Campaign Setup

Set up a Reddit Ads Campaign

So you heard it was easy to set up a campaign on Reddit? You heard right. But because we want you to do great things and not just OK things here, we've sprinkled in other helpful bits throughout.

First, this is how a campaign works: You decide who you want your audience to be, how, where, and when you want to reach them, and how much you want to spend overall. Then you can start building ads, reaching redditors in the wild, and measuring results from your Dashboard.

This is how you build a Reddit Ads campaign:

  • Campaign: Your house where all your ad groups and ads live
  • Ad groups: Rooms to store your ads and keep them organized for easy management and monitoring
  • Ads: Your brand’s crew, standing by to start a conversation with the right redditors

Next up:

Create a Reddit Ads campaign

Create an ad group

Create ads

Jump down to Reddit Campaign FAQ

 

 

All about your Ads Dashboard

When you log in to your ads.reddit.com account, you’ll land in your Ads Dashboard. This will become your comfiest armchair that you’ll manage all campaign things from.

Things you’ll see and do here:
  • See all of the campaigns, ad groups, and ads you’ve built
  • View the status of each campaign, ad group, and ad (what is active, inactive, etc.)
  • Follow and customize your reporting metrics
  • Create new campaigns
  • Edit existing campaigns and campaign elements
Things you’ll need to do before you can launch:

And in case you need it, here's our advertising policy so you know what ad content is allowed and not allowed on our platform.

 

Create a Reddit Ads Campaign

Let’s walk through the basics of how to create a campaign.

Like video better? See our Dashboard Walkthrough + Basic Campaign Setup workshop.

Note: If you want to build and edit multiple ad groups or ads at once, check out: How to Build and Edit Ad Campaigns with Bulk Import for those steps.

  1. Log in to your ads.reddit.com account.
  2. From your Dashboard, click the + Create Campaign button in the upper-left corner.
  3. Name your campaign (something easy to spot later, up to 200 characters).
  4. Confirm funding (how you’ll pay for these ads). It’ll be a credit or debit card.
  5. Choose a campaign objective, your ultimate goal here:
    • Brand Awareness and Reach
    • Traffic
    • Conversions
    • Video Views
    • App Installs


    Notes:

    • We have different pricing models based on the objective that you choose. See Reddit Ads Campaign Objectives for more on that.
    • Video Views Objective campaigns won’t run on Conversation placement. Learn more about Placements here.
  6. Click Continue.

Next up:

Create an Ad Group
Create an Ad

Create an Ad Group

After you’ve created a campaign, you’ll need to establish ad groups — a place to store your ads and keep them organized.

Learn how to:
Segment your campaigns
Create an ad group

Pro tip: Segment your campaigns

If you segment your campaigns (break them up and make them more specific), you’ll have a better understanding of your campaign’s performance across your different targeting buckets. Because Reddit Ads follows a second-price auction model, you can also try out different bids for each segmented campaign.

You can choose separate or multi-placement targeting (both Feed and Conversation), but make sure your headline and image look good everywhere they'll appear: For Conversation placement, character max is smaller and images are more compact. Desktop can accept headlines up to 250 characters (vs 300 characters for Feed), while Mobile accepts headlines up to 100 characters max. You can always preview before you go live.

Examples:

  • Segment by placements: “Customers_Feed” vs “Customers_Conversations_Mobile”
  • Segment by targeting persona: “Interest_Lifestyle” vs “Interest_Entertainment”
  • Segment by Device: “Interest Finance_Desktop” vs “Interest Finance_Mobile”
  • Segment by Creative Type: “Interest Finance_Video” vs. “Interest Finance_Static”
  • Combine these: “Interest Targeting_Sports_Android” vs. “Subreddit Targeting_Finance_iOS”

Pro Tip: Don’t spread yourself too thin. Ad groups should have at least $50/day in budget.

 

How to create an Ad Group:

Name your ad group
Define your audience
Set your delivery (schedule and budget)

Step 1: Name your Ad Group
Get your targeting into the name. Example: “Country_Targeting_Device” = “USA_Humor-InterestGroup_Mobile” (up to 200 characters)

Step 2: Define your Audience (targeting criteria)
Note: Unless you tell us not to, we’ll auto-optimize your targeting to reach communities and interest groups that are similar to the ones you’ve picked. This is an easy way to get more eyes on your ads and help you get your best click-through rate (CTR). If you see more delivery than wanted, you can tweak your budget accordingly. For more specifics, check out our article on audience targeting.

As you set up your targeting, leverage our audience size tool for guidance on how targeting settings impact audience size. The audience size you see here is an estimate of the audience that is eligible to see your ad. If you find your audience is too narrow, consider opening up your targeting to reach more Redditors. Keep in mind that this number does not represent how many people will actually see your ad, and is not a proxy for monthly or daily active users on Reddit.

  1. Enter the locations where you’d like your ads to run.
    Notes:
    • If you leave this blank, your ads will run worldwide.
    • To paste in or enter a list of locations to include or exclude, click BULK ENTRY and enter them. Add one location per line.
    • To keep your ads from showing in certain locations, click Exclude, and enter those locations.

     

  2. Check off any interests you’d like to target.

     

  3. Choose any communities you’d like to include or exclude with your targeting (these are redditors who are subscribed or who’ve recently interacted with a subreddit).
    Notes:
    • To paste in or enter a list of communities to include or exclude, click BULK ENTRY and enter them. Add one location per line.
    • To keep your ads from showing in certain communities, click Exclude, and enter those communities.

     

  4. Specify device targeting: All, mobile, desktop.
    Note: For App Install campaigns, you have additional options: You can target mobile, and specific devices within mobile (iOS and Android).

     

  5. Specify ad placement: Feed (default), Conversation, or Both.
    Notes:
    • You can only set one placement per ad group, so you’ll need to create a separate ad group for each placement.
    • For reporting purposes, it's a best practice to separate out Mobile and Desktop ad groups, but it’s especially helpful with Conversation placement because Mobile and Desktop have different headline character limitations (100 character limit on Mobile and 300 character limit on Desktop).
    • For more information on ad placements and how your ad will be displayed on each platform and placement, see our Ad Placements article.

 

Step 3: Set your delivery (schedule and budget)
Finally, set your ad group’s schedule and budget. Reddit is an auction-based platform, which means that impressions are not guaranteed. The number of impressions actually delivered depends on targeting, bid, and traffic to Reddit.

  • Budget
    • Daily budget
      • You have an amount you’d like to spend on your ad group per day
      • You will sometimes deliver a bit more or a bit less than the value you set here
    • Lifetime budget
      • You have an amount you’d like to spend over a given date range.
      • Your ad group will try to deliver your average daily spend each day until you hit your total budget. After that, your ad will turn off.

        Note: Once you’ve saved the ad group, your budget selection (daily or lifetime) is set. You won’t be able to change it.

     

  • Bid - The Reddit Ads platform works on a second price auction: The top bid for a given targeting set will end up clearing on the second highest bid plus $0.01. You will want to select a bid that reflects the most you are willing to pay.
    • CPM ('Brand Awareness and Reach' campaign objective) - Add your bid per 1,000 impressions (CPM).
    • CPC ('Traffic', 'Conversions', or 'App Install' campaign objective) - Add your bid per click
    • CPV ('Video Views' campaign objective) - Add your bid per video view

    Note: You can leverage our bid recommendation tool to get a better understanding of the bidding landscape for the audience you are trying to reach. The bid recommendation tool provides you with three bid estimates to win you 25%, 50%, and 75% of the auctions you are eligible for respectively.

  • Schedule - Choose when your ad group will run. Campaigns can run continuously starting from the date of creation or have a fixed start/end date. 

 

How to create an Ad

With ad campaigns and groups all set, you’re ready for the last step. It’s time to spin up some ads — the way you’ll get to reach out and engage with your audiences on Reddit.

Step 1: Name your Ad

This name is just for you and anyone else on your team. It’s for your tracking purposes and won’t be seen by redditors.

Step 2: Add properties (third-party tracking)

Third-party trackers allow you to track data on impressions and clicks, and validate delivery, using a third-party vendor we work with.

If you’re working with one of the vendors below and you’d like to do third-party tracking, check out our article: Set up third-party measurement.

  • Adjust
  • Appsflyer
  • Artsai (AdXcel)
  • Branch
  • Comscore
  • Gamesigh
  • Google (DCM)
  • King Games
  • Kochava
  • Singular
  • Sizmek
  • Tenjin

Add your Creative

Ways to add your creative:

Create a new post

Here’s how you create a new post to promote as an ad:

Step 1: Click the New Post button.

Step 2: In the New Post editor, select a post type from the buttons at the top.

Post types and campaign objectives:

  • The Brand Awareness and Reach campaign objective can be used to create all four post types: Link, Video, Text, and Gallery.
  • The Traffic, Conversions, and App Install campaign objectives can be used to create three post types: Link, Video, and Gallery.
  • The Video Views campaign objective can be used to create one post type: Video.

Learn more about Ad Unit and Specifications
Learn more about Creative and Copy Best Practices

Step 3: Enter the information we need to create your post:

Post Title (headline)

  • 300 characters max
  • For Conversation Placement on mobile, characters max is 100

Destination URL

  • Destination URL is where your user is directed when they click on the ad (can include a UTM)
  • For Gallery posts, a destination URL is required for each card. These can be the same URL across cards or different.

Display URL

  • Display URL is the website URL shown on the ad unit
  • Note: URLs can’t end in a semicolon (;)

Creative

  • Link post
    • Card Image: 1200x628px, 3MB max file size
    • Thumbnail image: 400x300px, 500KB max file size
  • Text post
    • Text: 40,000 characters max (optional)
  • Video post
    • Video: MP4 or MOV (ProRes NOT accepted), 1 GB max file size
    • Additional options: Toggle on/off to ‘Make GIF’ or Select Thumbnail
  • Gallery post
    • Minimum: 2 cards | Maximum: 6 cards
    • Card Image Spec: 1200x1200px square image, 20MB max file size, JPG or PNG. GIFs: <3MB, 3-10s in length.
      • Note: All card images must use the same aspect ratios
      • For desktop only campaign, we can also support landscape images: 1200x628 px
    • Caption text (appears under card image): 45 character limit
    • Additional options:
      • Add a Thumbnail Image (recommended for classic mode viewing): 400x300 (JPG; 500KB Max File Size, Aspect Ratio: 4x3)
      • Reorder your cards as needed to tell your story

Call-To-Action (CTA) button

The CTA button is located on the gray bar above the Comment and Share links. For video ads, the CTA button will also display on the video end card after the video has completed.

Notes
For the Gallery option, the CTA can be different per card.
Users browsing on Old Reddit will not see CTA buttons. Everyone else will.

These are your CTA button copy choices:

  • Download
  • Install
  • Shop Now
  • View More
  • Sign Up
  • Learn More
  • Contact Us
  • Get Showtimes
  • Get a Quote
  • See Menu
  • Apply Now
  • Watch Now
  • Play Now
  • Pre-order Now
  • Default option: If you don’t choose a button, your ads will run without one

Allow Comments on Reddit Post

Choose your own adventure with comments: The default is “off,” but you can turn them on and potentially engage more with your audience.

Learn more about enabling comments on your ads.

Select a post from existing posts

Once you’ve created a post, it’s quick and easy to promote it as an ad, anytime.

How to select from existing posts:

  1. Filter posts by Source (Promoted or Organic) or by Type (All, Gallery, Image, Text, Video).
  2. Choose an existing post to promote, and scroll down to click Submit at the bottom of the page.

All fields (Post title, Display URLs, etc) will be exactly the same. Comments and votes will also carry over.

 

Duplicate and edit an existing post

You can also duplicate an existing ad, and make some changes, to build a new post and save yourself time.

  1. Filter posts by Source (Promoted or Organic) or by Type (All, Gallery, Image, Text, Video).
  2. Choose an existing post.
  3. Click Duplicate Post.
  4. Make your changes.
  5. Click Submit.

Preview your Ad

At the bottom of the Ad Creation page, you can see what your ad will look like in the Feed.

You can also toggle between views to see how your ad will look on Desktop (in Card, Classic, or Compact view), or Mobile (in Card or Classic view). We also support preview for Conversation placement.

Review and submit your Ad

And just like that, we’re almost there! One last check:

  1. Click the Review button at the bottom of the page.
  2. From the Review Page, scan your campaign, ad group, and ads, and click Edit in blue — next to the relevant section — in order to make any last-minute changes.
  3. When you’re good and ready, click Submit.

Keep in mind:

  • Before an ad can go live, a human on the Reddit team has to review it.
  • Ad review can take up to 48 hours.
  • Ads submitted for review over the weekend will be reviewed the following Monday.
  • Depending on the content of the ad, the review process might take a little longer. Ads that are set to “run continuously starting today” will start running as soon as they are approved. Read more about our ad review process.

Once you’ve submitted your ad for review, you’ll be taken back to your Ads Dashboard. If you haven’t already, you’ll be prompted to add a valid payment method.

Having trouble adding your credit card? Check out our Payment Methods article for some ideas.

Tips for setting up your first test campaign

Get started with a test campaign to get a sense of how your ads will do on Reddit.  This test campaign will allow you to collect data and information on what will be successful for your brand, and optimize your next campaigns going forward.

  • Timing: 4+ weeks
  • Ad group segmenting: Video vs a Static ad group, or a finance-focused ad group vs travel-focused ad group to see where your ad resonates best.
  • Audience Expansion: Keep this box checked to include communities and interest groups similar to the ones you’ve selected already. This is an easy way to increase your reach and CTR.
  • Bid: Pick your bid based on how much the action is worth to you. Start with a higher bid to help your ads gain traction, then as your campaign gains momentum, you can lower them if you want. You can also leverage our bid recommendation tool to see estimated bids to win 25%, 50%, and 75% of the auctions you are eligible for based on your targeting.
  • What to expect: Aim for performance of ~0.1% - 0.3% CTR.
  • Optimizations: Plan on going into the dashboard once a week to optimize manually (increase/decrease bids, budgets, pause low performers).

Tips for setting up a video views objective campaign

The Video Views campaign objective is for campaigns focused on driving views of your video ads. Bid type is CPV.

  • Objective:
    • Select Video Views objective for campaigns you would like to bid on CPV with
    • Video creative is supported for all objectives, so if you would like to bid by CPC or CPM you should instead choose one of the other objectives: Traffic, Conversion, App Install for CPC, or Brand Awareness and Reach for CPM.

     

  • Destination URL and Display URL are optional:
    • In some cases, advertisers want to focus solely on video views, and so taking away the opportunity to click out can positively impact video completion rates

     

  • Upload your video and in the bottom right corner there are 3 different options:
    • Make GIF - Make your video loop like a GIF
    • Thumbnail - Select or upload a thumbnail of your video that users will see before they hit ‘play.’
    • Delete - Delete your video so you can upload a new one.

     

  • Hybrid Mobile landing page
    • When users click on a native video ad in a mobile app, we will show them a page that has both the video and destination page. This will be true across video ads in-app, regardless of your campaign goal.

     

Reddit Campaign FAQ

Can I save a Reddit campaign as a draft?
Not at the moment, but you can edit a campaign after you’ve submitted it.

Where will my ads appear?
Either within the Feed, Conversations, or Both — depending on which placement option you selected. Learn more about placements here.

Your ads will be shown to the users in your Ad Group audience, which you’ll set when you create your Ad Group and enter targeting.

How much will my campaign cost?
Learn about how much you spend on advertising and what you pay for when you set up your campaign.

Can I work with an insertion order (IO)?
IOs are only available to advertisers working with our managed services team. If you’re working directly with us, then yes!

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