How to Use Memes in Marketing (Without Looking Cringe)
What is the second most shared content type in the United States among Gen Z and millennials?
It’s memes: 35% of respondents said they regularly share someone else’s memes, and 29% create their own content.
Of course, marketers use this privilege of memes as a very engaging and banner-blindness-breaking tool. Does it really work, and how? We asked experts and will now share all the pitfalls and advantages of marketing with memes.
(And, by the way, some of them were so happy we asked that they even created a meme):
This masterpiece was created by our Anna Avramova
Meme Marketing: Quick Overview
We don’t think meme marketing requires any special explanation. Just to make sure everyone got the idea of what we are talking about:
Meme marketing is when brands use funny, relatable, or viral internet memes to promote their products or services in a way that feels natural and engaging.
Marketing with memes can follow different purposes. Here are the three most popular ones, according to Julia Larionova, Head of Marketing at PropellerAds:
- Promote a short-term campaign. This one absolutely works, especially if you tap into a trending meme. Big brands like Duolingo and Netflix are great at this kind of humor.
- Reach a new audience. This is more about brand awareness: memes help you draw more attention to an established brand. Different memes resonate with different generations — some work for millennials, others for Gen Z.
- Promote new product. Especially, when this product targets an audience that the brand hasn’t reached before. A good example is OIIA OIIA (Spinning Cat), used in Huyndai’ Reels video when they promoted a new fully electric model.
Statistics prove memes are one of the top popular content types – and here are some numbers:
For our most meticulous readers, here are the links to the researches that prove it!
Meme Marketing Channels: Where to Post Memes?
Memes are a perfect tool as they are suitable for almost any content type. It can be a part of your advertising push, a Telegram or Instagram post, or an illustration for your blog article. However, the nature of your memes might depend on the platform’s rules, moderation, and audience.
Anna Avramova, Performance Team Lead at PropellerAds:
Marketing with memes rarely drives direct sales — instead, they build brand affinity, engagement, and memorability. That’s why they thrive best on social media, where content is consumed quickly and emotionally.
We compiled a list of channels that are supposed to work best for marketing with memes and some tips on each. However, that’s not some unbreakable rule or strict guideline: meme marketing is the perfect space for experiments, which are, by the way, very cheap, quick, and easy to conduct.
Recent Instagram Reel statistics data indicate that IG Reels have an average reach rate of 30.81%, significantly outperforming carousels at 14.45% and images at 13.14%. This means your video memes might have a much higher reach and engagement rate if they’re trendy and relatable, of course.
Natalia Andreykina, CRM Team Lead at PropellerAds: During the Squid Game trend peak, static memes underperformed, while videos drove 4x higher Instagram reach/views.
However, the images can also work out, but they will most likely reach your subscribers rather than appear in the recommendations feed.
TikTok
Being a number one source of memes, often copied by Reel makers, TikTok can become your first touchpoint for meme marketing. It’s similar to Reels, but the key to memes’ virality here is trending sounds.
An interesting fact: 77% of consumers discover new brands and products through social media — with TikTok leading at 80%.
Twitter/X
X (Twitter) is more about text-based memes. According to Charley Agency, 79% of X users seek new things on Twitter and discover new facts, information, and news, so a meme can easily break banner blindness.
Besides, X format allows you to insert images and videos, and brands are using it for their meme marketing, too.
LinkedIn is associated with something very corporate and serious, but it doesn’t mean you can’t post memes there, too.
Of course, there will be more boundaries – it’s unlikely that you might want to publish something NSFW in a feed full of your colleagues and partners.
However, the posts with funny additions can help you stand out among the serious posts about corporate values:
Blog posts
Even the most exciting text ever requires some visuals. It’s especially important for long blog articles, like this one.
When we read, our eyes latch onto images, and overall, we find it easier to understand structured material instead of a solid wall of text. So, why not make these images memes?
Ksenia Rusakova, ARAY PR:
In a perfect content world, visuals must help illustrate some thoughts and enhance the article. In reality, especially when it comes to affiliate marketing media, that’s not always possible.
Memes turn out to be a perfect solution. They give a reader a breather, break up the monotony of text, and avoid cheap stock photos that devalue the content. But, if we’re talking priorities, here’s the hierarchy: relevant images → real (authentic) photos → memes → everything else.’
Telegram
Memes perfectly fit the informal nature of this messenger. Telegram has the mildest moderation, which means you can play around with harsher topics and more provocative content. Of course, if your brand’s TOV allows it! However, you don’t always need to use this freedom:
Anna Avramova:
Irony and softness work just as well there. The key is that the meme needs to be recognizable, instantly understandable, and match the audience’s mood. That could mean either a sharp topical comment or just a cute, on-point joke.
What’s more, Telegram offers many more opportunities for meme marketing. For example, users can create their own stickers or share ones from the ready sticker packs. And, most of these sticker packs are memes – well-known or local ones.
Dos and Don’ts of Meme Marketing
So, in short, you can post your memes wherever you want to. But you can’t just share anything that made you laugh, right? Or… can you?
Which memes to post?
Roughly speaking, we can divide all the memes into two categories:
- Classic that never dies. These are memes familiar to everyone. They won’t lose their relevance even after thousands of uses. Such memes make it immediately clear what the brand is talking about, so it can speed up information processing: a user instantly recognizes the familiar meme background.
You definitely know them: here are a couple of examples.
- Fresh memes have a broader reach and instant virality. People actively discuss them, so they quickly become at the top of every feed. Such memes include bizarre moments from the Oscars, some political drama, a frame from a trending movie or series, or a part of a hyped song.
Unlike ‘classic’ memes, fresh ones fade away quickly, so you need to catch this moment while they are still relevant. Besides, they usually require contextual knowledge, so make sure your audience will get the joke.
Ksenia Rusakova, ARAY PR:
Good marketers and SMM specialists use memes concisely, appropriately, and on time. Then everyone else jumps in — those who need to go through 150 approval steps just to use a meme. And by the time they do, the meme’s peak has passed—we’re already at the ‘Oh God, not this dead horse again’ stage.
What niches are meme-friendly?
Overall, every niche can use marketing with memes – even serious brands can surprise their audiences with something unexpected. Have you seen an official TikTok account of a funeral house? We did, and this was really outstanding.
Natalia Andreykina:
I think it’s best to consider your audience’s age and interests first and then carefully test if your meme marketing resonates with them. It worked out? Unleash all those crazy ideas you’ve been saving up, then!
Take the Czech police’s social media account, for example. They started posting trendy reels, and people loved it. Suddenly, you get to see the human side of policing — and let’s be honest, the unknown is always intriguing. Even their ultra-official status didn’t hold them back. Sure, you’ll always get negative comments like ‘Shouldn’t you be catching thieves instead?’ But you can’t avoid them anyway.
And, finally, if you box yourself in with rules like ‘We’re a funeral home — we can’t joke,’ you’ll never stand out. Just know where your ‘cross the line’ moment is – and prepare the budget for some reputation cleanup just in case 🙂 ‘
Ksenia Rusakova:
Meme marketing success doesn’t depend on the niche itself. It’s mainly about how you use the meme. You can work in crypto or the marketing niche, where memes are the basic norm, and still create something so cringe it’ll haunt you for years. Meanwhile, you can make an absolute meme banger even if you’re a notary or a pathologist.
Overall, it’s up to you: your meme marketing can find a positive response in any niche. However, of course, simpler verticals, where people don’t need to make serious decisions before a purchase, might work better.
Julia Larionova:
I wouldn’t use memes in areas where there’s a risk of financial loss (Forex, investments) or where high-value products are involved (real estate, yachts, land, businesses).
Basically, I don’t find meme marketing very suitable for any situations where people don’t typically joke around emotionally and purchasing decisions aren’t made lightly but require extra research, verification, and careful consideration. I think the audience simply won’t understand meme-based advertising in these contexts, and it can backfire, e.g. create some distrust or even rejection.
How do I know I am posting a good meme?
No matter what niche and social network you are in, memes in marketing require skill — tailoring content to your niche and gauging if the joke will land. A marketer should be pretty sure their meme is appropriate before hitting a post, and also truly understand its meaning and vibe.
Anna Avramova: It’s simple: a good meme must be born from the heart and speak from the heart.
Audiences instantly recognize when a brand integrates a meme naturally or just slaps on a template for reach. Memes are especially sensitive to fakeness.
As the most alive and reactive content format, they demand more honesty than traditional creatives.
How to create a meme marketing funnel?
As we already said, memes rarely sell directly. However, they can be a part of an ad creative.
Overall, each meme has a message, like some relatable pain, so if it triggers a user, they will most likely read the text that you combine your meme with.
This text can include, say, a course that will help to solve a pain, or a link to a channel where you can find more similar content.
Here are a couple of examples that can work, for example, for Telegram channels:
Funnel 1: A viral-style meme (e.g., “When you skip leg day for 3 months…” with a funny gym fail).
CTA: “Want to actually get results? Try our 30-day home workout plan → [Link]”
Tactic: Post in viral Telegram meme groups, and let users share it.
Funnel 2: Relatable template (e.g., “Me checking my bank account after Black Friday”)
CTA: “Use code MEME20 for 20% off [Budgeting App] → Stop the bleed!”
Tactic: post in finance Telegram channels, soft-sell in comments/DMs: “Lol, we’ve all been there… btw this app saved me last month!”
Tip from Natalia Andreykina:
You can also trigger users to comment on the post by asking them a direct question. It can look something like ‘Feel this pain? Share it in the comments, and we will send you a link to our course in DM.
However, such examples will most likely work as a top of the funnel. According to Julia Larionova, memes in marketing work better when mixed with serious content that addresses users’ concerns and objections.
Julia Larionova:
It’s hard to address user concerns (which, by the way, they take very seriously and don’t want to joke about) using just ‘memes. Overall, it all depends on the niche, a specific brand, and the context. Meme funnels may work for some goals, but for others, they’re clearly not the right fit and can serve just a part of the whole strategy.
To Sum Up
We didn’t find a good enough related pic to finalize it all: as you already know, one cringe meme can ruin the whole impression of the post. So, not to take risks, we’ll just repeat the main takeaways:
- Don’t be very afraid to be funny, no matter what your niche is
- Use memes you truly understand and actually laugh at
- Be quick to catch the most viral meme trends
- Remember about eternal memes that are still alive
And, by the way, we are a multisource advertising platform.
So, join PropellerAds if you want to get high-quality traffic for your brand, CPA offers, Telegram channels and mini apps.
Join our Telegram for more insights and share your ideas with fellow-affiliates!
