PM sent: the Facebook comment reply template
"PM sent" means a private message has been sent — a seller telling a commenter to check their inbox, or a buyer telling a seller they have already written. This template handles both, and does the thing that makes the phrase unnecessary: it answers in public and messages privately in the same rule.
Mixed. Some people search the phrase to find out what it means; the rest are sellers typing it forty times a day by hand. Both end up wanting the same rule.
Checked against the product on
When this fires
Paste these into the rule’s keyword list. Any one of them matching is enough — keywords are an OR list, not an AND list.
pm sentpm sent popm napm mo kopmedpm'dsent you a pmcheck pmdm sentinbox sent
How Mentbot reads them
- Matching is a plain substring test, not a whole-word test. A keyword matches anywhere inside the comment — which is why the list below matters.
- Case is ignored, and text is NFKC-folded first, so ＳＡＬＥ matches sale and full-width or styled characters still match.
- Thai, emoji and any other script work the same way: the comment is compared as text, with no language detection.
- Leading and trailing spaces in a keyword are trimmed, and a blank keyword row never matches anything.
The public reply
Add these as separate reply variants on the rule. Mentbot picks one at random each time a comment matches, so the same post does not fill up with one identical sentence.
- Variant 1
Checked ✅ Replying in your inbox now — look in Messenger, and in Message Requests if it isn't there.
For buyers telling you they have written.
- Variant 2
Got it! We've answered in Messenger 💬 If you can't find it, check your Message Requests folder.
- Variant 3
Thanks! Everything's in your inbox — price, sizes and shipping.
{comment} is replaced with the commenter’s own text. It is the only token Mentbot substitutes — there is no {name} or {page}.
The Messenger DM
The private reply Mentbot sends to the same commenter. On Facebook this is a Messenger private reply to the comment, so it only works while Facebook’s reply window for that comment is open.
Hi! Following up on your comment: "{comment}" Here's everything in one place — price, what's in stock, and how to order. Just reply here and we'll take it from there.
Settings to turn on
The four switches on the rule, and what this scenario needs from each.
| Setting | This template | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Reply once | On | Answers each commenter once per post for this rule — and an attempt Facebook refused still counts as that once. The same person commenting again on the same post gets nothing more from this rule, but a different rule can still answer them, and the same rule answers them again on a different post. |
| Mention the commenter | On Worth it here. The @mention pushes a notification to the commenter, which is the whole point when you are telling them to go look in Messenger. It applies to the public reply only — the Messenger message never carries it. | Puts an @mention of the commenter at the front of the public reply. It applies to the public reply only, never to the Messenger message. |
| Hide the comment | Off Leave visible. See the note on public pricing below. | Hides the comment once this rule has answered it. The author and their friends still see it; everyone else does not. Separate from your Page’s moderation filters, which run earlier. |
| Like the comment | On | Likes the comment from the Page, straight after the public reply goes out. |
Scope
Where the rule is allowed to fire.
The rule runs on every post but only on comments containing one of its keywords.
Keywords on every post. "PM sent" turns up under any post, old ones included.
When two rules could both answer
Exactly one rule answers a comment. Mentbot ranks every rule that qualifies and runs the most specific one; the rest are recorded as outranked, not run.
- A rule limited to a list of posts wins first — even if it also has keywords.
- Then a rule with a hashtag or keywords.
- Then the catch-all with neither.
- If two rules tie on that rank, the older one wins. There is no priority field to set.
What will not match
Comments a seller expects this rule to catch, and does not. Each one follows from the matching rules above.
| The comment | Why it does not fire |
|---|---|
| "pm" on its own | Not by accident — it is deliberately left off the keyword list. If you add it, it will match "we're open until 8pm" and every other time-of-day comment, because matching is substring-based and does not know what a word is. |
| A comment that is only 📩 or ✅ | A sticker carries no text, so a rule with keywords never matches it. An emoji-only comment is ordinary text, but none of the keywords above is an emoji. |
| A message someone actually sends you in Messenger | Reply rules run on comments on your Page's posts. A Messenger conversation is not a comment, so nothing here fires on it. What covers unanswered inbox messages is the Telegram unread alert, which fires once a conversation has waited past the thresholds you pick — 5, 15, 30, 60, 120 or 240 minutes. |
| "PM SENT" written in a comment on someone else's Page | Rules belong to a Page you have connected. Mentbot only sees comments on your own Pages' posts. |
What Mentbot will not do here
Stated plainly, so you do not build a workflow on top of something that is not there.
- Mentbot cannot tell whether a private message really was sent. "PM sent" is just text; the rule believes it.
- There is no way to check whether the commenter has an open Messenger conversation with you before replying. The private reply is attempted, and if Facebook refuses it the failure is recorded on the interaction.
Cost at your comment volume
Rules are not metered separately — you pay for comments handled per day across all your Pages, and every plan includes every feature. Prices come straight from the pricing page.
| Comments per day | Plan | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | Basic | $9 |
| 1,000 | Pro | $19 |
| 3,000 | Premium | $29 |
Unlimited Pages on every plan, and a 14-day free trial.
Questions
What does "PM sent" mean on Facebook?
PM is private message. "PM sent" means the person has sent you a direct message — usually in Messenger — and is telling you in the comments to go and read it. Sellers use it the other way round too: a buyer asks a price in public, the seller replies "PM sent" and answers privately.
Why do sellers reply "PM sent" instead of just saying the price?
Usually to keep prices away from competitors, or to start a conversation they can close in. It costs more than it saves. Every buyer who does not want to open Messenger scrolls past, and a comment section that reads "PM sent" forty times tells a new visitor nothing about what you sell or what it costs.
Is it a problem to hide prices behind a PM?
In the Philippines the Department of Trade and Industry has publicly discouraged "PM for price" selling, on the basis that buyers should be able to see what something costs without having to ask. Wherever you sell, the practical answer is the same: put the price, or at least a range, in the public reply, and use the Messenger message for the detail.
Can Mentbot reply in public and send the DM at the same time?
Yes — that is one rule, not two. A rule carries public comment reply variants and a Messenger reply together, and both fire when it wins. That is the setup on this page.
Does the @mention work on Instagram too?
It behaves differently. On Facebook the mention is a real tagged mention of the commenter. On Instagram it is a plain-text @handle, and if the commenter's username is not in the webhook payload the mention is quietly left out rather than posted broken.
Other templates
Related guide
The long-form version of this, and the tool comparisons.
Every behaviour on this page is checked against Mentbot’s own source. If the product changes and this page does not, tell us.