What is Intent Scoring and Why Keyword Matching is Dead

Most Reddit marketing tools work like this: you input keywords, they alert you when those keywords appear in a post, and you go reply. Simple. Intuitive. And almost completely useless for finding actual buyers.

Keyword matching has a precision problem. When someone posts "I hate using spreadsheets for project management," your keyword-based tool finds it. But is that person ready to buy? Are they evaluating alternatives? Are they even the decision-maker? Keyword matching can't tell you any of this. Intent scoring can.

The Problem With Keywords

Imagine you sell project management software. Your keyword list includes "spreadsheet," "project tracking," and "task management." Here are the kinds of posts that would trigger alerts:

• "Just finished building a spreadsheet template for project tracking — anyone want a copy?"
• "My team refuses to stop using spreadsheets, help"
• "Best spreadsheet for task management?"
• "We switched from spreadsheets to Notion last year, AMA"

Only one of these is a live buying opportunity. Keyword matching treats all four identically. You end up replying to a person sharing a free template, a person venting about their team, and a person who already switched — wasting your daily posting limit on zero-intent threads.

Keyword matching produces mostly noise. Intent scoring surfaces only the signal.

The 5 Pain Types That Actually Predict Buying

Intent scoring works by classifying the emotional and situational context of a thread into one of five pain types. Each one maps to a different buying moment:

1. Active Tool Search

"What's the best tool for X?" or "Recommendations for Y software?" These are the highest-intent posts on Reddit. The person has already decided they need a solution — they just want to know which one. Reply rate should be close to 100% if the tool fits.

2. Competitor Frustration

The person is using a competitor and unhappy. "I've been using [Competitor] for 6 months and it keeps doing X wrong." These are highly convertible — they've already bought once, which means they'll buy again. Your reply needs to validate the frustration before pitching.

3. Switching Intent

"I'm thinking about leaving [Competitor], what should I move to?" Explicit switching intent. High buying score, moderately competitive (other vendors will also reply). Speed matters here — first relevant reply often wins.

Each pain type requires a different reply strategy — the model lets you match tone and approach to context.

4. ROI Frustration

"We've been using X for 6 months and still not seeing results." They're paying for something that isn't working. This is a softer buying signal — they haven't decided to switch yet, but they're open to being convinced. Your reply should lead with results data.

5. Workflow Pain

The person describes a problem you solve but hasn't framed it as a tool problem yet. "I spend 3 hours every week manually pulling reports." They don't know a solution exists. Lower intent, but higher reward when you nail the reply — you're educating them into a buying conversation.

How the Score Works

Every thread gets a 0–100 score based on a combination of:

• Pain type classification (switching intent scores higher than workflow pain)
• Language urgency signals ("right now," "desperately need," "ASAP")
• Thread recency (a 4-hour-old post is more valuable than a 3-day-old one)
• Comment count (high engagement = more eyes on your reply)
• Subreddit quality score (some subs convert better than others)

Only threads scoring above 70 get queued for reply. Below 50? Ignored. This keeps your daily posting budget focused on the threads that actually convert.

The Result

Founders who switch from keyword-based tools to intent scoring typically see two things happen: their reply volume drops (fewer alerts to act on) and their conversion rate jumps. You're doing less work and getting better results because you're only talking to people who actually want to buy.

That's the entire point of intent scoring. Not more leads — better ones.