How leads come in
How leads land in your pipeline: the website contact form, the AI sales chat, manual entry and marketplace leads, plus the email alert each web lead sends.
Last updated
Every lead lands in the same place, whether a shopper fills out your website or you jot down a walk-in: Leads. Here's where they come from.
The ways a lead arrives
- Storefront contact form: a shopper on a vehicle page fills out the Ask about this vehicle form and clicks Send inquiry. The lead's source is recorded as Website.
- AI sales chat: the public AI assistant collects a shopper's name and contact info in conversation, then hands them off to your team. The source is recorded as AI chat.
- Manual entry: you add a lead yourself for a walk-in, phone call, referral, marketplace inquiry, or anything else (see below). You pick the source.
Whatever the source, the lead shows up in your Leads list right away, starting in the New status.
What about marketplace channels? Google and Facebook ads send shoppers to the car's page on your website, and a shopper who uses the form there becomes a Website lead. A site that can send ADF leads with a web POST can post them straight into your Leads list: see Marketplace lead capture below. Leads a site only emails, such as CarGurus, Cars.com or CARFAX, go to the address you gave that site. Add those by hand and pick Marketplace as the source.
Add a lead by hand
For a walk-in, a phone call, a referral, or anything that didn't come through your website:
- Go to Leads and click Add lead.
- Enter the First name and Last name (both required).
- Add an Email and/or Phone so you can reach them.
- Pick a Source: Walk-in, Website, Referral, Phone, Email, AI chat, Marketplace, Auction, or Other.
- Add any Notes for context.
- Click Add lead. You're taken straight to the new lead's page.
Source is required. If you click Add lead without picking one, you'll see "Pick a source". Select a source and try again.
Every web lead emails your team
When a lead comes in from your website or the AI chat, AutoDealer.io emails your dealership automatically so nobody has to babysit the dashboard. The email includes the shopper's name, their email and phone, the vehicle they asked about (if any), and their message, plus a link straight to the lead.
The alert is sent to the first email address you have on file, in this order:
- The alert address you set under Settings → Lead routing ("Send new web lead alerts to"). Set it when the inbox that should get the forms is not the address your website shows, for example after a domain change.
- Your primary location's contact email.
- An older contact email saved with your website settings (from before locations existed; the website builder no longer shows or edits it).
- Your dealership's main contact email.
If none of those emails is set, the lead is still saved and visible in Leads, but no alert email goes out. Set a contact email on your main lot in Settings → Locations so you never miss one. It is also the email your website shows.
If you've turned on lead routing, an incoming web or AI-chat lead is also auto-assigned to a salesperson, and that person gets an in-app bell notification by name. With routing off, the lead stays unassigned for someone to claim.
What the shopper has to provide
Every form on your website carries a hidden box that people never see and spam bots fill in; a submission with it filled is quietly dropped, so it never becomes a lead or an email to your team. Both the storefront contact form and the AI chat need a name plus an email or phone before the lead can be saved. That's the minimum needed to follow up. The AI won't hand off a shopper until it has that, and the website form asks for it too. (Only the email-or-phone is enforced on the server; the storefront form also asks for a last name, but the AI chat will take a first name alone.)
Marketplace lead capture (ADF)
A site that can send leads in the ADF format with a web POST can deliver them straight into your Leads list, with the source Marketplace.
- Go to Settings, Marketplaces, and find Marketplace lead capture.
- Click Generate ingest URL and copy it (owners and admin managers only).
- Give that private address to a site that can send ADF leads with a web POST. It takes a POST only and can't receive email. Leads a site only emails go to the address you gave that site, not to your Leads list.
Each lead in the delivery becomes a lead with the shopper's comments, the vehicle and "Marketplace:" with the portal's name in its message. It is routed by your lead routing rule, the salesperson gets a notification and the shopper gets your auto-reply, the same as a website lead. A repeat from the same contact about the same car within 10 minutes returns the lead already created instead of a duplicate.
Keep the ingest URL private: anyone with it can create leads in your CRM. Rotate gives you a new one and the old one stops working at once.
FAQ
A customer says they filled out the form but I don't see a lead.
First check your Leads list. The lead is saved before any email is sent, so it's there even if the alert didn't reach you. If it's missing entirely, the shopper likely left without an email or phone, which the form requires.
Why didn't I get the email alert for a web lead?
The most common reason is no contact email on file. The alert goes to the alert address under Settings → Lead routing when you set one, else your primary location email, then an older website-settings email, then your dealership's main contact email. If all of those are blank, the lead saves but nothing is emailed. Set the main lot's email in Settings → Locations, or the alert address under Settings → Lead routing, to fix it going forward.
Can the assistant tell me where the alerts go?
Yes. Ask the AI chat "where do new website lead emails go?" and it reads your lead routing settings: the address the alert goes to, which setting that address came from (the Lead routing alert address, the main lot, the older website setting or the dealership), and where a shopper's reply to the automatic acknowledgment lands. "Send the form alerts to forms@example.com" prepares a Lead routing card for you to approve; the main lot's email, the one your website shows, changes with a location card or on Settings → Locations.
What's the difference between "Website" and "AI chat" sources?
Website means the shopper used the Ask about this vehicle form on a car's page. AI chat means the public AI assistant collected their details in conversation and handed them off. Both email your team the same way.
Can I change a lead's source after it's created?
The source reflects where the lead originated and is set when the lead is created. For manual leads you choose it on the Add lead form; web and AI-chat leads are tagged automatically.
Who can add leads?
Owners, admin managers and sales can add a lead and see the Leads list. Accounting cannot open Leads, and the link is not in their sidebar.