Reddit, the social media and discussion platform, is consolidating its position as one of the faster-growing destinations for digital advertising, with agencies reporting sustained double-digit increases in the share of client budgets flowing to the site.
Horizon Media, a large US media agency, says Reddit has been among its fastest-growing digital channels for three consecutive years, with its allocation of client spending rising between 20% and 25% annually.
That intelligence comes via Jefferies, the investment bank, which hosted calls with advertising specialists at Horizon Media and Jan Kelley Ad Agency to explore where digital budgets are heading and how platforms are competing for them.
Broader picture positive for online advertising
Horizon expects digital ad spending across its client base to grow around 10% in both 2026 and 2027, and neither agency sees signs of pullback linked to geopolitical tensions or fuel price pressures.
Jan Kelley, the other agency on the call, said spending picked up in the second half of the year as advertisers deployed budgets they had held back earlier due to uncertainty.
Within that landscape, Reddit is punching above its weight.
Big beasts
Google and Meta together account for 80% to 90% of Jan Kelley's total advertising spend, but Reddit commands 60% to 70% of what remains, putting it ahead of LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snap for the rest of the budget.
Two products are doing the heavy lifting: Reddit's Dynamic Product shopping ads and its Max automation tool, which allow advertisers to extend campaigns beyond awareness into performance-driven buying.
Early tests of Reddit Max have cut cost per acquisition by 15% to 20% for Jan Kelley's clients, though the tool is still in early deployment.
One notable shift is on pricing: Reddit's ad rates are no longer the bargain they once were relative to rivals, with Jan Kelley attributing the narrowing gap to improved outcomes and stronger lower-funnel performance.
AI search tailwind
Its content is frequently cited in responses generated by large language models, the systems that power chatbots such as ChatGPT, which agencies say gives the platform a visibility advantage as users increasingly turn to AI assistants for information.
That said, advertising within AI search tools themselves remains at the test-and-learn stage.
Horizon cites ChatGPT's comparatively small audience relative to Google as a constraint on adoption, while Jan Kelley reports limited visibility into return on ad spend and weak lower-funnel results from AI-native placements.
The overall read is that Reddit has moved from scrappy digital upstart to a credible line item in major advertising budgets, with the product improvements to support the premium it is now charging.
