AdAce AdsTarget Reddit communities: how to pick and test subreddits
Community targeting is Reddit’s most distinctive tool: you place an ad in front of people who are reading a particular subreddit. It also fails easily when communities are chosen by name alone. A community can sound ideal and still be unreceptive, off-topic or too small to deliver.
Why communities are different
Start by reading, not searching. Spend time in a candidate community: what do people ask, what is the tone, how do they react to promotion, are there recent posts? The community’s own rules and culture tell you whether a message about your business will look like help or like intrusion. Only targetable communities can be selected, and Reddit’s targeting search lets you filter by name or topic and see the number of subscribers.
Group communities by the job your ad does, not by size. One ad group might hold communities where people ask for advice on a problem; another, communities for people who already use a type of product. The ad text can then address that group’s situation. Mixing very different communities in one ad group makes the message generic and the report hard to read.
Size is a trade-off. A very large community delivers volume but brings a broad, less relevant audience; a small, specific one can be highly relevant but unable to spend a daily budget. Start with a handful of medium-sized communities per ad group so delivery has room, and let results rather than subscriber counts decide what to keep.
Use the breakdown by community in reports to judge the test. After enough impressions, compare cost per meaningful result by community, not only clicks. Drop the communities that spend without producing the result, and consider splitting a strong one into its own ad group to give it a dedicated budget and message.
What good community targeting gives you
- Relevance you can see: you know the reader, because you have read their community.
- A report that points to action: each ad group is a theme, each community a line to keep or cut.
- A tone that fits: the ad speaks to the situation people are in when they read it.
Pick, group and test
- Brainstorm topics around the problem you solve and search for communities by those topics in Reddit’s targeting tool.
- Open each candidate and read recent posts and rules; shortlist the ones where your ad would be on topic.
- Create one ad group per theme with four to ten communities and write an ad aimed at that theme.
- Exclude nothing at the start unless a community is clearly irrelevant; let the report show which ones respond.
- Review the community breakdown after a meaningful number of impressions and compare cost per result.
- Cut the clear losers, add similar communities to the winners and keep a dated note of what you changed.
Watch-outs
- A community’s size says nothing about its fit. Check recent activity and tone before adding it.
- Small communities may show few impressions and noisy numbers; do not draw conclusions from a handful of clicks.
- AdAce Ads can search communities by name or topic, show the communities in an ad group and propose a change to the list. Each proposal shows the before and after and waits for your approval.
Sources and further reading
Try it on your own accounts
Create a workspace, connect Google or Meta in a couple of clicks and see your accounts clearly. Changes follow your approvals or the policy you configure.
Create your workspace