Public Forms: Capture Leads and Add Contacts to Your CRM

Easily capture leads with a public form. Create your form in just a couple of minutes, then share it wherever you wish you capture contact information, such as your website, Facebook page, or Instagram account. Leads who provide their email when filling out your form will receive an email confirmation thanking them for reaching out.

Learn more about our new virtual fields and tags here.

Access your public forms

1. Go to Marketing > Forms
   
2. Click Public forms
   

Create a public form

1. Navigate to the Forms page
2. Click Create form
   
3. Select Public 
   
4. Select a form template
   
5. Click Start building your form

Keap will save your progress as you build your form. If you need to stop in the middle of creating your form, click the Save and exit button.

Step 1: Build - Details

First, customize your form details by naming it, creating an internal description, and customizing the submit button. 

1. Enter a Form name
2. Enter an optional Headline which will be displayed at the top of your form
   
3. Enter a Form description or instructions which will only be visible in the form builder
   
4. Customize the Button text for your form's submit button or leave it empty to default to "Submit"
   

Step 1: Build - Fields

Depending on the template you select, public forms include fields like first name, last name, email address, phone number, and phone type. You may add additional fields or even remove default fields to gather exactly what you need.

Add fields

1. Click Add fields at the bottom of the list of fields
   

2. Select the desired field
   

3. Repeat these steps until you have added all your desired fields

4. Click Next
   

Additional content

Note that you can further customize your form by adding Additional content fields. This adds a section to your form that supports text, hyperlinks, and merge fields. To hyperlink, just highlight the text, click the link button and add the URL. To add a merge field, click the hashtag button and select the merge field from the contact record you would like to add. The merge field will work based on the contact record. To retrieve this information, the Public form should be included in an email broadcast or automation. Please note that it is not possible to further style the text in the additional content section.

HYPERLINK

MERGE FIELD

Create new custom fields

Save time and stay in the zone instead of navigating to other areas of Keap when you realize you need a new custom field to capture a piece of information. Click the Create new field button to quickly create a custom field and continue working on your form.

Delete fields

1. Click the ... button to open the overflow menu
   
2. Click Delete field
   

Helper text

Helper text will be stored in an icon next to a field or underneath fields in your form and can serve as a reminder for what type of information should be gathered.

1. Click the arrow icon to the right of a field to add help text to it
   
2. Enter your helper text in the field
   
3. This text will display when someone hovers their cursor over the information icon on your form
   

To always show your helper text beneath a field:

1. Click the ... button to open the overflow menu
   
2. Toggle the Helper text is always visible to the on position
   The helper text will always be provided beneath the field.
   

Internal fields

Public forms can be used to add notes to your contacts in Keap.

1. Scroll to the Internal section of the add field menu
   The Add Note field will include a text field on your form that will create a note on the Contact record
   

Hidden Fields

You have the option to set most fields to "hidden". You can also manually enter the information that will be set for the field. This can be useful when:

• Passing hidden data like an event date, or company name (data that will be consistent for each person that fills out the form and will later be used to segment those contacts) to the contact record when the form is submitted.
• When you want to help prevent the user from modifying the values set in the contact fields

In this example, I've hidden the "Company" field and entered the value, "Thryv" to be set as the value of the hidden custom field on the form. When this form is submitted, the contact's Company field will be updated to the new value.

Reorder form fields

1. Click and hold a form field
   
2. Drag the field and release the mouse button to change the form's order
   

Step 2: Style your form

Customize the appearance of your form by choosing to display your logo, setting a page background color, button background color, button text color, and button alignment.

1. Choose whether or not your company logo should be included on your form
   
2. Select a page background color to match the site where you'll embed your form
   
3. Set your button's background and text color
   
4. Choose your button's alignment
   Note: "Full width" will stretch the button to be as wide as your form
   
5. Click Next
   

Step 3: Automate follow-up for your form

1. Click New automation
   
2. The Easy Automation builder will slide in from the right with a pre-named automation and the When already set
3. Click Then to create your easy automation
   
4. Once your automation is set, click Preview
5. Click Publish
6. Click Next
   

Step 4: Publish your form

Once your form is ready to go, you can embed it directly on your website or share a link to a Keap-hosted page containing your form. Any time you need  your embed code or hosted page link, you can return to this step of the form builder.

To preview the Thank you page, just click the Preview button

You can also redirect the user to your own custom Thank-you web page by selecting the option in the drop-down and entering your URL. 

Embedded form
To embed the form, copy the Styled or Unstyled HTML code from Keap and paste it into your site's HTML.

• Styled HTML: Includes default formatting and design for your form
• Unstyled HTML: Removes all default styling so you can apply your own CSS (domain validation required). Use this option if you want full control over the form’s appearance or need it to match your website’s existing design.

Need help validating your domain? Learn how to connect and validate your forms domain in this article.

Note: Changes made to your form after it has been embedded will not update automatically on your website. To apply updates, copy the latest embed code and replace the existing code on your site.

Hosted page
To get a shareable link that goes directly to your form, click the Copy link button.

Customize your form's confirmation email

If you do not automate your form in Step 3 when creating your first public form, Keap will create an Easy Automation to send a confirmation email to your new leads and all users in your Keap app. You can customize this email by modifying the message, when it sends, which public forms trigger it, and much more.

1. Save and publish at least one public form
2. Navigate to Automations > Easy
   
3. Ensure you are on the Easy tab and click your New lead follow-up automation
4. If you cannot find your New lead follow-up automation, you can create it from your templates.
   
5. Click the When card to modify what triggers this automation
   
6. Expand the card and click the edit button to change which forms trigger the automation
   
7. Select which form triggers the automation: either a single, specific public form or all of your public forms
   
8. Click the Then card to modify what actions occur
   
9. Expand one of the existing actions and click the edit button to modify it, or add additional actions by clicking the + button
   
10.  When modifying the email confirmation sent to a customer, you can set the email title, subject, sender, and message.
    When modifying the notifications Keap users receive for a public form, you can set the notification recipient, type, subject, desktop or mobile content, and email content.
11. Click Next once you've made your updates
12. Update the timing of the action and click Next
13. Click Preview once you've finished modifying the automation
    
14. Click Publish edits to finalize your changes and make them live
    

Delete a public form

1. Navigate to the Public forms page
2. Click the trash bin icon next to the form
   
3. Confirm your choice by clicking Delete
   

FAQs

If I update my form after embedding it on my website, will the changes appear automatically?

No. Updates made to your form are not reflected automatically on your website. To apply changes, you will need to copy the updated embed code and replace the existing code on your site.

Why do I need to validate my forms domain?

Validating your domain ensures that only authorized websites can use the Unstyled HTML, helping protect your forms from bots and spam submissions.

Do Public Forms support conditional redirects?

No. Public Forms do not currently support conditional redirects. All submissions will either display the default thank-you page or redirect to a single URL that you configure.

Can I customize the default thank-you page?

No. Customization of the default thank-you page is not currently supported.

The image displayed on the thank-you page pulls from your Business Profile settings, such as your business logo.

Do Public Forms check for duplicate contacts?

Yes. Public Forms use the email address as the unique identifier for duplicate contacts.

If someone submits a form using the same email address as an existing contact, the submission will update the existing contact record rather than create a new one. For example, if a form is submitted with the same email but a different name, the name on the existing contact record will be updated.

Are all form fields supported in Unstyled HTML code?

Yes. All standard form fields are supported, including virtual fields and custom fields. The following features are not supported in Unstyled HTML:

• Merge fields within Additional Content
• Helper text (this can be manually added when customizing your HTML or CSS)

Can I use my own CSS and JavaScript?

Yes. With Unstyled HTML forms, you have full control over both styling and validation. You can apply your own CSS for layout and design, and use JavaScript to customize behavior, validation rules, and user interactions.

What if my domain isn’t validated?

Form submissions using Unstyled HTML embeds will fail, and new leads/contacts will not be created or updated. Domain validation is only required for Unstyled HTML forms and does not apply to Styled HTML embeds.

Why am I not getting any form submissions?

To ensure secure form delivery, your form domain must be validated before using Unstyled HTML forms/embeds. Validating your email domain alone is not sufficient for Unstyled HTML forms.

If submissions are not coming through, follow these troubleshooting steps:

1. Go to Settings > Domains.
    
2. Click the Form domains tab.
    
3. Check whether a form domain is already connected.
   • If no domain is connected, click Connect domain and complete the setup.
   • If a domain is connected, proceed to the next step.
      
4. Go to your public form.
   • Copy the Unstyled HTML code and paste it into your website again.
   • Submit a test entry to confirm submissions are working correctly.
      
5. If you are still not receiving submissions after completing these steps, please contact Support for further assistance.