Instagram DM Automation: Comments, Story Replies and Lead Ads in One Inbox

For a salon, a studio or a clinic, Instagram is where new customers find you, and the direct message is where they ask "how much?", usually at night, from a phone in the owner's pocket. Convelly connects your Instagram account so that direct messages, story replies, mentions and comments arrive in the same inbox as WhatsApp, the AI can answer them, and an automation can react to a comment before anyone on the team has seen it. The guide on one inbox, many channels explains why running both channels from one place matters; this page is about what Convelly does with Instagram today.

What arrives from Instagram

• Direct messages, replies to your stories, and story mentions, all as conversations in the inbox.
• Comments on your posts and reels, also as conversations. Reply publicly, reply privately by message, or hide or delete a comment, without leaving Convelly.
• A connection that keeps itself alive, so it does not quietly expire while you are busy.
• Instagram's rules, followed automatically: reply windows, message length, and no unsolicited messages.

All of it lands in the team inbox next to your WhatsApp conversations, with the same assignment rules, labels, saved views, private notes and mobile apps. If you are connecting Instagram for the first time, getting ready for Instagram DMs lists what to prepare before you switch it on.

The AI answers on Instagram too

The same AI that answers your WhatsApp chats answers Instagram messages, with the same knowledge: this customer's bookings, payments and deals, your team's private notes, your services, prices and live calendar, your uploaded documents and your rules and tone. It replies in the language the customer writes in, books, moves and cancels appointments in the chat, asks for missing details and saves them, and hands over to a named colleague when your rules say so. You decide per channel whether new conversations start with the AI on or off, so Instagram can run on AI while WhatsApp stays with the team, or the other way round. The short "this reply is automated" line on the first AI message can be worded per channel as well, and one switch in every conversation lets a person take over.

Comments that turn into conversations

A comment under a reel is often a customer waiting to be asked. Because comments arrive as conversations, an automation can react to them: a trigger fires when someone comments on your post or reel, optionally only when the comment contains certain words such as "price" or "book". The actions are the ones you would take yourself, minus the delay: reply to the comment in public, send the commenter a private message, and turn the AI on to continue the chat. So the flow most businesses build first is: a comment on a reel contains "price", reply publicly "sent you a message", send the price list privately, and let the AI take it from there. The public reply tells everyone else in the thread that you answer, and the private message keeps your prices out of the comments.

An evening on Instagram, handled

At 21:40 Omar replies to your story about the new barber chair with "is that available Saturday?". The reply lands in the inbox as a conversation, the AI checks Saturday in your calendar, offers 11:00 and 14:30, and books 14:30 when he picks it. At 20:05 Mia commented "price? 👀" under a reel. The automation replied publicly, sent her the price list privately and turned the AI on; when she asks whether the price includes a wash, the AI answers from your uploaded price list. At 22:14 a lead ad form comes in from a new customer; she gets a WhatsApp welcome within seconds and, if she has not answered by tomorrow evening, a follow-up. In the morning the team sees three conversations, two bookings and one open follow-up, and nobody had their phone out during dinner.

Lead ads become contacts on their own

Run a lead ad on Facebook or Instagram, and every person who fills in the form becomes a contact in Convelly on their own, with their answers saved on the record. You can drop them into a sales pipeline and greet them on WhatsApp within seconds, without lifting a finger, which is the moment a lead is most likely to answer. From there an automation can wait one day for a reply and, if nothing comes, start an AI follow-up with the goal "book a free consultation". From Facebook lead forms to a WhatsApp conversation walks through that setup, and click-to-WhatsApp ads covers the other kind of ad, the one that opens a chat directly, which lands in the same inbox with the ad recorded on the customer's record.

One customer, two channels, one record

If the same customer writes on WhatsApp today and on Instagram tomorrow, Convelly knows it is the same person. Their conversations, bookings and deals stay together on one record, and the AI on either channel works from the same history. That is what stops the front desk from asking a regular for her name twice, and it is what the guide on matching one customer across channels is about.

Automations that do not care which channel

Triggers come from WhatsApp and Instagram alike: a message, a button tap, a new customer created from Instagram, a comment. Conditions and actions are the same on both, so an automation that welcomes new enquiries, tags people who asked about a package, or hands upset customers to the owner does not need a second copy for Instagram. Building automations that survive a new channel explains how to design them once.

Knowing which post brought them

Every customer record notes which ad or link they came from and where they came from as a source, such as Instagram, referral, walk-in or website, so you can see later which channel actually fills the calendar. The dashboard shows how many conversations came from WhatsApp and from Instagram over the last 7, 30 or 90 days, and Elly, your assistant in Convelly, answers the more specific questions on request. Measuring which lead sources actually convert and the wider guide on where WhatsApp leads actually come from show how to read those numbers.

What Instagram does not allow

Instagram does not let a business start a conversation. Customers write first, and you reply within Instagram's windows, which Convelly respects automatically. That is why campaigns in Convelly go out on WhatsApp, to people who agreed to hear from you, and why the Instagram side is built around answering fast and reacting to comments and ads rather than around broadcasts. In practice that is where the value is anyway: a comment answered within a minute and a DM booked on the spot are worth more than any message you could push out. Instagram and WhatsApp channels are counted per plan; details are on the pricing page.