Create an Instagram Chat Automation

A chat automation answers people who message your inbox directly — the “DM me BOOK” call to action. This walks the editor from an empty script to a published automation.

Before you begin

• An Instagram account connected to LinktoDM
• A second Instagram account to test from, since you can't DM yourself

Open the chat editor

Click + New automation, then Chat automation — replies to keywords sent in DMs. The editor opens on a single empty step with the trigger field above it and the DM preview on the right.

Trigger at the top, the script below it, the conversation playing back on the right

Rename it from Untitled using the pencil in the breadcrumb before you go further — chat automations are named after their keyword often enough that start and Untitled pile up fast.

1. Set the trigger keywords

Type the keywords to trigger and start the conversation sits above the script. Type a word and use commas to separate several — pricing, price, cost is one automation covering three spellings.

Choose words people would plausibly type on purpose. A keyword like hi catches every passing greeting; BOOK catches the people who read your caption.

How loosely they match

The gear beside the trigger field opens two matching settings, and together they decide how forgiving your keyword is.

Any word answers everything; the checkbox below decides whether a keyword has to stand alone

• Any word — off by default. Switch it on and the automation replies to every incoming DM regardless of what it says. That’s the right setting for a general “thanks for reaching out” front desk, and the wrong one for anything triggered by a specific campaign word.
• Trigger keyword within a sentence as well — on by default. It’s what makes “hey, can you send me the pricing?” match the keyword pricing. Uncheck it and the message has to be the keyword and nothing else — which is stricter than most people type, so leave it on unless you’re getting false matches.

Any word overrides your keywords

With Any word on, the keyword field stops deciding anything — every DM enters the script. Run at most one such automation per account, or two automations will answer the same message.

2. Write the first message

The first step is what they get back. 590 characters, counted under the box, which is shorter than a post automation’s DM — chat scripts are meant to be a back-and-forth rather than one long block.

Write it as the opening of a conversation, not a broadcast. The preview on the right shows it as a chat bubble the moment you stop typing, and a message that looked fine in the editor often looks like a wall in the thread.

3. Add the rest of the script

Add Step appends the next message. Each step is one bubble, sent in order.

Two things turn a script from a monologue into a conversation, and both have their own page:

• Choices — buttons under a message, each with its own branch and its own follow-on messages.
• Collect fields — pause the script, wait for an email, phone number or free-text answer, and save it to Contacts.

Keep the first version short. Three steps you’ve tested beat eight you haven’t.

4. Publish and test

Publish is top right. Then message the account from your second Instagram account with the exact keyword and watch the script run.

Test the wrong input too — send something that doesn’t match and confirm nothing fires, then send the keyword mid-sentence and confirm it does. Those two checks tell you the matching settings are what you meant.

You should now have

A published chat automation that answers a keyword sent to your inbox, with the matching behaviour set deliberately rather than by default, and a test conversation run from a second account.

Next: Choices and collecting replies