Guide
The exact thing that just happened to you, built from scratch in about ten minutes. Account, trial, Instagram, first automation.
You commented a word on a reel. A few seconds later a DM arrived with the link to this page. Nobody saw the comment, nobody typed the reply, and it may well have been the middle of the night here.
That is one automation, and it takes about ten minutes to build. This guide walks the whole thing: creating an account, starting the trial, connecting Instagram and setting up the flow from a template.
It also covers the parts most guides skip — the rules Meta imposes on this, which decide what you can and cannot do once you go past the first message. Those limits are the difference between an automation that works and one that quietly stops halfway.
ignix.social → Start free
Sign up with an email and password, or use Continue with Google. If you use email, we send you a link to confirm the address — check your inbox before carrying on.
Creating the account is free and does not ask for a card. You land straight in the app.
Plan & billing
Pick a plan and start the trial. The free trial runs on Spark ($19/month) and Blaze ($29/month) when billed monthly — those are the entry plans, and one of them is all you need for what this guide builds.
Spark includes one social account, which covers a single Instagram profile. Blaze is the one to take if you also want to run Facebook, WhatsApp or the rest alongside it.
Checkout asks for a card so the subscription can continue without interrupting your automations. Nothing is charged during the seven days, we email you before the trial ends, and cancelling takes two clicks.
Tip · The trial is on monthly Spark and Blaze only. Annual billing and the larger plans start immediately, so choose monthly if you want the seven free days.
Accounts → Connect a new account
Choose Instagram and complete the permission screen. When it finishes, the account shows up in your list marked as connected.
One requirement comes from Meta, not from us: the Instagram account has to be a professional account — Business or Creator — and it has to be linked to a Facebook Page. A personal Instagram account cannot receive these permissions at all. Both changes are free and take a couple of minutes in the Instagram app under Settings → Account type and tools.
Tip · If the connection screen fails or loops, log out of Instagram and Facebook in that browser first, then connect again. Being signed into the wrong Meta account is the single most common cause.
Automations → Comment → DM
The tab opens on a gallery of quick templates. For what this guide builds, pick Send a link on keyword — they comment your keyword, your link lands in their DMs.
The template opens a short form, already filled in. Four things to set:
Keyword. The word people have to comment. Keep it one short word that nobody types by accident — LINK, GUIDE, INFO. You can add several, separated by commas, and it is worth adding the obvious misspellings.
The message. What arrives in their DMs. Write it like a person, not a robot, and say what they are getting.
The button. A label and the URL it opens. This is where your link, lead magnet or booking page goes.
Which posts it runs on. All posts watches everything on the account. Next post arms it for the next thing you publish — that is the one to use when the reel is not up yet. Specific post pins it to one you have already published.
Use Preview to see the comment and the DM side by side before saving. Then save, and switch it on with Activate in the list underneath.
Tip · Publishing the reel after you set the automation? Choose "Next post". You set it once, publish, and it attaches itself — no coming back to pick the post from a list.
Publish the reel with a caption that tells people exactly what to comment. Being explicit matters more than being clever: "comment GUIDE and I will send it to you" outperforms anything that leaves people guessing.
Then test it from a second account — comment the keyword and watch the DM arrive. If nothing happens, check that the automation is active, that the account is still connected, and that the keyword you commented actually matches one on the list.
These are Meta’s rules, not ours. Knowing them up front saves you building something that cannot work.
Only Instagram and Facebook
Replying privately to a public comment is a Meta feature. TikTok, X, LinkedIn and YouTube have comments, but none of them let a tool turn one into a private message. If someone sells you comment-to-DM on TikTok, ask them to show you.
One private reply per comment
Meta allows exactly one automatic private message in response to a comment, and it cannot carry media or a carousel. That single message is your whole opening move, so it has to do the work on its own.
The 24-hour window
To send anything beyond that first message — a second message, a question, an email capture — the person has to tap a button first. Tapping opens a 24-hour window in which you can keep talking. This is why the lead-capture templates open with a short welcome and a button: the button is what buys you the conversation.
"Require follow" works, with a catch
Instagram only reveals whether someone follows you once they reply in the DM, not at the moment they comment. So the flow sends a short message first and checks when they answer. It works — it just cannot be silent about it, and any tool claiming otherwise is describing something Instagram does not expose.
Now the honest part
You have just built the thing that sent you here. It answers comments while you sleep, and it will keep doing it whether you post once a week or five times a day.
It is also the smallest part of what you are paying for.
One inbox for everything
DMs, comments and reviews from every connected network land in the same place. Nothing sits unanswered over the weekend because it arrived on the network you check least.
An AI that knows your business
Teach it your products, your prices and your tone. It answers customers around the clock and hands the conversation to you the moment it should — and it knows when it should.
Publishing that runs itself
Plan a month in one sitting across twelve networks. A calendar, best-time posting, and your best posts recycled automatically instead of forgotten.
Automations past the first message
Keyword replies are the entry point. Behind them: story replies, sequences, broadcasts, lead capture, tags and a full flow builder when the simple form stops being enough.
Most people running this end up paying for three tools: a scheduler that cannot reply, a DM automation tool that charges by contacts, and a chatbot for the website. Three subscriptions doing one job, and the bill grows every time an audience does.
Ignix is all three at one price, and it does not count your contacts. A post that does well is supposed to be a good day — not an invoice. Unlimited contacts, unlimited messages, on every plan.
Plans start at $19 a month. Seven days free, no annual contract, cancel in two clicks.
The automation that sent you this took four minutes to build. This whole guide takes ten.