How to Find B2B Leads on Reddit Without Getting Banned
Reddit has over 100,000 active communities. Inside them, your ideal buyers publicly post when they need a tool, hate their current vendor, or are actively evaluating options. Here is how to find them — systematically.
Quick Answer
Reddit has over 100,000 active communities covering nearly every B2B vertical. People publicly post when they need a tool, hate their current vendor, or are actively evaluating options — making it one of the highest-intent lead sources available, at zero cost per click.
Why Reddit is B2B's Best-Kept Secret
Most B2B companies spend thousands on LinkedIn ads, email sequences, and SEO while ignoring a channel where their ideal buyers openly ask for help. Reddit's 73 million daily active users include a disproportionate number of technical decision-makers, founders, and operations leads — exactly who buys most B2B software.
The difference between Reddit and other channels: intent is explicit. A LinkedIn ad targets someone who might be interested. A Reddit post from someone saying “I'm looking for a tool that does X” is a live hand-raise.
What Buying Intent Looks Like on Reddit
Buying intent posts fall into three categories:
- Explicit requests — “Looking for a tool that does X” or “What does everyone use for Y?”
- Competitor frustration — “Sick of [Competitor], does anyone know a better option?”
- Pain-first posts — Describing a problem your product solves, without yet asking for solutions.
The third category is the most underutilized. Someone posting “Our SDRs are spending 4 hours a day manually checking Reddit for leads” is a perfect buyer — they just haven't Googled for a solution yet.
The 7 Subreddits With the Highest B2B Buyer Density
- r/entrepreneur — Founders at every stage, frequently asking for tool recommendations
- r/SaaS — SaaS founders and operators; very high purchase intent per post
- r/startups — Early-stage companies with real budgets and flexible vendor relationships
- r/smallbusiness — SMB operators, often underserved and receptive to outreach
- r/marketing — Marketing practitioners looking for MarTech and growth tools
- r/learnprogramming / r/webdev — Technical buyers for dev tools and infrastructure
- r/[your vertical] — Niche subreddits specific to your ICP (e.g., r/ecommerce, r/realestateinvesting)
How to Search for Intent Posts (Without Getting Banned)
Three approaches, in order of scalability:
- Google site search —
site:reddit.com "looking for" "tool that" [your category]. Free, high precision, but manual. - Reddit's native search — Sort by “New” with relevant keywords. Set alerts using IFTTT or RSS for specific subreddits.
- Automated monitoring — Tools that continuously scan Reddit, score posts for intent, and notify you within minutes of a qualifying post going live.
How to Respond Without Getting Banned or Ignored
Reddit has strict anti-spam rules. The right approach:
- Add genuine value in your comment first — answer their actual question
- Only mention your product if it's directly relevant and you disclose the relationship
- Send a DM only after a public comment, and keep it one sentence
- Never mass-DM; Reddit's spam detection is aggressive and bans are permanent
The accounts that get banned lead with pitch. The accounts that build pipeline lead with insight. The conversion happens in DMs after trust is established.
Scaling Beyond Manual Search
Manual Reddit lead generation hits a ceiling at 5–10 qualified leads per week. Beyond that, you need a system that:
- Monitors multiple subreddits and keywords simultaneously
- Scores posts for intent quality (not every post about your category is a lead)
- Surfaces high-priority posts in real time so you can respond within the first hour (when response rates are highest)
- Tracks which outreach converted so you can refine your keyword list
Frequently Asked Questions
Is cold DM outreach allowed on Reddit?
Reddit technically permits DMs, but individual subreddits and users can restrict them. The best practice is to engage publicly first, then send a one-sentence DM referencing your comment. Mass DM campaigns violate Reddit's spam policy and result in permanent account bans.
What is the average reply rate for Reddit-based outreach?
Intent-based outreach on Reddit typically achieves 15–30% reply rates, compared to 0.3–2% for cold email. The key variable is timing: replies within the first hour of a post going live outperform later replies by a significant margin.
How do I find the right subreddits for my product?
Start with the subreddits your own team uses: r/entrepreneur, r/SaaS, r/startups. Then search Reddit for your product category and filter by the communities where those posts appear. Subreddits with 50k–500k members tend to have the best signal-to-noise ratio for B2B leads.
How often should I check Reddit for new leads?
High-intent posts have a short window: the first 1–3 hours after posting generate the most engagement and are when outreach is least competitive. Manual monitoring multiple times per day is unsustainable; automated keyword alerts are the practical solution for consistent coverage.
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