How Reddit counts results
A Reddit recap shows the results Reddit credits to its own ads, using its own attribution rule and tracking. Like other platforms, it can credit results to people who clicked and to people who only saw a post. Ask for the split, and find the window in the report.
Reddit recaps also show which communities and interests each campaign targeted, plus upvotes and comments on promoted posts. Upvotes are a reaction. Comments are where the information is. On Reddit, people say what they think of an ad right under it, and other people vote on whether they agree.
Reddit is different from most channels in one useful way: a lot of the conversation about your brand already happens there, unpaid. That gives you something to compare the ads against.
Where results get counted twice
- Research, then purchase. People often read Reddit threads before buying, then buy through search or your site. Reddit’s view rule and search’s click rule can both credit themselves with that buyer.
- Organic threads. A popular thread about your brand can drive results with no ad involved. If an ad ran the same week, Reddit may take credit for them.
- Views without clicks. Reddit users scroll a lot. A view-through rule can credit Reddit with results from people who barely noticed the ad.
- Every other channel’s report. As with any channel, Reddit’s results belong in the same count as everyone else’s. See double counting.
Reddit’s numbers are often small next to Meta or search, which makes them easy to skip. Don’t. A small channel that reports a lot of results for little spend is worth a look, and a small channel that reaches people nobody else does is worth protecting. The only way to tell the two apart is to count each result once across every channel and see what’s left for Reddit.
A checklist for your next Reddit recap
| Look at | What to look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Clicks vs. views | Results split by each | Shows how much rests on scrolling past |
| Window | Days after a view or click a result counts | Research-heavy buyers act later |
| Communities | Where the ads ran | Compare with where your audience talks unpaid |
| Comments | What people said under promoted posts | The clearest read on how the ad landed |
| Organic threads | Popular threads about you in the same weeks | They can drive results an ad gets credit for |
Ask for the comments as a file, with the post each one sits under. Reading them in one place, instead of scrolling post by post, makes the patterns easier to see, and it gives you something to count.
Questions worth asking
Ask them of whoever runs the account, in-house or a partner.
- How many of these results came from clicks, and how many from views?
- Which communities did best, and why were they picked?
- What did people say in the comments, and did anything change because of it?
- Were there big organic threads about us during the campaign?
- If we add Reddit’s results to every other channel’s, does the total fit inside our own numbers?
Then read the room. Reddit is one of the best places to hear how your audience talks when you’re not in the room. Social listening on Reddit means reading the threads where people discuss your category and counting what comes up: the complaints, the comparisons, the words they use. Those counts tell you whether your ads sound like the people you want to reach. Our guide to listening that counts explains how.
Listening also gives whoever makes your ads better material. If the threads keep coming back to one flavor, one character or one complaint, that’s a brief for the next promoted post.
What a regions-on, regions-off test looks like on Reddit
Reddit ads can be targeted by location, so you can run ads in some regions, pause them in matched regions for a few weeks, and compare sales in your own numbers. That’s a regions-on, regions-off test, also called a holdout test. Keep your other channels steady while it runs.
Reddit budgets are often smaller, so the test needs regions big enough for results to move. If the difference is too small to read, that’s an answer too: Reddit isn’t adding much you can measure yet.
See everywhere we listen, Reddit included, on the listening page.
Want to see what worked for your brand? Try it free: pick a question, and we answer it with your own numbers and what people say online. No card.