The Black Friday comment checklist for Instagram and Facebook

Black Friday is 27 November 2026 and Cyber Monday is 30 November. Before then, do four things for your Instagram and Facebook comments: hide spam on your ads, answer price and shipping questions fast, send your code or gift guide to people who ask, and hold complaints for a person. Set them up in the week before the sale, check twice a day while it runs, and update your answers the night the sale ends. This checklist walks through each step, with a free way to do it and a faster way.

Why sale comments need a plan

Sale week brings the most comments of the year, and the most mixed. Buyers ask "is this in the sale?" and "will it arrive before Christmas?" in the same thread as fake giveaway bots and scam links. Bigger ad budgets mean more people see your ads, and spam follows the reach.

In our study of 6,519 comments and DMs on one brand account, 25% were spam and 2.9% showed buying intent, and 83% of those buyers waited more than a day for a reply. In a normal week that is a missed sale. During a four-day sale, a day-late answer can mean the discount has already ended.

1. Write your sale answers now

Most sale comments are the same ten questions. Write the answers once, before the rush, so every reply is quick and correct:

• What is on sale, the discount, and the code (or whether it applies automatically)
• When the sale starts and ends, with the time zone
• Prices of your best sellers at the sale price
• Sizes and stock, and what happens when something sells out
• Shipping times and the last order date for holiday delivery
• Returns and exchanges on sale items
• Gift options: gift boxes, gift cards, gift notes
• Where to buy: the link, and whether it is on your shop or a marketplace

Decide now which questions should never get an automatic answer. Order problems, refunds and anything about a specific customer's account belong with a person (step 5).

2. Hide spam on your ads

Spam on an ad is spam you paid to show. Fake "you won our giveaway" replies, follower sellers and "DM this account" scams sit under your sale post and make the post look unsafe to the buyers reading it. For the free setup, turn on Instagram's Hidden Words filters and add the scam phrases you keep seeing. Instagram Help Center Then check your ad comments by hand at least twice a day; our guide to stopping spam comments on Instagram ads shows where to find them.

Hide rather than delete. A hidden comment can be brought back if a filter caught a real customer; a deleted one is gone. Keyword filters also catch buyers who happen to write "DM me" or "link?", which is why it helps to look through hidden comments every day (step 6).

Watch with sound

3. Answer price and shipping questions fast

"How much?", "is this in the sale?" and "will it arrive by the 20th?" are buyers asking to be helped. Answer them in public, so everyone reading the thread sees the answer too, and answer within the hour if you can. Use the answers you wrote in step 1, and reply in the language the person wrote in.

If you can't watch comments all day, an Instagram auto-reply tool can answer the routine questions for you. Pick one that answers from your own products and policies, not a generic script. In our live test on a real Instagram post, ReplyMint answered price, gift box and shipping questions in about 5 seconds, replied in Spanish to a Spanish comment, and held a complaint for the owner.

Watch with sound

4. Send the code or gift guide to DMs

"Can you send me the code?" and "where's the gift guide?" are easy wins. Meta lets a business send one private message in reply to a comment, within 7 days of the comment. Meta for Developers, private replies Use it to send the code, the guide or the link, and reply in public too ("sent to your DMs!") so others know to ask.

Keyword tools only send the DM when people type your exact word, like "GIFT". During a sale, people ask in their own words, with typos and in other languages, and those requests get missed. Read how comment to DM works, and Meta's rules before you set it up.

5. Hold complaints for a person

Sale week also brings "ordered a week ago, still nothing". Don't hide it and don't let a bot answer it. Reply in public that you're on it, then move the details to DMs. People reading the thread judge you on how you handle this one comment. If you use automation, set a rule that complaints, refunds and order problems are never answered automatically and come straight to you.

6. Check twice a day during the sale

Morning and evening, from Black Friday to Cyber Monday:

• Open the hidden comments on your sale posts and ads, and unhide any real buyers
• Answer any buyer question still waiting, oldest first
• Reply to waiting DMs, especially people who asked about an order
• Add any new scam phrases you see to your filters

Not sure which comments are buyers? Our guide to telling if an Instagram comment is a buyer lists the signals.

7. Update your answers when the sale ends

The most common mistake after Cyber Monday is an old answer: a saved reply, a pinned comment or an automatic DM that still says "20% off with BLACKFRIDAY" on 2 December. Set a reminder for the night the sale ends, update every saved answer and auto-reply, and switch off any sale-only DM.

The checklist on one page

For more on each tool, see the best Instagram comment moderation tools and ad comment moderation in ReplyMint.

Sources

• Meta for Developers, Instagram private replies
• Instagram Help Center, Hide comments or message requests you don't want to see

Frequently asked questions