Promoted post
Also called: promote post, promoted, boost post reddit, sponsored post
Definition
A promoted post is a Reddit ad. Specifically, Reddit lets you turn your own eligible post into a paid ad with the rocket icon, using its title, body and media, targeted by community and paid per click. Any ad on Reddit is labeled "Promoted."
"Promoted" is the label on every Reddit ad. It also names a specific feature: promoting your own post. Reddit Help describes it as turning "your post into a paid advertisement using your post's content (title, body, and media)."
How promoting a post works
From Reddit Help (October 2026):
- Find your post on reddit.com and select the rocket icon in the bottom right.
- Create a Reddit Ads account, or pick one you already have.
- Choose your audience with community targeting.
- Set a daily budget and add a payment method.
- Review and promote. Reddit Ads reviews the post against its ads policy first.
Eligibility and limits
- The post must not be marked [NSFW](/glossary/nsfw/) and must not be in a [private community](/glossary/private-subreddit/). Posts from banned or sensitive communities are not eligible.
- Text, image, video and link posts can be promoted; polls cannot.
- Promoted posts use the traffic objective, are paid per click (CPC), and default to maximize clicks bidding.
- Community targeting only. For more targeting, use Advanced Create in Reddit Ads.
- Feed placement only. Conversation placement isn't supported for promoted posts.
- Daily budgets only, no lifetime budgets.
- Only the author can promote their own post.
What happens to the original post
Reddit says the promoted version is locked, "similar to archived posts," so engagement on the ad does not add to the original post. If moderators remove the original post, the ad stops spending and the promoted post is removed too.
Why it matters for marketers
Promoting a post is the lowest-effort way to test Reddit ads: take an organic post that already did well in a community and pay to show it to more people in similar communities. Because it reuses the post's own words, it tends to look more native than a designed ad.
Two cautions:
- Moderators still matter. If your organic post breaks a community's rules and gets removed, the promotion dies with it.
- It is labeled. Readers can see it is paid. A post that reads like a pitch will get pitch-style comments.
Example
A founder's guide to setting up product analytics gets strong engagement in a startup subreddit. They promote it with community targeting on two related subreddits and a small daily budget. Because the ad version is locked, the founder keeps answering questions in the original thread.
Frequently asked questions
What does "Promoted" mean on a Reddit post?
It means the post is a paid ad, either a promoted user post or an ad created in Reddit Ads Manager.
Can I promote someone else's post?
No. Reddit says only you can promote your own post.
Do upvotes on my promoted post count toward the original?
No. Reddit locks the promoted version, so engagement on it does not accrue to the original post.