Monitor Reddit keyword trends and email reports with Apify

Description

📺 Full walkthrough video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me4d4BILvHk

What it does
This workflow automatically monitors trending content on Reddit using keywords you define. It scrapes the most engaging posts, calculates an engagement score based on upvotes and comments, ranks content in a leaderboard, and delivers a professional HTML email dashboard — while storing historical data in a structured table for long-term trend tracking.

No manual research. No tab switching. Just the top-performing Reddit content in your inbox, automatically.

Who's it for
Social media managers, content creators, brand managers, marketing teams, and agencies who need to track keyword performance and trending Reddit content for competitive analysis, content inspiration, and community discovery.

How it works
The workflow runs a full scraping cycle for each keyword in your list:

Reddit Monitoring**: Searches top posts by keyword with upvotes and comment data
Engagement Scoring**: Ranks content based on upvotes and comments
Email Report**: Delivers a formatted HTML dashboard with clickable links to original posts
Data Storage**: Pushes all results into a DataTable for historical tracking and trend analysis

Requirements

Apify account (free tier works — no recurring cost)
Gmail account for report delivery
n8n instance (cloud or self-hosted)
Reddit Scraper Lite: trudax~reddit-scraper-lite

How to set up

Step 1: Configure Apify credentials
Set up Apify API authentication in n8n
Ensure access to the Reddit scraper: trudax~reddit-scraper-lite
Install the Apify community node: https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/n8n

Step 2: Add your keywords
Open the "Query social media" DataTable and add one keyword per row. The Loop Over Query node automatically runs a full Reddit scraping cycle for every keyword — no limit on the number of keywords.

Step 3: Configure search parameters

Reddit:
Search terms via searches array
Sort: top (alternatives: hot, new, relevance)
Time period: month (alternatives: hour, day, week, year, all)
Limits: maxItems 50, maxPostCount 25

Step 4: Set up email reporting
Configure Gmail OAuth2 credentials in n8n
Update the recipient email address in the Send a message node
Customize subject and styling as needed

Step 5: Schedule the workflow
Add a Schedule Trigger to run the workflow automatically — daily, weekly, or at any interval that suits your monitoring needs.

Engagement scoring methodology

Reddit
Score = (upvotes × 1) + (comments × 2)
Comments weighted higher as they indicate deeper community engagement.

Performance levels
High**: Score ≥ 10,000 — viral or highly engaging content
Medium**: Score ≥ 1,000 — solid engagement, worth monitoring
Low**: Score < 1,000 — baseline engagement

Results & dashboard

The automated email report includes:
Reddit leaderboard**: Top 10 posts ranked by engagement score
Per-post detail**: Subreddit, content preview, score, level, and direct link to original post
Historical DataTable**: One row per post with keyword, score, date — queryable over time

How to customize

Keyword targeting
Add as many keywords as needed — one row per keyword in the DataTable
Use brand names, product names, competitor terms, or niche subreddit topics
Adjust for seasonal trends or campaign periods

Scoring adjustments
Modify the Code node to:
Change metric multipliers based on your priorities
Add recency bonuses for fresher content
Filter out low-quality or spam content

Reporting enhancements
Add multiple email recipients
Export results to Google Sheets or Airtable
Set alert thresholds for high-performing content
Connect to Slack or Teams for real-time notifications

Use cases

Brand & competitive monitoring
Track brand mentions and competitor content performance on Reddit simultaneously.

Content strategy
Identify top-performing posts, discover effective subreddits, and spot emerging trends before they peak.

Community discovery
Find the most active communities in your niche and evaluate engagement based on real performance data.

Campaign tracking
Monitor keyword campaigns and measure share of voice over time.

Limitations

Subject to Apify scraper quotas (free tier: ~$5 credit/month included)
Some private or restricted content may not be accessible
Dependent on third-party scraper availability and maintenance