Automotive Lead Source Integration for Dealers

Website forms, third party lead emails, posted form data, imported lists and LeadLocate's own campaigns all land in the same Leads view, each one labeled with where it came from.

A dealership never has one lead source. It has a website with three forms, two or three listing sites that email leads, a chat tool, a few landing pages, the occasional event list and, for LeadLocate stores, exclusive local buyer and seller leads from campaigns in its Market Area. Automotive lead source integration is the work of getting all of them into one place, each labeled with where it came from, each handed to a person the moment it lands.

The other name for it is dealership lead aggregation, and the reason it matters is simple: a rep should never check a provider portal, a website admin panel and a group mailbox to find out who asked about a truck. In LeadLocate CRM each one is set up as its own lead source, with an intake address, a label your team recognizes, an assignment rule, alerts and a first message. Every lead from every source is then a row in the same Leads view, with its source on the row.

That works the same way for every store we serve. A franchise rooftop runs its OEM website forms, two marketplaces and a chat tool into one inbox. An independent or used car store connects its listing sites and its Facebook page. A buy here pay here store routes finance inquiries to the person who handles credit. RV and boat dealers connect RV Trader or Boat Trader alongside their own site, and an auto broker gets every inquiry in one list even with no inventory feed at all.

An internet director signs a new listing site on Wednesday morning. The provider asks the usual question: where should we send your leads?

She opens Account Settings, clicks Lead Source Settings, and under Connect a lead provider picks the site from a list of more than forty, from Autotrader, Cars.com, CarGurus and Edmunds to RV Trader and Boat Trader. The provider's name is filled in as the Feed Label. She sets Lead Assignment to Round Robin, chooses the Default Status for New Leads, and ticks the boxes under Notifications and Automation: a text to the assigned salesperson the moment a lead arrives, the standard follow up messages, and manager copies so the sales manager sees every lead from this site.

She clicks Save Feed. The What happens next panel shows the new intake email with Copy Address, and below it a ready to send request addressed to the provider, which she copies with Copy Message and pastes into the provider's support form. Most providers make the change the same day.

At 3:10 the first lead arrives. It lands on the next rep in the rotation with the provider's label on the row, the rep's phone buzzes, the first text goes out under the rep's name, and the source's Activity Log shows the delivery with its lead ID. The whole job took less time than the provider's sales call.

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Every source accepts leads more than one way, and a store uses whichever the provider supports. Both the intake email and the form intake link work at the same time on the same source.

Leads from your website forms are covered step by step on how to connect a website form. For providers with an unusual format, Intake Process Automation, our in-house intake automation that replaced the third-party automation tools stores used to string together, handles the source on arrival.

The same shopper often submits on two sites in the same afternoon, or comes back three months after they last spoke with the store. Lead source integration has to handle both without splitting the customer across two reps.

• Returning customers go home. On a rotating source, a lead from a customer who already has a salesperson, matched by phone or email, goes back to that salesperson instead of the next rep in line.
• One customer, one profile. The Customer Profile keeps one shared buyer record for each customer, co-buyer included, so sales, BDC and managers read the same person.
• A merge when you need it. When two records do slip through, Merge Duplicate Records scans by name, phone and email, keeps the newest record and folds the history of the others into it.

Stores leaving another CRM bring their history in through Contact Import first, so returning customers are recognized from the first day.

The real risk with lead providers is silence. A provider changes its settings, a mailbox forward lapses, or a contract ends and nobody tells the store, and the first sign is a slow week.

Each source in Lead Source Settings shows its Total Leads Received, its Last Lead Received and the date the source was created, so a source that used to deliver daily and last delivered nine days ago stands out at a glance. A brand new source reads Awaiting first lead until the first one lands.

The Activity Log on each source lists every delivery with its time, the sender and the lead ID it created, and it filters by result: Success, Parse failed for an email that held no readable lead, Feed inactive for a lead sent to a paused source, and Intake unknown for mail sent to an address that matches no source. When a provider goes quiet, the log tells you whether they stopped sending or started sending somewhere else. Then the same ready request from What happens next goes back to the provider to point delivery at the right address again.

Pausing is just as clean. Untick Active to pause a source without losing its history, for example when a contract is on hold, and tick it again when it resumes.

Two screens cover the whole job.

Lead Targeting

In the CRM menu, Lead Targeting (the entry once named Lead Feeds Manager) is where your store shapes the leads LeadLocate delivers. You choose your Market Area, the campaign type, the prescreening questions and your Custom Offers, and our team builds and runs the campaigns from those selections. Every lead goes to you alone and arrives on the feeds LeadLocate runs for your account. The Leads Manager page walks through those selections.

Lead Source Settings

Under Account Settings, the Lead Sources section opens Lead Source Settings. This is where your own sources live: Add your own lead sources with New Lead Source or a provider from the list, the intake email and form intake link for each, its assignment, status, notifications and Activity Log. The same page lists Your LeadLocate Feeds, where you choose who receives manager copies on each one, and Default Manager Copies, the managers who get a text and email copy of any lead that arrives without a source of its own. Your own leads never count against your LeadLocate lead packages.

From there the source travels with the lead everywhere: the Leads view filters by it, the phone app shows it on every lead, and the lead source attribution in reports is built from it.

Here is how the work splits between your store and our team.

What we need from your store

• A list of every lead source you pay for or post to, with a contact at each provider.
• Your website forms and where they send submissions today.
• Who should own each source: the rotation, one person, or open to claim.
• The managers who should see a copy of every lead.

What our team does

Our team sets up the feeds LeadLocate runs for your account, connects any provider with an unusual format, and, if you keep another CRM beside LeadLocate, sets up your push-to-CRM address so Instant push to CRM email can send each lead there as a branded copy with ADF attached. Training is part of every plan: the video library, Live Training and Schedule Training from the top bar.

What your manager does

1. Create a source per provider in Lead Source Settings and save it.
2. Send each provider its request from What happens next.
3. Write the first text and email for each source in Automated Templates.
4. Send a test from your own phone and confirm it in the Activity Log.

A lead source decides where a lead came from and who gets it. Everything after that is a neighbor:

• Round robin lead assignment rotates each source's leads across the floor, with the rotation set per person.
• Automated Templates send the first text, email and voicemail per source, under the assigned rep's name.
• Follow Up Processes pick up after the first message with a multi step plan per lead status.
• Manager copies, notifications and the communications timeline make sure the lead is seen and every touch is recorded.

LeadLocate works alongside your DMS and, with the push copy turned on, alongside another CRM too, so connecting a source here never means disconnecting it elsewhere.

Lead sources, intake addresses, the Activity Log and manager copies are part of the LeadLocate CRM subscription on every plan, including CRM Only for a store that brings its own sources without LeadLocate lead delivery. Plans that include exclusive local leads add the LeadLocate feeds.

The parts that vary are people and volume. Each plan includes a login to start and more users are an add-on, so the number of reps who can own leads follows your users. Usage credits cover bulk texting, phone and email validation and voicemail deliveries. Plans, user add-ons and credits are on the pricing page, month to month.

How do I connect a third party lead provider to LeadLocate CRM?

Open Lead Source Settings, pick the provider from the list or create a New Lead Source, set the assignment and alerts, and save. Then send the provider the ready request from What happens next with your new intake address. Most providers switch the same day.

Which lead formats can a source send?

Lead emails in ADF and plain notification emails to the intake address, form posts or JSON to the form intake link, and files through Contact Import in XLSX, CSV, JSON, ADF or vCard. A single source can take email and posted leads at the same time.

What happens when the same customer comes in from two sources?

On a rotating source the lead goes back to the salesperson who already works that customer, matched by phone or email. The Customer Profile keeps one record per buyer, and Merge Duplicate Records folds any second record into the newest one.

How do I know if a provider stopped sending leads?

Each source shows Total Leads Received and Last Lead Received, and its Activity Log lists every delivery with its result. A source that has gone quiet, or a provider sending to a paused source, is visible on that page.

Can I pause a lead source without losing its history?

Yes. Untick Active on the source. It keeps its leads, its label and its Activity Log, and you tick it again when the provider resumes.

Can each lead also go to our other CRM?

Yes. With Instant push to CRM email turned on, each lead from the source is also sent to your push-to-CRM address as a branded copy with ADF attached, so LeadLocate runs beside the system you already use.

Do we need an inventory feed or DMS access to connect lead sources?

No. Neither is required. Lead sources, intake addresses and routing work on their own, which is why brokers and small independent stores run on LeadLocate. If you have a website with inventory, Inventory Link can import it so your messages can carry real vehicles.

Where is Lead Targeting in the CRM?

Lead Targeting is in the CRM menu. It opens the selections that shape your LeadLocate campaigns, such as your Market Area and offers, which our team builds and runs. Your own providers live in Lead Source Settings under Account Settings.

Send us your list of providers and forms, and our team will map each one to a source with its owner and first message. Watch the demo or compare plans first.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.