Instagram Post and Reel Comments Trigger: BooSend Guide

With this trigger, you can send a public reply directly under a comment to boost visibility and engagement, follow up with a private Direct Message to keep the conversation going, and pull leads into your BooSend automation workflows.

It is a simple way to save time, stay responsive, and turn casual commenters into engaged subscribers or paying customers while keeping your Instagram presence active and interactive.

Set up the Instagram Comments Reply trigger

To create an Instagram comment automation in BooSend, open your BooSend workspace and click the Automation tab in the sidebar. Then click the + New Automation button and choose + Start From Scratch.

Next, select Start with a blank flow. Once the Flow Builder opens, click the + New Trigger button. From the Instagram tab, choose the User comments on your Post or Reel trigger.

After selecting the trigger, choose which Instagram post or reel should activate the automation. You can select Specific post or reel if you only want comments under one selected post or reel to trigger the automation. You can choose All posts or reels if you want a comment under any post or reel to start the flow. You can also select Next post or reel if you only want comments under the next post or reel you publish to trigger the automation.

Click Continue after choosing the post or reel option.

Next, set up the keyword rules for the trigger. You can choose to include certain words in the keyword list, which means only comments containing those words will trigger the automation. You can also exclude certain words, which means comments containing those words will not trigger the automation. If you want every comment to start the automation, select Any comment.

Click Continue again. Then decide whether you want BooSend to add public replies under comments. You can create multiple reply variations, and BooSend will rotate them at random to keep interactions feeling more natural.

Click Save to add the trigger to your automation.

For more setup help, see the guide on connecting your Instagram account to BooSend.

Set up an automated private reply in Direct Messages

The Instagram Comments Reply trigger is only the starting point. To turn Instagram engagement into a real conversation, your automation needs to send a private message. That is why the next step is to add at least one Instagram message to your flow. This brings the automation to life and lets you publish and run it successfully.

Note: Sending a private message does not automatically opt the user into your Instagram channel, and it does not open the 24-hour messaging window. The 24-hour window only opens after the user interacts with your message, such as by replying, clicking a regular button, or clicking a Quick Reply. Only after that interaction is the user fully opted in and added to your BooSend contact list.

To add a private response, return to the automation that contains your Instagram Comments Reply trigger. Add the first step by selecting Instagram, then add a Send Message node to your automation.

Make sure you select the Send as a Private Reply option. If you do not select this option, you will not be able to continue building the automation correctly.

You can add a Quick Reply button to start the conversation, or you can add a button with a link you want to send to users who commented on your post or reel. For example, you might link users to a landing page, product page, lead magnet, or sign-up form.

Keep in mind that the first private reply node has a few limitations. It can contain only one content block, such as text or an image with buttons or Quick Replies. You cannot use User Input, Instagram DM Lists, Typing Delays, or Dynamic Blocks in this first private reply. This node should also not include Next Steps.

After configuring the first private reply, you can continue building the rest of your Instagram automation flow as needed. To test the experience, click the Preview button at the top of the Flow Builder.

You can preview the automation inside BooSend or directly on Instagram. Previewing directly on Instagram lets you see the flow exactly as your audience will experience it. Click the arrow icon next to Preview to choose the preview mode.

When you finish setting up the automation, click Set Live if you are creating a new automation. If you are editing an existing automation, click Update.

You may also want to read Instagram automation troubleshooting in BooSend if your automation does not trigger as expected.

Tips and best practices

The Instagram Post and Reel Comments trigger only activates for the first comment a user leaves under a post or reel. If the same user comments again using the same keyword, the automation will not run a second time. This is a limitation on Instagram’s side and applies to every tool that uses the Instagram API.

To avoid having your replies flagged as spam by Instagram’s automated systems, update the wording of your auto-replies periodically. You should also use different auto-replies for different comments and avoid very short replies or replies made up only of emojis.

If your Instagram account receives a high volume of comments, BooSend automatically enables a backend safeguard that helps prevent continuous auto-responses from triggering Instagram’s spam detection.

Use Instagram buttons or Quick Replies if you want users to opt in and be added as contacts in BooSend. When a user clicks a button or Quick Reply, the 24-hour messaging window opens, they receive the next message in your automation, and they are added to your contact list as opted-in subscribers.

If you select Open website as the button action, it does not count as an opt-in. In that case, the user will not be added to your contact list, the 24-hour window will not open, and you will not be able to continue messaging them unless they interact in another way.

Alongside the Instagram message node, you can place other blocks at the start of your automation to customize how the flow behaves. For example, you can add an Action to automatically tag contacts in BooSend. This is useful for labeling users who opted in through a specific Instagram campaign.

You can also add a Condition block to control who receives the private reply. For instance, you can send messages only to users who follow your account if your goal is to grow your follower base.

A Smart Delay can add a short pause before the first message, which makes the interaction feel more natural and less robotic. A Randomizer can send different message variations to different users, helping create a more dynamic and personalized experience.

If you have multiple active Instagram Comments Reply triggers in your account, priority rules apply. If more than one trigger is set to work with all posts or reels without keywords, the oldest trigger, meaning the one created first, will always run. If your triggers use specific keywords, each keyword will activate its corresponding automation.

For more ways to build automated conversations, see the guide on using AI Sales Agents with comment automations.

Instagram Comments Reply trigger on collaborative, remix, and boosted posts

The Instagram Comments Reply trigger works based on the original post owner.

If you created the post or reel, the automation should run as expected. However, if you are listed as a collaborator on a post, or if you are trying to automate replies on a remix you did not originally publish, the trigger may not work properly.

This depends on how Instagram handles post ownership and permissions, which can limit how automations behave in these cases.

Collaborative posts

If you publish a post and invite an influencer to collaborate on it, the automation you set up in your BooSend account should work as expected. Anyone who comments with the specified keywords on your version of the post can receive the public and private replies you configured.

However, the automation only works from the original poster’s account. In this scenario, that account is yours. Even though the post may also appear on the influencer’s profile, the automated replies are not connected to the influencer’s account.

This means that if someone views the post from the influencer’s profile and comments there, your automation will not trigger. The automation only runs for comments left on the version published from your account because that is the account connected to BooSend.

Remix posts

Remix posts are treated as nomral posts, as long as the remix was posted from the account that the automation is connected with.

Boosted posts

BooSend’s Instagram Comments Reply trigger supports boosted posts.

Keep in mind that the post picker only displays posts that appear in your Instagram feed. If a post was created only as an ad in Ads Manager and does not exist on your profile grid, it will not be available for selection and cannot be used with the Comments Reply trigger.