On reddit, roughly 500 views = 1 click
175,000 reddit views generated just 310 clicks, a 0.18% CTR
A couple weeks ago I wrote a post titled AI survelliance should be banned while there is still time. Someone submitted it to Hacker News where it got over 600 upvotes, so I decided to submit it myself to reddit (on /r/technology) where it got over 1,100 upvotes.
Because I submitted it, I was able to get “Post Insights” (pictured above, left) that indicated the post got 175,000 views. Similarly, substack reports “Traffic sources” (pictured above, right) and shows 310 views came from reddit. This roughly 1:500 ratio is consistent with others I’ve gathered across several different posts and subreddits, so I don’t think it is particularly anomalous. Reddit views count impressions (when posts appear in feeds), making this ratio also comparable to other platforms.
The bottom line is lots of views on social doesn’t equate to lots of clicks, and certainly not lots of email subscribers, which experiences another 1:100 type of ratio, that is, clicks to email subscribers. My takeaways:
Social ≠ list growth. Social posts don't build email lists: social post views to new email subscribers is likely less than 50,000 to 1 (500 x 100).
Optimize the headline. If you do chase social views, nail the headline since that's where 99% of the value lives given almost nobody clicks through. For example, you could expose your brand name or logo, or just raise awareness for a crisp point or concept you can fit in a headline.
0.2% is common for ads; I expected higher for a top organic post on a popular subreddit, but this data suggests otherwise. Of course, your mileage may vary, but I thought it would nevertheless be helpful to put out a real data point I found interesting.
Thanks for sharing these stats! What sounds even crazier to me is that at least 72% of upvotes were from people who didn't bother to click. That's assuming everyone who clicked also upvoted. So the 72% figure is probably much higher in reality.
I read this via email and thought it was useful enough to come here and click on the little heart and then realized I wouldn't have actually thought to do that if it weren't for the topic of the post. So I guess that's some evidence that here on Substack, clicks and likes are underestimating impact. But I guess Substack probably tracks opens in email, so maybe never mind. In conclusion, useful post, thank you.