Lead Connectors

Lead Connectors let your workspace accept leads from outside Clean Estimate Pro without creating a separate lead-import workflow for every source.

Use Settings > Integrations > Lead Connectors to:

• create connector profiles for trusted API imports, website forms, and forwarded emails
• map outside field names onto CE Pro lead fields
• apply defaults like source labels, assigned reps, notes prefixes, and speed-to-lead behavior
• test imports safely before going live
• review low-confidence email parses before a lead is created
• inspect recent import attempts, replays, and failures

If you are connecting Facebook, Instagram, or Google lead forms, start with the dedicated setup pages first:

• Meta Lead Ads
• Google Lead Ads

Those guided screens create the native webhook connectors for you and leave this screen for advanced tuning after the easy setup path is done.

What A Connector Does

Every connector normalizes outside payloads into the same shared lead-intake pipeline used by the rest of CE Pro.

That means imported leads still go through the same core behavior for:

• client merge or create
• lead creation
• source tagging
• territory-based assignment fallback
• speed-to-lead automations when enabled
• duplicate suppression when an external id is provided

The connector page is the control panel. The real lead creation still happens through the shared intake system behind the scenes.

Connector Types In Phase 1

The current production phase supports five connector types:

API Connector

Use this for:

• Zapier
• Make
• middleware or worker services
• custom CRMs
• trusted server-to-server integrations

API connectors use your CE Pro API key plus the connector key shown in the connector detail card.

Website Form Connector

Use this when:

• you want a public website form to post directly into CE Pro
• you need a connector-specific public endpoint without exposing a long-lived API key in browser code

The connector card shows the public endpoint for that form.

Email Forward Connector

Use this when:

• your marketing inbox, form inbox, or forwarded lead emails should become leads automatically
• you want the parser to attempt extraction from unstructured emails
• you want low-confidence emails held for review instead of blindly creating bad leads

Meta Connector

Use this when:

• Facebook lead ads or Instagram lead ads should create CE Pro leads
• you want Meta webhook intake to land on the same shared connector pipeline
• you want the easy setup path from Settings > Integrations > Meta Lead Ads, but still want the advanced connector available here afterward

CE Pro now enforces one active connector per provider and transport combination inside a workspace. Meta lead ads now also have a dedicated guided setup page under Settings > Integrations > Meta Lead Ads, but the underlying connector still lives here once it is created. The Meta guided setup now works like a real connection flow: click Connect Meta, approve the Meta login, choose the page if needed, and CE Pro subscribes the page to leadgen for you instead of asking the workspace to paste page ids and webhook tokens manually. If no active email-forward connector exists, inbound emails are still routed and logged, but CE Pro will not auto-create a lead from the parser fallback. If the app deploy lands before the workspace database migrations, the Integrations area now stays available and the Lead Connectors screen shows a migration-required notice instead of a generic error page. The Lead Connectors page now shows your saved workspace email slug, only displays a full forwarding address when inbound email routing is actually configured, and includes a direct link back to this guide so the forwarding setup is easier to follow in-product.

Google Ads Connector

Use this when:

• Google lead forms should create CE Pro leads
• you want Google webhook intake to land on the same shared connector pipeline
• you want the easy setup path from Settings > Integrations > Google Lead Ads, but still want the advanced connector available here afterward

CE Pro now enforces one active connector per provider and transport combination inside a workspace. Google lead forms now also have a dedicated guided setup page under Settings > Integrations > Google Lead Ads, but the underlying connector still lives here once it is created.

Creating A Connector

1. Open Settings > Integrations > Lead Connectors.
2. Enter a Display Name that tells your team what the source is.
3. Choose the Provider and Transport.
4. Set the connector to Draft while you configure it.
5. Add an optional Source Label such as website_form, meta, google_ads, or email_forward.

If you leave Source Label blank, CE Pro now falls back to the connector provider key, so email-forward connectors still land as email_forward instead of a generic connector source.

1. Choose an Assigned Rep if this connector should default to one person.
2. Add a Notes Prefix if you want every imported lead to carry source context.
3. Turn Trigger speed-to-lead on or off depending on whether imported leads should immediately fire the normal follow-up flow.
4. For email connectors, set an Email review threshold like 0.65 or 0.75 if uncertain parses should pause for human review.
5. Save the connector.

Leave connectors in Draft until the mapping and test import look right.

Field Mapping

Outside systems rarely use the same field names CE Pro expects. Use Field Aliases to tell CE Pro which incoming fields map to which lead fields.

Common examples:

• full_name -> customer_name
• phone_number -> customer_phone
• street_address -> service_address
• requested_service -> service_interest
• message -> notes
• leadgen_id or provider message id -> external_id
• lead_id -> external_id

If a connector sends standard CE Pro field names already, you can leave most aliases blank.

API Connector Setup

API connectors are the best fit for trusted server-to-server lead intake.

Recommended Request Pattern

• Use a scoped CE Pro API key with leads:write
• POST to /api/v1/leads
• Include the connector key in connector_key
• Send Idempotency-Key on every request
• Send external_id whenever the upstream system provides a stable id

Example payload:

{
  "connector_key": "lc_live_abc123",
  "customer_name": "Pat Example",
  "customer_email": "pat@example.com",
  "customer_phone": "(717) 555-1212",
  "service_address": "123 Main St",
  "city": "Lancaster",
  "state": "PA",
  "zip": "17601",
  "service_interest": "House Wash",
  "notes": "Requested from landing page",
  "external_id": "lead-12345"
}

Use the upstream lead id as both external_id and the Idempotency-Key when possible. That gives CE Pro the cleanest replay protection.

Google Ads Connector Setup

Google Ads connectors are best created from the dedicated Google Lead Ads page.

That guided page:

• generates the Google verification key for you
• shows the webhook URL Google needs
• saves the optional form id if you want tighter routing
• keeps the underlying connector editable here afterward

Google test payloads appear in Recent Imports so your team can verify delivery, but CE Pro does not create a live lead from Google's built-in sample payload.

Website Form Connector Setup

Website form connectors are meant for browser-based form posts.

Use them when you want:

• a connector-specific public endpoint
• connector defaults and source tagging applied automatically
• a safer browser path than exposing a private API key

The connector detail card shows the public endpoint for that connector.

Best practices:

• keep the connector in Draft until you test the endpoint
• submit a sample form through the Run Test Import button first
• map your website field names before embedding the form live
• still include an external id if your frontend or middleware can provide one
• CE Pro applies both IP-based throttling and contact-aware throttling on the public endpoint to slow down spam bursts and repeated form abuse

Email Forward Connector Setup

Email-forward connectors let CE Pro parse lead information from inbound emails.

Use them for:

• marketing platform notifications
• inbox-forwarded form fills
• referral emails
• vendor or partner lead emails

Forwarded lead notifications that put labels and values on separate lines, like:

Name
Kathy Kline
Email
customer@example.com
Phone
(717) 555-1212
Address
123 Main St
Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17601

are now supported directly by the parser.

Email connectors add two important controls:

• Parser confidence scoring
• a Review Queue for low-confidence imports

When an email parse falls below your configured threshold, CE Pro stores the raw message preview and the normalized lead candidate, then waits for someone to approve or reject the import.

When a forwarded email does create a lead, CE Pro keeps the connector-specific lead-source label for reporting while storing the client record under a database-safe intake category behind the scenes. That means email-forward imports no longer fail just because the parser source label is more specific than the older client-source whitelist.

That protects the pipeline from bad parses like:

• partial signatures
• reply chains without enough contact detail
• forwarded threads with multiple contacts in the same body

Email Parser Quick Start

1. Open Settings > Integrations > Lead Connectors.
2. Create or edit a connector with Provider = Email Forward and Transport = Email Inbound.
3. Set the connector to Active.
4. Pick an Email review threshold like 0.65 if you want uncertain parses to pause for review.
5. Confirm the live inbound email address shown at the top of the page.
6. Create a forwarding rule in your mailbox provider that sends lead emails to that address.
7. Watch Recent Imports for successful parses and Review Queue for low-confidence emails.

The forwarding address uses your workspace email reply-to slug, but CE Pro only shows the full mailbox address after inbound email routing is configured for the current environment.

When a forwarded email first lands, CE Pro may wait a couple of seconds before parsing it so the full message body is available from the inbound mail provider. That short delay is normal.

If the provider fires the webhook before the full message body is ready, CE Pro now keeps polling for longer and asks the provider to retry instead of logging a blank inbound email and silently skipping the lead import.

Until that happens, the page still shows your saved slug so you know what mailbox local-part will be used later.

When routing is live, the address looks like:

your_slug@your-inbound-domain

If you need to change the local-part, go to Settings and update Email Reply-To Slug.

Review Queue

The Review Queue tab shows email imports waiting for a human decision.

For each pending item you can see:

• provider
• parse confidence
• sender
• subject
• body preview

Choose:

• Approve Import to create the lead through the normal intake pipeline
• Reject to discard the candidate and keep it out of the pipeline

Review actions are single-use. Once an item has been approved or rejected, CE Pro will block additional review actions so the same parsed email cannot be imported twice.

Rejected review items stay in the import log as rejected history.

Recent Imports

The Recent Imports tab is your first stop when a connector is not behaving the way you expect.

Use it to confirm:

• whether the connector received the payload
• whether the payload imported, replayed, failed, or paused for review
• which external_id was used
• which lead record was created

Status meanings:

• imported - a lead was created
• replayed - CE Pro recognized the lead as a duplicate and reused the earlier record
• review_required - waiting on human approval
• failed - the payload was missing required fields or the intake failed
• ignored - the item was rejected during review

Testing Before Go-Live

Each connector card includes Run Test Import.

Use it before you go live to confirm:

• field mapping is correct
• notes prefix and source label are right
• assignment defaults look right
• review-threshold behavior is doing what you expect

For API connectors, also run one real end-to-end test from the upstream system with a safe test payload and a stable idempotency key.

Assignment And Territories

If a connector has an Assigned Rep, that value is used first.

If not, CE Pro can still fall back to territory-based assignment when the imported lead includes a usable ZIP code.

For territory routing details, see Territories.

Recommended Rollout Order

Most teams should set this up in order:

1. API connector for trusted middleware or no-code automations
2. Meta or Google lead ads if paid lead forms are already live
3. Website form connector for browser forms
4. Email-forward connector for inbox automation

That gives you the safest path first, then adds public intake, then adds parser-driven email imports once the team is comfortable reviewing edge cases.

Troubleshooting

Import shows failed

Usually this means the connector could not produce the minimum lead payload. Confirm that the incoming payload includes:

• a customer name
• at least one contact method: email or phone

Then review the field alias mapping.

Import shows replayed

This means CE Pro matched the incoming payload to a previously imported lead using the external id / idempotent intake path. That is normal for retries.

Email imports never hit the review queue

Check:

• the connector is active
• the transport is Email Inbound
• the review threshold is set high enough to catch uncertain parses
• at least one active email-forward connector exists, because phase 1 no longer auto-imports parsed emails without a connector
• the Lead Connectors page is showing a real forwarding address, not just the saved slug placeholder

Website form import is missing source or assignee defaults

Review the connector defaults. The public endpoint uses the connector configuration, not your website form labels, to set those fallback values.

The Lead Connectors page says a migration is required

That means the app code is live but the workspace database has not applied the April 14 lead-connector migrations yet.

The rest of Settings > Integrations will keep working, but connector creation and review actions stay disabled until those migrations are applied.

Related Guides

• Meta Lead Ads
• Google Lead Ads
• Connecting Your Integrations
• Webhook Integrations
• Territories