Five or more helpful comments a day in small business subreddits took a business formation platform’s Reddit account from 121 average daily views to 510 in four weeks, a 4.2 times increase. Weekly views went from 684 in the first week of the test to 5,229 in the last. Referral traffic to the client’s site rose in step with views, and the client funded a larger daily program the following month (Reddit account performance report, April 11 to May 8, 2025; Quimby test readout, May 10, 2025). The account posted no more than it had before. The only variable that changed was comments.
The client is anonymized at its request pending written approval. It is a software platform that helps people form and run a small business. Every number below comes from Reddit’s own account analytics and the client’s reporting, with dates.
What did the Reddit account look like before the test?
Thin. When our community team audited the account in November 2024 it had six karma and seven posts across the previous four months. Brand sentiment across the relevant subreddits leaned neutral to negative, with two recurring themes: “you can just file with the state yourself” and complaints about fees. The client’s SEO team wanted Reddit to work as a visibility and referral channel, not as another place to publish brand content (Reddit strategy deck, November 27, 2024).
That audit set the shape of the program. On Reddit a brand account that only posts is a billboard in a room full of people talking to each other. The plan was to join the conversations that already existed, answer formation, tax and compliance questions directly, and keep the branded subreddit as a place to land rather than a place to broadcast.
How was the test structured?
A real baseline first
From December 3, 2024 to April 10, 2025 the account ran at a light cadence: a few posts a month on the branded subreddit and occasional replies elsewhere. That 18 week window produced the before number. Without it the test result would have been a guess dressed up as a chart.
Then one variable changed
From April 11 to May 8, 2025 the team committed to more than five comments a day in entrepreneur, startup and small business subreddits. Every comment answered the question in the thread. None pointed at the product. Posting on the branded subreddit stayed on its existing cadence, built around three pillars the strategy deck had set in November: formation and compliance, problem solving, and entrepreneur success. Views, followers and referral traffic were reported weekly against the baseline.
That is the whole mechanic. No paid support, no new content formats, no giveaway. Comments went from occasional to daily and everything else held still.
What happened to views, followers and referral traffic?
| Metric | Baseline, Dec 3, 2024 to Apr 10, 2025 | Test, Apr 11 to May 8, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Average daily account views | 121 | 510 |
| Total account views | 15,653 over 18 weeks | 14,287 over 4 weeks |
| Weekly views, first week vs last week of the test | 684 to 5,229 | |
| Peak single day | 3,088 (Feb 3, 2025) | 2,517 (Apr 29, 2025) |
| Followers | 4 to 21 | 28 to 30 |
| Top post during the window | 2,658 views | |
| Referral traffic to the client site | Rose in step with views (client analytics) | |
| Client decision | Expanded to daily community building, Monday to Friday |
Source: Reddit account performance reports for both windows; Quimby test readout, May 10, 2025. Views are Reddit’s account level metric, which counts views of the account’s posts and comments together.
Four weeks of commenting produced almost as many total views (14,287) as the previous eighteen weeks combined (15,653). The weekly trend is the more useful number: views climbed every week of the test, which is what you expect when comments accumulate in threads that keep getting found by search.
One row reads the wrong way at first glance. The baseline peak day (3,088 views on February 3, 2025) was higher than the test peak (2,517 on April 29). That February spike came from a single post that travelled for a day and then stopped. The test never needed a spike. It replaced one good day with a floor that rose week over week, and by the final week the account was doing in seven days what the baseline did in a good month. If you are choosing between a spike and a rising floor, take the floor every time. The floor compounds.
Followers barely moved, from 28 to 30. That is also the point. Nobody follows a brand account on Reddit, and the views did not come from followers. They came from people searching for an answer, landing in a thread, and reading the most useful reply in it.
Which posts drew the most views during the test?
Three posts on the branded subreddit cleared a thousand views in the four week window: a post on starting a side business alongside a full time job (2,658 views), one on LLC tax write offs (2,358) and one on the first steps when starting a business (1,164). None of them was new. They had been sitting on the branded subreddit for weeks. The comments elsewhere gave people a reason to click the account name, and the posts were there when they arrived (Quimby test readout, May 10, 2025).
That order matters. Posts do not pull people into a subreddit. Comments pull people to the account, and the subreddit catches them. We covered why that is in why we comment on Reddit instead of posting.
What did the client do with the result?
They expanded the program. The May 2025 readout recommended keeping the five a day floor, adding one dedicated hour of community building every weekday, and adding two more posts a month on the branded subreddit, with most of the effort staying outbound in other people’s threads. The client funded it the following month and asked for keyword priorities from their SEO team so the comments could target the questions they most wanted to rank for (Quimby test readout, May 10, 2025).
Referral traffic was reported from the client’s own analytics as rising in step with Reddit views. We did not run UTM tags on comments during the test, which is the one thing we would change. The correlation was clear enough to fund the next phase, and the next phase added tracking.
What should a brand take from this?
- Run a baseline before you run a test. Eighteen weeks of light activity gave this result a before number nobody could argue with.
- Change one variable. Comments went up. Posting, format and spend stayed flat. That is why the result is attributable.
- Count comments per day, not posts per week. Five a day was the floor, and the weekly view trend tracked it.
- Answer the question in the thread. The product never appeared in a comment during the test. The account name did the work.
- Expect followers to stay flat and views to climb. On Reddit those two numbers are not related.
- Put tracking on from day one. Correlation funded this program. Attribution would have made the case faster.
This is the first phase of every engagement on our Reddit marketing agency page: audit, baseline, a controlled commenting test, then scale what moved. For how we weigh that against running it in house, read Reddit marketing agency vs in house. For the rules we hold every comment to, see protecting your brand reputation on Reddit. For a CPG example of the same team’s organic work, see the Hiya case study.
Frequently asked questions
How many Reddit comments a day does a brand need to see results?
In this test, more than five a day in relevant subreddits moved average daily account views from 121 to 510 within four weeks. Fewer than that during the baseline produced no trend at all. Five is the floor we now use for a new program.
Did the comments mention the product?
No. Every comment answered a formation, tax or compliance question directly. The account was transparent about who it was, and the branded subreddit existed for anyone who clicked through. Pitching in the comment would have gotten the account removed from the subreddits that produced the views.
How long did it take to see Reddit referral traffic?
Referral traffic rose within the same four week window as views, per the client’s analytics, with no UTM tracking on comments. Expect views to lead and referrals to follow by a week or two as comments accumulate in threads that search engines keep surfacing.
Why did followers barely change?
Because Reddit is not a follower platform. People found the account’s comments through search and threads, read the answer, and sometimes clicked through to the subreddit. Following was never part of that path, which is why we report views and referrals and treat follower count as a footnote.
Ashley Rector is Founder and CEO of Quimby Digital, a social media and paid media agency for parenting, women’s health, CPG and consumer brands. She leads the agency’s Reddit, community and creator programs.