition

Nick’s experience with clients like Tailscale shows Reddit can absolutely drive down-funnel performance outcomes, not just generate awareness and demand:

“We were able to drive webinar registrations at around $104 per ICP on Reddit—often significantly more efficient than LinkedIn—by layering retargeting and high-intent audiences.”
— Nick Andrews, Owner and Operator, MarketingQL.com

Once your Reddit pixel is installed and events are set up, you can:

• Retarget site visitors who came from any channel
  Build audiences from key page views (docs, pricing, integration pages)
• Upload contact lists you already target on LinkedIn to see overlap and incremental performance

“Reddit makes it dead simple to set up conversion events; marketers can point at a button or form and define a conversion without needing a big engineering lift.”— Nick Andrews, Owner and Operator, MarketingQL.com

Over time, Nick noted, Reddit can become a repeatable user acquisition lever, not just a one-off experiment.

How B2B leaders should think about advertising on Reddit and LinkedIn

You don’t need to rip budget away from LinkedIn to start. In fact, our panel would advise against that. But you should be intentional about how you allocate and test. First, there are a few signs to look for to know you’re test-ready.

When to pilot Reddit

Reddit is especially compelling when:

• Your core channels are inflating:  LinkedIn CPMs and CPCs are rising and you’re struggling to hold CAC. 
• You’re launching a new product or segment: You want early signals from technical users (e.g., r/sysadmin, r/devops, r/salesforce).
• You need richer qualitative insight: Your ICP is technical or skeptical and is unlikely to share real opinions on LinkedIn.

Once you’re ready to explore the platform, Reddit’s free business toolkit, Reddit Pro, is an ideal starting point:

“Reddit Pro’s trends tab is basically lightweight social listening. You plug in your brand, products, or category and see exactly which communities talk about you and what they’re saying.”
— Grace Close, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Reddit

That alone can inform your ICP assumptions, messaging, and targeting before you even spend a dollar.

How to structure a low-risk 4–8 week test

Once you’re ready to move on to the testing phase, structure is key. You need enough data to gauge the potential effectiveness of the channel while minding time, bandwidth, and budget considerations. 

Nick outlined a low-risk, data-driven approach for successful testing:

1. Form hypotheses about ICP & communities

• Use Reddit Pro + internal Slack polling (“Where do our devs hang out on Reddit?”).
• Identify 5–15 initial subreddits.

2. Launch broad-ish tests first, then refine

 “The first phase is broad. You launch campaigns in those communities, then Reddit’s breakdown tools become your best friend; you slice data by community, keyword, device, conversions, and triangulate who your ICP really is.”
— Nick Andrews, Owner and Operator, MarketingQL.com

3. Clarify one or two concrete goals

• Webinar registrations
• Free-trial signups
• Demo requests

4. Run multi-placement, multi-creative campaigns

• Feed + conversation placements
• At least a handful of creative and copy variations, including one “native” thread-style concept

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Related guide

A lot goes into successful marketing experimentation, from having the right culture to testing the right channels. We break it all down in our complete guide written in partnership with Paramark.

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5. Iterate weekly, evaluate after 4–8 weeks‍

• Use comments and qualitative feedback to improve messaging, even beyond Reddit.
• Shift budget into high-performing communities and keywords.

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Ready to add Reddit to your B2B media mix?

If your LinkedIn and Meta performance is flattening, the answer isn’t to work twice as hard on the same channels. It’s to add a new, high-intent surface area where decision makers are already researching.

Right Side Up has been scaling B2B programs across LinkedIn, Meta, Google, and Reddit for years. We’ve seen firsthand how Reddit slots into a modern media mix and how to design tests that de-risk the channel for senior leaders.

If you’re ready to pilot Reddit or want help designing a low-risk, high-signal test, get in touch with our team. 

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