Auto-DM comments on a live stream

Comments during a live broadcast trigger a DM. It is free, but it has one hard rule the other campaign types do not: the message has to go out while you are still live.

Going live is the one moment your audience is all in the same place at the same time. A live campaign turns the comments scrolling past into DMs, so the interest does not evaporate the second you end the broadcast.

Setting it up

• •Create a campaign and choose Comment on a live stream as the trigger. It is on the free plan.
• •Step 1 becomes Select a Live Video. There is an Any live broadcast switch which covers future broadcasts too — worth turning on, because you cannot select a live that has not happened yet.
• •Set your keyword, write the DM, and set the campaign Active before you go live.

If the picker is empty it will tell you there are no live broadcasts yet. Set the campaign up with Any live broadcast switched on and it will be ready when you start.

The timing rule

Instagram treats live comments more strictly than ordinary ones. A private reply to a live comment can only be sent during the broadcast itself, not afterwards. Once you end the stream, that window is gone.

Two things follow from that, and they are worth planning around.

• •Set the campaign live before you start, not during. There is no catching up later.
• •Re-trigger does not work on live campaigns. Comments you missed cannot be swept up afterwards, because Instagram will not accept the reply once the broadcast has ended.

Running a live that converts

• •Say the keyword out loud, more than once. People join halfway through and will not scroll back.
• •Pin a comment with the keyword so late arrivals see it without asking.
• •Keep the DM short. People are watching you, not reading.
• •Give it a deadline that matches the stream — the code works until I go offline is honest and it works.