Most people set up Reddit keyword alerts on their own company name. That tells you who is talking about you, which is useful, but it will almost never bring you a new customer, because a stranger who needs what you sell does not know your name. The alerts that find buyers are set on the question the buyer types.
This guide shows how to turn your customers' questions into a keyword list, three free ways to watch for them, what alert tools cannot tell you, and a five-minute daily check. Every reply you send comes from your own Reddit account.
Why the first hours matter in a Reddit thread
A buying question on Reddit usually gets most of its replies within the first day. After that it falls down the page, and the person who asked has often made a choice. A helpful answer posted in the first few hours gets read. A helpful answer posted a week later mostly does not, apart from threads that keep ranking in Google, which is a separate matter covered in can you reply to old Reddit posts.
That is why people want alerts. Searching by hand once a week misses most of the good threads. Searching every day for ten minutes catches many of them, and an alert does it without remembering.
Choose keywords from the question, not your name
Write down ten sentences a buyer might type when they need what you sell. Then shorten each to a phrase of two or three words. Take Nia, who runs a two-person pest control company in Tucson. Her buyers do not write "Nia's Pest Control." They write:
- "pest control recommendation" and "who do you use for pest control"
- "scorpions in my house" and "scorpion exterminator"
- "roaches in apartment" and "get rid of roaches"
- "termite inspection" with her city name
The problem phrases ("scorpions in my house") catch people earlier than the buying phrases ("pest control recommendation"). Some of them will just want advice, which you can give, and some will be ready to hire.
Test each phrase for ten minutes before you trust it. Put it in Reddit's search, sort by new, and read what comes back. If most results are jokes, news stories or other cities, add a word or drop the phrase. Single common words are traps. A tool that matches parts of words will treat "ants" as a hit inside "plants" and "want," so use whole-word matching where it is offered and keep phrases specific.
Free ways to watch Reddit
You have three decent options that cost nothing.
The first is Reddit's own search. Search the phrase, sort by New, and filter to the past day or week. It takes about a minute per phrase and is the most reliable way to see what is there. The second is a feed of new posts from the few subreddits that matter to you. Subreddit pages can be read in an RSS reader, and Reddit's own app shows new posts when you follow a community. The third is a keyword alert service. F5Bot is one: as published on its site in October 2026, the version that costs nothing emails you when a keyword you picked appears in new Reddit posts and comments, but alerts come with a delay, very common words cannot be tracked, and each keyword stops after a set number of hits per day. Its paid versions change those limits.
You can also set a Google Alert for your phrase plus the word reddit. It works, but Google has to index the page first, which can take longer than a thread stays active.
Free options work well for one business watching a few phrases. They get tiring when you add the fifteenth phrase and the third subreddit.
What alert tools miss: context and intent
An alert tells you that a word appeared. It does not tell you whether the person is asking for help, complaining, joking, or answering someone else. Three questions sort the pile in about 30 seconds each:
- Is the person asking for what I sell, or only talking about it?
- Is the thread still open? Reddit archives posts after about six months by default, which closes them to new comments, and moderators can lock a thread earlier.
- Does this subreddit allow a business owner to reply, and under what conditions? Read the sidebar and pinned rules before you write.
If the answer to any of the three is no, skip it. Most alerts will end there, and that is normal. The point is to spend your writing time on the three threads a week that deserve it.
Conversations finds threads asking for what you sell
Conversations, part of Rocketship, does this sorting for you. Instead of matching a keyword, it looks for threads where someone is asking for what your business sells, gives each one a fit score so the best come first, and writes a draft reply and a short DM in your voice. You choose which subreddits and keywords to watch. The drafts say that you own the business and carry no link.
The part that stays with you: you read the draft, change anything that doesn't sound like you, and post it from your own Reddit account with one tap. Rocketship never posts, votes or sends direct messages on Reddit. There are no extra accounts and no bought votes. Each plan includes a monthly allowance, and the pricing page has the current figures. For more on judging this kind of tool, read Reddit lead generation tools: what to check.
Reply from your own account
Whatever finds the thread, the reply is yours. Answer the question in the first two lines, add one detail only someone who does the work would know, say that you own the business, and leave the link out until someone asks. How to write a Reddit reply that does not read like an ad has a before-and-after example. Send a DM only if the person asked for one, answered you, or the subreddit allows it.
A five-minute daily routine
- Minute 1: open your alert email or saved searches and scan the titles.
- Minutes 2 to 3: apply the three questions. Mark one or two threads.
- Minute 4: skim the thread and the top replies so you don't repeat them.
- Minute 5: write down the thread link, or draft the reply to finish later that same day.
On busy days, the writing takes another ten minutes. Resist the urge to reply to everything. Two good replies a day will do more than ten rushed ones, and posting the same text in several threads is the quickest way to get flagged. Compare ads in Reddit ads for small business vs answering threads yourself if you wonder whether buying attention is faster.
Track which threads turn into customers
Keep a sheet with the thread link, the date you found it, the date you replied, and what happened next. Add a line to your intake form or first call: "How did you find us?" After a month, count threads replied to, conversations started, and jobs won. Keep the keywords that produced real conversations and delete the rest. Your list should shrink and sharpen over time. The longer process is covered in how to use Reddit search to find people ready to buy, and the manual version is in find customers on Reddit.
Reddit is one place a buyer announces themselves. Rocketship also finds the ones who aren't asking, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and every monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial, card required.