05: Steal this Reddit → Clay GTM Play - How I Track Buyer Intent on Reddit (for Free or Full-Auto in Clay)

TLDR - 

🔥 Built two ways to track buyer intent on Reddit:→ One costs $0 and runs in Google Sheets→ The other is fully automated inside Clay (with scraped posts + comment gold)

Either way, you’ll stop guessing and start listening.This post breaks down both systems.Steal what fits your stack.

Most GTM teams are tracking the usual suspects - LinkedIn, website traffic, CRM. But they’re completely ignoring the rawest, most unfiltered source of buyer signal on the internet:

Reddit.

People vent. Compare tools. Ask for recommendations.And they do it in plain language. No sales filters, no jargon, just pure intent.

So I’m wiring Reddit into my GTM stack using Clay, to surface buyer signals early and put them to work across content, messaging, and even warm outbound. You can plug this into Airtable, Notion, Google Sheets or wherever you track signals.

👀 Why bother?

Because most people are still writing landing pages based on their own words.Reddit is how your buyers actually talk.This isn’t about thought leadership — it’s about listening first, then building the play.

💼 Use Cases

1/ Demand Gen (say what they’re already saying)I’m using Reddit to pull:

• Real pain points = content ideas

• Rants = copy for ads and outbound

• Buyer language = messaging fuel

• “Why this sucks” = narrative starters

This is where your next carousel, blog, founder-led thread, or sales sequence should come from.

2/ Demand Capture (when they’re literally asking for help)Reddit is full of:

• Tool comparisons

• Product recs

• “Switching from {competitor} — what now?”

If that doesn’t scream buying intent, I don’t know what does.

I track these moments, tag them by category or tool, and feed them into messaging, content, and enablement.

🔍 Where I’m listening

You don’t need 100 subreddits. You just need the right ones.

Some of my go-tos:

• r/SaaS

• r/sales

• r/startups

• r/emailmarketing

• r/agency

• r/accounting

• r/legaladvice

• r/CRM

• r/EntrepreneurRideAlong

Bonus move:Google

site:reddit.com “alternative to {tool}”

You’ll find the threads that actually matter.

🛠 2 ways to build your Reddit → Signal Tracker

You don’t need scraping scripts or dev resources to start listening.You just need a system that works for your stack, whether that’s free and lo-fi, or fully automated.

Here’s how I’m running both.

Option 1: Google Sheets Tracker (Free and Dead Simple)

Start with this if you’re bootstrapped, testing a new segment, or just want to prove Reddit signal is real before automating it.

Step 1: Set up keyword alerts with F5BotIt’s free. Plug in:

• Your brand

• Competitors

• “Alternative to [tool]”

• “Switching from”

• Any category terms you care about

F5Bot will email you every time that keyword pops up in a Reddit thread.

Step 2: Log the threads in a SheetYou can do this manually or set up a Gmail → Sheets zap. Either works.

Create columns for:

• Post link

• Subreddit

• Intent type (Gen or Capture)

• Keyword match

• Buyer quote

• What play it triggers (content, enablement, product feedback)

Step 3: Review once a weekFilter by:

• Tool shoppers

• Repeat complaints

• New messaging angles

• DIY hacks and workarounds

This is your signal pipeline.And it didn’t cost you anything but a little consistency.

Option 2: Clay-powered GTM Listener (Fully Automated)

If you’re ready to scale this system and actually work from signal instead of noise... this is it.

Clay has a native Reddit integration. It tracks threads, scrapes posts, pulls in top comments, and helps you tag stuff the moment it happens.

Step 1: Build your Reddit search inside ClayTrack:

• “Switching from {X}”

• “{A} vs {B}”

• “Looking for a tool”

• Pain points your ICP rants about

Target subreddits like r/SaaS, r/sales, r/startups, and any niche verticals.Pulls in post title, full body, and comments. Gold.

In this case, I just took “lemlist” as I wanted to track brand mentions across subreddits.

Step 2: Auto-tag the postsInside Clay, I’m tagging everything by:

• Intent type (Gen or Capture)

• Mentioned tools

• Signal themes (pricing, churn, switching, missing features, product feedback)

• Comment count or upvotes

In the below Clay graph, you’ll see two flows -

1. Product Feedback

2. Post Analysis / Awareness

I’ll share the link below.

Step 3: Build views that don’t waste your timeSome of mine:

• Pricing complaints

• Comparison threads

• “Switching from [competitor]”

• Anything with 10+ comments

You’ll know what’s trending before your competitors do.

Step 4: Plug that signal into GTM

For content and messaging

• Use Reddit quotes as copy

• Build “anti-positioning” landing pages

• Reverse-engineer frustrations into campaigns

For sales and product

• Feed threads to PMM or sales enablement

• Turn tool comparisons into battlecards

• Track intent spikes to time campaigns better

You can connect this to Slack as well.

This system runs 24/7.You just decide what to do with what it gives you.

🎁 Clay Table

Here’s the Social Listening Clay table sample.

Make a copy, review prompts, tweak it, go wild!

Clay Template

That’s all folks!

I’ve been quietly exploring how to build better content engines. You’ll probably see more of that from me in the coming weeks.

If you're working on something similar or want to chat about how this could work inside your GTM, feel free to say hi on LinkedIn - here.

Until next timeWe build from signal, not vibes.

— Siya