Reddit Max Campaigns: Another Ad Platform Moving to Automated Campaigns
Reddit just announced Max campaigns — a new automated campaign type now in beta for traffic and conversion goals.
I first read about the announcement on Search Engine Journal.
According to Search Engine Journal, Max campaigns automate audience targeting, creative rotation, placements, and budget allocation using Reddit’s Community Intelligence™, which pulls from more than 23 billion posts and comments to predict impression value in real time.
On the surface, this looks like Reddit’s version of Performance Max or Meta’s Advantage+. But the deeper story — the one most advertisers won’t see — is how this automation behaves and where the real risks sit.
Read the full article here: Reddit Introduces Max Campaigns, Its New Automated Campaign Type
According to the reporting at SEJ
• 600+ advertisers participated in the test
• Across 17 split tests, Max campaigns delivered 17% lower CPA and 27% more conversions
• Brooks Running saw 37% lower CPC and 27% more clicks in 21 days without manual changes
On the surface, this looks like Reddit’s version of Performance Max or Meta’s Advantage+.
But I think there are some considerations that many small businesses might miss about how this automation behaves and where the risks actually sit.
This post will break down what I see as someone who has worked in PPC for 17 years, is President of the Paid Search Association, and is pretty sick seeing small businesses get roped into ad platform propaganda without knowing all the context.
The biggest risk with Reddit Automation from my vantage point comes from this fact:
Automation systems across platforms share one core behavior: they find a pocket of performance and over‑feed it until it breaks.
Think about how you or I use Chatbots, have you ever noticed that when you prompt no matter how detailed you get the AI tends to favor and generate responese in one area? Then when you use the same prompt repeatedly you get the same answer over and over?
This happens with automated AI ad campaigns as well.
Most people think the risk is wasted spend or bad placements.
But the actual issue the one that quietly distorts your entire paid ad strategy is the over‑indexing.
Here’s what over-indexing looks like in practice (we see it all the time in Google Ads):
• Your CPA looks amazing in the platform
• Your conversions look solid
• Your ad reports are showing that the campaign is working well
• Your confidence goes up (so you spend more)
…but the system is only winning inside a tiny, artificially inflated bubble it found. Take for example ‘Brand Traffic’ in Pmax in Google.
Note: This was the entire reason I made the candle: You Can’t Scale A Lie
So when you end up over-indexing due to automation:
You’re not growing your business
You’re not learning what’s working and what’s not.
You’re not reaching your real audience because you are in a pocket.
You’re not building durable demand because you are going in the wrong direction accidently.
Essentially, you’re just optimizing inside a pocket.
This is the exact pattern I’ve been protecting advertisers from in Google Ads for years — I just didn’t have the language for it until now.
Reddit’s announcement makes the pattern easier to see because Reddit’s signals are fundamentally different than Google Ads or Meta Ads.
Why Reddit’s Automated Campaigns Are Risky
I believe Reddit’s new automated campaigns might be volatile. Here is my thinking
Google Ads optimizes based on intent.
Meta optimizes based on behavioral prediction.
Reddit optimizes based on conversation and community signals.
That means Reddit’s automation is built on something inherently unstable, which is less of an issue on the other ad platforms.
• Communities shift constantly
• Moderators change rules
• Sentiment flips on a dime
• Trends spike and collapse on community forums
• A single thread can distort an entire persona cluster
I also believe that these communities can me manipulated too.
In short, if Reddit Max campaigns find one subreddit or one persona cluster that performs well, the system will aggressively pour budget into it.
And because Reddit’s signals are so community‑sensitive, this over‑indexing can happen faster and more dramatically than on Google or Meta.
This is the part advertisers won’t see until it’s already affecting performance and decisions if they don’t see this post.
Why Small Businesses Should Care (Especially Right Now in 2026)
In my coaching calls over the last few months, I’ve had multiple clients tell me:
“We’re thinking about trying Reddit because it’s cheaper than Google Ads.”
And they’re not wrong.
Reddit is for sure super cheap.
But here’s the dynamic at play here too. Reddit is cheaper because Google allowed it to be.
Google’s shift toward broad match, PMax, and opaque automation has created a vacuum for small businesses:
• Small businesses feel blind and betrayed
• Costs have risen and they can’t afford ads
• Control has decreased so many of my coaching clients feel powerless as much as I try to help
• Transparency has collapsed, which I do think the platforms are trying to fix but we can’t deny this.
And Reddit is stepping into that vacuum with:
• Lower CPCs
• Conversation‑driven signals
• Persona insights
• A promise of “automation without blindness”
Also if you don’t believe me look at this Paid Ad Reddit is running.
It’s a fascinating moment to watch because Reddit’s rise is directly tied to Google’s strategic choices, Google’s promotion of Reddit and small businesses getting frustrated.
But cheaper ads does not mean safer.
Cheaper does not mean stable.
Cheaper does not mean aligned with your actual audience.
And cheaper absolutely does not mean “set it and forget it.”
So if you are a small business and you are reading my post what should you do?
Aside from calling me for coaching?
Here’s the protective, diagnostic guidance I’d give any business owner or practitioner on a coaching call:
1. Treat Max campaigns as a controlled test — not a replacement for Google, Meta or Bing.
Run the automatic campaigns them alongside your existing Reddit setup (Brooke, at SEL agrees too).
Watch how quickly the ad campaigns narrow.
Watch which communities they over‑index into, if I am right, which I probably am.
2. Pay attention to the persona insights.
This is the one thing Reddit is doing better than Google or Meta and I think you can really learn something here as well.
But remember insights are only useful if you interpret them correctly.
3. Don’t assume automation will fix creative misalignment.
Reddit is conversation‑driven first.
If your creative doesn’t fit the culture, automation will amplify the mismatch.
4. Don’t chase “cheap.”
You should live by this rule. My husband likes to say, “pay peanuts, go to the circus” - he says that for people who cheap out on paying experts, LOL.
That said, cheap traffic is often misaligned traffic.
Cheap conversions can be false positives.
And lastly, cheap CPAs can hide structural problems with the campaign and your business.
Final Thoughts About Reddit Max
Reddit Max isn’t just another campaign type it is another player moving towards automation and AI. It is plain as day that every major platform is moving deeper into automation, and that small businesses need clarity more than ever.
Understanding how automated systems behave is no longer optional. It’s the only way to protect your budget, your strategy, and your sanity in an increasingly automated paid ads ecosystem.
Explore the Platform Behavior Hub
If you want clarity on how platforms actually behave — Google, Bing, Reddit, Meta, and beyond — the Platform Behavior Hub breaks down the automation patterns, over‑indexing risks, and documentation shifts shaping small‑business advertising in 2026.
It’s where I track the changes that matter and help you make safer, smarter decisions before you spend a dollar.
