Relevance Beats Reach: Reddit Ads Automated Targeting Gave 2x Reach, -40% Revenue
We tested whether Reddit ads automated targeting would beat our hand-picked communities. Reach doubled. Revenue dropped by 40%. More people saw the ads, but fewer of them were the right people. On Reddit, a smaller, precise audience usually beats a bigger, broader one, at least for now.
What did the test show?
We changed campaigns to use more automated targeting, so Reddit could show ads beyond the communities we'd chosen. The algorithm did what it promised: the ads reached twice as many people. But revenue fell 40%, because the extra people were much less likely to buy. We paid to reach an audience we weren't sure contained our customers.
Why does relevance beat reach on Reddit?
Reddit's biggest strength is that communities sort people for you. Someone in a community about a specific hobby, profession or product has told Reddit exactly what they care about. Automated expansion trades that certainty for Reddit's guess about who is similar, and in our tests the guess wasn't good enough.
Dāvis calls the alternative Reddit ICP: Ideal Community Persona. Instead of describing your customer by age and job title, you describe the communities they belong to. It's better to pay a little more for a relevant audience than to pay less for people you're not sure about.
Does this mean automation never works on Reddit?
No. Automation improves every year, and on some accounts it can help. In our Reddit Max scaling case study, pushing budget harder also cut revenue, which is the same lesson from a different angle: automation works best on top of strong community targeting, not as a replacement for it. Test it, but measure revenue, not reach.
How do you build precise targeting on Reddit?
List the communities where your buyers ask for advice, not just where your topic is mentioned.
Check which ones you can target with our free subreddit finder.
Use one targeting type per ad group, starting with community targeting.
Turn off automated targeting (audience expansion) in the ad group settings for your first tests.
Group similar communities into a few ad groups and compare them on cost per customer.
Full details in Reddit ads targeting explained and context beats demographics.
How should you test automated targeting yourself?
Run it in a separate ad group, with the same ads and budget as your community ad group.
Give both at least 2 weeks.
Compare revenue or conversions, not impressions or clicks.
Keep whichever wins, and re-test every few months, because automation keeps changing.
Reddit ads automated targeting: FAQ
Should I turn off automated targeting on Reddit?
For first tests, yes. In our tests, precise community targeting beat automated expansion on revenue. Test it separately once you have a baseline.
What is Reddit ICP?
Ideal Community Persona: describing your ideal customer by the Reddit communities they belong to, instead of by demographics.
Why did more reach lower revenue?
The extra people reached through automated targeting were less likely to buy, so spend went up faster than sales.
About the author
Written by Dāvis Lejnieks, CEO of Undecided Agency and a Redditor for 15+ years. He plans and runs Reddit ad campaigns for DTC, gaming and app brands, and shares what the data shows here.
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