Meta Lead Ads

Every lead-form submission from your Facebook and Instagram ads lands in a Lead Track within minutes — with the person's details on the contact, their answers on the lead, and the campaign, ad set and ad recorded on it. No spreadsheet downloads, no relay tool, no copy-paste.

TL;DR — Connect a Facebook Page once, switch on each Instant Form with the Track it should feed, and Lodgestory keeps the leads flowing. Anything that cannot land shows up in a Needs attention list with the reason and the fix.

At a glance

How to find it

Sidebar: Settings → Meta Lead Ads (in the Leads group, next to Lead Tracks and Lead Types). The Connect a channel menu on Connections links here too, and a Messenger row whose Page is connected for lead ads shows a Lead ads · N forms syncing chip with a Manage link.

[SCREENSHOT: Settings → Meta Lead Ads with one connected Page, three forms and an empty Needs attention panel]

What is Meta Lead Ads?

The problem it solves

A Meta lead ad opens a form inside Facebook or Instagram. The submission sits in Meta's Leads Center until someone downloads it — and a lead called back an hour later is a lead that already talked to a competitor. Teams either export CSVs by hand or pay for a relay tool that forwards submissions one by one.

What you get

• Leads in minutes. A submission becomes a lead in the Track you chose, assigned by the Track's rules, with its SLA clock running and ready in the agent's queue or dialer.
• The right details in the right place. Name, phone and email go on the contact (the phone is split into country code and number, so an existing WhatsApp customer is recognised). Your custom questions become fields on the lead type — created for you, named after the question.
• Attribution on every lead. Campaign, ad set, ad, form, platform (Facebook or Instagram) and whether the submission was organic, all on the lead and available to assignment rules, scoring, reports and automations.
• Nothing lost silently. Submissions for a form that is switched off wait (up to Meta's 90 days) and come in when you switch it on. Anything that cannot land is listed under Needs attention with the reason and a one-click fix.
• Instagram included. Instagram lead ads — Stories, Reels, feed — use the same form on the Facebook Page, so they arrive through the same connection with the platform marked.

How it fits with the rest of Lodgestory CRM

The sync creates ordinary leads. From there everything you already use applies: Lead Tracks decide who gets the lead and how it is worked, Leads shows it, the dialer calls it, and a Lead created rule in Automations alerts the team. Reporting lead quality back to Meta for click-to-WhatsApp ads is a different feature, Meta Ads Lead Signals.

Core concepts

Quick start

1. Connect the Facebook Page

Press Connect a Facebook Page, read the short checklist, and continue to Facebook. Keep every Page you already use with Lodgestory ticked (unticking a Page removes Lodgestory's access to it, including Messenger). Back in Lodgestory, pick the Pages to connect. Each one shows its forms straight away.

[SCREENSHOT: the Facebook dialog with the Pages list, then the Lodgestory picker]

2. Switch on a form

On the Page card, flip the Sync switch next to a form. If the form has no Track yet the form drawer opens: pick the Track, the lead type (needed when the form has custom questions), optionally a starting stage, an owner and a priority, and press Save.

3. Check the mapping

The drawer's Question mapping table shows where each answer goes. Standard questions are mapped to the contact for you. Custom questions become fields on the lead type — rename a target, pick an existing field, or ignore a question. Preview with the last submission shows the contact and field values a real submission would produce.

4. Send a test lead

On the form's row menu choose Send test lead. Lodgestory asks Meta to create one (replacing the previous test lead — Meta allows one per form at a time), watches for it, and shows Open in Leads when it has landed, or the reason it did not. It arrives like a real submission — marked organic, without a campaign — so your Lead created automations run for it too. Lodgestory fills the standard questions with a test identity (Lodgestory Test Lead, [email protected], a dummy phone number) so the submission becomes a contact. Meta's own Lead Ads Testing Tool fills every answer with placeholder text instead — including the phone — so on a form with no name or email question its test lead is refused as No name, phone or email; it still proves that Meta's notification reaches Lodgestory.

5. Watch Needs attention

Empty means every submission became a lead. Otherwise each group names the reason and offers the fix: open the form, reconnect the Page, check Leads Access, retry.

How it works

Meta tells Lodgestory the moment a form is submitted. Lodgestory fetches the submission from Meta, applies the form's mapping, and creates the lead through the Track's normal intake — so duplicates are handled by the Track's duplicate policy, assignment follows its rules, the SLA clock starts, and the Lead created event fires once. A submission is processed once even when Meta notifies twice. If Meta is briefly unavailable the fetch is retried on its own; if the Page's permission or Leads Access is the problem, the submission waits under Needs attention until you fix it, and is fetched then.

What Lodgestory receives from Meta: the answers to the form's questions, the time of the submission, the form, and the campaign, ad set, ad and platform. What it never receives: the customer's Facebook or Instagram profile, their activity, or anything they did not type into the form.

Features in depth

The page at a glance

Once a Page is connected the page opens on a four-number summary — Pages connected, forms syncing, leads in the last 7 days, and how many submissions need attention — followed by three tabs: Pages & forms, Click-to-chat ads and Needs attention (with a count). Before the first Page it shows a single Connect card with the three steps.

Page cards

Each connected Page shows its picture, name, a status badge and one line — how many forms sync and when the last lead arrived. Problems appear as banners with the remedy: Reconnect when Facebook refused the token or a permission is missing, the exact Leads Access path when Meta is not sharing lead data, Fix when notifications are not subscribed. The menu offers Check connection, Refresh forms from Meta, Sync now and Disconnect Page. Connection details & defaults at the foot of the card opens the health list — the token, Leads Access (OK, not confirmed yet until the first lead proves it, or not assigned to Lodgestory), lead notifications, the last lead, the last sync and form counts, plus the Page id — and the New forms switch on into default.

Forms table

One row per Instant Form: the name with its question count (and, only when something needs a look, N questions not captured or N need attention), the Sync switch, where its leads go (Track › lead type), the last lead with the last 7 days' count, a Review button and a menu with Review mapping, Pull recent leads… and Send test lead. Whether a mapping is automatic or reviewed by you is shown inside the drawer. Archived forms are hidden behind a link.

The form drawer

Destination (sync switch, Track, lead type, starting stage, owner, priority), Question mapping (per question: contact field, lead field, an existing field on the lead type, or ignore; Map automatically regenerates the mapping and creates the fields), and Preview with the last submission. Switching a form off keeps new submissions for 90 days; switching it back on brings them in.

Pull recent leads

On a form's row menu, Pull recent leads… imports the submissions Meta still holds — the last 7, 30 or 90 days. Submissions already in Lodgestory are skipped. Imported leads are quiet by default: no SLA clock and no Lead created automations, so a 90-day pull never floods the floor; tick Treat as new leads to opt in. The row shows Pulling… while it runs and a summary (N new, M already here) when it is done.

Sync now

On the Page menu, Sync now reads the newest submissions of every switched-on form and queues any that Meta never notified Lodgestory about. Use it after a Page reconnect or when a lead you can see in Meta's Leads Center is missing. On request, Lodgestory can also run this check for a Page on its own (hourly while leads are flowing, every six hours otherwise); the Page card's Last sync line shows when it last ran.

Click-to-chat ads

The Click-to-chat ads card creates a lead when a conversation starts from a Meta ad on WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger. Pick the Track and lead type, the channels, and whether to skip people who already have an open lead (on by default, so a returning customer's second tap never duplicates a lead). The lead's source is CHAT, its source detail names the ad, and the ad id is recorded on the lead.

Needs attention

Its own tab, with a count on the tab and jump chips per reason at the top. Grouped by reason, newest first, with the submission's time, form, a masked contact preview, the attempt count and the detail. Actions per group: Open form, Reconnect, Check again, Retry / Retry all in this group, Open Track. A row marked Expired on Meta is past Meta's 90-day window and cannot be fetched any more.

Disconnecting

Leads already created stay. Forms on the Page stop syncing and new submissions are no longer fetched. Messenger on the same Page is not affected. Reconnect any time.

Roles & permissions

Admins and the Account Owner connect Pages, switch forms on and off, edit destinations and mappings and act on Needs attention. Every member works the resulting leads in Leads under the Track's own permissions. On Meta's side the person connecting must be an admin of the Page; creating test leads needs at least an advertiser role.

Connections

• Lead Tracks — the Track's editor shows a Sources card listing the Meta forms feeding it, with a link back here. Its assignment rules can test the lead's source (META_LEAD_ADS), the form name (source detail) or any utm value, such as the campaign.
• Automations — lead triggers expose the lead's source, form, campaign, platform, Track, owner and more, so a rule can be scoped to Lead source is Meta lead ad (or one form by name). The Meta lead → WhatsApp template at once, then alert the owner recipe sends an approved template on the WhatsApp number you pick — opening the conversation for a brand-new lead — and push-alerts the owner; New lead: alert the sales team covers leads from every source. Follow-up timing comes from the Track's SLA and retry cadence.
• Reports — the LEAD report carries source and source detail; Insights can group Meta leads by campaign, ad set, ad or form.
• Meta Ads Lead Signals — the other half of the loop for click-to-WhatsApp ads: tell Meta which chats became good leads.

Limits a user will run into

• Meta keeps a submission for 90 days; connect soon after a campaign starts.
• One test lead per form at a time on Meta's side.
• Pull recent leads reaches back at most 90 days, and one pull per form runs at a time.
• Sync now can be pressed once a minute per Page.
• Leads normally arrive within a minute or two; Meta can delay its notification by a few minutes.
• Custom questions become fields on the lead type, which holds up to 40 fields; past that, the extra answers are not captured and the row shows Needs review.
• A Page connects to one organisation.

Errors & FAQ

"Meta is not sharing lead data with Lodgestory." Your business customised Leads Access. In Meta Business Suite open Business settings → Integrations → Leads Access, select the Page, open the CRMs tab, press Assign and choose Lodgestory. Then press Check again on the Page card; waiting submissions are fetched.

"Facebook refused this Page's token." The connecting user changed their password, lost their Page role, or the app was removed from the Page. Press Reconnect; waiting submissions come in afterwards.

A form shows "Pick a Track first". A form needs a destination before it can sync. Open it, choose a Track (and a lead type if it has custom questions), save.

My Page is not in Facebook's list, or will not connect. Choose Edit settings in Facebook's dialog if it offers "Continue as …" and tick the Page; leave every permission switch on in the last step; and if you manage the Page only through a business portfolio, add your own profile under the Page's Page access settings (and turn on two-factor authentication if the portfolio requires it). The info icon on the Connect dialog lists the same points.

My Instagram leads are missing. Instagram lead ads use the Page's form, so they arrive through the Page connection — check the form is switched on. Instagram Stories with a link sticker are not lead ads; a form on your own website arrives through its own intake.

A lead arrived without my custom answers. The form has custom questions but no lead type. Pick one in the drawer; from the next submission the answers are captured.

A submission says "Refused as a duplicate". The Track's duplicate policy refuses a new lead while one is open for the same phone or email. Change it on the Track's Dedupe and queue card if that is not what you want.

Does a test lead fire my automations? Yes — it arrives like a real one, marked organic.

My test lead from Meta's Testing Tool shows "No name, phone or email". Meta's tool fills every answer with placeholder text, so a form whose only identifying question is a phone number cannot become a contact from it. Use Send test lead on the form's row (Lodgestory fills in a test name, email and phone), add a name or email question to the form on Meta, or submit the form yourself from its preview.

Related modules & next steps

• Lead Tracks — where the leads land and how they are worked.
• Leads — the list, board, sheet and dialer.
• Automations — react to Lead created.
• Meta Ads Lead Signals — report lead quality back to Meta for click-to-WhatsApp ads.
• Connections — Messenger and Instagram on the same Pages.