Answering manually
- You see the comment hours later, if you see it
- The same link typed out forty times
- Overnight comments go cold before morning
- No record of who asked or who clicked
- It stops when you take a day off
Feature
Instagram comment-to-DM automation
Someone comments the word you chose on your post or reel. Seconds later your link is in their inbox, sent through Meta's official Private Reply API. You wrote the message once, and it keeps answering while you sleep.
- No card required
- Advanced Access from Meta App Review
- Live in about five minutes
S
sunday.studioInstagram · Reel
sunday.studio New reel pack is out. Comment REELS and we’ll send it straight to your DMs.
REELS matchedPrivate reply sent
ssunday.studioInstagram DM
Replied to your commentREELS please!
Hey Maya! Here’s the reel pack. 12 templates you can edit today.
Sent through the official Instagram API
What comment-to-DM automation is
Comment-to-DM automation sends an Instagram direct message automatically when someone comments an agreed keyword on your post or reel. The business picks the post, the keyword and the message once; every matching comment afterwards gets that message as a private reply, usually within seconds, with no one typing it.
It is the difference between a link buried in a comment thread and a link sitting in someone's inbox while they are still interested. It is also, importantly, a reply rather than outreach: the person asked first, in public, on your own post.
What happens when someone comments
One chain of events, and it runs whether you are awake or not:
Instagram tells us about the comment
A webhook arrives the moment someone comments on a post your campaign is watching. If Instagram ever fails to send one, a sweep runs every few minutes and catches what was missed, so a dropped notification costs you a delay rather than a customer.
The comment is matched against your keywords
A campaign holds up to 10 keywords. You decide whether a keyword has to appear as a whole word or counts anywhere inside the comment, and you can accept any comment at all when the post itself is the qualifier.
You can auto-reply in the comments first
An optional public reply keeps the thread alive and tells everyone else scrolling past that the DM is real. Write up to 10 variants and they rotate, so a post with forty comments does not show forty identical replies.
The DM goes out
The private reply is sent against that specific comment, which is what lets it land in the inbox of someone who has never messaged you. Delivery is queued, rate-limited and retried, and every attempt lands in a log you can read and export.
What this replaces
Nothing here is impossible by hand. It is just that by hand it happens late, unevenly, or not at all.
With a campaign
- Every matching comment answered in seconds
- Written once, sent consistently
- 2am comments handled at 2am
- Delivery log and click counts per post
- Runs while you are away
Which posts a campaign watches
Three modes, because the content is not always published before the campaign is ready:
| Mode | What it watches | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Selected posts | Up to 20 specific posts or reels you pick from a grid. | One launch, one offer, one lead magnet. The normal choice. |
| Every post | Any post on the connected account, including ones published later. | An always-on keyword like PRICE that should work everywhere. |
| Next reel | Binds itself to the next reel the account publishes, then stays on it. | Reel comment automation set up before the reel goes up. |
A campaign can also answer keywords that arrive as a direct message rather than a comment, which is how replies to your stories get picked up, since Instagram delivers those as messages. That trigger is part of Pro.
The message sequence
A campaign is not a chatbot and not a flow builder with a canvas. It is a short, fixed sequence, which is the reason it can be set up in minutes:
- An opening message with a button. Instead of dropping a bare link into a cold inbox, send a short greeting with a tappable button. The tap opens the conversation, and Instagram treats an opened conversation more generously than an unanswered one.
- The message that carries the link. Up to 1,000 characters, with up to two link buttons of at most 20 characters each.
- An optional follow check. If you want the link to go to followers, the campaign can ask someone to follow first and re-check when they tap again.
- An optional follow-up. One more message, up to 24 hours later, inside the conversation that person already opened. A nudge, not a sequence.
Write {username}anywhere in a message and it is replaced with the commenter's handle. If Instagram does not give us a name it falls back to “there”, so the sentence still reads properly.
Links you can actually measure
Each link button can point at a tracked destination. The visitor goes where you sent them, and you get the click counted against the campaign and the post that earned it. That is the difference between knowing a reel got reach and knowing a reel got customers.
Click counts and click-through rate are recorded per campaign and per link. What happens after the click is on the other side of your own analytics, so treat these as traffic numbers rather than purchase attribution.
What this does not do
Worth saying plainly, because several tools in this category are vague about it.
- It cannot message someone who has not contacted you first. There is no recipient list and no way to import one. A private reply is addressed to a comment, not to a person.
- It does not like, follow, or publish on your behalf, and it does not schedule content.
- It does not collect email addresses into a mailing list. It delivers your link; whatever is on the other side is yours.
- The follow check is a useful filter, not a vault. Instagram does not always return a reliable follow status, and the campaign is built to let a real follower through rather than trap them.
How to set up comment-to-DM automation on Instagram
This is the actual product, recorded end to end: connecting the account, building the campaign, and the first matching comments landing in the log.
- 1
Connect a professional account
Sign in and link a Business or Creator account through Instagram's own consent screen. We never ask for your password. A personal account cannot be used, because Instagram does not expose comments or private replies on one.
ssunday.studio✓ Connected - 2
Pick the post, the keyword and the DM
Choose the post or reel from the grid, type the word people will comment, and write the message they get back. Short, easy to spell and obvious in a caption works best: LINK, GUIDE, PRICE.
When a comment containsREELS→ Send a DM - 3
Turn it on and watch the log
Every matching comment queues a send. We rate-limit, retry, and sweep for comments Instagram forgot to tell us about, so the log is the record of what actually went out.
Reel packCampaign is live
Then prove it to yourself
Before you put a keyword in a caption, comment it yourself from a second account. The DM should arrive in seconds and the delivery log should show exactly one send against that comment. If it shows two, you have two campaigns matching the same word.
What the free plan includes, and where Pro starts
| Limit | Free | Pro — 15 USD/mo |
|---|---|---|
| DMs per month | 300 | 5,000 |
| Campaigns | 1 | Unlimited |
| Instagram accounts | 1 | 3 |
| Keyword triggers from a DM | Not included | Included |
| Follow check | Not included | Included |
| Delivery log history | 7 days | 180 days |
Instagram applies its own per-account rate limits on top of these. A post that suddenly collects hundreds of comments is queued and delivered over a short period rather than rejected. Compare the plans in full.
Frequently asked questions
The questions people actually search before setting this up. Answers stay in the page source whether a panel is open or shut, so search engines read all of them.
How do I send an Instagram comment to a DM?
Connect a professional Instagram account, pick the post or reel you want watched, choose the word people will comment, and write the DM they get back. When someone comments that word, Instagram notifies AudienceKeeper and the private reply goes out automatically. You never send it by hand.
Is there a free automation tool for Instagram DMs?
AudienceKeeper has a free plan: 300 DMs a month on 1 campaign, no card required. That is enough to test the whole workflow on a real post, not enough to run a launch on, and several competitors advertise larger free allowances. Above that, Pro is 15 USD a month for 5,000 DMs.
How do I set up comment-to-DM automation on Instagram?
Four steps: connect a Business or Creator account through Instagram's consent screen, pick the post or reel, type the keyword people will comment, and write the DM with your link. Turn the campaign on and test it by commenting the keyword from another account. Setup takes a few minutes and does not need a developer.
Does this work on reels as well as feed posts?
Yes. A campaign can watch specific posts or reels you select, every post on the account, or bind itself to the next reel you publish, which is useful when the campaign is ready before the content is.
Can I automate replies to Instagram comments as well as DMs?
Yes. Alongside the private reply, a campaign can post a public reply in the comment thread, rotating between up to 10 variants so a busy post does not show the same sentence forty times.
Do I need a Business or Creator account?
Yes. Instagram only allows an app to read comments and send private replies on a professional account, so a personal account cannot be connected. Switching is free in the Instagram app and takes about a minute.
Can someone get the same DM twice?
No. Instagram permits exactly one private reply per comment, and AudienceKeeper enforces the same rule: each comment is deduplicated, and if two of your campaigns match the same comment only the first one sends. The delivery log names the campaign that used it.
What happens if Instagram never delivers the comment webhook?
A reconciler sweeps the watched posts every few minutes and picks up comments the webhook missed, so a dropped notification delays the DM rather than losing it.
Is Instagram comment automation allowed by Meta?
This uses Meta's official Private Reply API, which exists for exactly this purpose, and the app holds Advanced Access from Meta App Review. There is no password sharing and no automation of the Instagram app itself. A message can only be sent to someone who commented first.
See the setup on videoThe whole flow, from connecting the account to the first DM arriving.Compare Free and ProExact monthly DM allowances, account limits and what each plan unlocks.Instagram auto reply, in generalWhat Meta's own tools do free, and where a keyword campaign earns its keep.
Put it on a post that still gets comments
Connect an account, pick a reel people still find, and comment your own keyword from another phone. You will know within a minute whether this belongs in your workflow.
No card required. Not affiliated with Meta or Instagram.
maya.creates REELS please! This is just what I needed.