So for the unfamiliar the Reddit pixel is a snippet of code that can track various events on your website and report them back to the Reddit ads dashboard so you can track the performance of your ads. Lots of platforms have pixels including Google ads, Facebook ads, Twitter ads, and more. These are all used for roughly the same purpose which is to track performance but also, in many cases, to actually optimize your ad performance. For instance the Facebook pixel will start showing your ads to the same sort of people who are completing your desired conversion event. So if Facebook sees say 25-34 year old men are purchasing at a higher rate than other demographic groups it may choose to show your ad more to those folks. With Reddit, while they have a conversion campaign, it’s unclear if they optimize in this way.
That said there are still a ton of benefits to the Reddit pixel beyond audience optimization. The Reddit pixel tracks up to 8 standard events so you can get deeper insights into customer specific actions and which ads lead to more actions and ultimately conversions. In addition you get things like view through conversions as well as longer windows of click through conversions that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to put together with a tool like Google analytics alone.
The biggest update in the new addition of 1st party cookies. So if you’ve ever clicked on a Facebook ad and seen a huge string of random characters and numbers after the normal url this is a first party cookie. This is in contrast to a third party cookie which is loaded from an ad server rather than from the publisher’s web server or some javascript loaded in the website. For maximum tracking capacity Reddit is going to be using both 1st party and 3rd party cookies. (Which most platforms who offer both do.)
The Reddit pixel is now Google Tag manager certified. This is great because I’m a huge proponent of using tag manager for all your various marketing scripts. It makes it a lot simpler for marketers to add or delete scripts and for non technical team members to make changes they need on the fly without the use of a developer. Finally, it speeds up your site as you have one container loading instead of a bunch of discreet scripts. Basically, there is no reason not to use Google Tag Manager if at all possible.
One quick note, you can technically opt-out of the 1st party cookies but I see no reasonable reason why.
So there you have it, Reddit continues to push out useful updates to their ad platform on a semi-regular basis and this is yet another example of an improvement that will benefit us advertisers. Personally, I’m excited to use this to continue to make the case of Reddit ads being a part of a performance marketing media mix. With better tracking you can better understand your return on ad spend, and continue to spend more confident that you’re making a profitable return on your marketing investment.
Let me know your thoughts or questions in the comments. If you’re interested in learning more about running ads we’re launching our new Reddit Ads for Beginners course in the Moonshine Academy. Worth checking out if you’re brand new and want a head start. Happy Marketing.
So for the unfamiliar the Reddit pixel is a snippet of code that can track various events on your website and report them back to the Reddit ads dashboard so you can track the performance of your ads. Lots of platforms have pixels including Google ads, Facebook ads, Twitter ads, and more. These are all used for roughly the same purpose which is to track performance but also, in many cases, to actually optimize your ad performance. For instance the Facebook pixel will start showing your ads to the same sort of people who are completing your desired conversion event. So if Facebook sees say 25-34 year old men are purchasing at a higher rate than other demographic groups it may choose to show your ad more to those folks. With Reddit, while they have a conversion campaign, it’s unclear if they optimize in this way.
That said there are still a ton of benefits to the Reddit pixel beyond audience optimization. The Reddit pixel tracks up to 8 standard events so you can get deeper insights into customer specific actions and which ads lead to more actions and ultimately conversions. In addition you get things like view through conversions as well as longer windows of click through conversions that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to put together with a tool like Google analytics alone.
The biggest update in the new addition of 1st party cookies. So if you’ve ever clicked on a Facebook ad and seen a huge string of random characters and numbers after the normal url this is a first party cookie. This is in contrast to a third party cookie which is loaded from an ad server rather than from the publisher’s web server or some javascript loaded in the website. For maximum tracking capacity Reddit is going to be using both 1st party and 3rd party cookies. (Which most platforms who offer both do.)
The Reddit pixel is now Google Tag manager certified. This is great because I’m a huge proponent of using tag manager for all your various marketing scripts. It makes it a lot simpler for marketers to add or delete scripts and for non technical team members to make changes they need on the fly without the use of a developer. Finally, it speeds up your site as you have one container loading instead of a bunch of discreet scripts. Basically, there is no reason not to use Google Tag Manager if at all possible.
One quick note, you can technically opt-out of the 1st party cookies but I see no reasonable reason why.
So there you have it, Reddit continues to push out useful updates to their ad platform on a semi-regular basis and this is yet another example of an improvement that will benefit us advertisers. Personally, I’m excited to use this to continue to make the case of Reddit ads being a part of a performance marketing media mix. With better tracking you can better understand your return on ad spend, and continue to spend more confident that you’re making a profitable return on your marketing investment.
Let me know your thoughts or questions in the comments. If you’re interested in learning more about running ads we’re launching our new Reddit Ads for Beginners course in the Moonshine Academy. Worth checking out if you’re brand new and want a head start. Happy Marketing.
