A review of published research from Reddit × SurveyMonkey, Pew Research Center, Reddit’s investor filings and Google’s documentation. The findings describe surveyed populations and platform totals. None are rouse client results, and rouse has none to publish yet.
Most B2B buying research now happens before a vendor knows the buyer exists. In Reddit and SurveyMonkey’s survey of 1,202 U.S. business decision-makers, published March 10, 2026, 83% said they researched on their own before speaking to sales, 23% had used Reddit for that research, and 32% of software buyers had. The study is co-branded and self-reported, with a modeled error estimate of plus or minus 3 points.
Buyers form a shortlist and an opinion before the first sales call, and about one in four business decision-makers say Reddit is part of that research. The useful response is to answer the questions buyers are already asking, in the communities where they ask them, and to measure what follows.
Do B2B buyers use Reddit?
Yes, and the best current measure is the Reddit × SurveyMonkey study “The hidden B2B journey”, published March 10, 2026. Of 1,202 U.S. business decision-makers surveyed between December 23, 2025 and January 7, 2026, 23% had used Reddit to research a business purchase. Among software buyers the share was 32%, roughly one in three. The release does not say how many software buyers were in the sample, so the subgroup figure is less precise than the headline. [1]
The same study describes what those buyers went to Reddit for. Reviews and testimonials were the top reason at 77%, followed by pricing at 45%, capabilities at 42%, and compatibility or integrations at 36%. That list reads like the agenda of a first sales call, which is the point: the buyer is trying to hold that conversation before the vendor is in the room. [1]
Trust explains the behavior. Asked which sources they trust, 73% of decision-makers put peer insights above vendor websites (55%), search engines (54%), review sites (46%), AI chatbots (39%) and social media (36%). A vendor’s own page is read, then checked against what other practitioners say. [1]
How buyers research before talking to sales
The headline figure is that 83% of decision-makers self-research before ever speaking to sales. Most move quickly: 65% spend a week or less on research, while 31% spend several weeks or more before deciding. Both groups have usually formed a view of the category before a vendor hears from them. [1]
Search engines are the most used early channel at 57%, and the study calls search a navigation layer rather than a destination: buyers use it to find options, then leave vendor sites to validate claims through peer discussion. Over half (55%) said they find it difficult to identify trustworthy information sources. That difficulty is what a clear, disclosed answer from someone who knows the product can relieve. [1]
Our reading is that a company’s first useful contribution to a deal often happens before a form is filled in. A plain explanation of a tradeoff, a correction to outdated product information or an honest account of a limitation can shape a shortlist. Which questions your people can answer well is a better planning question than how many posts to schedule.
The same shift shows up in AI answers, which draw on the same threads. Our article on how often AI answers cite Reddit gives the per-engine citation shares and their denominators. The short version is that a thread one buyer reads on Reddit may be the thread an answer engine summarizes for the next.
Reddit purchase research statistics start with who uses Reddit
Pew Research Center’s Americans’ Social Media Use 2025, published November 20, 2025, found that 26% of U.S. adults report using Reddit, compared with 18% four years earlier. The survey covered 5,022 U.S. adults between February 5 and June 18, 2025, using address-based sampling with web, mail and phone responses. It measures reported use of the platform, not purchase behavior. [2]
Pew’s companion fact sheet, updated the same day, shows where that use concentrates. 48% of adults aged 18 to 29 use Reddit, against 35% of those aged 30 to 49, 16% of those 50 to 64 and 6% of those 65 and over. Use rises with education (37% of college graduates against 15% of adults with a high school education or less) and with income (37% of households earning $100,000 or more against 17% of those under $30,000). Men (29%) are somewhat more likely than women (23%) to use it. [3]
Reddit’s own figures describe activity rather than people. In its Q2 2026 shareholder letter, filed July 30, 2026, Reddit reported daily active uniques averaging 130.3 million, up 18% year over year, and weekly active uniques of 514.6 million, up 24%. U.S. daily uniques grew 6% while logged-out users grew 27%, so much of the growth is international and unauthenticated. A unique is Reddit’s own counting unit, defined in its filings, and it is a different measure from Pew’s share of adults. [4]
Search inside Reddit matters for buyers because that is where a comparison question gets typed. Reddit’s Q4 2025 shareholder letter, filed February 5, 2026, reported over 80 million people searching directly on Reddit every week in the quarter, up from 60 million a year earlier. The letter does not describe how a searcher is counted, so treat it as a company-reported trend. [5]
Why Reddit threads turn up when buyers search
Google documents a search feature built for this kind of content. Its discussion forum structured data page, last updated September 8, 2026, says the markup is designed for any forum-style site where people collectively share first-hand perspectives, and that Google Search can make use of it in features such as Discussions and forums. The same page states that Google does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results. [6]
Wayfair’s content team described the effect from the other side. In Reddit for Business’s published account of its organic work, a senior content editor said Reddit started showing up more frequently on page one of Google for longtail queries such as “best coffee maker”, which is why the team began answering questions there. The page is undated and gives no traffic figure, so it is evidence of a motivation rather than a measured lift. [7]
Search visibility is also volatile. Reddit’s Q2 2026 letter noted that search referrals were choppy in the quarter. Pew’s July 22, 2025 analysis of 900 U.S. adults’ browsing in March 2025 found that people clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15% when it did not, and clicked a link inside the summary in 1% of those visits. Wikipedia, YouTube and Reddit together supplied 15% of the sources those summaries cited. [4] [8]
For a marketing team the implication is practical. A good answer in a thread can be read on Reddit, in a search result or inside an AI summary, and in two of those three places the reader may never visit your site. Count that as visibility and measure visits separately; our article on measuring Reddit engagement, “From a useful answer to a measurable outcome”, sets out how.
What a marketing team should do with this evidence
These are rouse’s recommendations for turning the research into a working brief. They are choices to test with a customer, not outcomes the surveys establish. Our field guide covers discovery, participation and measurement in more depth, and our article on how we read a subreddit before we say anything shows the rules check that comes first.
Start from the questions buyers are already asking.
Search the communities your buyers use for the comparison, pricing and integration questions the SurveyMonkey study lists. Record the question, its date, the community and what the existing replies already cover, so a specialist can judge whether an answer would add anything.
Make the answer useful on its own.
Explain the tradeoff or capability so that a reader who never buys still learns something. State the company relationship in the reply where the reader will see it; our article on what the FTC and Reddit require for disclosure gives the wording rules. Describe only experiences and claims the contributor can substantiate.
Keep the customer in the review.
Agree which topics need product, support or legal review before anything is published. Keep the approved text connected to the published URL and to any later edit or removal, so the record shows exactly what was said and when.
Carry the learning back into the business.
Group the recurring questions into a short research note each month. A repeated misunderstanding usually points at a documentation gap, a pricing page that hides the number buyers want, or a sales explanation that needs work.
What these studies cannot tell you
The Reddit × SurveyMonkey study is co-branded research about self-reported behavior, with a modeled error estimate of plus or minus 3 percentage points overall and no published sample size for the software subgroup. Respondents were drawn from people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform, which is a panel rather than a random sample of decision-makers. Pew’s survey is probability-based, but it measures reported platform use rather than whether anyone researched a purchase. [1] [2]
Neither study tests whether a company’s participation changes a purchase decision, and Reddit’s investor figures describe the platform rather than any brand’s audience. None of them supplies expected views per comment, a conversion rate or rouse performance evidence. Our article on reading the denominator explains why a rate without its sample is not yet a finding.
| Source | Population and period | What it measures | What it leaves out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reddit × SurveyMonkey, 2026 | 1,202 U.S. business decision-makers, December 23, 2025 to January 7, 2026 | Self-reported research habits, channels used and trusted, Reddit use for purchase research | Software subgroup size, panel composition, whether the research changed the decision |
| Pew Research Center, 2025 | 5,022 U.S. adults, February 5 to June 18, 2025 | Share of adults who report using Reddit, by age, education, income and gender | Purchase behavior, frequency of use, business buyers as a group |
| Reddit, Inc. shareholder letters, 2025 to 2026 | Platform totals for Q4 2025 and Q2 2026 | Daily and weekly active uniques, weekly searchers, commentary on search referrals | How a searcher is counted, any brand-level audience |
| Google Search Central and Pew, 2025 to 2026 | Documentation, and 900 U.S. adults’ browsing in March 2025 | How forum content is treated in Search, click rates with and without AI summaries | Reddit-only citation rates, what a reader did after reading |
A better starting brief
Choose one business objective, list the buyer questions relevant to it, agree how progress will be observed, and write down what the surveys cannot promise. The studies justify investigating the channel; a customer’s own evidence will decide its value. rouse has no client performance results to publish yet, and the free Reddit visibility report on our homepage is where that record starts for a prospective customer.
Sources & study notes
Sources checked September 12, 2026. Publication dates and study periods are recorded separately. rouse’s recommendations are identified in the article.
- Reddit × SurveyMonkeyThe hidden B2B journeyPublished March 10, 2026
Survey of 1,202 U.S. business decision-makers, December 23, 2025 to January 7, 2026. Respondents were selected from the people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. Co-branded research; self-reported behavior. The methodology section of the release and the PDF report both state a modeled error estimate of plus or minus 3 percentage points for the whole sample. The software subgroup’s sample size is not published.
- Pew Research CenterAmericans’ Social Media Use 2025Published November 20, 2025
Survey of 5,022 U.S. adults, February 5 to June 18, 2025. Address-based sampling with web, mail and phone response modes, weighted. Measures reported platform use, not purchase behavior.
- Pew Research CenterSocial Media Fact SheetUpdated November 20, 2025
Demographic breakdown of reported Reddit use from the same February 5 to June 18, 2025 survey of 5,022 U.S. adults. Respondents who gave no answer are excluded; estimates for Asian adults cover English speakers only.
- Reddit, Inc.Q2 2026 shareholder letter (Form 8-K, exhibit 99.2)Filed July 30, 2026
Company-reported daily and weekly active uniques for the quarter ended June 30, 2026. Reddit defines a daily active unique as a user it can identify with a unique identifier who visited reddit.com or opened a Reddit app at least once in a 24-hour period. These are platform totals and say nothing about any single brand’s audience.
- Reddit, Inc.Q4 2025 shareholder letter (Form 8-K, exhibit 99.2)Filed February 5, 2026
States that over 80 million people searched directly on Reddit every week in Q4 2025, up from 60 million a year earlier. A chart labels the figure “80M+ WAUq searchers”; the letter does not otherwise describe how a searcher is counted.
- Google Search CentralDiscussion forum (DiscussionForumPosting) structured dataLast updated September 8, 2026
Documentation for the markup behind Google’s Discussions and forums feature. States that Google does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results.
- Reddit for BusinessWayfair uses Reddit Pro to help redditors get answers, and grow traffic as a resultPublication date not stated
Platform-published account of Wayfair’s organic participation through Reddit Pro. The page gives no publication date, follower baseline, traffic figure or measurement interval.
- Pew Research CenterGoogle users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the resultsPublished July 22, 2025
Browsing data from 900 U.S. adults on the KnowledgePanel for March 2025. Its 15% source figure combines Wikipedia, YouTube and Reddit; it is not a Reddit-only rate.