One in four retail small business owners use Reddit as part of their marketing strategy, compared with 1 in 5 of those that own businesses in information and 30% of those operating in professional services. And one in 10 small business owners say a Reddit page ranks above their business page in Google search results, with 6% of small business owners saying they get more revenue from Reddit than Google.

As small businesses look for new ways to connect with their target audience, many have found they can gain traction by treating Reddit as a search engine. It led the analytics team at Adobe Express to analyze how people in the U.S. use Reddit to find information and how small businesses can leverage the platform to boost their online presence –especially as the holidays approach. 

Nearly two in three people in the U.S. use Reddit as a search engine at least once a week, and 41% of Reddit users believe it is a better search engine than Google.

The data comes from Adobe’s survey of 1,012 people in the U.S. Among them, 8% were baby boomers, 23% were Gen X, 54% were millennials, and 15% were Gen Z.

By gender, 47% surveyed were men, 51% were women, and 2% were nonbinary or nonconforming. In addition, 461 small business owners were surveyed to gain insights into their strategies and perceptions regarding Reddit’s impact on their online presence.

Some 87% of Gen X consider Reddit to be trustworthy, and 95% of baby boomers, 93% of millennials, and 94% of Gen Z feel the same. Across the board, men use Reddit as a search engine more frequently than women, with 2 in 3 saying they use it at least once a week compared with 57% of women.

Half of Gen Z participants said Reddit was a better search engine than Google, with 44% of millennials agreeing and 1 in 3 baby boomers. Gen X was the least likely to feel this way, with only 26% saying Reddit was better.

It may be considered a better search engine because 92% of Reddit users believe the results are trustworthy, and 95% find the results helpful. Gen Z and millennials believe Reddit is more trustworthy than the first page of Google results, but baby boomers and Gen X trust Google more.

All this is despite Reddit deepening its partnership with Google. In August, Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman said during the company’s earnings call the company planned to test AI-powered search result at the end of the year, which will summarize and recommend content to help site visitors find new communities.

Categories are diverse, but the most common Reddit categories overall point to technology at 49%, followed by news at 47%, personal finance at 41%, TV shows at 40%, movies at 37%, career advice at 33%, music at 29%, fitness at 29%, recipes and nutrition each at 24%. Other categories include restaurants, beauty and fashion, but the more interesting points to relationship advice. Some 20% use Reddit to search for relationship advice from others.

It seems Reddit’s user-generated content and community-driven discussions have created a sense of authenticity., which not only resonates with users, but also in the Google search rankings.

Two in three survey participants consider Reddit results more authentic than those from other search engines. This is seen, as mentioned above, in trust and satisfaction numbers gathered by Adobe.

Reddit also has invested in its advertising platform, attempting to help advertisers reach users. Google AI Overviews estimates as of April 2024, Reddit has more than 500 million accounts, with daily active users estimated to have reached 73.1 million, with more than 100,000 active subreddits. Some 48.98% traffic to the site comes from the U.S.

But with numbers growing, advertisers during the past five months have addressed concerns of bot clicks higher than human clicks, while other say it’s a reporting and analytics problem.

 

Many small businesses find they can gain traction by treating Reddit as a search engine, with one in four small business owners now using Reddit in their marketing strategy,