Could traffic from reddit ads be bots?

[Yez16]

I started using reddit ads, set a traffic goal in the company. In 3 days, according to reddit data, about 60 users came to me, for whom I paid. And GA4 shows 5 times less and those who came showed zero activity, all indicators for users are 0. What to do with this, or is this normal for reddit?

 

[VikingWannabe]

The main issue with Reddit ads is that the ads are placed in a very scummy fashion in between organic posts (I know most social media sites do this but somehow Reddit's color scheme makes it harder to distinguish ad banners from legitimate posts) so most people click on those banners by mistake and immediately close them. Hence, the zero scroll activity bot-like behavior is reported by GA4.
Besides, Redditors are extremely ad-adverse and might be deliberately clicking on your ads to mess with your CPC budget (yeah, they're petty like that).
If you're promoting anything crypto-related you'll find more success on X.

 

[Yez16]

The main issue with Reddit ads is that the ads are placed in a very scummy fashion in between organic posts (I know most social media sites do this but somehow Reddit's color scheme makes it harder to distinguish ad banners from legitimate posts) so most people click on those banners by mistake.
Besides, redditors are extremely ad adverse and might be deliberately clicking on your ads to mess with your cpc budget (yeah, they're petty like that).
If you're promoting anything crypto related you'll find more success on X.

Okay, thanks. I'm promoting a proxy service.

 

[Emma xx]

Dude, Reddit's numbers are always inflated, it's annoying. Are you using UTM parameters to track the traffic properly in GA4? That might help figure out where the disconnect is.

 

[karolannsyre]

Yes, traffic from Reddit ads can absolutely include bots, and there’s plenty of evidence from users and industry observations to back this up as of March 22, 2025. While Reddit doesn’t openly admit to a bot problem, the platform’s ad system isn’t immune to the same issues plaguing other digital ad networks—namely, automated scripts or click farms driving up impressions and clicks without delivering real human engagement.

 

[Yez16]

Yes, traffic from Reddit ads can absolutely include bots, and there’s plenty of evidence from users and industry observations to back this up as of March 22, 2025. While Reddit doesn’t openly admit to a bot problem, the platform’s ad system isn’t immune to the same issues plaguing other digital ad networks—namely, automated scripts or click farms driving up impressions and clicks without delivering real human engagement.

Why would anyone want to boost clicks inside Reddit? What profit would come from that?

 

[RafaViQ]

Most idiotic thing about Reddit ads is that

Bluechew ads are shown to minors in their popular feed but also in subreddits made for teenagers, never getting removed eventhough sfw mods have reported it multiple times.

 

[proxytee]

Similar thing for FB. Reports between 2 platforms are far from realistic.

 

[Uiyniasd569872]

Yes, traffic from Reddit ads can absolutely include bots, and there’s plenty of evidence from users and industry observations to back this up as of March 22, 2025. While Reddit doesn’t openly admit to a bot problem, the platform’s ad system isn’t immune to the same issues plaguing other digital ad networks—namely, automated scripts or click farms driving up impressions and clicks without delivering real human engagement.

half the comments,users are bots on most of the popular subs. someone did a little digigng like a year ago. that was the issue that is leading reddit to its current form. and its not the bots/spam from of and advertisers, but mostly from troll farms from RU.

 

[natsuko]

I’ve had the same issue, I’d check if your ad's being served to the right audience, bots can sneak in.

 

[CyHead]

There's tons of bots and fake users, so I wouldn't be surprised.

Heck even Google has huge issues with bot traffic, especially on Youtube ads. There's so much clickfraud that they like to sweep under the rug - reddit has 1/100th the level of filters as GDN/Google Ads.

As another user above said, reddit also has a scummy way of placing ads, so that you'll get accidental clicks from users who didn't realize they were clicking into an ad - and will bounce off your site quickly when they realize it's for something paid or they're being taken off the platform.

 

[UrbanSnake]

you are probably reaching too many bots and fake users, try to target another audience

 

[ShadowCipherX99]

Reddit counts clicks, but GA4 tracks real visits — that’s why numbers don’t match. and many users close the page before even the GA4 load so thats also a reason you have less visitors in GA4

 

[MR_SOOMRO]

Reddit traffic may differ from GA4 data due to tracking discrepancies. Verify ad settings, improve targeting, and monitor engagement metrics.

 

[Sweely]

I started using reddit ads, set a traffic goal in the company. In 3 days, according to reddit data, about 60 users came to me, for whom I paid. And GA4 shows 5 times less and those who came showed zero activity, all indicators for users are 0. What to do with this, or is this normal for reddit?

Instead of focusing on a traffic goal, which can be easily inflated by low-quality clicks or bots, I'd highly recommend optimizing for a more meaningful conversion event. The best option here would be to optimize for the Purchase conversion event (or a similar high-intent action like "Add to Cart" or "Sign Up").

By shifting your campaign goal, you're telling Reddit's algorithm to find users who are not just likely to click, but are likely to perform a valuable action on your site. This could lead to fewer clicks overall, but the clicks you do get will be of much higher quality and more likely to convert into paying customers. While this won't completely eliminate the "bot issue", it will force the algorithm to filter out a lot of the low-quality traffic and focus on finding genuine, interested users.

 

[Uiyniasd569872]

I started using reddit ads, set a traffic goal in the company. In 3 days, according to reddit data, about 60 users came to me, for whom I paid. And GA4 shows 5 times less and those who came showed zero activity, all indicators for users are 0. What to do with this, or is this normal for reddit?

i think there were posts on reddit itself, telling how half of the traffic comes from bots only, so reddit is mostly bots. its more apparent on controversial subs for obvious reason when propaganda is involved.