If you are using Growman to feed leads into your ColdDMsPro campaigns, you need to scrape smart. Here is the definitive guide to using Growman without getting your account nuked.

The Golden Rule: Segregate Church and State

The single biggest mistake users make is scraping with their main outreach account.

Do not do this.

Growman works by automating profile visits on your browser. If you use your main business account (the one you use to send DMs and build your brand) to scrape 5,000 emails, you are putting your entire business reputation at risk.

The Fix: The "Burner" Strategy

1. Create "Scraper" Accounts: Set up secondary, "burner" Instagram accounts specifically for running Growman.

2. Scrape with the Burner: Log into the burner account on Chrome and run the Growman extension to extract your data.

3. Export & Switch: Download the Excel file from Growman.

4. Import to ColdDMsPro: Take that clean CSV/Excel list and import it into your main account’s outreach tool.

If the burner account gets banned, you lose nothing but a few minutes of setup time. Your main account remains safe, clean, and ready to send DMs.

Understanding the "Speed Limit"

Instagram has strict API limits on how many profiles a user can view in a specific timeframe. Since Growman visits profiles to extract data, it eats up these limits quickly.

If you act like a bot, you get treated like a bot.

Recommended Safety Settings

Growman has a "Interval" or delay setting. Never set this to 0 or "Fast."

• Safe Interval: Set the delay between requests to at least 10–15 seconds. It is slower, but speed is irrelevant if you are banned.

• Daily Caps: Do not try to scrape 10,000 leads in one afternoon.

  • New Accounts: Limit to <500 profiles per day.

  • Aged Accounts: Limit to ~1,000–1,500 profiles per day.

• The "Cool Down": After every 200–300 extractions, pause the tool for 30 minutes. This mimics human behavior (scrolling, taking a break, coming back).

Avoid "Fingerprint" Linking

Instagram is smart. If your burner account (doing the scraping) and your main account (sending the DMs) are running on the same IP address at the exact same time, Instagram can link them. If one goes down, the other might get "shadowbanned" or restricted.

How to de-risk your connection:

• Don't multi-task: Do not run Growman on one tab while manually liking/DMing on another tab with a different account.

• Use a different browser profile: Chrome allows you to create multiple "People" or profiles. Keep your scraping tools in one Chrome profile and your daily business in another.

• VPN/4G Proxies: If you are scaling up, ensure your scraping happens on a different IP address than your main outreach. The simplest way is to run your scraper on a 4G mobile proxy, which Instagram trusts more than standard Wi-Fi.

  
  

Warm Up Your Scrapers

You cannot create a brand new Instagram account today and scrape 2,000 accounts tomorrow. That is an immediate red flag.

The 7-Day Warm-up Protocol for Burner Accounts:

• Day 1-3: Create the account, add a profile pic, bio, and make 3-5 posts. Follow 10-20 real people manually.

• Day 4: Run Growman for only 50 leads.

• Day 5: Run Growman for 150 leads.

• Day 6: Run Growman for 300 leads.

• Day 7+: Scale up to the daily caps mentioned above.

Summary: The Perfect Workflow

To keep your lead flow consistent and your accounts safe, follow this exact loop:

1. Source: Use a Burner Account + Growman to scrape the data (emails/usernames).

2. Clean: Export the data to Excel/CSV. Remove duplicates or incomplete profiles.

3. Reach Out: Import the clean list into ColdDMsPro or your preferred outreach tool.

4. Profit: Let your main account do what it does best—closing deals—while your burner accounts do the dirty work.

Need a safe way to send DMs once you have your leads? Check out the ColdDMsPro free trial to automate your outreach without the risk.