From negative ranking to trusted brand — a CS2 platform's Reddit reputation recovery
A targeted Reddit strategy displaced a damaging top Google result, secured positive AI-generated answers for branded queries, and populated search results with neutral community discussions — all within a controlled campaign window.
AI systems citing
positive Reddit threads
Unique Reddit
accounts deployed
Comments in
longest thread
Total campaign
budget
About the Project
The client is a CS2-focused case-opening platform with a strong existing user base and active gaming community presence. The brand’s reputation was being undermined by an outdated negative Reddit thread ranking prominently on Google for an important branded query.
The goal was to improve brand perception in AI search results and push the negative thread out of Google’s top positions through authentic community-driven discussions and positive trust signals.
What We Set Out to Achieve
Scope & Investment
A major challenge of the campaign was the client operating in the gambling niche, where Reddit moderation is much stricter and branded content is frequently removed. Since the client had no owned Reddit communities, we initially tested around 15 posts across different relevant subreddits to identify communities where discussions could survive moderation. After finding the right placements, we published 4 optimized Reddit threads targeting the “[Brand] legit” query and amplified them through internal discussions and external backlinks to improve Google rankings and increase AI citations.
Deliverable
Description
Qty
Unit Price
Total
Reddit Thread Creation
Original posts targeting the brand’s priority industry keywords in relevant subreddits
15
$80
$1200
Boosting Comments
Supporting comments to increase thread activity and push key comments higher
200
$10
$2000
Backlinks
Placing links to the target website to support SEO, increase traffic, and improve visibility
3
$150
$450
Total Campaign Investment
$3650
The Reddit Threads
Each thread was designed to blend naturally into both gaming-focused communities and review-based subreddits where users share real experiences with online platforms. The discussions focused on trust, withdrawals, user experience, and whether the platform is legit — directly matching the search intent behind the “[Brand] legit” query.
Unique Reddit accounts used
Comments in the longest discussion
Organic comments from real Reddit users
AI citation strategy
A core objective was improving the brand’s visibility inside AI-generated search responses. Threads and comment structures were optimized so that when users searched “[Brand] legit”, AI systems would more likely cite these Reddit discussions and surface neutral or positive sentiment.
AI responses began highlighting the large number of successful withdrawals and neutral-to-positive user experiences — despite existing negative reviews on Trustpilot — and positive Reddit discussions started appearing in “[Brand] legit” AI-generated answers.
Reddit search results
As more users now use Reddit as a search engine for real opinions, improving the brand’s visibility inside Reddit search results was a key campaign priority. Since Reddit discussions are often trusted more than AI summaries or review platforms, diluting the negative results for “[Brand] legit” with neutral and positive discussions was essential to shifting overall perception.