Subreddit Posts

We’ve gotten some questions about just how the upvote mechanism works with Reddit Ads. Most often when you scroll through Reddit Ads in the carousel (top of the page, arrow is on the right-hand side) you’ll see that most of the ads have a dot instead of a number, but every now and then an ad will have an upvote count. Recently we reached out to Reddit’s advertising team and asked them why this is and we were told that when an ad shows a dot it has negative upvotes, but if the upvote count is above zero the number will display.

If you are not seeing an upvote count next to an ad it means the score is below 0 and will show a dot in its place. We do not have the option to turn off upvotes/downvotes.

– MyNameIzKhan

We’ve reached out for clarification on what exactly this means, if anything. Some advertisers have expressed a concern that not having upvotes could hurt their ad in some way. That seems unlikely but we’re asking to be sure.

There’s also the question of click-through or engagement rates, do upvote counts help that? Currently the answer to this question seems to be no as none of the ads in the Toyota campaign we recently wrote a case study on had an upvote count but gained great engagement with the Reddit community.

EDIT: Reddit Ads staffer MyNameIzKhan replied to our question about what Reddit might use the upvote count on ads for. He told us that they do not help or jurt an ad, but that they could be used in the future.

Currently, they do neither. It is something we are keeping in mind for future use.

– MyNameIzKhan

You can read the thread on this in the /r/selfserve subreddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/selfserve/comments/4sjb23/upvote_count/

Reddit recently introduced Mult-Subreddit ads allowing advertisers to target one message to more than one subreddit at a time. While this new format allows for easier setup of ads that focus on topics relevant to up to 100 subreddits and gets the ad on the frontpage, it apparently won’t give the advertiser granular data on how each subreddit performs.

Reddit advertiser Kaleidoleaf asked about this yesterday and was given the following response by Reddit Ads staffer MyNameIzKhan:

This is on our roadmap, we don’t have a set date for it but we are working on it.
You will need to create campaigns that target only one subreddit to get that granular data for now.

– MyNameIzKhan

This takes some of the reasons to run a multi-subreddit ad away, but the multi-subreddit format is still very attractive for targeting a group of low-trafficked subreddits. For bigger one’s create one off ads so you can better optimize for them.

Redditor OhByInc tried setting up a few ads and both were rejected by Reddit, but the reason wasn’t very clear and they asked for more information in the subreddit.

Created two self serve ads last night – 4ox84g and 4ox2ox.
I was using the business credit card, not my personal card, so I put in the business name for the “name” field, which BTW WORKS PERFECTLY AND IS NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER.

SO now the two ads suddenly get rejected:

“Optional note about rejection (for special cases): Please fill out name in the payment information

– OhByInc

This particular ad rejection was for an issue with the credit card name field.Having your ad rejected for any reason can be a harrowing experience, so it’s understandable that OhByInc was upset. Reddit staff member HappySharkz responded to the post not only agreeing to help out OhByInc by correcting the issue and getting the ads approved but also stated that Reddit would work on providing more information when rejecting ads in the future.

Hi OhByInc,

We appreciate your feedback! We will adjust our rejection reason to ensure that advertisers have a clear understanding of what they can do to fix their ads.

– HappySharkz

It’s great to see Reddit committed to improving the advertiser experience and fixing these issues that advertisers are having. If you’ve had your Reddit ads rejected we would recommend posting in the /r/selfserve subreddit and asking for help getting your ad approved or emailing them at advertising@reddit.com.

It was confirmed today that when you target your ad to more than one subreddit it will also show on the frontpage of Reddit when users who subscribe to one of your targets is logged in. Redditor SerialAlibi asked the question in the SelfServe advertising subreddit to make sure the ads would not appear on /r/all to irrelevant users. For example if your ad targeted the /r/NoMansSky, /r/diy, and /r/awww anyone subscribed to those subreddits would see your ad on the homepage.

Reddit Staffer MyNameIzKhan replied confirming that ads would indeed appear on the homepage.

Yes, your ad will be displayed to the frontpage of users who are subscribed to your targeted subreddits.

– MyNameIzKhan

Many subreddits can have low pageviews and therefore be difficult to obtain advertising inventory on. Having your ads automatically appear to target users on the frontpage offers a new way to reach them helping avoid odd timing issues or situation where advertising inventory is almost never available.

This isn’t something you can turn off, so be aware that when targeting a subreddit your ad might also be on the home page of the site and may not reach active users in that precise subreddit you wanted to target. While this doesn’t allow for the granular level of targeting some advertisers might want, it does ensure better exposure of your ad to your target audience.