How do I answer Facebook and Instagram messages and comments with my quote form?

What it does, and what it never does

People who message your Facebook Page, comment on your own posts or ads, or write after clicking a click-to-Messenger ad appear in the Lead inbox under Messages, one conversation each. You answer them from there with a link to your quote form; when they send the form, the lead arrives in your Lead inbox marked Message reply, with the conversation it came from.

Meta only lets a business message someone who contacted it first, and so does this tool:

• a message can be answered within 24 hours of the person's last message (Meta's standard messaging window); when they write again, the reply box opens again;
• a comment can get one private reply within 7 days; if they answer it, the conversation carries on as a message;
• nobody else can be messaged: there is no way to add people, upload a list or write to someone found in a group, a forum or on another site.

Find it

At the top of the Lead inbox, the Messages card says how many conversations are waiting; it opens Messages. It is also in the menu under Toolbox → Leads & clients → Messenger replies. On the Messages page, the conversations come first; the tiles above them open Pages and automatic replies, Saved replies, Copy a reply and Results, each with All conversations to come back.

Your team gets a New message notice (in the app, by e-mail and on their phones, as your workspace's notification choices allow): the person the lead is assigned to, or the people who get new leads. One notice per conversation within half an hour, and never with what the person wrote.

Switch it on for a Page

1. Connect Facebook under Lead inbox → Sources and settings and choose your Pages. With lead ads it is the same sign-in and also asks for the messaging permissions; without lead ads it asks only for what replying needs.
2. Open Lead inbox → Messages → Pages and automatic replies and press Switch messages and comments on.
3. If your Instagram professional account is linked to the Page, press Add the linked Instagram account to answer its messages and comments too.

Answer a conversation

Open a conversation from the list. Choose a saved reply and the form the link opens: the reply box fills in with the text and the tracked link, ready to change. Press Send. Add the form link puts just the link after what you wrote. The screen shows until when you can reply, and why the box is closed when Meta's window has passed. Mark as done moves a conversation out of the open list.

Messages people send are shown exactly as written, as text.

The automatic first reply (optional)

Off for every Page until you switch it on. When it is on, one reply with the form link goes out:

• to a message, and to a comment that contains one of the Page's keywords (starting with price, quote, how much and available; the trade buttons suggest others; whole words only, capitals and accents ignored);
• once per conversation, never twice, and never after someone from your team has answered: in the Lead inbox, in Meta Business Suite or publicly under the comment;
• not during the Page's quiet hours: it waits for their end while Meta's window is still open, otherwise it is not sent;
• no more than the Page's automatic replies an hour and a day.

For a comment you can also answer it publicly with a short line (by default "We've sent you a message.") so the person knows to look in their messages. Every automatic reply ends with a short line saying it was sent automatically. Each conversation says what the automatic reply did and why.

Saved replies

Under Saved replies, write the replies your team uses most. {link} becomes the tracked link to the reply's form and {business} your Page's name. Your workspace starts with three you can change.

Without a connected Page: copy a reply

Copy a reply makes a saved reply with its tracked link for Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp or anywhere else, to copy and send yourself. Nothing is sent from here. Use it only to answer people who contacted you. A lead who sends the form from that link is still marked as from a message reply.

The form's own page

The link opens your Lead capture form on a page of its own, so it works on any phone whatever your website runs on (WordPress, Laravel, Shopify, Wix or any other platform). The page is kept out of search engines.

Results

Results shows the conversations, the replies sent (automatic and by your team), how often the form was opened from a link, the leads from message replies and the median time to the first answer. A figure that cannot be measured yet says why instead of showing 0.

Before it opens on your account

Replying needs Meta's approval of the platform's Meta app for the messaging permissions (Meta App Review). Until that has passed and been checked, Messages shows Beta and Ask for early access; copying replies by hand works meanwhile.

Reading needs access to the Lead inbox; replying needs a role that works leads; switching Pages and changing saved replies needs a role that manages the Lead inbox for the whole workspace. Conversations are kept for 90 days after the last message (a setting), with the people's ids and messages stored encrypted.