Does anyone believe posting your app on Reddit can help with marketing?
I am looking at this post that has 194 up votes and plenty of comments but the app only has 100-500 installs in more than 6 months.
Can anyone share their experiences?
It’s good if you want to get some opinion.
Although the comments will be contradicting themselves - some will say your app definitely NEEDS function A, otherwise it’s shit, while other will say your app definitely needs to AVOID having function A otherwise it’s shit. 
I wouldn’t waste my time unless you have a revolutionary/groundbreaking game or app. Most of the people there are super critical and tend to bash on self promotion posts. Also, you’d need to make front page to get any significant number of downloads and there’s not enough people hanging out in the android subreddits to get you there. Additionally, if you piss off enough people you could end up with a lot of 1 stars. PPI campaigns, cross promotions, and luck are your friends…
This is my impression also - unless you have a product which already is something which people will go WOW on - the product is unlikely to get much positive ratings on Google Play.
Commenting on others comments - or posting new reddit can get attention - but your results will vary - depending on the place you mention it and the buzz value of your product.
I don’t have numbers to support it - since it is hard to know what caused what - but I have a sense that when I posted on reddit in what was a self-promotion type way - there is a danger of your comment being seen as spam.
However, EVEN if everything goes your way - and your self-promotion is not seen as negative - I have a feeling that reddit people are likely to vote 1-stars far more than others.
Thanks to the ability to track users’ rating behavior on Google Play - I have also noticed another pattern. Usually the users who post 5 star ratings - are ones who post 5-star ratings everywhere - i.e. they are not necessarily over-rating but that they may only bother to rate apps that they LIKE. That is - they are “positive” people.
And there is a similar pattern for 1-star reviewers - I have noted that 1-star reviewers are likely to rate EVERYTHING 1-star - or more accurately they rarely seem to like anything - and their rating quest seems to be mostly about “what we don’t like”. So you could say these are “negative” people - and it is not necessarily that they are negative people - but they may see themselves as critics also who are responsible for warning people off of stuff etc.
And if you check out users’s ratings you will notice the same trend. So if an app is bad what is happening is it triggers all the “negative” people to comment negatives/rate 1-star etc. And if you have a good app - it triggers all the “positive” people to act up and step up to testify that “this app is good”.
If this is a factor - then it dovetails well with the thinking that if you post to super-critical forums - like reddit - where people have “high standards” - there maybe a GREATER likelihood that users will 1-star an app because they think they are doing the world some good by identifying the crap apps. While if they see a good app they maybe less likely to rate it 5-stars perhaps because the app is still “not the best” maybe. Although it is possible that if they like the app you may get some good downloads from it (?)
The user behavior also perhaps varies by sub-reddit or niche. My sense is that if you ask a question or are actually seeking help - that is more likely to trigger a positive response - and not lead to much negative ratings etc. - because they know you have some flawed app etc. for which you want help etc. - and so they are not in “critic mode” perhaps. Or alternatively it could just be that if you are posting to a help sub-reddit or forum - the readers are more likely to be “positive” people - and so you don’t get penalized. While if you post to a super-critical “what is the best on android” type forum or sub-reddit (and AndroidApps and Android sub-reddits maybe some of those) - then your readership may be more likely of the super-critical kind - who is in “let’s remove the bad apps mode”.
Exactly how I feel. Post it but it won’t get noticed anyways.