Reddit’s AI-powered Max Campaigns deliver 37% cost savings for Brooks Running

Reddit has launched Max Campaigns, an AI-powered advertising product that automates campaign management and is already delivering measurable results for sporting goods brands seeking efficiency in their digital marketing spend. 

The social platform’s new tool leverages artificial intelligence to handle campaign setup, targeting, and optimization with minimal manual intervention from marketers. Early adoption by sportswear brands suggests the technology could reshape how the industry approaches paid social advertising.

Brooks Running achieves cost efficiencies

Brooks Running, a Seattle-based performance running brand, used Max Campaigns to promote the launch of its Ghost 17 running shoe. The campaign delivered a 37 percent decrease in cost per click and generated 27 percent more clicks compared to standard Reddit advertising approaches, according to data shared by the platform.

The results demonstrate how automation can improve both cost efficiency and engagement metrics simultaneously – a combination that has proven elusive with traditional campaign management methods.

Max Campaigns represents Reddit’s effort to compete with more established advertising platforms by lowering barriers to entry and reducing the technical expertise required to run effective campaigns. The tool automatically selects targeting parameters, adjusts bids in real time, and optimizes creative delivery based on performance signals.

Reddit crosses international threshold

While Reddit originated in the US and maintains its strongest presence in North America, the platform reached a significant milestone in fourth quarter 2024 that sporting goods brands operating across multiple markets should consider when evaluating channel strategies.

For the first time, international daily active users (53.7 million) surpassed US daily active users (48 million) in fourth quarter 2024, officially putting the majority of Reddit’s audience outside the United States. This milestone strongly reinforces the trend of Reddit evolving beyond its US-centric origins and signals growing relevance for brands targeting international markets.

Reddit reported 101.7 million daily active users globally as of fourth quarter 2024, representing growth of 4.5 million users in the final quarter alone. The platform’s international user base now accounts for 52.8 percent of total daily active users, marking an inflection point in its geographic composition.

This shift carries strategic implications for sporting goods brands.

What was once primarily a North American platform with international adjacency has become a genuinely global network where international audiences represent the majority. For European sporting goods marketers who may have dismissed Reddit as too US-focused, this geographic rebalancing warrants reconsideration.

The geographic distribution reveals distinct market opportunities for sporting goods brands. While the US remains the single largest individual market at 48 million daily users, it now represents less than half of Reddit’s total audience. Among international markets, the UK accounts for approximately 7.5 percent of users, Canada 7.3 percent, Germany 4.9 percent, and Australia 3.7 percent. European markets collectively represent a meaningful and growing audience segment.

For European sporting goods brands, these figures present both opportunity and strategic consideration. The platform offers access to engaged niche communities – particularly valuable for technical outdoor, running, and cycling categories where enthusiast forums drive purchase decisions. The majority-international user base suggests Reddit’s relevance outside North America has reached critical mass, though the concentration of users in English-speaking markets means campaigns may still require language and cultural adaptation for Continental European audiences.

Reddit’s audience skews toward younger users, with the largest demographic being those aged 18 to 29. This age profile aligns well with sporting goods brands targeting active lifestyle consumers and early adopters of performance innovations.

The platform’s community structure also creates opportunities for geographic targeting. Subreddits organized around European running events, local outdoor activities, or regional sports create concentrated audiences that broader social platforms cannot match. A brand launching trail running shoes in the Alps, for instance, can target communities focused on mountain running in German-speaking regions without paying for broader, less relevant reach.

How automation reshapes campaign strategy

The AI system handles tasks that typically require constant monitoring and adjustment by media buyers: audience targeting refinement, budget pacing, and creative rotation. This automation potentially frees marketing teams to focus on strategy and creative development rather than tactical execution.

For sporting goods brands operating across multiple product categories and seasonal launches, this efficiency gain could prove significant. Running brands alone manage dozens of product releases annually, each requiring distinct marketing support across various digital channels.

The technology also addresses a persistent challenge in social advertising: the complexity of Reddit’s community-driven structure. The platform’s content is organized into thousands of specialized communities (subreddits), making manual targeting labor-intensive. Max Campaigns’ AI navigates this complexity by identifying relevant audiences across communities without requiring marketers to manually select each subreddit.

The geographic diversity of Reddit’s user base adds another layer of complexity that AI optimization may help address. With the majority of users now outside the US, brands can potentially test campaigns across diverse markets with varying user concentrations – running higher-spend campaigns in the US and UK where user density is greatest, while using lower-cost tests in emerging markets like Germany or France where Reddit adoption is growing but remains below saturation.

The platform’s accelerating international growth – adding 4.5 million daily users in fourth quarter 2024 alone, predominantly outside the US – suggests these international testing opportunities will continue expanding. For European brands, this growth trajectory indicates improving platform relevance and justifies closer evaluation of Reddit as a performance marketing channel.

Implications for sporting goods marketing

The Brooks Running case study suggests several strategic implications for sporting goods marketers:

First, AI-powered campaign tools may accelerate the shift toward performance-based marketing metrics. When automation delivers measurable cost savings, brands face pressure to justify premium spending on less measurable awareness campaigns.

Second, the technology could democratize access to sophisticated targeting capabilities. Smaller sporting goods brands with limited marketing teams may now compete more effectively against larger competitors in paid social channels. This democratization matters particularly in Europe, where mid-sized specialty brands often lack the marketing resources of global athletic footwear giants.

Third, the reduced cost per engagement may enable brands to test more experimental creative approaches or reach niche audiences that previously seemed too expensive to target effectively. European brands exploring US market entry, for instance, could test messaging and positioning at lower risk before committing to larger channel investments. Conversely, US brands can now justify testing European markets where Reddit’s user base is expanding rapidly.

However, the technology also raises questions about creative differentiation. If multiple brands use the same AI optimization system, will campaigns begin to look similar? Can automated systems capture the nuanced brand positioning that distinguishes premium sporting goods brands from value competitors?

The geographic distribution of Reddit’s audience presents evolving strategic considerations. The shift to majority-international usage fundamentally changes the platform’s value proposition for non-US brands. What was once a specialized channel for reaching North American audiences has become a global platform where international reach represents the default rather than the exception. European-focused brands should evaluate whether Reddit’s current user concentration in their target markets now justifies investment, particularly given the platform’s growth trajectory.

Broader platform developments

Reddit’s investment in AI-powered advertising products comes as the platform seeks to grow its advertising revenue and prove its value to marketers. The company reported advertising revenue of $315.1 million (€268.87 million) in its most recent quarter, representing 68 percent year-over-year growth.

The platform has simultaneously been developing partnerships with AI companies, including licensing deals that allow large language models to train on Reddit’s content. These arrangements provide Reddit with additional revenue streams while positioning the platform at the intersection of social media and artificial intelligence development.

For sporting goods brands, Reddit represents a distinct opportunity within the social media landscape. The platform’s communities focused on specific sports, activities, and gear create concentrated audiences of enthusiasts – precisely the engaged consumers that performance brands seek to reach. Communities dedicated to running, cycling, hiking, climbing, and other activities offer direct access to passionate participants who influence purchase decisions within their networks.

The platform’s discussion-oriented format also enables brands to gather product feedback and understand consumer concerns in ways that image-focused platforms like Instagram cannot match. Threads discussing shoe durability, jacket breathability, or backpack capacity provide unfiltered consumer insights that can inform product development and marketing messaging.

The shift to majority-international usage amplifies these advantages for global brands. Communities discussing trail running in the Alps, cycling infrastructure in the Netherlands, or outdoor gear for Scandinavian conditions now represent meaningful audience segments rather than niche corners of a US-dominated platform.