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, but the keyword still needs to be present
Avoid punctuation-sensitive patterns; keep keywords simple (“SUSHI”, “ADVENT”, “DISCOUNT”)
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 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
6) Platform limitation (TikTok)
DM Automations do not run on TikTok DMs due to API restrictions.
7) 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 id did / did not execute a specific step.