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The Reddit
Ad-Angles Skill

The best ad copy is not written. It is taken from how customers already describe their problem. This skill mines Reddit for the real pain points, the exact phrases people use, and 8 to 10 ad angles you can test before you spend a dollar.

The best ad copy I write, I don't actually write. I take it. Word for word, from how customers already describe their problem, and the biggest unfiltered focus group on the internet is Reddit.

I spent years at Meta watching how the best brands advertise, and the pattern never changed: the winning ad rarely sounded clever. It sounded like the customer talking to a friend. People do not respond to your positioning. They respond to their own words handed back to them. Then I left, built two 8-figure businesses, and the habit stuck. Before I spend a single dollar on ads, I go read what real people are saying.

Reddit is where people say what they actually think. No brand watching, no filter, no polite survey answers. This skill reads those conversations for you, pulls out the problems, desires, and objections people keep repeating, and turns them into ad angles you can actually test. Copy it, download it, or paste the quick version below. Then reuse it every time you launch something new.

What This Skill Does

You give it three things: your product, your customer, and the Reddit communities where those customers spend time. It does the rest, and it hands you a working document, not a vague summary.

It runs in Claude or ChatGPT's Codex, you save it once, and you re-run it for every launch. This is how I would research ads before touching an ad account.

The Skill (Copy Or Download)

Here is the full skill. Copy it, or download it as a ready-to-use file, then fill in the brackets with your product, your customer, and 2 to 4 subreddits. Save it once and it triggers itself every time you research a launch.

Reddit Ad Angles Skill (SKILL.md)
--- name: reddit-ad-angles description: Mine Reddit for the exact language real customers use, then turn it into ranked pain points, a swipe file, and testable ad angles. Use whenever I am researching ads or messaging for a product launch. --- # Reddit Ad Angles ## What I give you - Product or offer: [what I sell, in one or two sentences] - Target customer: [who they are and what they are trying to do] - Subreddits: [2 to 4 communities where these customers actually hang out, e.g. r/SkincareAddiction, r/30PlusSkinCare] - Optional: [competitor names, price point, or an angle I already suspect] ## How to research 1. For each subreddit, find the most active RECENT threads on the topic. Sort by top or hot within the last few months and favor threads with high comment counts, because that is where the real language lives. 2. Read the top comments on each thread, not just the original post. Aim for at least 100 to 200 comments total across all threads. 3. Capture phrases VERBATIM. Do not paraphrase. The exact wording is the whole point. 4. Track how often a pain, desire, or objection repeats. Frequency is the ranking signal. ## What to output, in this order ### 1. Ranked pain points The top 6 to 8 problems people describe, most common first. For each: one line in plain language, plus a rough sense of how often it came up. ### 2. Ranked desires The top 5 to 6 outcomes people say they want. Same format. ### 3. Ranked objections The top 5 to 6 reasons people hesitate, doubt a solution, or say one failed them. ### 4. Swipe file (15 to 20 verbatim phrases) Exact quotes in the customer's own words, copied word for word, typos and all. These are the phrases I will paste straight into ad copy. ### 5. Testable ad angles (8 to 10) For each angle give me: - Hook line: a scroll-stopping opener written in the customer's own language, short enough to be a hook. - Rooted in: the real pain point or desire it maps to. - Source: the actual quote or thread it came from, so I can verify it. ## Rules - Use real comments only. Never invent a quote, a statistic, or a customer. - If a subreddit is too quiet, say so and suggest a better one. - Prefer the plainest, most specific customer wording over anything clever. - Cite the thread or quote for every angle so I can check it myself.

Do not want to install anything? Paste this shorter version straight into a chat and fill in the brackets. Same job, no setup.

Quick Prompt (paste and go)
You are my ad research assistant. I sell [PRODUCT] to [TARGET CUSTOMER]. Search these subreddits: [SUBREDDIT 1], [SUBREDDIT 2], [SUBREDDIT 3]. Find the most active recent threads on the topic, read the top comments, and capture the exact words people use. Then give me: 1. The top 6 to 8 pain points, ranked by how often they come up. 2. The top 5 desires and the top 5 objections. 3. A swipe file of 15 to 20 verbatim customer quotes, copied word for word. 4. 8 to 10 testable ad angles. For each: a hook line in the customer's own language, the pain or desire it maps to, and the real quote it came from. Use real comments only. Never invent a quote or a stat. Cite the thread for every angle.

Why This Beats Clever Copy

A brainstormed hook is a guess about how your customer thinks. A hook lifted from a real comment is a quote from someone who already has the problem. One of those has a track record before it ever runs. Always start from the second.

Set It Up In Claude Or Codex

You have two ways to give the skill access to Reddit. The first needs zero setup. The second gives you deeper pulls if you want them.

  1. Open Claude or ChatGPT's Codex, on a version that can browse the web.
  2. Web-browsing route (easiest). Paste the skill, fill in your product, customer, and subreddits, and let the AI read Reddit's public pages directly. No keys, no config. This is enough for most launches.
  3. Reddit API route (deeper pulls). Create a free app at reddit.com/prefs/apps, choose the "script" type, and you get a free client ID and secret. Hand those to the AI so it can pull more threads and comments than browsing alone reaches. The official docs live at the Reddit API reference.
  4. Save it as a reusable skill. In claude.ai you add it under Settings as a Skill, and in Claude Code it is a folder in your skills directory. In Codex, save it as a reusable file you re-open each launch.
  5. Reuse it forever. Every new product, swap the three inputs and run it again. You build the muscle once and keep it.

Pick The Right Rooms

Two to four subreddits where your customer actually posts beats ten random ones. If you sell a sleep supplement, that is where people talk about waking up at 3am, not a generic wellness feed. Better rooms, better language, better angles.

How To Run It

Fill in three inputs and let it work. Here is a worked example so you can see the shape of a good setup.

From there the skill searches the most active recent threads, reads the top comments, and comes back in a few minutes with the ranked lists, the swipe file, and the angles. If a subreddit turns out to be too quiet, it will tell you and suggest a livelier one instead of padding the results.

The more specific your product line and customer are, the sharper the angles. "A supplement for tired people" gives you mush. "For the person who wakes up at 3am with a racing mind" gives you a hook.

What You Get Back

Three things you can put to work the same day.

Output 01

Ranked Pain Points, Desires, And Objections

The problems people keep raising, the outcomes they say they want, and the reasons they hesitate, each list sorted by how often it showed up. This tells you what to lead with and what to answer before someone scrolls past.

Output 02

The Swipe File

15 to 20 exact phrases, copied word for word, typos and all. This is your raw material. Headlines, subject lines, landing-page bullets, and hooks all come out of this list. You are not writing copy from scratch, you are choosing from what already works.

Output 03

8 To 10 Testable Ad Angles

Each angle is a hook line in the customer's own words, the pain or desire it maps to, and the real quote it came from. For example: hook, "I stopped waking up at 3am and I changed nothing except this." Rooted in the top pain, waking mid-night and not falling back asleep. Source, a top comment in r/insomnia describing exactly that. Every angle is traceable, so nothing is a guess.

Turn The Angles Into Ads

You have the angles. Here is how I turn them into ads that get tested instead of sitting in a doc.

  1. Use the exact words. Do not polish them. The typo and the plain phrasing are why it sounds real. The moment it sounds like marketing, it stops working.
  2. One angle per ad. Test them against each other, do not blend three into one. You want to know which pain point actually pulls.
  3. Lead with the pain, not your product name. People stop scrolling for their own problem, not for your brand. Name it in the first line.
  4. Keep the swipe file open. Reuse those phrases in headlines, email subject lines, and landing-page bullets, not just the ad hook.
  5. Kill the losers fast, scale the winner. Real customer language raises your odds, but the market still votes. Let the test decide, then put your money behind what wins.

Run the skill, pull the angles, test the top three or four, and you have a launch built on how your customer actually talks. That is the whole edge, and it costs you nothing but the reading the AI does for you.