Setup guide

How to Automatically DM a Link When Someone Comments on Instagram

Updated 7 October 2026

What you need

• A Business or Creator Instagram account you are an admin of.
• Message access for connected tools switched on in Instagram.
• The link you want to send, starting with https://.
• A second Instagram account to test with.

Steps

1. 01

   Create your account

   Sign up with Google, or with your name, email, phone number and a password. No card is needed for the Free plan.

2. 02

   Connect your Instagram account

   Check three things first, or the connection will fail:

   • The account is Professional (Business or Creator). Switching is free in the Instagram app.
   • Message access is on: in Instagram, go to Settings › Messages and story replies › Connected tools and allow access.
   • You are an admin of the account.

   Then press “Connect Instagram” and approve it on Instagram. Talkspike asks only for the permissions it needs to read comments and send DMs.

3. 03

   Start a new automation

   The first time, onboarding walks you through one automation in three steps: Connect, Pick a post, Write the DM. After that, open Automations and choose “New automation”.

   Pick “Comments on your post or reel”, then which posts it should watch: Specific posts (only the ones you pick), All posts (including future ones) or Next post or reel (whatever you publish next).

4. 04

   Set the keyword

   Under Keywords, type a word or emoji and press enter. Choose how to match:

   • Contains the word anywhere: fires when the keyword appears as a whole word, so “send the GUIDE pls” works. Upper or lower case does not matter.
   • Exact match only: the whole comment must be the keyword.

   Optional: add words to exclude. If one appears, no DM is sent. “Any comment” answers every comment instead of a keyword.

5. 05

   Write the DM and add your link

   Write what lands in their inbox. Use “Insert” to add {first_name} or {username}.

   Choose “Add a button”, give it a label of up to 20 characters (such as “Get the guide”) and a link starting with https://. A DM with buttons can be up to 640 characters; without buttons, 1,000.

   Optional: switch on “Also reply in the comments” to post a public reply such as “Sent you a DM!” under their comment.

6. 06

   Turn it on

   Press “Turn on” (or “Save as draft” to finish later). It starts answering new comments straight away.

7. 07

   Test it from a second account

   Comment the keyword on the post from a different Instagram account, such as a friend’s or a spare one. Comments from your own account are ignored, so you never DM yourself. The DM should arrive within seconds.

8. 08

   Check the results

   Activity lists every DM sent or attempted, with whether it was seen and clicked. The Automations page shows clicks and CTR for each automation; taps on your link button are counted there.

Limits you cannot switch off

These come from Instagram and apply to every tool. A comment allows one private reply, within 7 days of the comment. Any further message needs the person to reply to you first, within 24 hours of their reply. Nobody can be messaged without interacting first. Full detail in how it works.

Troubleshooting

I commented and nothing came

Comment from a second account; your own comments are ignored. Also check the automation is switched on and watching the post you commented on.

The comment did not match

“Contains” needs the keyword as a whole word: the keyword AI does not fire on “again”. Check for an excluded word in the comment, too.

The same person commented twice and got one DM

That is the default: one DM per person per post. Switch on “DM on every comment” to answer each matching comment, at most one a minute per person.

Activity says Instagram disconnected

The connection expired or was removed. Reconnect in Settings; automations resume once it is active.

DMs stopped partway through the month

The Free plan has a monthly DM limit. The Automations page says how many comments were not answered because of it.

A viral reel is sending slowly

Meta allows 750 private replies an hour per account. Past that, DMs wait in the queue and go out as the limit frees up; none are dropped for it.