Automation
Your automation connects a brand to the groups it watches, and decides how it engages with them.
Every brand has exactly one, created with the brand. You do not add or delete them — changing what a brand does means changing its automation, and a second brand gets its own.
Sources
This is where your automation looks. Choose any mix of:
- All groups. Grows on its own as you add groups.
- A collection. A named set you maintain elsewhere.
- A single group.
Whichever you choose, an automation only ever reaches groups on its own Facebook account — the library it draws from is that account's. Sources decide which part of it.
Add source both adds and removes. Anything already on the automation is ticked in the list — pick it again to take it off, or use the × on its chip. Taking a source off never touches the collection or the group itself; it only stops this automation reading it.
With nothing here there is nothing to read, and runs will tell you so.
Settings
Each setting sits on the stage it governs, next to the number that stage produced.
| Stage | Setting | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule | Frequency | Manual, or scheduled at the interval you choose. |
| Schedule | Quiet hours | A window each day when nothing starts. |
| Groups | Sources | Which groups this automation reads. |
| Groups | Posts per group | How deep to read in each group on every run. |
| Groups | Skip low-performing groups | Stop reading groups that have cost you credits and returned no replies. |
| Qualify | Minimum relevance | How closely a post must match your brand before a reply is drafted. |
| Qualify | Custom instructions | Anything specific you want the writer to know. |
| Publish | Post as | Which profile or Page replies are published from. |
| Publish | Post automatically | Whether approved replies go out on their own. |
| Publish | Comment once per person | Whether one person gets one reply, however many groups they post in. |
Minimum relevance
Raise it and you get fewer, better leads. Lower it and you get more, with more noise.
Start around the default and adjust after reading a batch in Leads. If everything looks weak, raise it. If Leads is empty and the groups are busy, lower it.
Posts per group
This applies to each group separately, not shared between them.
Ten posts per group across twelve groups reads up to a hundred and twenty posts. Adding a thirteenth group does not make the other twelve shallower.
Depth multiplies by your group count
Every post read costs credits and takes time, so the number that matters is depth times groups, not depth alone. Twenty posts across forty groups is eight hundred reads a run — most of a monthly allowance in a day on an hourly schedule, and several hours of work each time.
The Groups stage shows all three as you move the slider: the run total, what it costs, and roughly how long it takes.
Your plan sets the maximum depth.
Skip low-performing groups
Off by default. Turn it on and your automation stops reading groups that have been given a fair try and returned nothing.
"Low-performing" means no replies at all, after however many posts you set under Minimum posts. A group that has written even one reply is never skipped, however long ago. The count is posts read for this brand — a group your other brand reads hard does not get judged on that.
Minimum posts protects new groups. A group added last week that has produced nothing has not failed, it has barely been asked, so nothing is skipped until it has been read that many times.
Recheck skipped groups
On by default, and worth leaving on. A skipped group rests for the number of days you choose, then gets one full read to see whether anything changed — Facebook groups do go quiet and come back.
Turn it off and skipping is permanent: the group is never read again until you bring it back yourself. Nothing recovers on its own.
Skipped groups are listed under the switch, each with what it cost — posts read, no replies — and when it will be rechecked. Restore puts one back for good, and it will not be skipped again even if it still matches.
Nothing is deleted. A skipped group keeps its history, stays in your library and stays on your sources, so you can see it again the moment you want it back.
Quiet hours
A daily window when nothing starts, in your own timezone.
Worth setting if you would rather not reply overnight.
Post automatically
This is the setting that matters most.
- Off. Every reply waits for you in Leads. Nothing reaches Facebook until you approve it.
- On. A reply goes out as soon as it is written, while the run is still working through the group it came from.
Read a batch of drafts before turning this on
Turning it on means replies are published in your name without review.
There is no half setting. Either you are reviewing replies or the automation is running on its own.
Replies used to wait until the whole run had finished reading, which on a large automation meant hours. Now a post is read, judged, answered and replied to before the next post is read — so a reply lands while the post is still near the top of the group.
Replies are deliberately spaced a few minutes apart, so a busy run does not look like a machine working through a list.
Comment once per person
Off by default. The same person often posts into several of your groups — sometimes the same words, on the same day. Turn this on and only one of those posts gets a reply.
It counts people, not posts. Your automation already never reads the same post twice; this is the separate problem of one person and several posts. Over half the posts collected come from someone who posts in more than one group, and one person turns up in fourteen.
Each of your brands is counted on its own. Two brands can both reply to the same person, in their own voice, which is usually right — they are different businesses saying different things.
Comment on their later posts
On by default. After the number of days you choose, that person becomes a fresh opportunity and can be replied to again — someone who asks in March and asks again in June is asking twice.
Turn it off and one reply is the only one they ever get from this brand.
Fourteen days is the default because repeat posting is a burst, not a drip: nine times in ten a repeat post arrives within a day of the last one, and fourteen days covers virtually all of it.
Nothing is hidden. A post passed over still appears in Leads with its full score, marked Already commented, so you can reply by hand whenever it is worth it. Someone posting the same request in six groups is a more motivated lead, not a worse one.
A handful of posts arrive without a usable link to their author's profile. Those people cannot be recognised across groups, so they are never passed over — the setting errs towards replying rather than towards silence.
Scheduling
Choose Manual or Scheduled.
- Manual runs only when you press Run now.
- Scheduled runs at the interval you set, in hours, days or weeks.
Nothing runs more often than once an hour. How short the interval may be depends on your plan: Free runs manually only, Starter goes down to weekly, Pro to daily, and Business to hourly.
Runs never overlap
Only one run of an automation happens at a time. If a run is still going when the next is due, the next one waits and starts as soon as the first finishes. Nothing is skipped and nothing doubles up.
That means how long a run takes is your real minimum interval. Setting an hourly schedule on a run that takes four hours gives you a run every four hours, not four runs at once. The Schedule stage says so when it spots the mismatch.
The estimate comes from your own past runs once there are a few to measure, so it gets more accurate as you use it. To actually run more often, read fewer posts per group or watch fewer groups.
Saving a schedule does not start it
Press Start schedule when you are ready, and Stop schedule to pause it again. The button in the header always shows what will happen next.
While a schedule is running there is no one-off run. Switch back to Manual if you need one.
Losing your Facebook connection stops the schedule
Facebook signs sessions out from time to time. When that happens your automation is stopped for you, exactly as if you had pressed Stop schedule — the settings are all kept, and the header goes back to offering Start schedule.
It is stopped rather than left waiting so the page tells you the truth: a schedule that cannot run should not be counting down to a run that is not coming.
Reconnecting does not start it again. Reconnect the account on the Connections page, then press Start schedule — that way nothing you deliberately stopped comes back on by itself.
Post as
If your Facebook account manages Pages, choose whether replies come from your personal profile or from a Page.
The list offers only Pages on this automation's own Facebook account, because that is the account every one of its runs posts through. If the Page you picked is later removed or deactivated, replies come from that account's profile instead, so the run keeps going rather than failing every reply.
Running one by hand
Press Run now. Each stage reports what reached it as the run works:
- Posts found — what the Groups stage collected.
- Written — replies drafted, and how many of those are waiting for you.
- Posted — replies actually published to Facebook.
All three move together, because the run does all three at once rather than one after another.
The Schedule stage carries no count of its own; it reports when the next run lands.
Stopping a run does not unsend replies
Stop prevents the next reply. Anything already published is live on Facebook and stays there — delete it on Facebook if you need it gone.
If a run comes back quiet, the pipeline says where things stopped. Usually one of:
- Every group was already up to date
- Most posts were not worth answering
- Replies are written and waiting for you in Leads
- Your credits ran out