Reddit, an alternative to ‘sanitised and summarised’ AI search, says ads EVP
The Media Leader Interview | Cannes Lions 2026
Stephen Riad speaks to The Media Leader about why Reddit’s strong growth in users and advertising revenue has stemmed from a desire for human connection, even as brands view the platform as core to their LLM strategies.
We believe Reddit should work for any brand or business. There is no reason why it should just be for one segment, and we’ve seen growth across.”
Stephen Riad is excitable on the Wednesday morning of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Not only has Reddit continued to post strong ad revenue growth, but it’s also his birthday.
Arriving early to Reddit’s mercifully air-conditioned Deli-themed activation near the Palais, The Media Leader watches as the entire Reddit staff sings Riad happy birthday before being shuttled upstairs for an interview. “I couldn’t wish for a better place to celebrate”, Riad says jovially.
Riad was a mainstay at Google for more than a decade before joining Reddit in the autumn of 2022. This January, he was promoted from VP, global mid-market to EVP of global ad sales.
Despite being over 21 years old, Reddit has only experienced rapidly accelerating business growth in the past seven quarters since it went public in March 2024. In each of those quarters, Reddit reported over 60% year-on-year revenue growth, albeit from a relatively small base compared to other tech platforms of its age, such as Meta and Google.
In Q1, revenue totalled $663m, the vast majority ($625m) of which was derived from advertising. The increase was attributed to growth in ad impressions and pricing, according to Reddit’s financial results.
“What that tells you is customers are really seeing value in our platform,” Riad says of the growing revenue figure. “As we continue to enhance our product set, they continue to grow with us.
“Yes, it’s off a smaller base; we’ve got a long way to go, we’re very humble and open about that, but we do believe that Reddit has a place in every marketer’s advertising mix.”
Reddit’s 2026 Cannes activation featured in-demand deli food.
Daily active unique users (DAUs) also grew 17% year-on-year to 127m. What explains such strong growth for such an old platform? Riad believes the rise of AI chatbots is ironically driving more people to Reddit.
“People are going to an answer engine, they’re asking a question, and they get a real summarised and sanitised answer,” he says. “So discovery is happening a lot quicker, but what it leaves is a feeling of the need to do more discovery and validation on whatever that interest or topic is. The biggest and best place for that is Reddit.
“People, more and more, in our summarised and sanitised world, are seeking opinions, recommendations, points of view from fellow humans, not just an AI summary or answer.”
Using Reddit to influence AI search
Marketers have taken to Reddit in recent months as part of a broader strategy to influence how their brands appear in AI search. A plurality of LLM responses cite Reddit, prompting digital marketer Neil Patel to state that every marketer “needs to have a Reddit strategy“.
According to research released last month by Cornell University, just a snippet of user-generated copy is enough to manipulate AI search on ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews or AI Mode. It is “trivially easy”, 404 Media reported, for brands to use Reddit to manipulate LLMs.
The research raises questions about whether Reddit’s moderators — who are volunteers — are equipped to handle a potential deluge of spam from marketers seeking to influence AI search results through ‘astroturfing’.
This is especially important, as Riad acknowledges, because “trust, human interaction and conversation” are core to Reddit’s appeal to its users.
When asked what Reddit was doing to counter this tactic, Riad says confidently: “We’ve been at this 20 years, so it’s not new to us,” adding that Reddit’s back-end has “detection elements that pick that up quickly” to help moderators take down spammy marketing in comment sections.
“Partners understand that that’s not the way to go on Reddit,” he argues. The best way to show up on the platform, he insists, is to work directly with Reddit, through its adtech stack, to “deliver value to Redditors on our platform”.
AI search is reducing traffic to brand websites — but not sales
But surely many brands will try their hand at the organic game, influencing AI models without spending on Reddit?
“Our advertising stack delivers standalone value,” Riad says. “And we show that and prove that to the advertisers that have been with us and continue to join us.
“Obviously, as a halo effect, it’s a great outcome for marketers and businesses to appear [in AI search]. We see that as an added benefit, though. Our job is to deliver performance and outcomes on the advertising stack. And if it gives them more beyond that, that’s a bonus.
“We also tell our advertisers and our partners: things change in LLMs. It could change daily, weekly, monthly. So guaranteeing an outcome there shouldn’t be the end result. It should be driving performance through the adtech stack first and foremost.”
‘You’re there to listen, to participate, to add value’
Reddit has itself sought to compete more in search even as it has been a beneficiary of Google’s both traditional and AI search results. It has its own AI search tool, dubbed Reddit Answers.
When asked about commercial opportunities for the tool, Riad downplays Answers as still in beta but notes that advertising inventory is expanding. Shopping List Ads, for example, surface contextually relevant ads within the answer engine, which itself directs users to engage with relevant threads across a variety of subreddits related to a given topic.
Reddit also has Max Campaigns, its automated performance feature, which has allowed Reddit to target clients from small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to global brands. But for Riad, what sets Reddit apart is its Community Intelligence feature, an insights layer that allows advertisers to understand how and where to show up in relevant conversations across the platform.
Reddit claims that 40% of the conversations on the platform are “commercial in nature”, relating to products, services or purchase decisions.
“Yes, we can all do AI; we can all ensure that campaigns are optimised to drive whatever outcome there is, but given the commercial intent that sits within those layers of conversation, it sets us apart,” Riad says.
He describes how success with clients has spanned segments and advertiser sizes since the company went public. 12 of its top 15 industry verticals grew adspend more than 50% year-on-year in Q1.
Reddit looks to scale through search, performance and insight
When Riad speaks with larger advertisers, he says he likens Reddit to a dinner party they’re walking into for the first time.
“You’re not screaming, ‘Look at me, look at what I’ve done. Buy from me.’ On Reddit, it’s a very similar conversation. You’re there to listen, to participate, to add value.”
Like any salesperson, the proof for Riad is in the pudding. Looking into the second half of the year, he’s focused on onboarding new advertisers and delivering outcomes for clients.
“There’s still a lot of headroom. We’ve got a long way to go,” he says. “We continue to grow at great speeds not just because Reddit is part of advertisers’ marketing mix, but because we can deliver results across the full funnel.”