Setup guide

What you need before your first DM

instaoutreach runs through a Chrome extension in your own browser, on your own internet connection and your own Instagram login. No proxy to buy, no Instagram password to hand over. Setup takes a few minutes. Here is what you need, the three setup steps, and what running it day to day looks like.

What you need

Chrome on a desktop computer. Chrome 114 or newer. The extension does not run on a phone.
Your Instagram account, logged in in that Chrome. Use an account you own or are authorized to manage. We only need its username.
An instaoutreach account. The free trial covers one Instagram account, no card required.

1. Add your Instagram username

In the dashboard, open Accounts and add your Instagram username. You can also skip this and type the username in the extension when you connect.

Username only. No password, no 2FA key, no proxy. The extension uses the Instagram session that is already logged in in your browser.

2. Download and load the extension

For now you install the extension from your dashboard instead of the Chrome Web Store. It takes about two minutes.

Open the Extension page in your dashboard and download the zip.
Unzip it to a folder you will keep. Chrome loads the extension from that folder.
Open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, click Load unpacked and pick the folder. A connect tab opens by itself.
About the warning: Chrome shows a Developer-mode notice when it starts. That is Chrome's standard notice for any extension loaded this way, and it is safe to dismiss.
Updating on a Mac: the dashboard shows one Terminal command that updates the extension for you.

3. Sign in, pick the account, press Start

Sign in inside the extension with your instaoutreach email and password. It is used once to create a key for that browser and is not stored.
Type or pick your Instagram username.
Choose a pace: Balanced (the default) or Conservative.
Open Instagram and press Start. Then create a campaign in the dashboard.

4. A target list

These are the Instagram handles you want to reach: people who don't follow you yet but fit your ideal customer.

Where to find them: followers of competitor or complementary accounts, people using a niche hashtag, or engagers on relevant posts.
How to add them: in a campaign, paste handles one per line (or comma-separated). Start with a few hundred. Quality beats volume.
Tighter targeting means higher reply rates. A relevant list of 200 outperforms a random list of 2,000.

5. Your booking calendar (optional, 2 minutes)

Connect Calendly or Cal.com and the loop closes itself: when a prospect books, the lead moves to booked and its remaining follow-ups stop. Skip this and everything else still works; you just mark bookings by hand.

Paste your booking link into Settings, or into a specific reply agent if each client has their own calendar. The AI shares it when a prospect is ready, not before.
Copy your webhook URL from Settings → Booking calendar. In Calendly add it under Integrations → Webhooks for invitee.created and invitee.canceled; in Cal.com under Settings → Developer → Webhooks for booking created and cancelled.
Paste the signing secret back into the same panel. Without it we cannot prove a booking really came from your calendar, so do not skip this step.

Running it day to day

It only runs while that browser is open. Close Chrome or shut the computer and the account pauses. Nothing is lost: campaigns, leads and progress pick up again when you reopen it. This is the trade for running on your own IP and your own Instagram session. Keep the browser open during the active hours you set.
It works like a person would. It drives the real Instagram interface with human-paced clicks, typing and scrolling, not a private API.
The dashboard stays in charge. The extension follows the same campaigns, sequences, daily limits and active hours you set in the dashboard.
You can take over any time. Pause from the side panel or the toolbar popup. The moment you touch the Instagram tab, it stops and waits for you.

What we handle for you

Warmup. Every new account is warmed automatically for days before any DM: browsing, liking, light activity. Warmup days count on days the extension is running. You'll see the day-by-day progress on the account card.

Safe pacing. DMs only go out during human hours, under per-account and daily caps, with automatic backoff when Instagram pushes back.

Replies & booking. Incoming replies land in one inbox, get classified by intent, and the AI setter can draft responses that steer toward a booked call, with your approval.

Account health. We track each account's health and pause anything risky.

Account safety: the honest part

Automation always carries some risk of restriction, even on careful, well-paced accounts. Running from your own IP and your own Instagram session, at human pace, lowers that risk. It does not remove it. We'd rather tell you this up front.

Don't connect an account you can't afford to lose. A secondary account dedicated to outreach is safer than your main brand account.
Pick the pace that fits. Balanced is the default. Choose Conservative if you want it to go slower.
If an account gets actioned, don't fight it. We auto-pause risky accounts. Let it cool off. Hammering a flagged account only makes things worse.
The extension sees two sites only. On instagram.com it reads the page and clicks, types and scrolls to carry out your campaign actions. On instaoutreach.com it asks what to do next and reports results. It has no access to any other site, your history, your bookmarks or your saved passwords.
We can't un-ban an account. Nobody reliably can. Our job is to make restrictions rare (warmup, human pacing, health pauses). If you're stuck, message support and we'll help you get back up and running.

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