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How to sell event tickets on Instagram

How to turn Instagram posts, stories and DMs into paid bookings for your workshop or event, and how a booking chatbot can answer DMs and sell tickets inside the chat.

By the Zittle team ·

For workshop hosts in India, Instagram is where most bookings begin. Someone sees your reel, taps your profile and sends a DM: “Price?” From there, every step to a paid booking is a chance to lose them. You reply three hours later, they’ve moved on, or they ask for the dates and never come back.

Selling on Instagram gets easier when every path, whether a bio link, a story or a DM, leads straight to a page where they can book and pay. Here’s how to set that up.

Make your profile do the selling

Your profile is the first thing people check after a post catches their eye.

  • Say what you host and where in your bio. “Pottery workshops for beginners in Hyderabad” is clearer than a tagline.
  • Put your booking link in your bio. Link to your booking website, not a form you have to follow up by hand.
  • Pin a post with your upcoming dates, so new visitors see what they can book right now.
  • Use story highlights for FAQs, past sessions and reviews.

It works the other way round too. When you connect Instagram to your Zittle website, the homepage shows your profile and recent posts with a Follow button, so people who find your website first can see your work and follow you.

Put a booking link everywhere you post

Every post and story should make it obvious how to book.

  • Stories: use the link sticker, pointing to the specific event page, not your homepage.
  • Posts and reels: include the date, price and “link in bio” in the caption.
  • Track what works. In your Zittle dashboard, Campaign Link on the Products page makes a separate link for each place you share it. Make one for your bio, another for stories, and another for a paid ad. Each booking then shows which link it came from.

If you run Instagram ads, add your Meta Pixel under Integrations, so Meta can see which ads lead to bookings.

Answer DMs in seconds, not hours

DMs are where most bookings are won or lost. Someone asking “Price?” at 11 PM is ready to book now, not when you wake up.

You can save quick replies with your booking link. But the guest still has to leave the chat, find the right event, and book on their own. A booking chatbot goes further: the guest picks an event, a date and a ticket without leaving Instagram.

How the Zittle Instagram chatbot works

With the Zittle Instagram chatbot, anyone who messages your account gets an instant reply, and can book in a few taps:

  1. A welcome message with two buttons: Explore Workshops, and Chat with Us for questions the bot can’t answer.
  2. Your events as cards, each with a photo, the title, the starting price and the venue. If you run events in several cities, the guest picks a city first.
  3. Dates and times: the guest picks a date, then a time.
  4. Tickets: your packages appear with their prices, including any deposit split, such as “Pay ₹600 now and Pay ₹1,200 at the venue”. The guest chooses a package and the number of tickets.
  5. A Pay Now button that opens your booking website with everything already selected, ready to pay.

The bot only handles booking. When a guest taps Chat with Us, it stops replying to their text messages for a day, so you can answer in your own words. You can also switch it off any time with Pause Chatbot on the Integrations page.

The Instagram Stats page in your dashboard shows how chats turn into bookings: how many started booking, how many reached payment, and how many completed it.

Connecting it

You need an Instagram Business account. Connect it yourself under Integrations in your dashboard, which also shows your Instagram profile and recent posts on your website’s homepage. The chatbot is then set up by the Zittle team for now, so contact Zittle support to turn it on.

An AI-powered option

Zittle also offers an AI-powered Instagram chatbot that can understand guests’ questions in their own words. It’s charged by usage, based on the messages it sends and receives. Contact Zittle support if you’d like to try it.

Take it to WhatsApp, too

Many guests move from Instagram to WhatsApp, or find you there first. Zittle has a WhatsApp booking chatbot that works in a similar way:

  1. New guests register with their name and email, in a short form inside WhatsApp.
  2. They choose a city, event, venue and date in a form, and see the event details to confirm.
  3. They pick a package and the number of tickets, and can apply a coupon code.
  4. A Make Payment button opens your booking website to pay.

To use it, you need a verified Meta Business Manager account and a WhatsApp Business account with WhatsApp Flows turned on. The Zittle team connects it for you, so contact Zittle support to get started.

What happens after they pay

Once a guest books, from Instagram, WhatsApp or your website, Zittle takes over the follow-up:

  • A confirmation on WhatsApp and by email.
  • A reminder on WhatsApp about six hours before the session, for bookings made at least a day ahead.
  • A feedback request after the session, which you can turn into reviews and more Instagram content.

A quick checklist

  • Your bio says what you host and where, with your booking link.
  • Your upcoming dates are pinned.
  • Every story about a date has a link sticker to that event.
  • You use a separate campaign link for your bio, stories and ads.
  • DMs get an answer right away, from you or a chatbot.

The fewer steps between a post and a payment, the more of your followers become guests.