You can fire a DM automation when someone replies to your ad on Instagram. It's a reliable way to capture leads from your ads and run them through an automated conversion funnel, and a great way to build a list you can reach later with a DM campaign.
Step 1: Create an Instagram ad with a message CTA
In Meta Ads Manager, create your ad with the Engagement objective, then choose Manual engagement campaign.
Step 2: Set up your ad
Set it up so people send you a DM when they tap it:
Conversion location: Message destinations.
Message destinations: Instagram, then select your Instagram account.
Performance goal: Maximise number of conversations, which shows your ad to the people most likely to message you.
Then build the ad as you normally would, but you must define a Message template for the automation to work. In the template, write one or more questions your leads can tap to message you. You'll use these to trigger your scenario. In most cases, a single question works best.
⚠️ Don't set up Automated responses in Meta Ads Manager. They can interfere with your Inrō scenario.
Step 3: Create your scenario
Once your ad is ready, create a Scenario from scratch in Inrō and select the Someone replies to your ad trigger. You can identify your ad in two ways.
A. Identify the ad by its questions
This is the most direct method. Copy the questions you set in Meta Ads Manager into the trigger's keywords. You can use the whole question or part of it, and matching ignores case. This also lets you run two scenarios from the same ad, branching on which question the lead tapped.
⚠️ If a lead writes their own message instead of tapping one of your questions, it may not match. To cover that case, use the Ad ID method below.
B. Identify the ad by its ID
Enter the ad's ID to trigger the scenario whenever someone replies, whatever they write. This is the safer choice if you expect many leads to type their own message. You'll find the Ad ID in Meta Ads Manager once the ad is created.
⚠️ With the Ad ID method, every reply to the ad fires the same scenario. To run different scenarios based on the reply, use the questions method instead.
Handle edge cases
Some people engage with your ad without tapping Send a message:
Reply to a story ad: they reply to the story instead of tapping the button. Add a Story reply trigger with a keyword to catch this.
Share a post ad: they share the post to you instead of messaging. Ask for a specific keyword and add a trigger on incoming DMs.
🐾 Netsuke's Tips
Keep your ad's question and your scenario's first message consistent. If the ad promises a free guide, open with the free guide.
The same contact won't re-trigger the scenario on a later reply unless your scenario's run settings allow it, so design the first run to capture what you need.
Use the Ad ID method for always-on lead capture, and the questions method when you want to branch on intent. You can even run both.
What's next?
To greet ad respondents the moment they open the DM, see Instagram Welcome Message Ads. For the full ad-to-DM funnel, see Running Instagram Ads with DM CTAs, and for every trigger type, see Triggers: The Complete Reference.