Reddit is taking it to the Max, baby.
Today, the company announced the launch of automated “Max” campaigns (Adweek has the scoop). Think of it as Reddit’s equivalent to Google Performance Max or Meta Advantage: performance-focused AI tools designed to optimize media buys based on the platform’s own data. (Also, no “plus” or “+” in “Max” — progress!)
In Reddit’s case, the tech is powered by “Reddit Community Intelligence,” an AI that “predicts the value of every ad impression” and “optimizes campaign settings in real time to drive better performance with less work.”
Reddit Community Intelligence launched over the summer at Cannes. According to the company, it leans on Reddit’s 20+ billion posts, turning the discussion and engagement into signals that feed campaign optimization. That approach is meaningfully different, in our view, from how Google and Meta build and apply their performance data. The former is built on long‑form conversational data and subreddit-level context. The latter is clickstream, pixel, and social graph signals.
Why This Matters:
This matters on a few fronts. First, it gives Reddit a clearer shot at competing with Google and Meta for performance budgets.
Second, Reddit is positioning Max as more transparent than other “black box” AI buying tools. “Opening the black box with AI-powered audience insights,” the announcement reads. (Transparency shots fired!)
Alongside Max, Reddit also rolled out Top Audience Personas, a reporting feature available only in Max. The tool uses AI to group campaign audiences into relevant personas (think: new parents or sophisticated home cooks), so advertisers can see which personas are engaging with their ads the most.
Experts React:
Alexandra Mota, performance marketing manager at DTC furniture brand Cozey, says the new offering delivers.
“Max campaigns quickly became one of our most efficient levers for acquiring new customers on the platform,” Mota said. “We saw stronger ROAS and lower CPA without needing to constantly rebuild audiences or tweak optimizations.”
Our Take:
In a way… is this contextual advertising? Kind of? Maybe?
Reddit’s targeting is community-powered, after all, and those communities function a lot like context groups built around specific topics and interests.
Finally, Reddit has clearly become a massively valuable data signal over the past few years—not just for advertisers, but for the internet more broadly. This is another strong example of that.
