Lead Gen Jay

You're In! Here Is The Whole Instagram DM Machine

Both prompts, every tool with my discount codes, the send limits that keep your account alive, and the setup in order. Work top to bottom and you will have it running today.

1. Find the accounts

Filter Instagram profiles by the words in their bio and their follower range, or scrape who an account follows and who comments on its posts.

2. Qualify and research

Pull each profile, run it through the qualifier prompt, then research whoever passes so the opening line is about them and not about you.

3. Write each message

The copywriter prompt writes one unique message per person in a fixed five line format, with a list of words it is not allowed to use.

4. Send, then reply

Send in small batches on a human schedule, then answer replies, including threads from months ago that Instagram normally locks you out of.

The 2 prompts

These are the two I actually run. The first decides who is worth messaging. The second writes the message. Copy them exactly.

Prompt 1: the qualifier

Feed it one scraped profile. It returns PASS or FAIL, a one line reason, and a cleaned up bio that will not break the next API call.

Qualifier AI
You are a helpful assistant. Your goal is to help me decide if an Instagram account is a good fit to send a cold DM to. My name is Lead Gen Jay and I help companies with b2b lead generation and cold email. Use the information about the lead's Instagram account to decide of they are a good fit for b2b lead generation. Then, output the reason behind your decision. Then, convert their IG bio into plain text for a JSON API call. Remove all characters, line breaks, etc. GOOD FIT: 1. Has a business or identifies as an entrepreneur of some sort 2. Has at least 200 followers and less than 1 million followers 3. Talks about business in their IG bio 4. They could benefit from using b2b lead generation in their business 5. Profile must be PUBLIC. RULES 1. Output ONLY the word PASS or FAIL 2. ALSO output a 1 sentence concise explanation for why it PASS or FAIL 3. Do not output any explanations or extra words 4. Output in JSON format as SEPARATE FIELDS 5. Convert the IG bio into valid JSON with no emojis, characters, or line breaks. IG username: {{ $json.username }} IG name:{{ $json.full_name }} IG url:{{ $json.bio_links[0].url }} IG bio: {{ $json.biography }} Category: {{ $json.category }} Followers: {{ $json.follower_count }} Following: {{ $json.following_count }} Is Profile Private: {{ $json.is_private }} Example output: { "value": "PASS", "reason": "", "bio": "This is a valid bio with all emojis removed and line breaks removed." }
Change the second sentence to describe YOUR offer. It currently says Lead Gen Jay helps companies with b2b lead generation and cold email. Leave that in and the qualifier will grade every lead against my business instead of yours.
The {{ $json.* }} lines are n8n expressions that pull fields off the scraped profile. If you are running this in Claude Code or another agent instead, replace each one with the actual value.

Prompt 2: the personalized copywriter

Give it the qualified profile plus your research. It writes one message in a fixed five line format. The format is doing most of the work, so the AI only has to fill in the compliment and the one specific way this person could use the system.

Personalized Copywriter
You are an experienced sales assistant for Lead Gen Jay. Write a personalized DM to the lead using the following format. [Specific personalized compliment] Hope its alright to tell you about this because no one is doing this yet and I think you'll like it. I built a system that finds IG accounts like yours, researches them, and sends hyper-personalized messages like this one. You could use it to [Peronalized way they can use this outreach system] Want me to send over the install instructions? Tools: Perplexity - Research the lead to find something personal to use in the initial compliment RULES: 1. Output ONLY in plain text 2. Must be 2-3 sentences 3. Never use words or phrases commonly used by AI 4. Speak like Alex Hormozi. Do NOT sound like a robot. 5. NEVER use introductions or explanations. Output ONLY the message. 6. Start the DM calling the lead out by first name only. if you do NOT know their first name, omit the name. 7. Do NOT tell them anything about the idea 8. sound like 2 men having a normal conversation on IG DMs that are friends BUT not like a teenager. Find a happy balance. 9. Do NOT use characters that are not normally used in the DMs such as - 10. Never specifically ask for a call or meeting 11. Output MUST be in plain text and valid JSON. Do not use any characters that might mess up an API call with JSON. 12. NEVER use paranthesis in your output. Avoid these characters no matter what: '',", :, {},() Words and phrases to avoid: Journey, transformation, game-changer, impressive, impressed, reshapeing, Your ability, fire, amplify, fire, goals, crush,
Rule 9 bans the dash character. That is deliberate. A dash in a DM is one of the fastest ways to read as machine written, and rules 11 and 12 keep the output from breaking the JSON on the way to the sender.
Nothing in this message says free, trial, purchase, or sale, and it never asks for a call. Those are the words and moves that put you in the hidden requests folder, which nobody opens. Keep the first message short, specific, and about them.

The tools

You do not need all of these. The list, and what each one is actually for.

Consulti Instagram lead database

PaidCode IGDM50 · 50% off with the link

Replaces the whole scraping step. Filter hundreds of thousands of Instagram profiles by bio keyword, include and exclude terms, follower range and post count, then export a CSV. This is the fastest way to get a qualified list.

Open Consulti

Apify account

Paid, usage basedCode 30JAY · 30% off

Runs the two actors below. Sign up through this link and the discount code applies to your plan.

Open Apify

Apify: Instagram DM sender

Paid per run

Sends the messages from your account using your logged in browser session. Several actors do this job. If this one is ever broken or overpriced, pick another with strong reviews that is actively maintained.

Open the DM sender

Apify: Instagram profile scraper

Paid per profile

Pulls the bio, follower counts, category and privacy flag for each account, which is exactly what the qualifier prompt reads.

Open the profile scraper

Unipile

About $5 per account per month

The piece most people are missing. It rebuilds the private Instagram and LinkedIn messaging APIs, so your agent can read and answer conversations of ANY age, comment on posts, and reply to comments. The approved tools cut you off after 24 hours. It also keeps the connection logged in for you.

Open Unipile

Perplexity

Free tier, paid API

The research pass. It finds the one true detail about the person that the first line of the DM is built on.

Open Perplexity

n8n

Free self hosted

Optional. It runs the steps on a schedule so you never think about it. You can hand the same prompts and rules to Claude Code or any agent instead and get the same result.

Open n8n

The limits that keep your account alive

This is the part people skip, and it is the only part that decides whether you still have an account next month. None of the rest matters if you get this wrong.

Stay under 50 messages a day

This is the number. Do not test what happens above it on an account you care about.

5 at a time, about 10 runs a day

Break the day into small batches at uneven times instead of one large send.

Wait 60 to 360 seconds between messages

A random gap in that range reads as a person typing. A fixed delay reads as a script.

Never send the same message twice

The copywriter prompt already handles this. Every message is written for one person.

Residential proxy at minimum

Use a residential IP in the country you actually log in from. Mobile IPs are better. Apify does not sell mobile proxies, so bring your own if you want them.

Replies are a different game

These caps are for cold first messages. Answering someone who already wrote to you is far safer and does not need the same restraint.

The honest version. This is against Meta's terms of service. ManyChat and GoHighLevel automations run on endpoints Meta approves and hands out. This does not. It uses your own logged in session, which is why the limits above exist and why there is real risk to the account.

I have run this for over a year across multiple accounts without a problem, but I also pay for verification, spend real money on ads, and use the accounts normally every day. If your account is brand new, unverified, has never run an ad, and has no normal activity, you are the profile that gets suspended. Get the badge, run some ads, be a real user first.

Setup, in order

Four stages. Open each one as you get to it.

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