A guide to creating a Reddit AI customer research pipeline

What you’ll build

A Zapier automation that monitors Reddit for posts relevant to your product, uses ChatGPT to draft a helpful response, and emails you the suggested comment for manual posting. Piers Fawkes used this approach to drop his ad spend from thousands of dollars to pennies while achieving a 20% click-through rate on his responses.

Time commitment

• Quick version (this guide): 1–2 hours
• Full version (see original post): 3–4 hours (includes multiple classification paths, Airtable integration, and Perplexity enrichment)

The build (minimum viable version)

Step 1: Set up your Reddit keyword feed in Feedly — 15 minutes

Go to feedly.com/i/discover/redditFeeds and search for the keywords your target customers use. Subscribe to the feeds that return relevant posts. Start with your top 3 keywords rather than trying to cover every possible variation.

Quick version: pick one subreddit and one keyword to start. You can always add more feeds later.

You’re doing it right if: new Reddit posts matching your keyword appear in your Feedly dashboard within a few hours.

Step 2: Build the Zapier automation — 30 minutes

Create a new Zap with three steps:

1. Trigger: ​“New Item in Feed” using the RSS URL from your Feedly feed
2. Action 1: ChatGPT ​“Analyze Data” — instruct it to read the Reddit post and draft a helpful comment that references your product or expertise without being overtly promotional
3. Action 2: Email notification — send yourself the Reddit post title, link, and the AI-drafted comment

Quick version: skip the multi-path classification for now. Use a single ChatGPT prompt that handles all post types: ​“Read this Reddit post. If the person needs help that [YOUR PRODUCT] addresses, draft a brief, helpful comment. Include relevant advice and a natural mention of [YOUR PRODUCT]. If the post isn’t relevant, reply with SKIP.”

You’re doing it right if: when a new post hits your Feedly feed, you receive an email within minutes containing the original post link and a draft comment.

Step 3: Post your first manual responses — 30 minutes

Review the draft comments that come through. Edit each one so it sounds like you, not like a bot. Post the comment on the Reddit thread. Focus on being genuinely helpful first.

Quick version: commit to responding to 3 posts on your first day. You’ll get a feel for what works and can adjust the ChatGPT prompt based on what you edit most.

You’re doing it right if: your comment reads like a real person sharing useful knowledge, and at least one commenter clicks through to learn more about your product.

You’re done when…

You have a working Zap that emails you AI-drafted Reddit responses every time someone in your target subreddit posts about a topic you can help with. You’ve manually posted at least 3 responses and tracked whether anyone clicked through.

Level up later

When you’re ready to go deeper:

• Add classification paths in Zapier to handle different post types with tailored responses (quote reviews, general repairs, recommendations)
• Integrate Airtable or your product database so ChatGPT can pull specific data into its responses
• Add Perplexity as a research step for enriching responses with current pricing or market data
• Set up tracking to measure your click-through and conversion rates over time