If a DM Automation doesn’t fire, it’s almost always one of the reasons below.
1) The automation is in the wrong order
Remember:
DM Automations are evaluated top → bottom
First match wins
If a broad rule sits above your campaign rule, the campaign rule will never run.
2) Your post targeting doesn’t match
If you use “Post Caption contains”, check:
is the marker text actually in the caption?
did you post on the same platform you selected?
are you restricting to a specific platform accidentally?
Did you set all the quotation marks exactly as in your post caption?
If you use “Specific post”, check:
is it the correct post?
did you select the right IG/FB post?
3) Your keyword doesn’t match
Keyword matching is case-insensitive and also finds the keyword inside longer text, but the keyword still needs to be present
Keep keywords simple (“SUSHI”, “ADVENT”, “DISCOUNT”) and avoid punctuation
With “any post” as target, the automation needs at least one keyword, sentiment or tag condition. Without one it never matches.
4) “Trigger once per user” blocked the user
If enabled, and the user already went through it once, they won’t enter again.
Disable the option and try again for testing.
5) The comment was already answered or can’t start a DM automation
If you, a bulk action or another automation answered the comment first, no DM is sent
Comment-triggered DM automations only run for new Facebook and Instagram comments. Comments on TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube and review platforms, mentions, and comments from your own page never start them.
Comments that arrived before you switched the automation on are not processed
6) Your plan or credits
DM Automations are included in the Pro plan and higher (and in the free trial). On Lite they are not available.
If your credits are used up, processing is paused and DM automations wait until credits are available again. See How do credits work?
If you switched on Apply business hours, the automation starts after you open again. See How do I set business hours?
7) The user didn’t interact in DMs (flow can’t continue)
If your flow relies on:
follower check
multi-step follow-ups
link-click branching
…you usually need an explicit DM interaction first.
Best fix:
add “Ask a question” with buttons early in the flow
8) Platform limitation (TikTok)
DM Automations do not run on TikTok DMs due to API restrictions.
9) Follower check expectations (Instagram-only + requires DM interaction)
If your flow checks “user follows you”, remember:
Instagram only
works best after the user has interacted in the DM flow
Best way to check what happened in a DM automation
You can open up a specific DM conversation in the inbox tab and click on “Show activities”. This will tell you exactly what automation got triggered and why it did / did not execute a specific step.
For comment automations, see Why isn't my comment automation triggering?