In the home improvement space, the competition to capture the attention of professionals—commonly referred to as “Pros”—is heating up. Industry giants like The Home Depot and Lowe’s have already reshaped their strategies, prioritizing this audience for growth. As job openings and demand for Pros grow, marketers face both an opportunity and a challenge: finding efficient and impactful ways to connect with these highly sought-after professionals. 

Enter Reddit.

While platforms like YouTube and LinkedIn have been traditional go-tos for reaching Pros, rising costs and competition make them less feasible for many campaigns. Reddit offers a compelling alternative. With its unique user demographics, targeting capabilities, and trusted environment, Reddit is carving out a space as the future of Pro marketing.

The 5 Reasons

1. Pros are Redditors
The No. 1 reason Reddit is the future of Pro marketing is a pretty obvious one: Pros are Redditors.

Reddit is home to millions of Pro users, organized into niche communities called subreddits. Over 50 million home improvement professionals globally engage in over 30 Pro-focused subreddits like r/construction, r/electricians, and r/skilledtrades. These verified communities provide direct access to audiences that are often difficult to pinpoint on other platforms.

2. Community-Based Targeting
While Reddit entered the advertising space later than other social platforms, its deeply engaged communities enable unique targeting based on who users are and what they truly care about. Here are the ways you can reach your audience:

• Keyword targeting – allows marketers to reach users who are actively searching for or engaging with keywords related to your brand or product, such as “commercial paint equipment,” “best shower valve,” or “strongest electrical tape.”
• Communities targeting - with over 138,000 active subreddits, there’s a high likelihood of finding communities that align with your brand’s niche. This targeting approach enables you to reach users based on the subreddits they actively engage with or belong to, making it an effective way to connect with highly relevant audiences.
• Interest groups - at the broadest level of targeting, for those trying to reach larger audiences, there’s Interest groups, which targets based on topics redditors recently interacted with – another way to think of it is targeting subreddits in bulk.
  

3. Low Cost, High Performance
Compared to LinkedIn and Meta, Reddit offers significantly lower CPMs and CPCs, making it an efficient choice for Pro campaigns. For instance, a campaign we did for Teknor Apex achieved a 30% more efficient CPC and a 675% higher video completion rate on Reddit compared to Meta.

4. Valuable Audience
Reddit’s user base has grown by 27% since late 2022, with 572 million unique U.S. visitors. Many Redditors are exclusive to the platform; 30% don’t use Facebook, 39% don’t use Instagram, and 41% don’t use TikTok. This means brands can reach audiences that are increasingly hard to find elsewhere (backlinko).

Reddit users value genuine discussions and product recommendations.

5. Increasing Authority
Google’s $60M investment in Reddit underscores the platform’s growing role as a trusted source for real-world discussions and insights. This deal not only supports Google’s AI model training with Reddit’s rich user-generated data, but has also increased Reddit’s visibility in search results, driving significant year-over-year traffic growth. While Google denies a direct link, this prominence has impacted publishers, many of whom have embraced the shift by establishing or revamping their Reddit presence. Platforms like Yahoo, Puck, and Rolling Stone now leverage Reddit to engage audiences in this evolving digital landscape (Adweek). Reddit’s plans to introduce its own paid search feature will further solidify its authority in the online space.

4 Ways to Get Started Reaching Pros on Reddit

1. Identify Your Audience
Since we all work in marketing, this feels like a no-brainer, but in the context of Reddit, we want to think about the specific subreddits we want to reach.

When we built our campaign strategy for Teknor Apex, we were targeting landscape Pros, so we looked into r/LawnCarePros and r/landscaping subreddits. You’ll find that some communities span both DIYers and Pros, and this was the case with r/landscaping. But after digging into the conversations there, we decided there were enough Pro comments and posts to include that community in our targeting.

Maybe your target audience expands beyond one or two specific types of Pros - for a more general targeting approach, you could think about it from the perspective of Pro interests or accessories: could r/tools make sense? Or r/workwear? 

Or, on the flip side of that, if your audience is super niche, are there keywords that only your audience would be searching for? For instance, we could have targeted keywords and phrases like “contract-grade hose” or “best hose for landscapers.”

2. Tap Into Pro Content Themes

Once you’ve identified your target subreddits, do a deep dive into conversations in those communities. What are Pros talking about? The goal is to have your content fit seamlessly into the Reddit environment, because Redditors are notoriously hostile to ads that don’t respect the norms of the platform.

Here are some common conversation themes we've noticed across various professional subreddits. Consider these as broad guideposts for shaping your Reddit content strategy. However, the real value comes from diving into the specific discussions happening in your target subreddits to better understand what professionals in your niche are talking about:

• Business Advice
• Project Advice
• Product and Lifestyle Advice
• Humor and Commiseration 

3. Build No BS Creative
Once you’ve identified your ad topics or messaging strategy, you want to develop “No BS Creative.”

If you’re familiar with Reddit, you know that it can be a tricky place for brands. Redditors are ready and willing to criticize brands, especially ones that treat Reddit like any other ad platform. While you can use creative from other platforms as a starting point, you’ll probably need to customize it for Reddit. There are a couple ways to signal that you “get” Reddit in your creative – you can lean into Reddit culture or you can lead with some humor and self-awareness. Or both!

4. Start Small
When testing any new platform, it’s best to start small. We typically start with low daily budgets and run for at least a month to ensure we achieve significant results.

After you’ve gained enough data around performance, review your targeting strategy – are you reaching the right subreddits and targeting the right keywords? How are different ad formats performing? For those trying to reach the Pro – are you making the right exclusions to weed out the DIY audience, which is a userbase that can heavily overlap with the Pro audience.

The Road Ahead

Reddit’s rise as a marketing force isn’t just hype. It’s happening now. With Google’s major investment and an ecosystem built on real, user-driven conversations, Reddit has become a vital space for brands to connect with skilled professionals in the home improvement industry. Unlike traditional platforms, Reddit thrives on trust and community engagement, making it a prime opportunity for marketers looking to reach Pros in a way that resonates.

If you’re ready to tap into Reddit’s influence and precision targeting, let’s make it happen. We’d love to help you test Reddit ads for your brand.