Case Study on The Efficacy of using Paid Ads on Reddit to Promote Redbubble

So....

Let's talk Reddit. The self-styled Front Page of the Internet. People go there to read about their favorite this or that and for the most part it is pretty fun. I have two accounts there, my primary and my other one specifically for business and such. Been browsing Reddit for almost 3 years now. My Cakeday is in March.

In any case, My first foray into shameless self promotion was with one of my Redbubble T-shirts. I found a related subreddit, posted my shirt like I was really interested in it to show other people. And waited.

COOL! I GOT 50+ HITS OFF OF IT!

The little things excite me. Then...

 HOLY SH*T! I GOT A G-DDAMN SALE!

... Which may or may not be related to my covert Reddit promotion. Want me to share the design? Just don't rip me off:


Despite it all, people saw right through it:


Whoops. Busted.

 So, that wasn't a really good way of getting some good exposure. I'm sure there's a way to get it done, and I'm also sure people have had mad success pushing their stuff on Reddit the free way. However, I don't really have an answer for you. Redditors are bloodhounds.

Not exactly willing to give up on Reddit, I went the paid route. I spent 18.00 USD on some ad time and created an ad for a sticker. Small ticket item, conversions should be easier:




Great Fun. So, my ad got approved and I recieved over 11,500 impressions. Here's the results on the Reddit Ads Analytics:






I was blown away by it! But the real results in terms of views came from the Redbubble "MAnage Portfolio" Analytics:



I started at at FOUR views and went to 192. Unfortunately, that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee. and a 0% conversion rate.

What went wrong? Why didn't anyone buy it? Well, I don't really know. But I have some hypotheses:

1.) Nobody who clicked through liked the design.
2.) The price point was unreasonable, even at two and change USD.
3.) I didn't appeal to the proper demographics for my ad.
4.) People just weren't all that interested.

11,500 impressions. 188 clicks. That gives us a CTR (Click Through Rate) of 1.6%.

Sigh...

That's okay, Rome wasn't built in a day, and a passive income wasn't either. I will make it work and I'll keep tinkering until it blows up.

Lessons learned: Marketing is hard as sh*t. I now know how to make an ad campaign on Reddit.

What I am going to do is when I'm time promoting my novel on Kindle during its free period:


I'll be Ready with a bigger budget.

It wasn't a complete loss. We will get there Passive Owls!

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