I Used ManyChat for 2 Months — Here’s What Actually Happened 🔥

Over the past three months, I grew my Instagram account to 67,000 followers and generated millions of views across my content.

During that time, I decided to run an experiment.

I wanted to find out whether ManyChat’s automated DM system could generate more sales for my OpenArt affiliate program than my regular content.

Here are my honest and transparent results.

Why I Tried ManyChat

ManyChat allows you to automatically send direct messages to people who interact with your Instagram content.

In theory, it sounds like a great way to capture leads and drive traffic to an offer without manually messaging people.

My goal was simple:

• Generate leads through automated DMs
• Send them to my OpenArt affiliate offer
• Measure actual conversions and sales

The Results

The good news?

ManyChat generated hundreds of automated DMs and successfully drove a large number of people to my affiliate offer.

The bad news?

Not a single person purchased a subscription through those automated DMs.

That’s right.

0 sales. 0 conversions. 0 paying customers.

Meanwhile, the people who actually purchased OpenArt subscriptions came from my YouTube tutorial videos, not from ManyChat.

What I Learned

This taught me an important lesson:

ManyChat is excellent at generating clicks and traffic, but it doesn’t necessarily generate buyers.

In other words:

Click Rate

ManyChat > Content

ManyChat can get more people to click a link because the process is automated and frictionless.

Conversion Rate (CTA)

Content > ManyChat

People who watched my tutorials already understood the product, saw its value, and trusted my recommendation.

As a result, they were much more likely to purchase.

Think of ManyChat Like Paid Advertising

After using it for two months, I don’t see ManyChat as a sales tool.

I see it more like Facebook Ads or Instagram Ads.

You’re paying money to generate traffic and leads, but you still need a strong sales process afterward.

Another thing many creators don’t realize is that ManyChat can become expensive.

The platform charges based on the number of contacts you manage, and serious campaigns often require far more contacts than the lower-tier plans allow.

To generate meaningful results, you’ll likely need to continue increasing your budget—just like running paid ads.

Who Should Use ManyChat?

Businesses and Companies

I would recommend ManyChat if:

• You have a proven product
• You already understand your sales funnel
• You have a budget for lead generation
• You’re willing to spend money to acquire customers

For businesses, ManyChat can be an effective way to collect leads at scale.

Solo Creators and Entrepreneurs

For most solo creators, I would not recommend relying heavily on ManyChat.

Instead, focus on creating:

• Educational content
• Tutorials
• Product demonstrations
• Case studies
• Valuable content that builds trust

In my experience, content-driven marketing generated significantly higher-quality leads and conversions than automated DMs.

Final Verdict

After two months of testing, here’s my conclusion:

Clicks

ManyChat wins.

Sales & Conversions

Content wins.

ManyChat generated more clicks, but my content generated more customers.

If you’re a solo creator with limited resources, you may be better off investing your time and money into creating valuable content rather than paying for automated DM campaigns.

Because at the end of the day:

Traffic is nice. Conversions are what matter.