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What is Reddit? 

Reddit is one of the most popular social media platforms and is organized as a collection of communities — called subreddits — centered around a broad range of topics. With more than 500 million active monthly visitors, Reddit allows people to engage in discussions, share information, and seek support. Each subreddit has a passionate community where users often share first-hand accounts of their experiences. In healthcare, Reddit has become a space where individuals discuss symptoms, seek advice on treatments, and support each other on their journeys. For pharma marketers, this presents a unique opportunity to reach patients, caregivers, and even healthcare professionals as they travel along their healthcare research path.     

The Value of Reddit for Healthcare Audiences 

Healthcare audiences on Reddit seek out and frequent specific subreddits that are dedicated to conditions, treatments, or patient experiences. Some examples of these are r/Endometriosis with over 200,000 members who share experiences and advice for endometriosis, r/ADHD with over 1.5 million members who discuss Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and r/CrohnsDisease with over 150,000 members who support those with Crohn’s Disease. These communities allow users to exchange advice, find support, and discuss their experiences with various medications and therapies. 

Additionally, healthcare providers (HCPs) and advanced practice providers (APPs) — which are nurse practitioners, physician assistants/associates, clinical nurse specialists, and other highly trained, patient-centered care specialists — are now frequenting Reddit for the same reason as their patient and caregiver counterparts: to exchange advice, commiserate, and discuss case studies. For example, the r/nursing subreddit has over 931K members and r/medicine, a subreddit referred to as “a virtual lounge for physicians and other medical professionals from around the world to talk about the latest advances, controversies, ask questions of each other, have a laugh, or share a difficult moment,” has over 494K members.  

One of the features that distinguishes Reddit from other platforms is its raw and real nature, maintained through self-moderation by the community. Content is organized by upvotes and downvotes, allowing the most relevant or helpful information to rise to the top, while unhelpful content fades out. Users also earn “karma,” which builds credibility and trust within the community. This structure enables deep, honest conversations that are often missed on other platforms.  

In the healthcare subreddits, many of the contributors are MDs, PAs, and nurses who tend to quickly correct misinformation. The higher medical credibility that results from this is a large advantage.  

Why Pharma is Using Reddit  

As platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) become cluttered with disagreements, the content on these platforms has become more biased and less helpful and relevant to users. Platforms like Instagram, often showcase an idealized, “perfect life” image which can overshadow the real issues that people are facing, especially in healthcare. Users may feel pressured to present only the positive side of their lives; challenges are often not shared. 

In contrast, Reddit fosters a space for raw, real conversations that allow users to engage in genuine discussions without the pressures of maintaining a polished image. It should be noted, too, that users find great value in not being required to use their real identity as they must on other social networks. Reddit users can stay anonymous. Reddit offers an environment where brands can listen to, and learn from, real discussions happening between patients and caregivers. 

How Pharma Marketers Are Using the Platform Now 

Reddit provides robust targeting capabilities for paid content on its platform. There are many subreddits that are condition-specific and create a valuable targeting audience. Ads can be targeted to health-related subreddit members when they are participating in other non-health-related subreddits to feel less intrusive. This enables pharma marketers to strategically place paid content ensuring that their messaging is visible to, and engages, their intended audience as they browse other areas of the platform. 

Paid Ads: Reddit offers a variety of paid promotion options that empower pharma marketers to reach and engage their target audiences effectively. These include image ads, video ads, and carousel ads that closely resemble ads found on other social platforms. (You’ll find more details in the examples of pharma ads below.) In addition, Reddit’s flexible ad format called a “free-form ad” allows marketers to tailor their content by incorporating a mix of text, images, GIFs, and videos to meet specific campaign goals. This provides ample room for long-form messaging which facilitates deeper engagement and storytelling. 

Ask Me Anything (AMAs): What sets Reddit apart, however, is its unique AMA feature which is particularly valuable to pharma marketers. AMAs allow brands, patient advocates, and healthcare professionals to host interactive Q&A sessions, creating an open forum where audiences can engage directly with experts and receive real-time answers to their questions. This fosters trust and transparency, as users appreciate the authentic, informative interactions that are often missing from more curated content on other platforms. (You’ll find more detail and an AMA example below.) 

For pharma marketers, AMAs provide an opportunity to demystify complex medical information, address patient concerns, and share insights in a conversational format.  

What Are MRL Considerations When Launching Programs on Reddit 

Creating Reddit-friendly content: Ads should be designed to educate audiences, build brand awareness, drive traffic to relevant resources, and they often include ISI. Reddit has a very specific ad type created for branded pharma called a “Reddit Supporting Link Ad” which allows for a clickable link-out to a maximum of 2 URLs plus the CTA button that links to the marketing URL. The two clickable links could be used for the PI and ISI for example. Other ad types allow you to have a URL in the post copy, but the URL would not be clickable. Also of note: Reddit is phasing out the use of bit.ly links, so the “Reddit Supporting Link Ad” is critical.  

It is important to create Reddit-specific content. Ideally, you want content that is going to spark engagement with likes, shares, and/or comments. A great way to do this is with “did you know” type posts or patient testimonials so the content is highly relatable. Note that you can also carefully adapt or repurpose other existing, approved ads, with the caveat that you should not just post content as is from another platform.   

The same best practices for social in general also apply to Reddit: Keep the message short and singularly focused, including a clear CTA.  Also, be sure to include video beyond just the scrolling ISI. Motion is extremely beneficial. Also, while Reddit allows for ads in different sizing formats, most people scroll mobile-first, so it is still ideal to use a 4:5 proportion because it fills the user’s phone. 

There are also considerations for how your branded profile page is set up, including the nuances of the artwork for the cover photo and the “About” copy. Having the brand’s scrolling ISI as a pinned post is standard. Up to 4 organic posts can be pinned, but in pharma, it is typical to have only the scrolling ISI or both the scrolling ISI and scrolling PI.  

Choose the link-out button options for your profile page carefully. This is the place that will drive people to your page if they are interested in more information.  

What to do about comments:

Brands are sometimes wary of comments because of monitoring. To test the waters with Reddit, consider launching with an advertising program, which wouldn’t include comments.  You can still get engagement in other ways such as up-votes, shares, and click-through on links to the website. Then, as the program progresses, work with your MRL teams to host an AMA with an HCP which would require comment moderation and a Q&A database.     

Pharma advertisers typically, by default, have comments off on ads. Any organic posts can be manually locked to not allow comments. The comments tab on the brand page will still show but will be blank if this is the case. 

Industry Examples 

Descovy: Descovy is GILEAD Science’s medication for PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a once-daily prescription medicine for adults and adolescents at risk of HIV. They have an unbranded account (u/healthysexual) for their unbranded Descovy campaign. They used a free-form ad with a conversational tone that feels approachable and relatable to the platform. It avoids overly technical jargon and instead opts for clear, simple language that resonates well with Reddit’s community. 

The ad speaks directly to the reader by using a question as the opening line (“Did you know PrEP…”). This immediately grabs attention and sets a tone of direct conversation, commonly seen in Reddit posts that seek to generate dialogue and interaction. 

Slynd:Exeltis USA, Inc., the manufacturer of Slynd, a non-estrogen oral contraceptive, leveraged a carousel ad to educate and engage its target audience. This dynamic ad directed viewers to the company’s official website. The campaign started with an attention-grabbing headline: “Women who can’t take estrogen have sex.” It was designed to immediately capture interest. The subsequent frame introduced the solution: “So we made a birth control for you.” That was followed by the empowering tagline, “Let’s Love Every Body.” The final two frames include the ISI.

 

Zoetis:Zoetis, a leading animal health company, launched a video ad campaign aimed at US animal healthcare professionals to promote Librela, its monthly injectable anti-NGF monoclonal antibody therapy for managing canine osteoarthritis (OA) pain. The ad featured a compelling narrative showcasing a dog struggling with everyday activities, such as jumping onto the sofa, due to osteoarthritis. To create an authentic and engaging experience, the ad incorporated Reddit-native copy and emojis, making it blend seamlessly into the platform’s environment.

 

Ask Me Anything Industry Example 

Lilly: Lilly hosted an AMA featuring Dr. James Del Rosso for its prescription medication EBGLYSS (lebrikizumB-LBKZ), a treatment for adults and children 12 years and older with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. 

During the AMA, participants asked questions ranging from why HCPs should consider EBGLYSS over its peers (Dupixent, Adbry, Rinvoq), to how quicky patients can see results when on this medication.  

Don’t miss this opportunity to find out more about additional platforms and how they can benefit you. Our comprehensive compliance and governance services enable you to integrate powerful, fully compliant pharma social campaigns into marketing strategies to engage customers and grow, share, and protect your brand. Let LiveWorld guide you every step of the way Download the social media platform cheat sheet. 

  

  Reach out the author, Rishi Kadiwar, VP Strategy, LiveWorld at rishi@liveworld.com