A Black Friday post with a few hundred comments is one of the most honest pieces of customer research a small brand gets all year. People ask what they actually want to know right before they buy: does it ship to Canada, does the code stack, what size should I get, when does it end. Most of those questions get a quick reply in the thread and then disappear under the next post.
This guide turns those comments into something you can use: a Google Sheet that lists every question, groups them by theme, and shows which ones came up most. It uses the free Instagram Comments Exporter from Lection and a few plain Sheets formulas. It takes about twenty minutes per post once you have done it once.
What you get out of it
By the end you will have:
- A list of unanswered questions. Comments with a question and no reply, so you can answer them while the sale is still running.
- Questions grouped by theme. Shipping, sizing, price and codes, stock, and so on, with a count for each.
- An FAQ draft. The five or six themes that came up most, written as short answers you can pin, add to the product page or use in your next sale post.
- Objections in your customers' own words. "Too expensive", "last year's broke", "does it really work". Those are worth reading before you plan the next campaign.
Step 1: Export the comments
- Install the free Lection extension and log in to Instagram in the same Chrome profile.
- Open the Instagram Comments Exporter, paste the URL of your sale post or Reel and load the comments.
- Download the CSV or Excel file and import it into a new Google Sheet: File, Import, Upload, then "Replace current sheet". Name the tab Raw.
Each row is one top-level comment, with the username, the comment text, the number of likes and the number of replies. Replies themselves are not separate rows. The full walkthrough is in how to export Instagram comments to Google Sheets.
When to export: once during the sale, to catch questions you have not answered yet, and once a few days after it ends, for the full picture. If you ran several sale posts (a teaser, the launch, a "last day" post), export each one into its own tab and add a column with the post name, then stack them on one tab before the next steps.
Step 2: Flag the questions
Copy the Raw tab and name the copy Work, so the original stays untouched. Assume the comment text is in column B, starting at row 2. Add a helper column called Question and put this in the first row:
=IF(REGEXMATCH(LOWER(B2), "[?]|how |does |do you|is it|is there|can i|when |where |which |what "), "yes", "")
Fill it down. A comment is flagged if it has a question mark or contains one of the usual question openers. People often skip the question mark ("does this ship to uk"), which is why the word list is there.
Then filter the Question column to "yes". On a typical sale post, many comments are emoji, tags of friends and "need this", so the question list is usually much shorter than the export. Skim it once: the formula will catch a few rhetorical ones ("how is this so cheap") and miss a few odd phrasings. That is fine. You are looking for patterns, not a perfect count.
If your audience comments in another language, add that language's question words to the list, for example "cómo |cuándo |hay |envían" for Spanish.
Step 3: Group them by theme
Add a second helper column called Theme:
=IFS(
REGEXMATCH(LOWER(B2), "ship|deliver|arriv|customs|international"), "Shipping",
REGEXMATCH(LOWER(B2), "size|fit|small|large|measure"), "Sizing",
REGEXMATCH(LOWER(B2), "price|cost|code|discount|coupon|stack|%"), "Price and codes",
REGEXMATCH(LOWER(B2), "stock|restock|sold out|available|back in"), "Stock",
REGEXMATCH(LOWER(B2), "ends|ending|end date|until|midnight|still on|last day"), "Sale timing",
REGEXMATCH(LOWER(B2), "return|refund|exchange|warranty"), "Returns",
TRUE, "Other"
)
Edit the keywords for your products. A skincare brand will want an "Ingredients" theme; an electronics brand will want "Compatibility". Put the most specific themes first, because IFS stops at the first match.
Read the "Other" rows once. If several of them are about the same thing, add a theme for it and let the formula re-sort.
Step 4: Count what came up most
On a new tab called Summary, list the themes and the number of questions for each:
=QUERY(Work!A:Z, "select F, count(F) where E = 'yes' group by F order by count(F) desc", 1)
Change E and F to the letters of your Question and Theme columns. The result is a short table: the theme people asked about most at the top.
Likes help here too. A question with 40 likes is 40 people who wanted the same answer. Sort the question list by the Likes column to see which ones mattered most, even if they only appear once.
Step 5: Build the reply list
During the sale, the most useful view is "questions nobody has answered yet". The Replies column shows how many replies each comment has. Filter the Work tab to:
- Question = "yes"
- Replies = 0
That is your reply list. Work through it on Instagram, oldest first, and mark each row as done in a Status column. For a busy post, sort by Likes first so the questions more people care about get answered first.
A comment with a reply count above zero is not always answered. The reply might be from a friend, not from you. If it matters, open the thread and check.
Step 6: Turn the top themes into an FAQ
Take the top five or six themes from the Summary tab. For each one, read the questions and write one short answer. For example:
| Theme | Typical question | Answer to publish |
|---|---|---|
| Shipping | "Do you ship to Canada?" | Where you ship, and the cutoff date for delivery before the holidays |
| Price and codes | "Does the code work on bundles?" | Whether codes stack, and which items are excluded |
| Sizing | "I'm between sizes, which one?" | A one-line fit note, and a link to the size chart |
| Sale timing | "Is this still on tomorrow?" | The exact end time, with the time zone |
Then use the answers where they will save you the most replies:
- Pin a comment with the two most asked answers on the next sale post.
- Add them to the caption of the Cyber Monday or "last chance" post, before people have to ask.
- Put them on the product page or the FAQ page of your store.
- Save them as quick replies in your Instagram inbox for the questions that arrive by DM.
Step 7: Read the objections
Questions tell you what people needed to know. Objections tell you why some of them did not buy. Filter the Work tab for comments that are not questions but sound hesitant: "too expensive", "wish it came in", "mine broke", "is this legit". You will not get many, and some are just noise. The ones that repeat are worth a line in your notes for next year's sale, or a direct answer in the next post.
Keep the commenters out of this part. You are reading what people said, not building a list of who said it.
Doing the same on YouTube
If you also posted a Black Friday video, the free YouTube Comments Exporter gives you the same kind of sheet for a video, and the formulas above work the same way: the comment text is in column B there too, and it also has a Replies column. The walkthrough is in how to export YouTube comments to Google Sheets.
Limits to know about
- Top-level comments only. Replies are counted, not exported, so a question asked as a reply to someone else will not be in the sheet.
- You need to be logged in. The exporter reads what your own Instagram login can see, in your own browser.
- Instagram's rate limits apply. Very large posts can stall partway. Wait a few minutes and load again, and compare the row count against the post's displayed total, which includes replies.
- A keyword filter is rough. It will misfile a few comments. Skim the results before you act on the counts.
- DMs are not included. Many sale questions arrive by direct message. This guide only covers what people asked in public.
- Handle the data with care. Comments include people's usernames and words. Use them to improve your answers, keep the sheet private, and delete it when you no longer need it.
Repeating it every sale
Save the Work tab with the formulas as a template. Next sale, paste the new export into Raw, copy it to Work and the Summary updates itself. Over a few campaigns you get a simple record of what customers kept asking, and whether last year's FAQ answered it.
If you want comment exports to land in Google Sheets on a schedule during a long sale, instead of downloading them by hand, start the 30-day Standard trial. It is free for 30 days, then $29 per month, a card is required, and it is for first-time subscribers only. It unlocks Google Sheets delivery, hourly to weekly schedules and 20 URLs per run. You do not need it for anything in this guide: the free exporter and a spreadsheet are enough.
FAQ
Can I export comments from my Black Friday post for free? Yes. The Instagram Comments Exporter is free and has no comment cap. You need the Lection extension and an Instagram login in the same browser.
Does it work on Reels and carousel posts? Yes. Paste the Reel or post URL. Each row is one top-level comment.
Can I see which questions I have not answered? Partly. Filter for questions with zero replies. A reply count above zero means someone replied, not necessarily you, so check the threads that matter.
Does it include DMs? No. It only reads public comments on the post.
Can I use this on a competitor's sale post? You can export any public post your login can see. The questions on a competitor's post can show what buyers in your category worry about. Use what you learn to write better answers, not to contact their commenters.