Written by Derek Jouppi, co-founder at Advite
If you’re bootstrapped, you don’t have time to “build awareness” for six months and hope it turns into revenue. You need traction while you’re still building. And you need it without setting money on fire.
Reddit is one of the few places left where you can earn attention with a good answer. No budget required.
People treat it like a decision engine. Reddit even claims it’s the #1 platform for finding solutions to problems. That’s not a branding stat. That’s purchase intent.
Trust is the whole reason. Roughly 50% of Americans say they struggle to know which online reviews or sources are legit. In that world, community conversation wins.
It’s not just “vibes,” either. In a Gartner survey, 47% of U.S. consumers said they trust Reddit for accurate information.
And people research there. Reddit reports 71% of people who discover a brand then go to Reddit to dig into it. They also say 74% of users feel Reddit helps them make faster purchase decisions. And 74% reported being satisfied with purchases they made based on Reddit info.
“Reddit is where buyers go when they don’t trust the internet.”
Derek Jouppi, co-founder at Advite
One more that should punch you in the face: Reddit says over 50% of purchasing conversations happen on Reddit.
And yes, SEO matters here too. In 2024, “reddit” was the 6th most-searched query on Google in the U.S. People literally type “best ___ reddit” when they’re about to buy.
So the opportunity is real. The question is whether you can show up without getting nuked.
Why I take Reddit seriously (and why I built Advite)
My first time doing this was when I co-founded a brand called SPOTMYUV. We made UV stickers that change colour when you need to reapply sunscreen. It was the first invention of its kind; we were inventing a product category.
Everything I’ve built is something that I wanted to exist. I wanted to use it. It didn’t exist. So I had to create it.
And we got punched in the face by traditional marketing.
We tried ads. We tried keyword bidding. It didn’t work because we were bidding on words that aren’t searched and don’t exist. People can’t search for something they don’t know is possible.
So I went where the conversations already were. Parents talking about sunscreen for their kids. People asking how reapplication works. People panicking about burns. People looking for recommendations.
The tools back then weren’t built for that. They listened for keywords. But not every mention of sunscreen is relevant to moms and kids. Not every mention of being a mother is relevant to sunscreen. The moment is in the overlap.
So I did it manually. I refreshed Reddit constantly. Every five minutes, between other tasks, for two weeks.
If you’re trying to “promote,” you’re already losing. Reddit can smell it.
Eventually we hit the goldmine. Somebody in a thread I commented on bought SPOTMYUV. They got it, tried it, and wrote a review about it on Reddit. I then commented in that review thread where I was now invited by the skincareaddiction subreddit to explain (and sell) my product as much as I wanted.
That day we got 10,000 new orders.
That’s the moment I stopped believing in “Reddit marketing” as posting. The thing that worked was comment marketing. The right comment, in the right thread, at the right time. Engaging with people in the comments is the #1 way to educate them about your brand.
Advite exists because I wanted that workflow to be real-time and repeatable. I wanted the tool I didn’t have when I was running my e-commerce brand.
The rule that keeps you alive: your comment has to be worth existing
The only strategy I believe in is adding net new value in public. And I mean new. Not recycled. Not generic.
Here’s the line I use to keep myself honest: If AI can write the comment, then it’s not a comment worth writing.
In 2026, everyone has access to AI. Everyone can get a decent answer in seconds. So if your comment is just “basic advice,” it’s a commodity.
The only thing you have that beats AI is the first-party reality that AI can’t experience. Your own data. Trade-offs. Weird edge cases. Process. The stuff you only know because you do it every day.
When we marketed SPOTMYUV, we didn’t win by shilling stickers. We answered sunscreen questions with years of proprietary research, data, and figures. Then we connected it back to the most important thing: reapplying sunscreen. SPOTMYUV was the logical footnote.
You have your own version of that.
If you’re a plumber, only you know what your last three jobs cost and what actually drives the price up. If you build running shoes, only you can explain the design trade-offs. If you’re a SaaS founder, only you know what breaks in production and what fixes it.
That’s the content Reddit rewards. And upvotes are your protection. Upvotes tell the community (and mods) that you belong.
Quick reality check: Reddit isn’t for every business
I don’t think Reddit is a universal growth lever.
If you sell commoditized goods, people don’t really debate it online. Milk is milk. Eggs are eggs. Those threads aren’t purchase-driven.
Same thing with a lot of deep B2B. Aerospace, defense, certain manufacturing. People aren’t discussing it publicly. If it’s not discussed online, you can’t monitor it and you can’t comment-market it.
Reddit works when people have public curiosity. Comparison threads. Recommendation threads. Complaints. “Is this legit?” posts. “What’s the alternative?” posts.
And that’s a lot of markets. Reddit says 80% of social media users rely on community conversations (not ads) to make confident decisions. That’s basically the mission statement for what you’re trying to do.
The two-account system: how to look like a human and a brand
There are two voices you need on Reddit. Your personal voice and your brand voice.
Your personal voice is your credibility engine
Your personal account is you. It’s you nine to five, and it’s you five to nine.
If someone clicks your profile, they should see a person. Not a sales robot. Not a username that only shows up to extract value.
You don’t need to “build karma for months.” You can do this in a day. Go leave 10 to 15 real comments in non-business subreddits you actually like. Memes, music, sports, games, whatever.
I’m into chess, metal music, and Toronto community stuff. That kind of posting proves I’m not just a one-dimensional being here to plug my brand.
Then, when you show up in a work-related thread, it lands differently. You’re a person who builds something, not an ad wearing a hoodie.
Your brand voice should be boring on purpose
Your brand account should mostly do two things: support and monitoring.
The safest time for a brand to speak on Reddit is when the brand is mentioned first. If someone says “Has anyone tried Advite?” and the official account shows up, that feels normal. The community basically summoned it.
If nobody is talking about you and your brand account keeps appearing anyway, it feels forced. And if it feels forced, it’s because it is.
One warning: don’t run a two-account puppet show. Don’t have your personal account “discover” your brand and then have your brand account reply. People connect the dots fast. Mods connect the dots faster.
Keep it clean.
The anatomy of a comment that gets upvoted (and doesn’t get removed)
Most founders think the “promotion” happens when you paste a link.
No. The promotion happens when your comment becomes the best answer in the thread.
That’s the whole job. Become the comment people upvote, save, and quote.
Here’s how I write when I want a comment to work.
- First, I answer the question immediately. No warm-up. No credentials. People decide in two seconds if you’re worth reading.
- Then I drop first-party detail. This is the money. It can be data, process, or hard-earned lessons. It’s the part that makes someone think, “Okay, this person actually does this.”
- Then I disclose who I am. One line. “Founder of XYZ here” is enough. Reddit is fine with self-interest. Reddit hates hidden self-interest.
- Then I mention my product like a footnote. No pitch paragraph. No “book a demo.” Just a soft mention for the people who want to go deeper.
- Finally, I stay in the thread. If people ask follow-ups, answer them. If someone challenges you, stay calm. Participation compounds trust.
If you want a simple template, this is close to what I do:
Answer the question in 1 – 2 sentences.
Add one first-party detail (data, process, trade-off, edge case).
Add one “if I were you, I’d do this” suggestion.
Disclosure: I work on / I’m the founder of XYZ.
Soft mention: ABC is what we built for this. Happy to answer questions either way.
Notice what’s missing. No hype. No buzzwords. No “revolutionary.” Reddit punishes that tone.
Links and DMs: don’t use them as a crutch
Links get founders banned because founders use them like a weapon.
If your comment only makes sense with the link, your comment is weak. People will downvote it. Mods will remove it.
When I include a link, the comment still stands without it. The link is just extra. And if a subreddit hates links, don’t fight it. Say you can share it if someone wants it. Let people ask.
Same thing with DMs. Don’t start with “DM me.” Answer publicly first. If someone wants more detail, then a DM makes sense.
That approach keeps you safe because you’re contributing before you’re extracting.
Competitor threads: be aggressively neutral or don’t bother
Competitor threads are where the intent is obvious. People are comparing. People are switching. People are annoyed.
Founders ruin it by dunking on competitors. Reddit hates that.
Reddit’s preferred tone is aggressively neutral.
I like a Goldilocks positioning. You admit where the competitor is better. You explain where you’re better. You keep it calm.
Here’s language you can steal:
If you want the lowest cost, X is a solid pick.
If you care more about (specific outcome), that’s where we tend to do better.
The trade-off is (what you give up).
I’m the founder of Y, so take this with that context.
Happy to answer questions either way.
That tone does two things. It attracts your ICP. It also avoids a flame war with the wrong buyer.
And for the love of God, don’t “shit on competitors.” You’ll look insecure, and you’ll get flamed.
Finding the right threads: context beats keywords
Most founders fail because they search keywords and then spam. They treat Reddit like Google. They comment everywhere. They add nothing. Then they decide “Reddit doesn’t work.”
The real skill is thread selection.
When I was marketing SPOTMYUV, “sunscreen” wasn’t enough. I needed the overlap of sunscreen, kids, reapplication, concern, and timing. That’s why I was refreshing Reddit constantly. I was trying to catch it early.
This is where AI actually helps. AI has made the internet even noisier, but AI has also made the noise even easier to filter out. You can filter by intent and context, not just keywords.
That’s how Advite works. It’s not a “word cloud” tool. When you log in, you don’t get a dashboard that makes you feel busy. You get an inbox of leads. It looks and feels more like a CRM built for social media managers.
Advite uses “Monitors.” Each Monitor reads one platform for one goal for one product. It polls regularly, and it alerts you when it finds a match. You can rate results as good or bad, and it improves.
You don’t need my tool to use the mindset. Do this manually if you want. Pick a small set of subreddits. Spend 15 – 20 minutes a day sorting by “new.” Look for buying signals like “X vs Y,” “best alternative,” “is this worth it,” “any recommendations,” or “this product failed me.”
Write fewer comments, but make them count. You’re chasing the top one to three comments in a thread. That’s what gets read. That’s what gets summarized. Spray and pray gets you nowhere.
Brand monitoring: the part you ignore until it hurts
A lot of “Reddit marketing” is just knowing when you’re being talked about.
If a complaint goes viral and you don’t see it, you’re in trouble. If something great happens and you miss it, you waste free momentum. Every brand needs monitoring for that reason.
I like the Stanley Mugs story as a reminder. A woman posted that her car caught fire, and her Stanley mug still had a cold drink inside it. The company reached out and offered her a car. That’s such an out-of-the-box move that it became part of the brand’s story.
No AI tool is going to buy someone a car. Humans do that. But tools can surface the signal so you don’t miss the moment.
That’s also how I think marketing leadership changes over time. AI will handle more content and ad grunt work. Humans will take real-world moments and turn them into story.
What gets you banned (and what gets you quietly ignored)
Some bans are obvious. A mod removes your post. You get a message. You’re done.
The scarier version is when you don’t get banned, you get shadow-banned. No upvotes. No replies. You think Reddit is “hard.” In reality, you trained people to ignore you.
The patterns that cause this are predictable. You skip subreddit rules. You copy-paste the same pitch. You drop links without context. You show up only when you want something.
And yes, Reddit has a lot of commerce already. Reddit says 40% of posts are commercial content. The platform isn’t anti-business. It’s anti-spam.
So don’t act like spam.
A 7-day setup you can do with or without Advite
You don’t need a 90-day content calendar. You need a rhythm you can keep.
Day one is picking your lanes. Choose a small set of subreddits. Lurk long enough to understand what gets upvoted. Read the rules so you don’t step on a landmine. If you use Advite… it’ll take care of selecting every subreddit & search term relevant for your brand for you.
Day two is building your personal base. Leave those 10 to 15 comments in non-business subreddits. Do it quickly. The goal is to look like a real human account. Note – Advite won’t help you with this, so you still should do this on your own!
Day three is building your “first-party bank.” Open a doc and write down what you know that customers don’t. The trade-offs. The misconceptions. The edge cases. Now you’re not inventing comments from scratch.
Day four is writing one comment that matters. Find a thread (or even easier, respond to an alert sent to you by Advite) where you can add real first-party insight. Answer the question. Disclose. Soft mention. Stay in the thread.
Day five is practicing competitor neutrality. Find an “X vs Y” thread (or wait for Advite to find one for you) and do the fairest comparison you can. Calm tone. Real trade-offs.
Day six is setting up your brand account. Make it clear. Then keep it quiet unless you’re summoned or doing support.
Day seven is choosing a cadence you can maintain. Three high-signal comments per week is plenty to start compounding. Advite will find most brands 5+ per day.
And don’t hire someone just because writing in public feels uncomfortable. My biggest lesson from my last exit was to keep teams lean and not hire at the first sight of work.
Measuring ROI when attribution is a leaky bucket
You’re going to want perfect attribution. Reddit won’t give it to you.
Someone reads your comment, opens a new tab, buys later, and you’ll never see the referral. That leaky bucket problem is real, and I don’t think “track harder” is the ethical solution. Privacy matters.
So measure what you can. Upvotes and replies tell you if you’re adding value. DMs tell you if people trust you. Brand mentions tell you if you’re becoming part of the conversation.
And trust compounds. Reddit says 79% of users stay loyal once they find a brand they like on Reddit. That’s relationship-building at scale, not a one-click funnel.
Closing: be a person, not a campaign
Reddit will punish you if you try to hack it. Reddit will reward you if you show up like a real person with real information.
Bring first-party truth. Keep your tone aggressively neutral. Make your product a footnote, not the headline. And remember: if it feels forced, it’s because it is.
Do that and you won’t get banned.
You’ll get remembered.
FAQs
Should I run Reddit Ads instead of doing organic comment marketing?
I wouldn’t start there. Reddit data shows that 80% of social media users rely on community conversations rather than ads to make decisions. Ads are interruptions. Comments are solutions. If you can’t get traction organically, paying to amplify a weak message won’t fix the underlying trust gap.
Can B2B SaaS founders actually get clients on Reddit?
Yes, but not by pitching software. You win by discussing the workflow. If you sell accounting tools, don’t post about features. Answer specific questions about tax edge cases or audit nightmares. Share your ‘first-party reality.’ Once you prove you understand the problem, your product becomes the logical footnote.
What should I do if my product gets roasted in the comments?
Do not delete it. Reddit remembers, and deletion implies guilt. Respond with ‘aggressive neutrality.’ Acknowledge the user’s valid point, explain your design trade-off, and treat it like a debug session, not a PR battle. Founders who own their mistakes gain more respect than those who try to hide them.
Is it safe to outsource Reddit marketing to an agency?
It is risky. The community values authenticity above all else, and 47% of consumers trust Reddit for accurate info. An agency writer doesn’t know your product’s technical trade-offs or ‘weird edge cases.’ If the comment feels generic (like AI wrote it), you’ll be ignored or banned.
How do I know if I have been shadowbanned?
Open your Reddit profile URL in an Incognito (Private) window. If it says ‘User not found’ or the page is empty, you are shadowbanned. This usually happens because you posted links too aggressively or acted like a bot. You are posting into the void – nobody can see your content but you.
About the Author
Derek Jouppi runs Advite, an AI-powered social monitoring platform that helps startups and SMEs with comment marketing by alerting them when potential leads discuss relevant problems online. He also founded Founder Poker Toronto, a social club for 1k+ verified founders. Previously, he built ByCanada (10k+ Canadian tech directory), SPOTMYUV (color-changing sunscreen stickers, acquired 2020), and Blackoot (detective board game, 200% Kickstarter-funded, 2023).
