Click-to-DM ad

A click-to-DM ad is a Meta ad whose button opens an Instagram DM with your business instead of a website. Meta calls them ads that click to Instagram Direct. The message sent from the ad carries its ad ID, so Inrō can start a flow for that ad and report the lead or sale back to Meta.

How does a click-to-DM ad start a conversation?

You build the ad in Meta Ads Manager with Instagram Direct as the destination. In the ad you write a greeting and one or more questions the person can tap.

When someone taps a question, it reaches your inbox as their DM, with a referral from Meta that holds the ad ID. Inrō stores that ID.

Instagram icebreakers are different: they sit on your profile. An ig.me referral link differs too: it opens a DM from anywhere you post it, with no ad behind it.

How does Inrō reply to someone who came from an ad?

On the Scenarios page, start a scenario with the trigger Someone replies to your ad. Under Match type, pick one:

• Incoming question: add keywords from your ad's questions. The scenario starts when a message from an ad contains one. Case is ignored and part of a question works, so two questions can lead to two scenarios. With no keywords, the trigger shows an issue and never fires.
• Specific ad ID: paste the ID from Meta Ads Manager. Any message from that ad starts the scenario, whatever the person writes.

From there, the flow can send the offer, qualify the lead, or hand over to the Inrō AI agent for Instagram DMs. The Sell from Ads template is a ready-made version. Each person the flow acts on counts as one contact activation per billing period. To reach ad responders again, filter contacts by Replied to an ad and send a DM campaign.

How do you report a conversion back to Meta?

Connect Meta Conversions API under Profile, Integrations. Then add the Meta Conversion event step where the conversion happens, such as a booked call. Pick one of the 14 events Meta lists for business messaging, such as Purchase or LeadSubmitted (Meta for Developers, Conversions API for business messaging, checked October 2026).

The event is matched to the contact's Instagram conversation and shows in Meta Events Manager. The step does not run on the Free plan. Setup is on the Meta Conversions API integration page.

Meta says that, for now, ads that click to Instagram optimize for conversations, not for the purchases you report.

More terms are in the Instagram automation glossary.