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Reddit Ads · BYO Setup Guide

Set up your own
Reddit OAuth app.

This guide walks you through creating a Reddit OAuth application that VelaReach will use to connect your Reddit ad accounts. Reddit is the simplest of all 10 BYO platforms — the whole flow takes about 6 minutes and there’s no app review or business verification step. The only catch: you have to use the old Reddit UI to create the app.

~6 min setup Easy No review Beta API
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Beta API notice. Reddit’s Ads API is officially in beta. Expect occasional 5xx errors, incomplete metric coverage (some fields available in the Reddit Ads UI simply aren’t exposed via API yet), and breaking changes on short notice. VelaReach’s Reddit adapter handles most transient errors gracefully with retries and circuit breakers, but if you rely on Reddit data for critical reporting, consider sticking with the shared app so our team can deploy adapter fixes for everyone at once.
✓
Use BYO if
  • · You’re running Reddit ads at scale and want isolated rate limits
  • · You want your team to see your brand on the OAuth consent screen
  • · You already have Reddit Ads API beta access on your account
  • · You want full audit-log control of which app talks to Reddit
✗
Stick with shared app if
  • · You depend on Reddit data for SLA-bound reporting
  • · You haven’t requested Reddit Ads API beta access yet
  • · You don’t want to track another beta API on your own
  • · Your Reddit spend is exploratory and small

Before you begin

1

Open the old Reddit app preferences

Go to old.reddit.com/prefs/apps. Yes, it has to be old.reddit.com — the new Reddit UI doesn’t expose this page at all. Sign in if prompted. You should see a list of any existing apps (probably empty) and a button at the bottom to create one.

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If your browser auto-redirects from old.reddit.com to www.reddit.com, open an incognito window or temporarily disable any “Reddit Enhancement Suite” rules — the old UI is a hard requirement here.
2

Create a new app

Scroll to the very bottom of the page and click are you a developer? create an app.... A small inline form appears asking for the app name, type, redirect URI, and description.

https://old.reddit.com/prefs/apps
reddit · preferences › apps
↑ Pick something recognisable — this appears on the consent screen.
○ web app ● web app ○ installed app ○ script
↑ “web app” is the right choice for VelaReach’s server-side OAuth flow.

Reddit’s create-app form is famously bare-bones. It hasn’t changed visually since 2014.

3

Whitelist the VelaReach redirect URL

In the same form, find the redirect uri field and paste this exact URL:

https://api.velareach.metaminds.store/api/v1/integrations/reddit/callback
https://old.reddit.com/prefs/apps
reddit · create application
↑ Reddit checks this character-for-character. HTTPS only, no trailing slash.
create app

Click create app at the bottom of the form once everything is filled in.

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90% of BYO failures happen here. If OAuth later returns “invalid redirect_uri”, come back to old.reddit.com/prefs/apps, click edit on your app, and re-paste the URL using the Copy button.
4

Copy your Client ID and Client Secret

Once you click create app, the form collapses into a card showing the new app. Reddit’s labelling here is unintuitive, so look carefully:

  • · The 14-character string immediately under the app name (where you might expect the type label) is your Client ID. It is not labelled.
  • · The longer string explicitly labelled secret is your Client Secret.
https://old.reddit.com/prefs/apps
reddit · developed applications
VelaReach-Ads
aB3xK9pQrV2Ldg
↑ This 14-char string is the Client ID — not labelled, easy to miss
secret 3hT8mP_aQrV2LdgX9bC4eF7gH1jK5n
↑ This is the Client Secret
edit

The 14-char unlabelled string is the Client ID. Yes, it’s confusingly placed.

🔒
Treat the Client Secret like a password. VelaReach encrypts it with AES-256-GCM the moment you submit, and never writes it to logs.
5

Confirm Reddit Ads API access

Open ads.reddit.com and sign in with the same Reddit account. In the account menu, look for a Developer or API Access entry. If you don’t see one, your account hasn’t been opted into the Ads API beta yet — request access at ads-api.reddit.com/docs/ or via the support chat in the bottom-right of the Ads dashboard.

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Ads API access is granted at the account level, not the app level. The OAuth app you just created will work the moment your account is allowlisted — you don’t need to recreate it.
6

Paste credentials into VelaReach

Back in VelaReach: Settings → Integrations → click the Reddit Ads card → Manage → Advanced tab → Set up BYO app. The 4-step wizard opens. Click past Intro and Guide, then on Step 3 paste the Client ID and Client Secret from Step 4.

Click Test & save. VelaReach makes a live call to /api/v1/me with your credentials and runs validation checks inline, then prompts you to Reconnect now → through your new app. The consent screen will show your app name.

After reconnecting, what changes?

✓ Preserved
  • · All historical spend, impressions, and engagement data
  • · Your picker selection (which Reddit ad accounts are tracked)
  • · Automation rules and budget pacing configs
  • · Scheduled reports and Slack notifications
  • · Every tag, filter, and saved view
✦ Changed
  • · OAuth tokens revoked and re-minted via your app
  • · Card shows violet BYO app pill
  • · Consent screen on future reconnects displays your app name
  • · User-Agent header now identifies your app to Reddit
  • · API calls count against your app’s rate limits

Troubleshooting

“401 Unauthorized” on a previously-working connection
Reddit occasionally rotates refresh tokens on their side without warning — especially on beta API accounts. The fix is the same as a fresh setup: open the integration card, click Reconnect, and step through OAuth once more. Your historical data and configs stay intact. If this keeps happening more than once a week, drop us a note — it’s usually a sign your account got moved between Reddit’s auth shards.
“403 Forbidden” on /api/v1/me/ads
Your OAuth token is valid but your Reddit account doesn’t have Ads API beta access yet. Open ads.reddit.com, click your username → Developer (or use the support chat), and request beta access. Approval is usually same-day for accounts with active spend, 1–3 days otherwise. Once enabled, click Reconnect in VelaReach — no need to recreate the app.
“INVALID_GRANT” from Reddit’s token endpoint
Almost always a scope mismatch. Reddit’s Ads API requires both adsread and adsconversions scopes — if your account was created before these existed and somehow ended up with only one, OAuth will fail with INVALID_GRANT. Click Reconnect in VelaReach to re-request both scopes, and approve them on Reddit’s consent screen.
I created the app on a test user — how do I move it to my main account?
You can’t transfer Reddit OAuth apps between users. The cleanest fix is to go to old.reddit.com/prefs/apps on your real account, click create app, and repeat steps 2–4 with the same name and redirect URL. Then in VelaReach’s BYO wizard click Replace credentials and paste the new Client ID and Client Secret. Historical data is preserved.
My own subreddit’s organic posts don’t show up in VelaReach
That’s by design. The Reddit Ads API only returns promoted content — campaigns, ad groups, ads, and their metrics. Organic subreddit posts live behind a completely different API (the public Reddit API at oauth.reddit.com) which VelaReach doesn’t integrate with. If you want organic-vs-paid attribution, use Reddit’s pixel and pull conversions through ads.reddit.com.
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Stuck? Email us — we’ll hop on a 15-min screen share.
Reddit BYO is the easiest of all our integrations, but the beta API does throw curveballs. Email support@velareach.com with your workspace name + exact error and we’ll pair with you.