Hey folks -- I am a brand new small business. I've created an app for gay men, as I am myself a gay man. The app is live and ready for download... all I need now is users!
First, I thought I'd do some good old fashioned social media word-of-mouth marketing, and that I'd just post about my new app on all my favorite subreddits. Every reddit having a rule agains self promotion killed that pretty quick.
So naturally, I concede that I'll have to spend a little money on getting the word out. Reddit loves to tout its ability to target really specific, niche groups of people.
I just got off a call with an ads biz dev rep who was taking me through the process of setting up my first campaign. We failed to be able to target literally ANYTHING because my app is for gay people.
Keyword: gay... not allowed.
Keyword: mlm... not allowed.
Subreddit: gay_irl... not allowed.
I totally appreciate that sensitive groups should have guardrails on what can be advertised to them. For example, a gay subreddit shouldn't have ads for conversion therapy. But to wholesale block the targeting OF MY OWN COMMUNITY is a little insane, no?
I know there are folks from the ads team looking at this subreddit, so I need y'all to be real with me: am I just not going to be able to run ads? Can I go ahead and commit the budget that I'd set aside for reddit ads on something else that will actually be worth a damn?