Reddit · Restricted verticals · Medical devices

How medical device companies can advertise on Reddit.

Medical devices are a restricted vertical on Reddit, open in 12 countries with approval from the relevant bodies. Consumer and prescription devices go through a managed account and a verification per market. Here is what gets checked, what you send and how cost works.

What counts

Reddit treats these as restricted.

Which vertical you are in is settled at step one: banking, insurance, credit, investment and crypto; real-money gambling and lotteries; prescription drugs, telemedicine, devices, pharmacies and clinical trials. Some adjacent products, like basic supplements, fall outside all of this and buy Reddit ads the ordinary way.

Getting verified

How medical device companies get approved, step by step.

Nothing here is a favour or a shortcut. It is the route Reddit provides for licensed advertisers, and it is mostly paperwork done in the right order. The first two steps cost you nothing.

  1. 1ApplyTwo minutes: your vertical, the markets you want, the licenses you already hold, and your site. No license numbers and no documents at this stage.
  2. 2We pre-check you against the license mapFor each market you named, we check the regulator Reddit verifies against and tell you which markets are open to you now, which need a license you do not yet hold, and which are closed whatever you hold. Most applications get that answer within three business days, with a free audit of the opportunity attached. If nothing is open for you, we say so and you have spent nothing.
  3. 3You fill in the document packA short set of forms: legal entity details, the license number and issuing regulator for each market, the landing pages the ads would point to, and the creative you have in mind. A few products, NFTs and some crypto offers among them, add Reddit's own diligence questionnaire.
  4. 4Vertical approval with Reddit's agency teamThe pack goes to Reddit's agency team, who run the vertical approval alongside the account setup. That review is theirs and so is its timing. We submit it, chase it, and tell you where it stands each week.
  5. 5The managed account opensCampaigns run on a managed agency account alongside Reddit's agency team. That is the account type these verticals are approved on, and it is the part most advertisers cannot arrange for themselves.
  6. 6Creative written to the vertical's rulesNo guaranteed returns, no approval promises, no health outcome claims. Every ad is checked against the vertical's rules before it is submitted, so review is a formality rather than a round of rejections.
  7. 7Track and report as usualReddit Pixel and Conversions API, qualified leads, and a weekly scorecard. Approved does not mean unmeasured.

What gets checked

What Reddit and the regulators look for.

Where you can run

Healthcare advertising is open in 12 countries.

The main markets and who licenses them. A country not on Reddit’s list is closed, whatever you hold. Last confirmed with Reddit’s agency team .

CountryApproval bodies
USFDA, NABP, NIH, LegitScript, or state-specific medical or business licenses
UKGPhC, CQC, MHRA, NIHR
CanadaHealth Canada, PEBC, NIH, LegitScript
AustraliaTGA, PBoA
GermanyBfArM, DRKS, NIH, doctor's license, LegitScript
FranceANSM, NIH
NetherlandsNZa, CCMO, CBG, IGJ
SpainAEMPS, relevant pharmacist certifications

Elsewhere, almost all core medical and healthcare advertising is prohibited. Basic vitamin and supplement offers that need no certification are the exception. All 12 countries →

What it costs

Free to find out. A fixed fee to run.

Campaigns run on a managed agency account alongside Reddit's agency team, who handle the vertical approval with the account setup, targeting and optimisation. You keep full visibility of spend and results, and the ad spend is billed to you by Reddit.

Worth it?

The Reddit opportunity for medical device companies.

Where your buyers talk on Reddit, and what to say →

Start here

Apply for the pre-check. The audit comes with it, free.

The pre-check answers one question: given your licenses and the markets you sell in, can you run Reddit ads at all, and where. We answer that within three business days for most applications. When the answer is yes, an audit of the opportunity comes with it, built the way we build them for paying clients, with Reddit's agency team. There is no fee for either and no commitment at the end of them.

What the audit includes

  • The license verdict, market by market. Which of your products fall in a restricted vertical, which markets are open to you today, which regulator Reddit would check, and what is missing.
  • A community map. The subreddits your buyers are actually in, with deduplicated reach and screenviews for the last 30 days, from Reddit's own planner rather than our guess.
  • Keyword and interest targeting. The search terms and interest categories, grouped the way the campaign would use them.
  • A campaign structure. Objective, geo, flight, and which single conversion the campaign should optimise toward, with the reasoning for choosing that one over the more valuable but rarer action.
  • Three spend scenarios. Reddit's own delivery estimates at each budget: impressions, clicks and conversions, including the smallest spend that can still learn anything.
  • Benchmarks for your category. CPM, CTR, CPC and CPA from recent auction activity, marked clearly as planning benchmarks and not promises.
  • A measurement plan. The conversion events to fire, the Pixel and Conversions API setup, and the CRM field that decides whether the test worked.
  • Four creative directions. Written headlines, body copy and calls to action for each, mocked up as real Reddit ads.
  • Success criteria and one decision metric. What good looks like at day 30, and the single number you judge it on.

About a week from a complete application, and it is yours whether or not you work with us.

No documents yet. Three business days for most applications.

Questions this answers

What people ask before they call.

Can medical device companies advertise on Reddit?

In twelve listed countries, yes, through a managed account and with the relevant approvals: FDA clearance in the US, CE marking in the EU, MHRA registration in the UK and the equivalents elsewhere. Claims in the ad must match what the device is cleared for.

Do wearables need healthcare approval to advertise on Reddit?

Only if they make medical claims. A fitness tracker sold on convenience and activity is ordinary advertising. A device that claims to detect, monitor or treat a condition is a medical device and needs the approvals for each market.

What documents does a device company send?

Legal entity details, the clearance or registration for each market, the landing pages, and draft creative. We check the claims against the clearance wording before submission, so review does not stall on them. Nothing is needed to apply for the pre-check.

Updated

Other restricted verticals

Find out whether medical device companies like yours can run.

Apply for the pre-check and we tell you which of your markets are open, within three business days for most applications. Prefer to talk it through first? Fifteen minutes, no deck, no prep.