Reddit Lead Generation Scraper

Reddit Lead Generation Scraper — Find Buyers Asking for Recommendations on Reddit

Reddit is full of people publicly asking for product recommendations, announcing they're switching tools, and looking for exactly what you sell. This actor finds them.

Search Reddit for buying intent phrases across all subreddits or specific communities. Each result is a post or comment whose own text holds your buying phrase (its important words close together, so "recommend a CRM" keeps "can anyone recommend a good CRM?"), ranked by buzz score so the hottest, most-engaged threads surface first. Not every match is a buyer — a career question or a comment that uses the words another way can match too — so read matchedKeywords and the text, and tighten Match if you want fewer, stricter rows.

Real rows, run on 2026-10-30 (default match, example input): "CRM recommendations for a small Travel Agency?" (r/CRM, 21 upvotes, 53 comments, phrase recommend a CRM), "Is there a HubSpot alternative that makes marketing automation simple?" (r/CRMSoftware, alternative to HubSpot), "Which CRM do you recommend" (r/CRM, 133 comments). That run kept 63 rows for $0.0498 at the Starter price ($0.79 per 1,000 rows); some of its rows are not buyers, see Output.

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What Is Reddit Lead Generation Scraper?

Reddit Lead Generation Scraper searches Reddit for threads and comments containing high-intent phrases — the language people use when they're in active buying mode. Phrases like "recommend a CRM", "switching from Salesforce", "anyone use X for Y", or "looking for a tool that does Z".

Unlike generic Reddit scrapers that return raw posts, this actor is built for sales and marketing workflows. Defaults are tuned for lead generation: comments are searched alongside posts (most buying intent lives in comment threads), results are sorted newest-first to surface fresh leads before competitors, and the minimum score is set to zero so brand-new posts with no upvotes yet are captured.

Every result is ranked by buzz score — a composite metric that weights engagement relative to post age. A thread posted an hour ago with 10 upvotes scores higher than a month-old thread with 500, because the fresh one is the lead you can actually act on.

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Key Features

• Intent phrase search — search for the exact language buyers use: recommendations, comparisons, switching signals, pain point descriptions
• Comments + posts — buying intent is often buried in comment threads, not just top-level posts. Both are searched by default
• Who wrote it, on every comment — each comment found is read from its own page: its author and author id, and its thread's upvotes, comment count and poster
• Strict match by default — only posts and comments whose own text holds the phrase's important words close together are delivered. Switch Match to every word or the exact phrase for stricter rows, or to Reddit's broad match to explore a topic. Rows that don't match aren't delivered, so they aren't charged
• Sentiment on every row, free — a positive / negative / neutral label and score for each post and comment (the same score as Reddit Sentiment Tracker)
• Newest-first by default — find leads before competitors. Sort by new to catch fresh threads as they're posted
• Buzz score ranking — results ranked by engagement velocity, not raw upvotes. Fresh high-engagement threads always surface first
• Subreddit targeting — restrict to specific communities (r/entrepreneur, r/sales, r/smallbusiness) for vertical-specific lead gen
• Zero minimum score — catches brand-new posts that haven't accumulated votes yet. The freshest leads are often unscored
• Multi-phrase search — run dozens of intent phrases in one pass, all searched at the same time. Each is tracked independently with its own summary
• Per-phrase summary, free — every phrase gets a summary (total results, top subreddits, top post, buzz breakdown) in the run's SUMMARY record. You only pay for mention rows
• Monitor mode — schedule recurring runs and track which intent threads are still gaining traction between sessions
• No browser, no residential proxy needed — reads Reddit's own JSON and search endpoints over Apify's datacenter proxy, so runs are fast and cheap on every plan

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Who Uses This?

B2B SaaS Sales Teams & SDRs

Reddit surfaces buyers in active evaluation mode that no CRM or intent tool catches. Search for phrases like "switching from [competitor]", "recommend a [category]", or "best [tool] for [use case]" and find people who are literally asking for your product right now. Export results and add them to your outreach sequence.

Growth Hackers & Demand Gen Marketers

Reddit buying intent discussions are warm leads hiding in plain sight. Someone asking "what's the best email marketing tool for e-commerce" in r/shopify is a qualified prospect. Find them, engage authentically, and convert before anyone else does.

Recruiting & Staffing Agencies

Search for phrases like "looking for a developer", "hiring a freelancer", "need a designer for" to find companies actively looking to hire. Reddit is full of founders and small business owners posting hiring needs in communities like r/entrepreneur, r/startups, and r/forhire.

Digital Marketing Agencies & Consultants

Find businesses publicly struggling with the exact problems you solve. Search for pain point phrases ("Facebook ads not converting", "need help with SEO", "struggling with email open rates") in relevant subreddits to identify prospects who are pre-sold on the need — they just need to find you.

E-commerce & DTC Brands

Monitor product category subreddits for people asking for recommendations in your niche. Someone posting "looking for a good quality X under $Y" in r/BuyItForLife or a product-specific community is a buyer with their wallet open.

Investor & Market Researchers

Track which product categories people are actively seeking solutions for. Consistent volume of recommendation requests in a niche signals unsatisfied demand and real market opportunity.

Competitor Intelligence Teams

Search for your competitor's name combined with switching signals — "leaving [competitor]", "switching from [competitor]", "alternatives to [competitor]" — to find dissatisfied customers actively looking for something better.

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Output — What You Get

Real rows from a run on 2026-10-30 (build 2.0.24, the default Match: words close together; 4 phrases, sorted by relevance, past month, 12 per phrase and type). These are the rows from that run that ask for or compare a CRM, with their rank in the run:

rank	type	buzzScore	subreddit	score	numComments	matchedKeywords	title
1	post	4.7	smallbusiness	20	75	looking for a CRM	crm for a small business, 40 clients and a spreadsheet that keeps break…
2	post	3.3	CRM	21	53	recommend a CRM	CRM recommendations for a small Travel Agency?
4	post	2.4	CRM	19	133	recommend a CRM, looking for a CRM	Which CRM do you recommend
5	post	2.3	CRMSoftware	9	20	alternative to HubSpot	Is there a HubSpot alternative that makes marketing automation simple?
9	post	1.4	CRMSoftware	4	55	looking for a CRM	I need a med spa CRM that follows up with leads while I'm busy with cli…
14	post	0.8	CRMSoftware	17	42	alternative to HubSpot	HubSpot alternatives for small business that don't charge extra for eve…
20	post	0.5	LawFirmMarketing	4	43	recommend a CRM	CRM Recommendations

What that run cost: it kept 63 rows under a $0.05 spending limit, $0.0498 at the Starter price ($0.79 per 1,000 rows). The run also held rows that are not buyers (career questions about Salesforce, comments that use "CRM" or "recommend" in another sense): the match is about the words, not the intent, so skim the text, or use Exact phrase for the tightest set.

Mention rows

The Output tab has two tables: Leads (rank, type, author, sentiment, phrase, title, thread, text, subreddit, upvotes, buzz score, date and links) and Mentions, the table of earlier versions, whose 13 keys are:

Field	Description
rank	Position in results (1 = highest buzz score)
buzzScore	(upvotes + 2 × comments) / age in hours^0.8 (age at least 1 hour), one decimal
scoreDelta	Upvote change since last run (monitor mode only)
type	post or comment
matchedKeywords	Which intent phrase(s) triggered this result
title	Post title
body	Comment text, or a text post's own text
subreddit	Which subreddit this came from
score	Raw upvote count
numComments	Total replies on the post
postAgeHours	How old the post is in hours
postUrl	Link to the original post
commentUrl	Direct link to the comment (for comment results)

Every key, in row order:

• Posts: rank, type, matchedKeywords, buzzScore, title, postUrl, externalUrl, subreddit, author, score, upvoteRatio, numComments, postAgeHours, createdAt, flair, domain, isVideo, isSelf, thumbnail, scoreDelta, then id, body, bodySnippet, postType, over18, imageUrls, videoUrl, engagementTotal, commentToScoreRatio, subredditSubscribers, authorFlairText, isOriginalContent, spoiler, locked, stickied, distinguished, numCrossposts, edited, shortUrl, sentimentScore, sentimentLabel, scrapedAt.
• Comments: rank, type, matchedKeywords, buzzScore, body, postTitle, postUrl, commentUrl, subreddit, author, score, postAgeHours, createdAt, scoreDelta, then id, bodySnippet, parentId, parentKind, postId, postCreatedAt, over18, isSubmitter, authorFlairText, edited, distinguished, stickied, controversiality, permalinkUrl, authorId, postUpVotes, postCommentsCount, postAuthor, sentimentScore, sentimentLabel, scrapedAt.

The keys up to scoreDelta are the same, in the same order and with the same values, as in earlier versions, so saved integrations keep working. A value Reddit doesn't give is null.

• Comments' authors. Reddit's comment search no longer shows who wrote a comment, so each comment found is read from its own page (about 20 KB, several at a time while the next search page loads). That fills author, authorId, isSubmitter, edited, stickied and the thread's postUpVotes, postCommentsCount and postAuthor. If Reddit doesn't answer a comment's page, that comment keeps the search page's fields (no author) and the status line says how many.
• Sentiment. sentimentScore is the AFINN-165 word score of the text per word (a post's title and text, a comment's body), nudged by a post's upvote ratio (+ (ratio − 0.75)), two decimals; sentimentLabel is positive above 0.05, negative below −0.05, else neutral. It's computed in the run (no AI service, no extra cost) and matches Reddit Sentiment Tracker's score for the same text.

Per-phrase summary (free)

One summary per phrase, saved in the SUMMARY record of the run's key-value store (the "Per-phrase summary" link on the Output tab), not as dataset rows, so you aren't charged for it. Turn on Add summary rows to the dataset to also get them as rows, free, in the run's own summary dataset. Its table link is in the run's OUTPUT record (the "Run summary" link on the Output tab): summaryDataset.itemsUrl for the rows, summaryDataset.consoleUrl to open it in Apify Console. The "Per-phrase summary" link on the Output tab is the same summary as one JSON record.

Field	Description
keyword	The intent phrase
mentionsDelta	Change in total results vs. last run
avgBuzzDelta	Change in average buzz score vs. last run
totalMentions	Total results found for this phrase
postCount / commentCount	Breakdown by type
topSubreddits	Top 5 communities where this phrase appears
topPostTitle	Highest buzz result for this phrase
topPostUrl	Link to the top result

The run's OUTPUT record says how each search went (pages read, results found, filtered, not matching the phrase and kept), and commentRecordsRead how many comments were filled from their own page ("48 of 48").

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Pricing

Pay per result: $0.79 per 1,000 mention rows on Starter ($0.89 Free, $0.69 Scale, $0.59 Business), no start fee. The per-phrase summary in the SUMMARY record is free. Set a spending limit on the run and the actor stops there, keeping its top-ranked rows.

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Getting Started

1. Add your intent phrases — Enter the buying language your target customers use. What would someone type on Reddit when they're looking for your product? Add one phrase per line.

2. Set your time window — "Past week" catches recent intent without missing slower-moving buying cycles. If running daily, use "Past 24 hours".

3. Choose your subreddits — Leave empty to search all of Reddit, or restrict to specific communities for targeted results.

4. Run — Results appear in the Mentions tab ranked by buzz score. The top results are the freshest, most-engaged buying discussions.

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Default	Description
keywords	—	Buying intent phrases to search (required)
sortBy	new	Sort order: new, relevance, top, hot, comments
timeFilter	week	Time window: hour, day, week, month, year, all
searchPosts	true	Search top-level posts
searchComments	true	Search comments (recommended)
subredditFilter	[]	Restrict to specific subreddits (optional)
maxResultsPerKeyword	50	Max posts, and max comments, per phrase (up to 1,000)
minScore	0	Minimum upvote score (0 = catch brand-new posts)
matchMode	near	near: the phrase's important words close together (default); all: the text holds every word of the phrase; phrase: the exact phrase; any: whatever Reddit's search finds (broad, to explore a topic). Results that don't match are free
trackChanges	false	Enable monitor mode for delta tracking
includeSummaryRows	false	Also add the per-phrase summaries as rows to the run's summary dataset (free)
proxyConfiguration	Datacenter	Proxy settings. A residential pick is kept for retries only

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Intent Phrase Examples by Use Case

B2B SaaS / CRM recommend a CRM, switching from Salesforce, HubSpot alternatives, best CRM for small business, looking for a sales tool

Marketing tools best email marketing software, recommend an email tool, switching from Mailchimp, looking for a marketing automation tool

Development / Tech recommend a hosting provider, best VPS for, switching from AWS, looking for a developer tool

E-commerce best Shopify app for, recommend a shipping solution, looking for a print on demand, switching from Etsy

Agencies / Services looking for an agency, need help with Facebook ads, recommend a freelancer, hiring a developer

Competitive displacement [competitor name] alternative, leaving [competitor name], frustrated with [competitor name]

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Monitor Mode — Track Fresh Intent Over Time

Enable Track Changes Between Runs and schedule the actor weekly or daily. Each run records a snapshot. The next run adds a scoreDelta field showing how many upvotes each thread gained since last check — rising upvotes on an intent thread means the conversation is still active.

Practical workflow: Run on a Monday schedule targeting the past week. Export results to Google Sheets or a CRM via Apify integrations. Each week's run shows net-new threads (mentionsDelta) alongside still-active older ones.

Snapshots saved by earlier versions carry over.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from a generic Reddit scraper? Defaults are tuned for lead generation: comments searched alongside posts, sorted newest-first, minimum score at zero, buzz scoring surfaces the freshest high-engagement threads. A generic scraper dumps raw results. This one is set up for your sales workflow out of the box.

Can I search multiple phrases at once? Yes — add as many as you want. Each is searched independently and gets its own summary in the SUMMARY record. All results are combined and ranked together by buzz score.

Why do some results not contain my exact phrase? Reddit's search also matches word stems, single words and other fields. The default Match (Words close together) keeps only rows whose own text holds the phrase's important words within about a sentence of each other; the others aren't delivered and aren't charged. Set it to Every word of the phrase or Exact phrase to be stricter, or to Reddit's match (broad) to get everything Reddit's search finds.

What subreddits work best for lead gen? Depends on your market. B2B: r/entrepreneur, r/startups, r/smallbusiness, r/sales, r/marketing. E-commerce: r/shopify, r/Etsy, r/dropshipping. Tech: r/webdev, r/sysadmin, r/devops. Leave the filter empty to cast the widest net.

How do I act on the leads? Reddit is a community — hard pitching gets downvoted. The best approach is authentic engagement: answer the question helpfully, mention your product as one option, and be transparent about your affiliation. Alternatively, use the threads for prospect research and reach out off-platform.

Can I connect this to my CRM? Yes — Apify integrates natively with Zapier, Make, Google Sheets, and hundreds of other tools. Set up a Zap that imports new results into your CRM after each run.

Can I schedule it to run automatically? Yes. Use Apify's built-in scheduler. Combined with monitor mode, you get a continuous stream of fresh buying intent delivered on schedule.

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Related Actors

• Reddit Scraper — full posts, comment threads, users and communities from any Reddit link or search.
• Subreddit Finder and Subreddit Trend Finder — find the communities worth watching, and what is rising in them
• Reddit Comments Scraper — paste a result's post link for the whole thread, every comment and reply
• Reddit Search Scraper — plain keyword search over posts and comments

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Built for sales teams, SDRs, growth marketers, and agencies who know Reddit is full of warm leads — and want a systematic way to find them.