Receive Leads from Lead Providers in LeadCentre
LeadCentre receives leads from any lead provider that can deliver to a webhook URL. You give each provider its own URL from Settings > Connections, they post each lead to it as JSON or a URL-encoded form, and LeadCentre creates the lead, alerts your team's phones and keeps the provider's name as the source. Your team then calls, follows up and records what each bought lead turned into.
Via Webhook: The platform posts each lead to your LeadCentre webhook URL.
- One URL per provider, so every lead shows which provider sent it
- The provider's own lead ID matched to Unique ID, so a resent lead isn't added twice
- A push alert and one-tap Call button while the customer is still waiting to hear back
What this does
A lead provider is anyone who sells or passes you enquiries: a quote comparison site, a lead generation agency, a franchise head office or a referral partner. If they deliver by webhook, which providers also call real-time delivery, HTTP POST or a direct post, they can send straight to your LeadCentre account.
What to ask the provider for
Send your provider this list. It's what LeadCentre reads:
- The URL: your LeadCentre webhook URL, used whole, including ?key= and everything after it. If their system can add headers, they can drop ?key= and send the key in an x-api-key header.
- Method: POST, with one lead per post, or a JSON array of up to 25 leads.
- Format: JSON, or a URL-encoded form post (application/x-www-form-urlencoded), up to 64 KB per post. Ask them to avoid multipart/form-data, which comes back as a 415.
- Field names: their choice, as you match them once. Names such as name, email, phone, postcode, service and message are the ones Smart Match recognises.
- Their lead ID in every post, so a resend can be spotted.
- Dates in ISO format, such as 2026-11-04T10:30:00Z, if they send the time the lead was taken.
When a provider delivers by email or spreadsheet
A provider that emails leads can send them to your account's own LeadCentre address, where each email becomes a lead: see Email-to-Lead. A spreadsheet of past leads can come in as a CSV import.
What happens when a provider delivers a lead?
Step 1
The provider sends you a lead
Their system picks you as the buyer, using their own rules for area, service or caps.
Step 2
They post it to your URL
As JSON or a URL-encoded form, to the key you gave that provider.
Step 3
LeadCentre checks it and creates the lead
Your saved matching fills in the fields, and their lead ID stops a resend becoming a second lead.
Step 4
Your team is alerted
A push goes to the people switched on for New lead alerts, and any Instant Reply email goes to the customer.
Step 5
You work it and record the outcome
Call and follow up, then mark it Won with the job value, or Lost with a reason such as Invalid lead.
What you can do with leads from providers
On every plan
- Get each bought lead on your phone as a push notification, sent to the people switched on for New lead alerts on the Team page.
- Call, Text, WhatsApp or Email in one tap, with a pre-written message from your templates. A bought lead may have gone to other firms too, so the first call counts.
- See which provider each lead came from, by the key's name or a source they send.
- Assign leads, set follow-ups, and move each one through New, Contacted, Quoted, Booked, Won and Lost.
- Mark a lead Lost with a reason such as Invalid lead, Outside our area or Not a service we offer, which gives you a record to take back to the provider.
- Record the job value on each win, alongside the provider it came from.
- Send the customer an automatic Instant Reply email, with different wording during and outside business hours.
With the Respond add-on
- An automatic SMS reply to the customer, from your dedicated UK business number.
- Lead Rescue: automated follow-up texts to leads still at New or Contacted who haven't replied.
- AI lead conversations, off until you switch them on. Assist drafts a reply for you to send, and Autopilot replies from your Knowledge Base and passes anything it can't answer to a person.
The push notification goes to your team. The Instant Reply email and Respond's texts go to the customer the provider sent you.
How to connect a lead provider to LeadCentre
You'll need a LeadCentre login with the Admin role, and a contact at the provider who can set up delivery. Send them the list above and the webhook reference, which covers formats, limits and response codes.
Many providers distribute leads with lead distribution software. In LeadByte, for example, this is a delivery with the Direct Post method and the HTTP JSON or HTTP POST type, with Custom Data Mappings for renaming fields, as LeadByte's delivery guide explains.
- 1
Create one key per provider
In LeadCentre, go to Settings > Connections. Under "Add another key", type the provider's name and press "Create". The name becomes each lead's source, unless they send a source field you match to Lead source. Press "Copy" straight away, as the URL is only shown once.
- 2
Send the provider the URL and the list
Send the URL privately, as it works like a password. Ask for POST, JSON or a URL-encoded form, their lead ID in every post, and the field names they'll use.
- 3
Ask for a test lead with test=1
Ask them to send a complete test lead, with every field filled in, to the URL with &test=1 on the end. That keeps it as test data however long they take, and test data never becomes a lead. Their system should get back {"ok":true,"results":["test"]}. If they're sending straight away, "Listen for test data" does the same for 15 minutes.
- 4
Match the fields
The fields appear under "2. Match the fields" with their latest values, and Smart Match suggests what it can. Match their lead ID to Unique ID. Type a name to create a custom field for anything else, such as property type. Press "Save field matching".
- 5
Agree how success is checked
LeadCentre answers each post with a result for each lead. A 200 also comes back for test data, a duplicate or a lead with no contact details, so the provider's system should read the result: lead means a lead was created. In LeadByte, that's a Remote System Response row matched by keyword.
- 6
Go live
Ask them to take &test=1 off the URL, or press "Stop listening" if you used that. When the first real lead arrives, check it's in your Leads list and the alert came through.
What data can you send?
Your provider chooses the names, and you match them once per key. These are the names Smart Match recognises, so they're the ones to ask for.
A Unique ID belongs to the key it came through, so two providers that happen to use the same number for different leads stay separate. Tracking fields with exact names, such as utm_source, utm_campaign and gclid, are kept on the lead without being matched.
| Field sent | Usually matched to |
|---|---|
| name, or first_name and last_name | Full name, or First name and Last name |
| phone, or mobile | Phone (mobile or landline), or Mobile |
| house_number, street, town, postcode | House number, Street, Town / city, Postcode |
| service | Enquiry type |
| message | Enquiry / Message |
| estimated_value | Estimated value |
| lead_source (their brand or campaign) | Lead source |
| created_at (ISO date) | Date received |
| lead_id, or ref (their own ID) | Unique ID (stops duplicates) |
| Anything else, such as property_type | A custom field |
Managing bought leads beyond each provider's own portal
Most providers give you their own portal or app, and an email for each new lead. With one provider, that can be enough. With two or three, each has its own login, alerts and way of showing what happened.
LeadCentre gives you one place to work them all:
- A push for every lead from every provider, to the people switched on for New lead alerts.
- The same Call, Text, WhatsApp and Email buttons and templates, whoever sent the lead.
- Statuses, follow-ups and won values on each lead, in one Leads list.
- Lost reasons recorded as you go, such as Invalid lead or Outside our area, which helps when you raise a lead with the provider.
If a provider asks you to accept leads or report outcomes in its own portal, keep doing that there as well. Whether a lead is replaced or credited is between you and the provider.
A worked example: a solar installer with two providers
Say a solar installer buys leads from two providers. Each gets its own key named after it, so every lead shows which one sent it. Provider A posts JSON with lead_id, and Provider B sends a form post with ref. Both are matched to Unique ID, so when Provider B's system resends a lead after a timeout, the installer doesn't get it twice. Leads arrive on the sales manager's phone, and the installer's Instant Reply emails each customer to say someone will ring them shortly. A month in, several of Provider B's leads are marked Lost with Outside our area, and the installer has those to point to when they speak to the provider.
For agencies managing client enquiries
There are two agency set-ups here.
An agency managing a client's bought leads. Create a key in each client's own account, one per provider, and send the provider that URL. Every client account has its own webhook keys, so a provider's leads for one client never reach another. The push goes to the people switched on for New lead alerts on that client's Team page, never to agency staff, and Agency Users only reach the clients assigned to them.
A lead generation agency delivering to buyers. Each buyer is a client account with its own URL. Your system decides who gets each lead and posts it to that buyer's URL. To sell one lead to several buyers, post it to each, and each gets a separate copy to work. Match your own lead ID to Unique ID in every buyer's account, so a retry can't double-deliver, and keep each post's response as your record of delivery. Untick Connections for a buyer's own people so nobody there changes the matching. Cross-client reporting then shows leads, won jobs, win rate and won value, buyer by buyer.
There's more on lead generation agencies and agency accounts.
Pricing and requirements
What you need for this connection. Prices for each plan and the Respond add-on are on the pricing page.
- LeadCentre plan
Any plan. An Admin creates a key per provider under Settings > Connections. A lead generation agency delivering to buyers uses an agency plan, with a client account per buyer.
- Respond add-on
Optional. Adds a dedicated UK business number, automatic SMS replies, Lead Rescue follow-ups and AI lead conversations. See Respond.
- The provider's delivery
Delivery to a URL by POST, as JSON or a URL-encoded form, set up on the provider's side. Ask your provider what they need from you and whether it changes your terms.
- Zapier or Make
- Messaging usage
Respond's allowances are monthly. When one runs out, the account is told and can buy credits for extra usage. Leads from your providers are still saved.
Common problems
The provider gets a 415
Their system is sending multipart/form-data. Ask them to switch to JSON, or to a URL-encoded form (application/x-www-form-urlencoded). In LeadByte, for example, that's the HTTP JSON or HTTP POST type.
The provider says a lead was delivered, but it isn't in the Leads list
Ask for the response LeadCentre sent. test means the key was listening or the URL still had test=1. no_contact means no matched field held a name, phone or email, often after a renamed field: match the new name and save, and LeadCentre retries those posts. awaiting_mapping means nothing had been matched when it arrived, and saving your matching releases it.
The same lead arrived twice
Their lead ID isn't matched to Unique ID, or a resend carries a different ID. Match it and save. Without a Unique ID, only exactly the same post to the same key within 10 minutes counts as a repeat.
A provider's leads show the wrong source
Lead source defaults to the key's name. If the provider also sends a field you've matched to Lead source, its value is used instead. Set that field to Do not use if you'd rather see the key's name.
The provider gets a 429 when sending a backlog
That's over 120 leads a minute for one key. Ask them to space the backlog out. Each lead in an array counts separately, so arrays of 25 reach the limit after five posts.
You've stopped buying from a provider
Open their key and revoke it. Any key except Default can be revoked, and posts to it are then refused with a 401. The leads they've already sent stay in your account.
Questions about this connection
Should each provider have its own URL?
Yes. A key per provider keeps its matching separate and makes its name the lead's source. Under "Add another key" in Settings > Connections, create one for each.
What do I send my provider?
The URL, sent privately, and the list on this page: POST, JSON or a URL-encoded form, their lead ID in every post, and the field names they'll use. The webhook reference has the technical detail their developer will want.
Can a provider send several leads at once?
Yes, as a JSON array of up to 25 leads per post. Each lead counts toward the limit of 120 a minute per key.
What if a provider only sends leads by email?
Have them send to your account's own address, and each email becomes a lead. The Email-to-Lead guide covers it.
Can I record that a lead was invalid?
Yes. Mark it Lost and choose a reason such as Invalid lead, Outside our area or Not a service we offer. It's a record for the conversation with the provider, and any credit is up to your agreement with them.
Is it safe to give a provider my URL?
Treat it like a password and give it only to that provider. If it's ever shared further, open the key and press "Replace this URL". The old one stops at once, and your field matching stays.
Related features and guides
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