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Custom Audiences

Custom audiences are curated lists of audiences that directly include or exclude redditors from targeting. These audiences can be created and accessed in the Audience Manager.

There are several options for custom audiences:

Do you learn better by watching? Watch the next video or check out other tutorials on the Ads Formula.

Website retargeting​

Website retargeting helps you circle back to redditors who've shown interest in your brand but didn't convert. Reconnect with users who may have abandoned the customer journey with fresh messaging, and show them value that moves them down the funnel. It's a great way to gain near-future customers. 

Before you can create this audience, you'll need to:

  • Install the Reddit Pixel or Conversions API (CAPI). 
  • Enable first-party cookies. These are cookies owned by the domain you're on. By default, this should be enabled. You'll know cookies are enabled if you've check-marked it in the tag configuration of Google Tag Manager or rdt('disableFirstPartyCookies') doesn't exist in your Pixel code.
  • Reach at least 50 users in your audience after setting up ads and the lookback window.

Create a retargeting audience​

  1. Go to the Audience Manager and select New Audience > Custom audience >  Website retargeting.
  2. Provide a name for your audience.
  3. Select the standard or custom conversion events you want to track. At the minimum, you should select Page Visit since all users are tagged with this by default. If you don't include Page Visit, no one will be added to your audience.

    If you're creating an audience to exclude page visitors, create a new retargeting audience with only the PageVisit event selected.

  4. Set a lookback window. This is the number of days a user will be included in this audience. This is set to 90 days by default, but it can be any number between one and 90.
  5. Save your audience and add it to a new or existing ad group.

    Your custom audience must include between 1,000 (25 for LiveRamp) and 1 million matches. When a contact can't be matched, you'll see "no matches." We recommend segmenting it into multiple groups if you need to add more.

    Save website retargeting

Best practices​

  • Set the right lookback window. The larger your window, the greater your retargeting audience size. We recommend starting with at least 30 days and adjusting based on your results.
  • Ensure you've included and excluded the right groups. Typically, you only want to exclude the final conversion event (like a purchase) since this info may be less valuable to you (congrats: they bought it!).
  • Display strong, actionable ads to your audience. Ads should drive to the point of conversion and have a clear and compelling CTA (call to action). If you're not creating a lead generation form ad, you should also direct redditors to the relevant page on your site with your destination URL. Promo codes, time-sensitive offers, and other incentives can help convince users to take the final conversion action. Here's a great example:

    Hey, Reddit! Picture our platform as Cape Canaveral: every journey starts with a launch, right? If reaching for the stars is on your agenda, we're your launchpad. Start today and earn over $30 in crypto just by diving into the world of cryptocurrency. Terms and conditions apply.

Customer lists​

Create or upload customer lists to target redditors. These lists are built using privacy-safe emails and mobile advertising IDs. If you're using LiveRamp to manage your CRM data, you can directly push customer list segments to Reddit Ads. Our LiveRamps integration lets you access specific curated segments using certain third-party (3P) data partners or your first-party data.

Let's say you want to reach redditors who haven't purchased your product (yet). You can upload a list of emails for people who've purchased your product and exclude that list from your ad group.

There are a few ways to create customer lists:

  • Direct CSV upload: Upload a CSV file containing either mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs) or emails. Imports must contain either prehashed emails or unhashed emails and MAIDs. Prehashed emails must meet our requirements. 
  • Custom Audience API: Reach your audience and increase its size based on data unique to your business, product, or service.
  • Partner integrations: Activate your existing customer segments with Reddit Ads to target or exclude at any time. 

Create customer lists via CSV ​

You can upload a CSV file containing at least 1,000 rows of prehashed emails, unhashed emails, and unhashed MAIDs. We strongly recommend using Excel and deleting empty rows to ensure your file saves correctly.

Don't change or remove column headings to avoid upload errors.

You may upload a file up to 500 MB. We recommend splitting your file into multiple files if you need to upload more data. Learn more about formatting emails and MAIDs.

  1. Go to the Audience Manager and select New Audience > Custom audience.
  2. Choose customers list.
  3. Give your audience a name that's easy to spot later.
  4. Select either Upload a File or Copy & Paste.
    • Upload a file: Upload the CSV file containing the values to add to your list. We recommend using one of our templates and editing in Excel to ensure your data is securely and successfully uploaded.

      When using a template, check that values are hashed or prehashed based on the column headers and that empty rows are deleted. Learn more about formatting and hashing requirements.

      Ensure column headers aren't changed or deleted to prevent upload errors.

    • Copy & paste: Paste the values to add to your list. Separate each value by a new line and include headers. Here are a few formatting examples.
  5. Read and agree to the terms.
  6. Save your list to upload it. Save custom audinece Wait until the following upload success message appears before exiting the page:

    Audience upload completed successfully Success message

    If your window freezes or crashes during upload, try using a different browser or splitting your file into smaller parts.

Once you upload the CSV file, you'll be able to see its status:

ColorDescription
RedThere was an error. For example, your audience size is too small.
OrangeYour list is still processing. Check again later.
GreenYour list is ready for targeting. Exclude or include it from your ad groups.

Copy and paste examples​

Emails (hashed),Emails (unhashed),Mobile Ad IDs (unhashed)
0925f997eb0d742678f66d2da134d15d842d57722af5f7605c4785cb5358831b
0925f997eb0d742678f66d2da134d15d842d57722af5f7605c4785cb5358831b
0925f997eb0d742678f66d2da134d15d842d57722af5f7605c4785cb5358831b

Lookalike​

A lookalike audience helps you connect with redditors likely to be interested in your product or brand. By using a web retargeting or customer list audience, it analyzes your audience and identifies common interests, ad engagements, and conversion behaviors. It's a powerful tool that can enhance marketing efficiency and expand reach, with the added benefit of easier adoption to changing privacy regulations. This lets you advertise to relevant redditors effectively, achieving high ROI while avoiding reliance on expensive third-party data or broad targeting methods.

Do you learn better by watching? Watch the next video or check out other tutorials on the Ads Formula.

Limitations​

  • Lookalike audiences can be used for any campaign objective but are optimized for traffic and conversions campaigns.
  • You must have a website retargeting audience with at least 10,000 users or a valid customer list audience with at least 1,000 users (post-match).
  • After adding the audience to an ad group, it may take up to 12–36 hours to populate audience estimates and serve impressions.
  • Cannot be used by advertisers in the following verticals: housing, employment, credit, or with political ads. 

Create a lookalike audience​

  1. Set up a website retargeting or customer list seed audience.
  2. Go to the Audience Manager and select New audience > Custom audience.
  3. Choose lookalike.
  4. Give your audience a name.
  5. Choose the website retargeting or customer list audience you want to base your lookalike on.
  6. Save your audience to create it. You can now add it to a new or existing ad group.

Engagement retargeting​

Engagement retargeting lets you target future ads and continue the conversation with redditors who've engaged with your ads over the past six months. New users will automatically be added to the audience, removing the need for you to edit this audience over time. You also don't need to add a Pixel to your site or upload any audience data to leverage this feature.

Targeting options​

These options are affected by your lookback window.

OptionDescription
People who've engaged with your adsRedditors who've met at least one of the following criteria:
  • Clicked, commented on, or upvoted an ad
  • Viewed an ad's video
People who've seen your adsRedditors who've viewed your ad.
People who've clicked your adsRedditors who've clicked your ad.
People who've watched your videosRedditors who've viewed your ad videos. You can choose between three view lengths:
  • Any amount of time
  • 50% or more
  • 100%

Best practices​

  • Make unique ads built for your audience. Your retargeting ads should be unique for your audience and build off your original content. Understanding how to cultivate relationships with redditors is key to meeting performance goals. We suggest tailoring ads based on previous interactions, showing products or content they've viewed or interacted with.
  • Segment based on shared characteristics. Create targeted campaigns by dividing your audience based on factors like purchase history, engagement level, demographics, or on-site behavior.
  • Experiment and learn. Whether you're new to advertising on Reddit or testing out a new audience, play with your creatives to see where they land. We recommend trying out different ad types, messages, and visuals to discover what resonates best with your audience. Learn about creative best practices.
  • Optimize your audience. Regularly update and clean your customer lists and Pixel data to ensure accuracy and relevance. We also recommend creating exclusion lists to avoid targeting recent purchasers or converted users, preventing redundant messaging and optimizing ad spend.
  • Retarget based on stronger intent. Different interactions provide different values for your business. For example, you may see a significant scale with retargeting based on impressions, but performance may vary depending on your strategy. We recommend retargeting based on customer lists and website retargeting audiences to find redditors who've already interacted with or shown interest in your brand through past purchases or website visits.
  • Integrate the Reddit Pixel or Conversions API (CAPI). View your conversions and retarget redditors who need one last push to take your ads to the next level. We recommend this if you're driving people to your website.

Things to know​

  • Your custom audience must include between 1,000 (25 for LiveRamp) and 1 million matches. When a contact can't be matched, you'll see "no matches." We recommend segmenting it into multiple groups if you need to add more.
  • Website retargeting supports targeting redditors worldwide.
  • Processing a customer list may take up to 24 hours (or 4–6 days with LiveRamp).

We're here to help

Our Reddit Ads team is ready to support you from setup to success.

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