Build a lead-to-CRM automation with Make in an afternoon

A new lead who hears back in the first few minutes is far more likely to book than one who waits an hour. Most small businesses lose that window because a person has to notice the inquiry, open the system, and type a reply. This build removes the human from that loop: a lead fills any form, lands in your CRM (the software that stores your customers) already labeled by where it came from, and gets a text and email back within seconds. The stack is Make as the glue and GoHighLevel as the CRM. Budget an afternoon; no code involved.

What you'll build

One routine in Make and one workflow in GoHighLevel that hand off to each other:

• A webhook that catches every new lead. A webhook is simply a unique web address; anything sent to it is caught and acted on instantly.
• A cleaning and tagging step in Make, so a lead from a Facebook ad and one from your website form arrive in the same shape, labeled by source.
• A push into GoHighLevel that creates or updates the contact.
• A follow-up workflow that texts and emails the lead within seconds.

The source can be anything that sends data: a website contact form, a landing page, a Facebook or Instagram lead ad (an ad with a built-in inquiry form), a Typeform. For where these high-intent leads come from in the first place, the branded-demand build covers the capture moment.

Stack

The stack

Makecatches the lead, cleans and tags it, pushes it onward

GoHighLevelstores the contact and fires the instant SMS plus email

Zapierthe swap-in alternative if your form lives somewhere odd

• Make is the automation glue: a visual builder where you connect steps on a canvas, no code. It charges per small action ("operation"), which matters as volume climbs.
• GoHighLevel is the CRM and the follow-up engine. It holds the contact record, the labels, and the workflow that sends the text and email.
• Zapier is an interchangeable alternative for the glue layer.

You need an account on both Make and GoHighLevel. Pricing on each moves often, so check the provider's own pricing page before you commit. Checked June 2026.

Steps

Build the GoHighLevel side first, because you need its webhook address before the Make side has anywhere to send the lead.

Once both sides are live, point your real forms and lead ads at the Make webhook address. A form builder has a webhook or integration field for it; a Facebook lead ad needs it added through a connector.

The part that breaks

If a field still shows up empty, the test lead did not include it, so send another with that field filled.

The second thing that breaks budgets is firing on junk. A blank or bot submission still triggers the whole chain and still sends a text. Add a filter in Make right after the webhook that only continues when an email or phone exists. It costs nothing and stops your follow-up going out to garbage.

Copy this

The block to paste into the HTTP > Make a request module. It is written in JSON, the plain-text format systems use to pass data. Replace the values in braces with your Make fields:

{
  "first_name": "{{name}}",
  "email": "{{email_lowercased}}",
  "phone": "{{phone_trimmed}}",
  "source": "{{lead_source}}",
  "tags": ["new-lead", "{{lead_source}}"],
  "consent": true
}

The "source" value lets your follow-up read differently for a paid ad lead versus a website inquiry. The "consent" flag matters: only text and email people who agreed to hear from you, or your messages land in spam. The email deliverability build covers why that reputation is worth protecting.

Upgrade path

Once the core loop runs, layer on:

• A second step in GoHighLevel that waits an hour, checks whether the lead replied, and nudges if not. Speed wins the first reply. Persistence wins the booking.
• Routing by source, so a paid-ad lead gets different follow-up than a website inquiry. The "source" label you set makes this one branch away.

If your forms live somewhere unusual, Zapier covers more obscure apps and follows the same pattern. For the paid-traffic side that feeds this build, the Meta Advantage+ build keeps lead ads sending qualified people, and the automation hub tracks the rest.

For the next build, the AI recommendations build shows how to turn those follow-ups and reviews into the signal that gets you recommended by the assistants people now ask first.