Automation

Should B2B advertisers follow Reddit Ads' new campaign optimization score and turn on campaign budget optimization?

By The Tofu team ·

Use campaign budget optimization (CBO) if your Reddit ad groups each struggle to reach the 20 or so conversions needed to exit learning, because CBO learns per campaign. Use ad group budgets if you're testing audiences or must fund a niche one. Use the 0 to 100% campaign optimization score, which Reddit announced with CBO across its objectives and a campaign planner on October 20, 2026, as a checklist: take its tracking and creative tips, and test its targeting tips. Reddit's 19.6% lower CPA figure compares high-score and low-score advertisers, so it doesn't prove a higher score lowers yours.

As of November 2026.

Quick answer by situation

If you…UseWhy
Run lead campaigns with few conversions per ad groupCBO on, fewer ad groupsCBO campaigns learn at campaign level, so they need fewer events in total to exit learning
Are testing audiences, or must fund one niche audienceCBO off, a budget per ad groupCBO moves spend to the ad groups that perform best
Have a low optimization scoreThe tracking and creative suggestions firstPixel, Conversions API and more ads per ad group help almost any account
Get "Reach a larger audience" or lookalike suggestions on tight B2B targetingA separate test ad groupAutomated targeting can serve ads beyond your audience inputs
Want a forecast before you spendThe campaign planner, for awareness and traffic plansIt doesn't forecast lead or sales campaigns
Have a live campaign that worksOne batch of changes, not a streamBig edits can restart the learning phase

If you run lead campaigns with few conversions per ad group

Turn CBO on. Reddit says new ad groups take "around 20 optimization events" to exit the learning phase. It also says CBO campaigns learn at the campaign level, "reducing the total events required." A B2B account with a handful of demo requests a week, spread over four ad groups, may never leave learning without it. Reddit gives the same reason for merging similar campaigns and ad groups.

With CBO on, you set the budget, schedule, optimization goal and bid strategy once, for the whole campaign. Reddit's announcement lists CBO for lead generation as a beta.

Two things to settle at the same time:

  • Your conversion event. Optimize for a lead event on your own site, tracked with the Reddit Pixel and Conversions API. Reddit stopped supporting its own onsite lead forms on September 30, 2026; see how to move Reddit lead ads to your website form.
  • Your bid strategy. Reddit says cost cap won't be available for lead generation from February 10, 2027. Target cost (beta) needs at least 200 events in the last 28 days. So many B2B accounts will end up on lowest cost.

If you're testing audiences, or must fund one niche audience

Keep CBO off and give each ad group its own budget. Reddit says CBO "shifts spend toward the best-performing ad groups." Say one ad group targets a few IT subreddits and another a broad interest. CBO may put most of the money into the cheaper one, and you learn little about the audience you care about. The Reddit help pages we read don't mention a way to set a minimum spend per ad group under CBO.

If you want CBO and a fair test, put each audience in its own campaign.

If your optimization score is low

Start with the suggestions that help almost any account, and treat the rest as ideas to test. Reddit said the score and the planner would roll out to all advertisers through October 2026. The campaign score appears when you create or edit a campaign. The account score is the spend-weighted average of your campaign scores, shown in the Recommendations Center (Ads > Account > Recommendations). Reddit labels Recommendations a beta.

Worth applying for most B2B accounts:

  • Set up the Reddit Pixel and Conversions API.
  • Create at least three ads per ad group.
  • Keep headlines to 50 characters or fewer.
  • Create a retargeting ad group for site visitors or customer lists.

Weigh these first: enable automated targeting, use multiplacement (feed and conversation placements), target a lookalike audience, expand community targeting with interests, and increase bid.

One scoring rule differs from Google's. On Reddit, dismissing a suggestion "won't improve your score." In Google Ads, Google says you can reach 100% "by applying or dismissing all recommendations" (see which Google Ads recommendations a B2B advertiser should apply). Reddit also leaves budget recommendations out of its score. Reddit says to aim for 100% on a campaign and calls 80% or more ideal for an account. A high score means you followed Reddit's checklist. It doesn't mean your leads are buyers.

If Reddit suggests a larger audience on tight B2B targeting

Test it in a separate ad group before you switch it on everywhere. Reddit says automated targeting "can deliver ads beyond any input" you give as audience suggestions. It always respects audience controls such as location, language and device. Wider reach can lower Reddit's CPA while filling your funnel with people who will never buy. So compare the two ad groups on qualified leads from your CRM, not on Reddit's CPA alone.

If you're still deciding whether Reddit reaches your buyers at all, see are Reddit ads worth it for B2B SaaS lead generation.

If you want a forecast before you spend

Use the campaign planner for awareness and traffic plans, and your own past results for lead campaigns. Go to Ads > Campaign Planner and select New Plan. You can compare up to 10 versions of a plan by budget, audience, placement and format. Each shows projected impressions, reach, CPM and weekly frequency. You can export a plan as an XLSX file or turn it into a draft campaign. For now the planner supports only the awareness and consideration and traffic objectives, so it won't forecast leads.

Reddit says "estimates are not guarantees," and that the planner works best when your ad account has historical data. Its Engagement Insights are still useful for B2B. With community targeting, it shows views across your top 10 selected subreddits over the last 30 days and summarizes what people discuss there. That's a quick check that a subreddit is active before you write ads for it.

If you have a live campaign that works

Don't apply suggestions one at a time. Reddit says these edits may extend or restart learning: bid or budget changes of more than 20%, a new bid strategy, targeting, placement or creative changes, and pausing ads for seven days or more. Choose the changes you want, make them together, and wait for learning to end before you judge them.

What to avoid

Don't read Reddit's headline numbers as a promise. Reddit says advertisers with a score of 80% or higher "saw 19.6% lower blended CPA" than those with lower scores, and that a 5-point rise was "associated with" 4.4% lower blended CPA. Both come from Reddit's internal data for July to September 2026, and the post adds "Results not typical." They compare different advertisers, so bigger budgets or better tracking could explain part of the gap; PPC Land made the same point in its October 21 report. The "10% lower CPCs" Reddit gives for CBO are for traffic campaigns, from a Q4 2025 internal study. None of these numbers is about qualified B2B leads, so judge every change on pipeline from your CRM.

Sources

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