Reddit's Bulk Import tool for Reddit Advertising was first released on February 2, 2021 and promised the — long-awaited — ability to create and edit multiple campaigns, ad groups, and ads.

Having been hopeful that a bulk upload tool was on the way — and struggling to scale without it — One Studio developed it Reddit Ads database (RADS) to optimize our advertising management until it arrived. When it did, we were able to integrate it within hours and start using it within days.

Resources

• How to Build and Edit Ad Campaigns with Bulk Import, reddithelp.com

Integration

Several months before the Bulk Import tool was released, we made an Airtable database (shown below) to manage our ad placements in the hopes that — after years of toiling — it'd soon arrive.

The day the Bulk Import tool was announced, we were early into the conversation thread and able to integrate our base within hours. We were vocal about the tool's initial deficiencies and the entire Reddit team —  from Product Marketing to Ad Ops — was responsive, diligent, and communicative.

Our process (detailed below) enabled us to co-create ads at scale without compromising the format that had yielded such exceptional results. Now, with the Bulk Import tool, we're able to get our ads showing to Redditors at a pace that's aligned with that of our creative capacities.

Process

• Create — 

• Export — 

• Import — 

• Merge — 

  • Export Campaigns — in Bulk Import, click 'Template' and select all campaigns that were created or modified by the previous import. Once selected, click 'Export Campaigns'.

  • Clean .CSV — open the downloaded .csv and delete the second row (below the header) with Reddit's annotations which begins "The result for this row will be placed here [...]."

  • Import .CSV — back in Airtable, open APPS and — in the BULK dashboard — click 'CSV Import' and select the cleaned .csv file.

  • Merge .CSV — enable

  • Ad Name ➡ MERGE RECORD

  • Campaign ID ➡ MERGE CAMPAIGN ID

  • Ad Group ID ➡ MERGE AD GROUP ID

Bugs

https://advertising.reddithelp.com/en/submit-request

UI Failures

• Once a .csv is uploaded, all media referenced in the .csv must be uploaded separately. There is no list of what media is needed (aside from having the source .csv or database open on a second screen) and if you accidentally click outside the 'Import Files' pop-over box in the process of dragging them in one-by-one you have to start the process over.

Contexts

• #reddit-advertising (See: Reddit Advertising)

• #index (See: #index)