You're a founder. Your time is your most valuable asset. So when it comes to customer discovery in 2025, where do you spend it? Here’s the short answer:
Use Reddit to find people with explicit intent—those actively asking for a solution to a problem they have right now. Use TikTok for inspiration and affinity—to understand emerging needs and tap into desires people don't even know they have yet.
One channel captures existing demand; the other creates it. Choosing the right one for your stage is critical.
The 2025 Customer Discovery Showdown
The game has changed. TikTok isn't just for viral dances; it's a legitimate search engine, especially for younger demographics. Meanwhile, Reddit's dominance as the internet's Q&A forum for brutally honest, niche conversations is stronger than ever. This makes a timely comparison essential for any founder serious about growth.
Are you hunting for your first ten paying customers who are already searching for a solution like yours? Or are you trying to understand the cultural shifts that will inspire your next feature? One platform gives you direct buying signals; the other reveals unspoken desires. For a deeper dive into the core principles here, you can review guides on mastering the customer discovery process.
To make this crystal clear, here’s a quick guide to help you decide when to prioritize Reddit vs. TikTok.
Quick Guide: TikTok vs Reddit for Customer Discovery
This table breaks down where to focus based on your specific research goal.
| Discovery Goal | Prioritize Reddit When... | Prioritize TikTok When... |
|---|---|---|
| Finding Purchase-Ready Buyers | You need users explicitly asking for "alternatives to X" or "best tool for Y." | You want to inspire users who aren't actively shopping but are open to new solutions. |
| Validating a Niche Problem | Your product solves a specific, technical, or hobby-related pain point discussed in niche subreddits. | Your product has a strong visual appeal or fits into a lifestyle or aesthetic trend. |
| Gathering Unfiltered Feedback | You need brutally honest feedback, product comparisons, and detailed user experiences. | You need to understand emerging language, aesthetics, and cultural trends in your market. |
As you can see, the platforms serve very different purposes in the customer discovery journey.
Reddit is a beast when it comes to authentic, long-form conversations. TikTok, however, is unmatched in raw user engagement and its ability to shape trends. It's not just for entertainment; 40% of Gen Z now use TikTok over Google for search. This stat alone shows its power as an engine for discovery and inspiration.
Ultimately, this isn't about which platform is "better." It's about which one is better for you, right now. Reddit gives you a direct line to people with a budget who are actively looking for a fix. TikTok offers a window into the cultural zeitgeist, helping you build a brand that connects with people before they even realize they have a problem you can solve.
Decoding Search Behaviors by Platform
To win at customer discovery, you have to understand the user's mindset on each platform. The difference between TikTok and Reddit isn't just demographics; it's the fundamental intent that brings them there. One is a library where people hunt for specific answers; the other is a dynamic gallery of inspiration.
On Reddit, a user's search is almost always explicit and problem-focused. They arrive with a specific pain point and are actively looking for a solution. Their language is direct, transactional, and packed with high-intent keywords that scream, "I'm ready to buy."
TikTok, on the other hand, is all about implicit and discovery-driven behavior. People aren't typically searching for your product by name. They're scrolling for entertainment, looking for "cool office gadgets," exploring aesthetics like "#wfhsetup," or stumbling upon "things you didn't know you needed."
Reddit: The Hunt for a Specific Solution
A smart first step in any research is to apply solid audience research methods for better insights. On Reddit, this means dissecting the anatomy of a recommendation request. These posts are gold for founders because they are direct, unfiltered, and reveal exactly what a potential customer values.
Just look at this classic example of a Redditor asking for help—you’ll see posts like this all over the platform.
Here we have a user asking a very specific, problem-oriented question. This is exactly the kind of high-intent conversation that makes Reddit so invaluable. The language is clear, the need is well-defined, and the person is actively asking the community for input.
This is precisely where we, as founders, need to be paying attention. Inside BillyBuzz, we build our alert rules to catch these exact moments. We don't just track brand mentions; we track intent. Our internal filters are set up to spot keyword combinations that signal someone is on an active buying journey:
"recommendation for" + [your category](e.g., "recommendation for project management tool")"alternative to" + [competitor name](e.g., "alternative to Asana for small teams")"how do you solve" + [pain point](e.g., "how do you solve client communication chaos?")"best software/tool/service for" + [job-to-be-done]
By setting up alerts for phrases like these in relevant communities—think r/smallbusiness, r/startups, or niche professional subreddits—you essentially create a direct pipeline to people who are just moments away from making a purchase.
TikTok: The Spark of Unspoken Need
TikTok operates on a completely different psychological wavelength. The real magic here is spotting a user who doesn't even know they have a problem until your content shows them a better way. A Reddit user is actively looking for software to replace their clunky spreadsheet. A TikTok user is just scrolling their feed and sees a "day in the life" video that makes them suddenly realize their own workflow is a total mess.
TikTok creates the demand; Reddit captures it. Your strategy must recognize this fundamental divide. One is about inspiring a new need, while the other is about fulfilling an existing one.
This distinction is absolutely crucial for how you build your engagement strategy. On TikTok, you listen for trends, language, and aesthetics to inform your marketing. On Reddit, you listen for direct questions to engage with potential customers.
It’s a powerful dynamic, and given the rise of AI-powered search, the discussions happening on Reddit are shaping wider market perceptions more than ever.
Funnel Fit and Response Playbooks
Pitting TikTok against Reddit is the wrong frame. They aren't competitors; they are complementary tools for different stages of your funnel. One captures existing demand, and the other creates it.
Your choice depends entirely on a simple question: Do you need leads right now, or are you building a brand for the long haul?
Reddit is a goldmine for Middle-of-Funnel (MOFU) and Bottom-of-Funnel (BOFU) discovery. People here are already deep into their buying journey. They know they have a problem, they're actively comparing options, and they're asking for real-world reviews. They are often one solid recommendation away from a purchase.
Jumping into these conversations means you're intercepting high-intent buyers at the most critical moment.
TikTok, on the other hand, lives almost exclusively at the Top-of-Funnel (TOFU). It's brilliant for generating awareness and sparking desire for products people didn't even know they needed. Your goal isn't to close a sale on the spot but to plant a seed of interest. You're building an audience around a specific problem, lifestyle, or aspiration.
Reddit for High-Intent, Solution-Aware Buyers
When someone posts on Reddit asking, "What's a good alternative to [Your Competitor]?", they are raising their hand and announcing they're a sales-qualified lead. They have a budget, a clear problem, and they're ready to make a move. These are the conversations that convert.
At BillyBuzz, our entire Reddit playbook is built around this reality. We prioritize being genuinely helpful above all else. We even have a framework for our responses designed to disarm the natural skepticism Redditors have toward any kind of self-promotion.
Here’s the internal response template we use:
- Acknowledge and Validate: Start by showing you get their pain. "I've been there, dealing with [problem] is incredibly frustrating."
- Offer a Non-Product Solution: Give them a piece of real advice that helps them, whether they use your tool or not. This builds instant credibility.
- Introduce Your Product with Disclosure: Only after you’ve provided value do you mention your solution. "Full disclosure, I'm the founder of BillyBuzz, which we built to solve this exact issue..."
- Focus on a Specific Feature: Connect one specific feature directly to their pain point. "For what you're trying to do, our keyword alert rules would probably be the most helpful part."
This value-first approach transforms a sales pitch into a helpful recommendation from a peer. It respects the community and, most importantly, it works.
TikTok for Aspirational, Problem-Unaware Audiences
On TikTok, you aren't responding to direct questions. You are creating the "aha!" moment. Success here comes from understanding the emotional drivers and cultural trends that signal a hidden need. You’re not searching for keywords; you're looking for aesthetics, pain points disguised as humor, and "day-in-the-life" videos that accidentally reveal a broken workflow.
On Reddit, you find the person actively searching for a better mousetrap. On TikTok, you show someone a video that makes them realize they have a mouse problem in the first place.
This gives you a clear mental model. If you need to hit sales numbers this quarter, focus on Reddit. The high-intent moments happening there are too valuable to ignore. Plus, these conversations have a powerful long-term benefit, as AI search engines pull from Reddit threads. You can learn more about how Reddit conversations get you cited by ChatGPT and Claude, turning helpful answers into an SEO asset.
If you're playing the long game—building a category-defining brand—invest time in understanding TikTok's trends. It's the ultimate channel for top-of-funnel research.
Example: Same Product, Different Tactics
Theory is great, but let's get into the exact playbook we use inside BillyBuzz to turn conversations into customers. The approaches for Reddit and TikTok couldn't be more different. One is direct, helpful engagement; the other is strategic listening.
You have to wear two different hats. On Reddit, you're an active participant solving a problem. On TikTok, you're an anthropologist, observing culture to inform your next move.
This dual approach lets you capture immediate, high-intent moments on Reddit while gathering the qualitative gold from TikTok that shapes your long-term brand strategy.
The Reddit Playbook: Capturing High-Intent Moments
Our Reddit strategy boils down to one rule: be the most helpful person in the thread. We don't sell; we solve. This is a systematic process for finding the right conversations and showing up authentically.
Here’s the three-step process we run internally at BillyBuzz:
Identify High-Value Subreddits We go where our potential customers hang out. For us, that means communities where founders and marketers are deep in growth challenges. Our primary targets are:
r/startupsr/smallbusinessr/SaaSr/marketing
Set Up Surgical Alert Rules This is where the magic happens. Using our own tool, we create specific alerts to sniff out buying signals. Here are a few of our most effective internal alert rules:
"[competitor] alternative""best tool for [job-to-be-done]"(e.g., "best tool for social listening")"software recommendation""how do you track [pain point]"(e.g., "how do you track Reddit mentions")
Execute the Value-First Response Once an alert hits, we follow a strict response framework. Redditors have a finely tuned radar for sales pitches. We've written a complete guide on this at https://www.billybuzz.com/blog/how-to-get-customers-from-reddit-in-2025, but here's the quick version of our response template:
The Value-First, Product-Second Model Acknowledge: "That's a tough problem. Finding the right software can be a huge time sink." Offer Genuine Insight: Give them a useful tip or framework that works with any tool. Introduce with Disclosure: "Full disclosure, I'm one of the founders of BillyBuzz, and we built it to solve this exact issue..." Connect to Their Pain: "...The part you might find most useful is our AI relevancy scoring, which filters out all the noise so you only see high-intent conversations."
This method respects the community, delivers immediate value, and naturally positions our product as the logical next step.
The TikTok Playbook: Strategic Listening for Trends
With TikTok, we flip the script. We almost never respond directly. Instead, we treat the platform as our primary source for qualitative research and trend-spotting. It’s all about strategic listening, not active engagement.
Think of the feed as a massive, real-time focus group. It gives you raw, unfiltered insights into the language, visuals, and pain points resonating right now with your target audience.
Our goal is to translate these observations into marketing gold. We keep a close eye on hashtags related to our audience's struggles and aspirations, like #founderlife, #startupgrind, and #solopreneur.
We're constantly looking for patterns in:
- Language and Slang: How are founders actually talking about their struggles? What words are they using?
- Visual Styles: What video formats and aesthetics are grabbing attention?
- Emerging Problems: What new challenges are creators venting about in their "day in the life" videos?
These observations don't become a comment on a video. They become the inspiration for our content on other channels, our ad creative, and even our product roadmap. If you want to go deeper, having a solid TikTok content strategy that actually converts is a non-negotiable part of a modern founder's playbook.
Reddit is for direct action; TikTok is for indirect inspiration. Both are critical for customer discovery in 2025, but they demand completely different playbooks.
Real World Example: Selling a Productivity App in 2025
Let's make this tangible. Imagine you've launched a new productivity app for solo founders. You need to find out who these people are, what they're struggling with, and if your app is the answer.
On Reddit, you're going in with a scalpel. On TikTok, you're joining a cultural movement.
The numbers are clear: while TikTok gets more eyeballs, Reddit is where a higher percentage of users are flat-out asking for recommendations. This means on Reddit, you need to be ready to jump into a conversation with a direct, helpful answer.
The Reddit Strategy: The High-Intent Hunt
Your first move on Reddit is to find the right digital watering holes where your ideal customers are actively complaining about their current tools.
For our productivity app, the gold mines would be subreddits like:
- r/productivity: The obvious starting point.
- r/ADHD: A fantastic niche where users are constantly searching for tools to help with focus and organization.
- r/solopreneur & r/freelance: These are your people, discussing the real-world problems of running a one-person show.
Next, you'd use a tool like BillyBuzz to set up alerts for buying signals like, "My Trello board is a disaster, what's a better option for a solo founder?" or "I need a simple project manager that isn't as bloated as Asana."
When you get a hit, you lead with value. You empathize, offer a quick tip, and then you introduce your app with total transparency. This builds trust and shows you're an expert, not just another marketer.
Reddit is about solving a stated problem. Someone has already raised their hand and told you exactly what hurts. Your job is to show up with a specific, thoughtful solution.
This is how you get immediate, unfiltered feedback and possibly your very first paying customers.
The TikTok Strategy: The Inspirational Play
Over on TikTok, the game is completely different. You're not searching for direct questions to answer. Instead, you're playing cultural anthropologist, trying to understand the vibe behind the productivity trend. The goal is to listen, observe, and then create content that resonates.
You’d dive deep into hashtags like #productivitytok, #studytok, and #wfhsetup. You're not there to drop comments; you're there to analyze what's working.
Your research would focus on questions like:
- What kind of "day in the life" videos are blowing up?
- Which desk setups and organizational hacks are trending?
- What's the underlying emotion? Is it about feeling calm, in control, or just having an aesthetically pleasing workspace?
You use these insights to craft your own TikToks. You could create a satisfying time-lapse of a project being organized in your app, or a quick "before and after" showing a chaotic workflow transformed into something clean and simple.
Here, the value is shown, not told. You're showing how your app fits into the organized, aspirational life everyone is watching. This builds brand love and creates demand from an audience that didn't know they were looking for you.
Strategy Comparison: Selling a Productivity App
This side-by-side tactical breakdown hammers home the difference.
| Tactic | Reddit Approach (High-Intent) | TikTok Approach (Inspiration-Driven) |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Research | Identify subreddits where users complain about existing tools (e.g., r/saas, r/solopreneur). | Analyze trending video formats and aesthetics under relevant hashtags (e.g., #productivitytok, #desktour). |
| Content Goal | Answer a user's specific question with a direct, valuable, and transparent solution. | Create visually satisfying content that shows the app in an aspirational context (e.g., a "clean with me" for your digital workspace). |
| Key Metric | Number of qualified conversations and direct user feedback. | Video views, shares, and brand-related hashtag usage. |
| Call to Action | "I built [App Name] to solve this. It might help you too." (with transparency). | Implicit CTA; the video's aesthetic and function create the desire. The link is in the bio. |
| Time to Results | Potentially immediate. A single comment can lead to a new user within hours. | Slower burn. You're building brand awareness and affinity over weeks or months. |
Both platforms can work wonders for customer discovery, but they require fundamentally different mindsets. One is a conversation to be joined; the other is a culture to contribute to.
So, Which Platform Should You Choose?
The decision comes down to one question: Are you hunting for people who are already looking for a solution, or are you trying to create a new wave of demand?
One path leads you straight to people ready to buy. The other gives you a peek into what the market will want next. Be honest about your product, your ideal customer, and your most pressing business goals.
Go with Reddit if You Need Customers Now
If your main goal is to land your next ten customers this month, put your energy into Reddit. No other platform comes close to delivering high-intent leads who are actively searching for answers.
Reddit is your best bet if:
- You solve a painful, well-known problem. Your product is the answer for someone asking, "Is there a better way to do X?"
- You already have clear competitors. This gives you a built-in list of keywords and conversations to monitor.
- Your ideal customer is in a professional or hobbyist niche. Reddit's structure is built for these deep communities.
- You're focused on immediate results. You need high-intent prospects and direct feedback from people in the market for a solution.
Go with TikTok if You're Building a Brand for Tomorrow
TikTok is the place to be if your product is about sparking inspiration or carving out a new category. By 2025, TikTok has become a giant for discovery, and its influence on commerce is undeniable. For more on that, you can dive deeper into TikTok’s influence on modern commerce on thunderbit.com.
You should lean into TikTok when:
- Your product is visual. Success on TikTok is about showing, not telling.
- You're creating something new or solving a problem people don't know they have. Your job is to make someone stop scrolling and think, "Wow, I didn't realize I needed that."
- Your audience is primarily Gen Z or Millennial. This is where they live and discover.
- You're playing the long game. If your focus is on building a brand, spotting trends, and cultivating an audience over time, TikTok is your platform.
At the end of the day, choosing between TikTok and Reddit for research is a choice between immediacy and inspiration. Reddit gets you the customers you need today. TikTok helps you build the brand they’ll be obsessed with tomorrow.
While TikTok is great for broad discovery, Reddit is where your next ten customers are literally asking for a product like yours. Use BillyBuzz to catch Reddit’s high-intent moments first. Find out more at https://www.billybuzz.com.