Reddit for AI visibility - hype or legit strategy? Need honest experiences

Been doing Reddit marketing for 6 years. The AI angle is new, but the fundamentals aren’t.

Let me address your skepticism directly:

1. “Won’t it get saturated?” Reddit has been “saturated” with marketers since 2015. The ones who fail:

• Push products too hard
• Don’t understand community culture
• Treat it like a broadcast channel

The ones who succeed:

• Genuinely help
• Build real relationships
• Think years, not campaigns

If you do it right, you’ll stand out because most marketers do it wrong.

2. “Reddit hates marketers” Reddit hates BAD marketers. Reddit actually loves:

• Employees who answer questions honestly
• Founders who engage authentically
• Experts who share knowledge freely

Look at r/IAmA - people love hearing from brands IF they’re genuine.

3. “Is it measurable?” Now it is. Track with Am I Cited:

• Which Reddit posts get AI citations
• How often your brand is mentioned in AI answers
• Correlation between Reddit activity and AI visibility

Before AI visibility tools, Reddit was a “brand awareness” black box. Now you can actually measure it.

4. “How is this different from before?” Before: “Reddit might help brand awareness somehow” Now: “Reddit content gets cited by AI systems, measurably influencing how millions of people discover information”

The visibility is now traceable. That’s the difference.

I’ll share both our failure AND our recovery:

The failure (Year 1):

What we did wrong:

• Created branded account immediately
• Posted product announcements
• Responded only when our brand was mentioned
• Answered questions with “check out our tool!”
• Hired an agency to “manage Reddit”

What happened:

• 2 accounts banned
• Negative thread about our marketing (500+ upvotes)
• That negative thread NOW appears in AI answers about us

The recovery (Year 2):

What we changed:

• Personal account, disclosed affiliation
• Helped without any product mention for 6 months
• Answered competitor questions honestly
• Became genuinely useful

Results after the pivot:

• 12K karma on main account
• Positive community perception
• Started seeing AI citations
• Negative thread is now buried by positive contributions

The lesson: You can recover from Reddit mistakes, but it takes 2-3x the effort. Start right the first time.

What “right” looks like: Be the person who knows their stuff AND happens to work at a company. Not a company pretending to be a person.

Let me share the measurement framework we use:

What we track:

The correlation we found:

Week after high-performing Reddit posts:

• AI citation rate increases ~15%
• Branded search increases ~8%

Not immediate, but consistent.

How we attribute value:

1. Track Reddit post → AI citation → brand mention chain
2. Monitor “how did you hear about us” for Reddit attribution
3. Look at branded search lift as leading indicator

The ROI calculation:

• Time investment: 10 hrs/week (1 person)
• Annual cost: ~$25K (loaded labor)
• Attributable pipeline: ~$180K
• ROI: 7.2x

That’s measurable enough for our finance team.

Since this thread is asking for honesty, let me warn about agencies:

Red flags when agencies pitch Reddit marketing:

1. “We’ll grow your presence in 30 days”
2. “Our team will post on your behalf”
3. “We have multiple accounts in your niche”
4. “We guarantee X karma/month”
5. “We’ve cracked the Reddit algorithm”

Why these are red flags:

Reddit explicitly bans:

• Vote manipulation
• Multiple accounts for marketing
• Coordinated inauthentic behavior
• Paying for posts/upvotes

If an agency promises fast results, they’re probably breaking TOS. When they get caught, YOUR brand takes the hit.

What legitimate help looks like:

• Strategy consultation
• Training your team
• Helping identify relevant subreddits
• Creating content frameworks
• Monitoring and measurement setup

Who should actually post:

• Your employees with genuine expertise
• Founders/executives (especially for startups)
• Support team members
• Product specialists

Real people with real knowledge, not agency interns with scripts.

Let me be real about time investment:

What Reddit for AI visibility actually requires:

Daily (30 min):

• Monitor relevant subreddits
• Look for questions to answer
• Engage with responses to your posts

Weekly (2-3 hours):

• 1-2 substantive responses to questions
• Check AI visibility metrics
• Adjust strategy based on what’s working

Monthly (2-3 hours):

• Create original valuable content (if relevant)
• Review performance analytics
• Update subreddit priority list

Total: ~8-10 hours/week

Who should own this:

• NOT: Junior marketing person with no expertise
• NOT: Agency with no product knowledge
• YES: Someone with genuine expertise in your space
• YES: Someone who actually likes helping people

The personality fit: Not everyone is suited for Reddit. You need:

• Patience (results take months)
• Thick skin (some criticism is inevitable)
• Genuine helpfulness (can’t fake this)
• Technical/industry knowledge

If you don’t have someone who fits this, Reddit might not be right for you. Better to skip it than do it badly.

For project management SaaS specifically, here’s where I’d focus:

Tier 1 (highest AI citation rate for your space):

• r/projectmanagement (~200K members)
• r/agile (~80K members)
• r/scrum (~50K members)

Tier 2 (adjacent audiences):

• r/sysadmin (~800K members)
• r/msp (~180K members)
• r/smallbusiness (~1M members)

Tier 3 (specific use cases):

• r/startups
• r/Entrepreneur
• r/freelance

How I’d prioritize:

1. Master 2-3 Tier 1 subreddits first
2. Expand to Tier 2 when you have bandwidth
3. Tier 3 for specific campaign moments

What to test: Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity questions about project management tools. See which subreddits get cited. Those are your priority.

Reality check: Some of these subreddits have strict rules about self-promotion. Read the rules CAREFULLY. r/projectmanagement specifically has vendor guidelines - follow them exactly.

What Reddit content types actually get AI citations:

High citation rate:

• Detailed answer to specific question
• Comparison/contrast of tools (honest, balanced)
• How-to guides with step-by-step
• Personal experience stories with lessons

Low citation rate:

• Short “me too” comments
• Links without context
• Promotional content (even if allowed)
• Generic advice without specifics

The sweet spot format:

“Great question about [specific topic].

Here’s what I’ve learned from [X years experience]:

Point 1: [Substantive detail] Point 2: [Substantive detail] Point 3: [Substantive detail]

[Optional: Brief mention of your tool as ONE option among several, with disclosure]

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have follow-up questions.”

Length that works:

• 100-300 words for comments
• 500-1000 words for posts

Substantive but not overwhelming.

Most important thing nobody has said yet:

This takes 6-12 months to see AI impact.

The average Reddit post cited by AI is ~1 year old.

If you want quick results, Reddit is wrong. If you can commit to a year, Reddit is right.

What to expect:

Months 1-3: Nothing visible. Just building presence. Months 4-6: Starting to see engagement. Still no AI impact. Months 7-9: First AI citations. Sporadic. Months 10-12: Pattern emerges. Compounding begins. Year 2+: Real visibility impact. Pays off previous investment.

The mindset: Think of Reddit like SEO in 2010. Slow to build, compounds over time, hard to shortcut.

If you need to show results in 60 days, do something else. If you can think in years, Reddit is one of the best AI visibility investments.

This is exactly the honest assessment I needed. Here’s my decision:

Yes, we’re going to do it. But the right way.

Why:

• 3.11% of all AI citations is huge
• Competitors are starting to appear
• It’s measurable now (Am I Cited)
• Aligns with long-term brand building

My plan:

Phase 1 (Months 1-3): Foundation

• I’ll personally start (Head of Growth has credibility)
• Focus on r/projectmanagement and r/agile only
• Pure value, zero promotion
• Target: 1000 karma, 2-3 substantive posts/week

Phase 2 (Months 4-6): Scale

• Add 1-2 team members who fit the profile
• Expand to Tier 2 subreddits
• Start tracking AI visibility via Am I Cited
• Begin correlating activity to metrics

Phase 3 (Months 7-12): Optimize

• Double down on what’s working
• Reduce what’s not
• Start seeing AI citation impact
• Build case for continued investment

What I’m NOT doing:

• Hiring an agency
• Creating branded account first
• Expecting quick results
• Treating it like advertising

Success metrics:

• Karma growth (vanity but correlates)
• AI citations (Am I Cited)
• Branded search volume (leading indicator)
• Attribution (“heard about us from Reddit”)

Timeline expectation: Meaningful AI visibility in 9-12 months. I’ve set expectations with leadership accordingly.

Thanks everyone. This thread convinced me it’s worth it AND showed me how to not screw it up.