Choose a keyword people can ask for naturally

A trigger keyword is the word a commenter types to set the whole sequence off. The best ones are single words a person can thumb-type without thinking: GUIDE, PRICE, LINK. Long or clever phrases lose people who mistype them, and the result depends on the matching mode you select.

What happens after the match, in order:

1. Someone comments the keyword on a post you selected in the campaign.
2. ReplyMagnet checks the comment against the configured keywords and matching mode. Contains accepts ‘send the GUIDE’; Exact accepts only GUIDE, ignoring case and surrounding spaces.
3. A public reply goes under the comment, so the thread shows the request was answered.
4. A DM carries the resource link, or the capture page if you turned on email capture.
5. The download link is tracked, so you can see whether the person opened it.

If a single word feels limiting, two other modes cover the gaps. Any-comment mode responds to every comment on the post, which suits a giveaway or a post that exists only to hand something out. Smart matching, covered below, catches clear requests that never contain the word.

Platform rules that shape every keyword campaign:

• The connected account must be a Business or Creator account. Personal accounts cannot use the comment and messaging API.
• A private reply to a comment must be sent within 7 days of the comment. Further messages require the recipient to respond and must fit the applicable 24-hour messaging window. See Meta’s private-reply documentation and the messaging rules guide.
• Overflow requests queue on every plan. A queued request that passes the window expires instead of sending late.
• Instagram does not allow messaging people who never interacted with you. Every DM in this flow answers a comment the person left themselves.
• ReplyMagnet runs on the Instagram Graph API that Meta reviewed through App Review, so nothing here relies on a browser extension or a shared password.

For a GUIDE campaign, test the examples below from a separate account. The table describes keyword matching with smart matching off; an eligible AI match is a separate decision, not proof that the keyword matched.

The campaign must also cover the account and interaction you are testing. If the expected DM is missing, use the delivery troubleshooting guide before changing several settings at once. Read AI Smart Triggers when you want to evaluate natural-language requests beyond the keyword.

‘Comment RECIPE for the ingredient list’ makes sense without another explanation. ‘Comment YES’ depends much more on the surrounding conversation.

A specific word also helps later, when you review the campaign. RECIPE tells you what the person requested; YES tells you very little.

Try a keyword campaign with an existing post before changing every caption.

The keyword is yours to choose, but the ones that fire best describe what the commenter receives. Match the word to the post's job, then check that the attached resource actually does that job. Worked versions, including a course waitlist, are in the comment automation examples; the waitlist guide covers what signups prove.

Keep it to a single word where you can. A commenter types it once, on a phone, often while half-watching a reel, so GUIDE beats SENDMETHEGUIDE every time.

These suggestions only work when the attached resource fulfils the corresponding promise.

The failure mode of a bad keyword is not that it never fires. It fires too often. A keyword like THIS or YES matches ordinary praise, so a post full of ‘love this’ comments triggers DMs to people who only meant to compliment you, and each one spends an engagement from your quota.

Run every candidate through this checklist:

• Does the word appear in ordinary praise? LOVE, THIS, YES, WOW, AMAZING and FIRE all do.
• Is it your own name or handle? People tag and mention you in comments that are not requests.
• Is it a reaction word such as ME or SAME? ME works on a giveaway post where every comment is an entry, and almost nowhere else.
• Could it appear inside a normal sentence about the post's topic? GUIDE under a post about tour guides is a poor fit.
• Is it more than one word? Phrases are mistyped more often, and a second variant is a better answer than a phrase.
• Does it name what the person gets? GUIDE, PRICE and LINK pass; CLICK and GO do not.

If a word fails two of these, choose another. On the free plan, with 1,000 engagements and one live campaign, an accidental match costs a larger share of the month than it does on a paid plan.

For a recipe sheet, RECIPE and INGREDIENTS might reasonably mean the same request. PRICE and FLOORPLAN probably don't, unless the promised document clearly includes both.

Don't turn one campaign into a bag of unrelated words. The system cannot infer a different attached file from each variant.

ReplyMagnet's campaign limit is up to 25 keyword variants per campaign. That is capacity, not a suggestion to use all of them. Start with the words the caption and actual requests justify.

Test three comments:

1. The keyword by itself: ‘GUIDE’.
2. A natural request: ‘Could you send the guide?’
3. An unrelated sentence containing similar text: ‘Those guidelines are helpful.’

Also inspect the selected posts. GUIDE might be appropriate on a tutorial and confusing under a discussion about tour guides. Post scope is part of keyword design. The setup guide explains that control.

A reader may ask “how do I download it?” instead of typing GUIDE. Smart matching can evaluate that request against an eligible campaign’s context, but its result is not a guaranteed match. Read AI Smart Triggers for the matching sequence and current allowances.

Choose and test the behavior you intend:

• Contains: accept a configured keyword inside a longer request.
• Exact: require the trimmed request to equal a configured keyword. This controls wording, not whether every matching comment has the intent you expected.
• Variants: accept several spellings of the same resource request.
• Smart matching: evaluate eligible requests that ordinary matching did not resolve.
• Any-comment: use only when responding to every eligible comment fits the offer. An any-comment campaign can match before the AI stage, so do not treat its response as a Smart result.

AI checks share a workspace daily allowance: Starter 100, Basic 300, Pro 750 and Agency 2,000. A normal no-card trial has a 100-check daily AI cap; it does not include the full paid Pro allowance. Keyword matches do not need an AI classification check.

Test one intended campaign at a time and inspect Delivery activity. Avoid overlapping campaigns that make it unclear which setting produced the reply.

AI matching can help with requests that omit the exact word, but it has a daily allowance and should remain selective. An unrelated compliment is not a missed lead.

Keep a short note of the wording that caused confusion. Change one thing, then repeat the request and non-request tests.

Use campaign activity to inspect what happened rather than judging the keyword only by the total reply count.