Reddit Ads

Reddit Ads

Reddit Ads is account-scoped. Start every workflow by resolving the ad account, then work down the hierarchy:

Account → Campaign → Ad Group → Structured Post → Ad

Reports, custom audiences, saved audiences, lead gen forms, pixels, funding instruments, interests, communities, audit history, feature access, and time zones are account-level or planning surfaces. Profiles own structured posts; ads attach to post_id.

First Moves

• Call the accounts getter first. Omit account_id to list accessible accounts; pass account_id to fetch one account.
• Ad account ids use the a2_ prefix (for example a2_h9ko1rxq8dz3). Profile ids use t2_. Never pass bare slugs like igebsl70a5t9 — run the accounts getter first (omit account_id to list) and copy default_scope.account_id.
• Use the account returned by default_scope.account_id when there is exactly one valid account.
• default_scope also carries business_id and profile_id after the accounts getter runs.
• If a tool needs an ID, get it from the matching getter: campaigns from the campaign getter, ad groups from the ad group getter, ads from the ads getter, structured posts from the structured-post read or create tools, audiences from the custom audience getter, saved audiences from the saved audience getter, lead forms from the lead form getter, profiles from the profiles getter, catalogs from the product catalog getter, and pixels from the pixels getter.
• Respect the 60 calls/minute rate limit. Prefer list calls with filters over repeated single fetches.

Data Model

• Accounts: ad accounts owned by a Reddit business profile. Most tools require account_id.
• Campaigns: budget, objective, schedule, status, and funding instrument.
• Ad Groups: bid settings, schedule, status, and targeting. Targeting lives here, not on campaigns.
• Structured Posts: the creative payload (TEXT, IMAGE, VIDEO, or CAROUSEL). Create with the structured post creator; ads reference post_id.
• Ads: attach a structured post to an ad group; review status and rejection reason live on the ad.
• Custom Audiences: hashed customer lists and pixel-based retargeting audiences.
• Saved Audiences: reusable targeting templates for campaign planning and ad group setup.
• Lead Gen Forms: reusable forms for lead-generation ads.
• Pixels: conversion tracking IDs used by browser pixel and server-side CAPI.
• Reports: metrics by day, hour, campaign, ad group, or ad.
• Profiles and Posts: profile inventory and legacy posts. Prefer structured posts for new creatives.
• Product Catalogs: catalog-sales assets owned by a business, often tied to pixels and product feeds.

Planning & Targeting

• Use channel planning reach before campaign creation to estimate reachable audience size by country, age bracket, gender, and 7- or 28-day duration.
• This bundle does not currently expose bid-suggestion tools. Use community subscriber counts from community search as an additional audience sizing proxy.
• Discover interest IDs with the interests tool; pass selected IDs into ad group targeting.
• Discover targetable subreddit names with community suggestions; pass names into targeting.communities, not t5_ IDs from search results.
• Reuse saved audiences when they already match the targeting plan instead of rebuilding targeting JSON from scratch.
• List funding instruments before campaign creation. funding_instrument_id is required to create a campaign. Pick a servable self-serve instrument.
• Create in this order: campaign (defaults PAUSED), ad group, structured post, ad (defaults PAUSED). Enable only after review.
• Campaign budgets: CONVERSIONS, APP_INSTALLS, and CATALOG_SALES are non-CBO — do not pass daily_budget_cents on campaign create. Set daily_budget_cents on the ad group instead (maps to Reddit goal_value in micros).
• CBO objectives (TRAFFIC, BRAND_AWARENESS, etc.) need daily_budget_cents or lifetime_budget_cents on campaign create.
• Ad group optimization: CONVERSIONS/CATALOG_SALES use PAGE_VISIT, SIGN_UP, PURCHASE, LEAD, or ADD_TO_CART — not CLICKS. Default on create is PAGE_VISIT.
• Community targeting: targeting.communities must be subreddit names (PPC, ClaudeAI), not t5_ IDs. Use community suggestions or the reddit search-subreddits tool for names; ads community search is poor for keyword lookup.
• Structured posts: TEXT needs body and uses text_format PLAIN_TEXT or RICH_TEXT_JSON. IMAGE/VIDEO/CAROUSEL need public HTTPS click_url and media URLs Reddit can download (404s fail at ad attach).
• Creative × objective: CONVERSIONS and CATALOG_SALES cannot use TEXT (free-form) posts for ads with landing pages — use IMAGE, VIDEO, or CAROUSEL with click_url on the post. Do not pass click_url on the ad for TEXT posts.
• Competitor creative research is not available through this bundle — Reddit removed the inspiration API from public access. Browse the Ads Inspiration Library at https://ads.reddit.com/inspiration (Creative → Ads Inspiration Library in Ads Manager). Use profiles, posts, and channel planning reach for account-native planning.

Reporting

• Use the campaign performance tool for a fast campaign health snapshot with standard KPIs and ranking by spend.
• Use the report tool for custom metric sets, grains, date ranges, and exports.
• Spend values are returned in cents when the upstream API supplies cents.

Audiences and Conversions

• Use SHA256 hashes only for audience members. Normalize emails by lowercasing and trimming before hashing.
• Audience membership updates can add or remove up to 2,500 email-hash or mobile-ad-ID-hash rows per request.
• The conversion events tool is for server-side conversion events. Include click_id when available and send events within Reddit's accepted event window.
• Pixel IDs come from the pixels getter; they are required for conversion events.

Gotchas

• Scheduled or archived resources can still appear in reports. Use configured and effective status fields when deciding whether something is serving.
• New or edited ads may enter review before serving.
• Archive/delete operations are intentionally destructive from an operational standpoint even when reporting history remains.
• Use account history before changing live objects when you need to understand prior status, budget, targeting, or audience edits.
• Feature access can be empty even for valid accounts; treat empty as "no explicit gated features returned", not as an auth failure.
• Reddit timestamps on create prefer YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS+00:00 (no Z suffix).
• Community search with a bare keyword often returns unrelated large subreddits; prefer community suggestions or the Reddit social bundle's subreddit search for PPC/marketing audience research.