Automation Engine
What Are Automations?โ
An automation is a set of instructions that runs automatically when something specific happens. You define the rules once, and LeadHub does the work for you โ forever, without you having to think about it.
Why do they save time?
Without automations, every time a new lead arrives you have to manually send a welcome email, assign it to someone, tag it, and create a follow-up reminder. If you get 50 leads a day, that is a lot of manual work. With automations, all of that happens in seconds, automatically, the moment a lead comes in.
Real examples of what you can automate:
- Send a welcome email the moment a lead submits your form
- Assign leads to your team members in rotation
- Send yourself a Slack message when a lead scores above 50 points
- Create a follow-up task if a lead has not had any activity in 3 days
- Move a lead to the "Proposal" stage when a tag called "Qualified" is added
- Send an SMS to the lead when they are assigned to a sales rep
Creating an Automationโ
- Go to Leads > Automations in the left sidebar.
- Click New Automation.
- Fill in:
- Automation Name โ something descriptive like "Welcome Email on New Lead" or "Assign Round Robin".
- Description โ optional, but useful for your team.
- Trigger โ what event starts this automation (see Triggers below).
- Enabled โ toggle on to activate it immediately after saving.
- In the Steps section, add your conditions and actions (see below).
- Click Create.
The automation is now live. Every time the trigger fires on a lead, LeadHub will run through all the steps you defined.
Triggersโ
The trigger is the event that starts the automation. Every automation has exactly one trigger.
New Lead Received (lead_created)
Fires the moment a new lead is created in LeadHub โ whether from a source connection, a form submission, a manual entry, or an import. This is the most common trigger. Use it for welcome emails, initial assignments, and tagging new leads.
Lead Stage Changed (lead_stage_changed)
Fires whenever a lead is moved from one pipeline stage to another. Use this to send a specific email when a lead enters the "Proposal" stage, or to create a task when a lead moves to "Negotiation".
Lead Assigned to User (lead_assigned)
Fires when a lead is assigned (or reassigned) to a team member. Use this to send the assigned team member a notification, or to send the lead a message introducing their new contact.
Tag Added to Lead (tag_added)
Fires when a specific tag is added to a lead. You can check which tag was added using a Condition step. Use this to trigger different workflows based on tags โ e.g. if someone adds the tag "Hot Lead", immediately create a phone call task.
Lead Score Crosses Threshold (lead_score_threshold)
Fires when a lead's score crosses a number you define (e.g. goes above 50). Use this to alert your sales team when a lead becomes hot enough to call.
No Activity (Time-based) (no_activity)
Fires when a lead has had no activity for a number of hours or days that you specify. Use this to send a follow-up email or create a reminder task for leads that have gone quiet. See the No-Activity Trigger section below for details.
Form Submitted (form_submitted)
Fires when a lead is created specifically from a LeadHub web form submission. Similar to "New Lead Received" but only for form submissions. Use this to trigger form-specific welcome messages.
Manual Trigger (manual)
Does not fire automatically. You run it yourself from the Leads list using Bulk Actions > Run Automation. Use this for one-off campaigns or batch operations you want to control manually.
Steps: Conditions and Actionsโ
Once you choose a trigger, you build the automation by adding steps. There are three types of steps:
Condition Stepโ
A condition step checks something about the lead and decides whether to continue or stop. If the condition is true, the automation continues to the next step. If false, it stops.
Available condition types:
| Condition | What it checks |
|---|---|
| Lead Source Is | The lead came from a specific source (e.g. Facebook) |
| Lead Source Is Not | The lead did NOT come from a specific source |
| Lead Has Tag | The lead has a specific tag attached |
| Lead Does Not Have Tag | The lead does not have a specific tag |
| Lead Field Equals | A lead field exactly matches a value |
| Lead Field Contains | A lead field contains some text |
| Lead Field Is Empty | A lead field has no value |
| Lead Score Greater Than | The lead's score is above a number |
| Lead Score Less Than | The lead's score is below a number |
| Assigned to User | The lead is assigned to a specific team member |
| Unassigned | The lead has no team member assigned |
| Time of Day | The current time is within a range (e.g. only run between 9am and 5pm) |
| Day of Week | The current day is a specific day (e.g. only run on weekdays) |
Delay Stepโ
A delay step pauses the automation for a set amount of time before continuing to the next step. For example, "wait 1 day, then send a follow-up email."
Configure the delay by entering a number and choosing hours or days.
Action Stepโ
An action step does something. You can add multiple action steps to one automation. They run in order.
Available actions:
Send Email to Lead Sends an email to the lead's email address using one of your email templates. Choose the template from the dropdown. If the lead has no email address, this step is skipped.
Send Internal Notification Sends a notification inside LeadHub to one or more of your team members. Use this to alert your team about important leads.
Assign Lead to User Assigns the lead to a specific team member you choose. Use this in combination with conditions to build a simple round-robin assignment โ create multiple automations, each with a condition that routes a different source to a different team member.
Add Tag Adds a tag to the lead. Useful for labeling leads automatically based on how they arrived or what score they have.
Remove Tag Removes a tag from the lead.
Move to Pipeline Stage Moves the lead to a specific pipeline and stage. Choose the pipeline first, then the stage.
Change Lead Status Changes the lead's status (new, contacted, qualified, converted, lost).
Send Webhook Sends an HTTP POST request to a URL you specify, containing the lead's data. Use this to connect to external systems that are not in the integrations list.
Create Task / Reminder Creates a task attached to the lead. Enter the task title, description, due date (as a number of hours/days from now), and optionally assign it to a team member.
Send Slack Notification Posts a message to a Slack channel. You need to have a Slack integration configured first. Enter your message text.
Send SMS to Lead Sends an SMS to the lead's phone number. You need to have a Twilio or Vonage integration configured. The SMS uses a template you write, with variable placeholders.
Email Templatesโ
Before you can use the "Send Email to Lead" action, you need to create an email template.
Creating an Email Templateโ
- Go to Settings > Email Templates (or look in the Leads section of the sidebar).
- Click New Email Template.
- Fill in:
- Name โ internal name, e.g. "Welcome Email" or "Follow-up Day 3".
- Subject โ the email subject line. You can use variable placeholders here.
- Body (HTML) โ the email body with formatting.
- Click Create.
Variable Placeholdersโ
In both the subject and body of an email template, you can use placeholders that are automatically replaced with the lead's actual data when the email is sent:
| Placeholder | Replaced with |
|---|---|
| {{lead.first_name}} | The lead's first name |
| {{lead.last_name}} | The lead's last name |
| {{lead.email}} | The lead's email address |
| {{lead.phone}} | The lead's phone number |
| {{lead.company}} | The lead's company name |
| {{lead.status}} | The lead's current status |
| {{lead.source}} | The lead's source |
Example subject: Hi {{lead.first_name}}, thanks for reaching out!
Example body: Dear {{lead.first_name}}, thank you for contacting us. We will be in touch at {{lead.email}} shortly.
The No-Activity Triggerโ
The No-Activity trigger is special โ it fires on a schedule rather than instantly. It checks your leads periodically and fires on any lead that has had no recorded activity for longer than the time you set.
How to configure it: When you select "No Activity (Time-based)" as your trigger, a configuration field appears. Enter the number of hours or days of silence before the automation should fire.
For example, set it to 72 hours. Any lead that has had no activity (no stage change, no note, no task completed, no email sent) for 72 hours will trigger the automation. You can then send a follow-up email or create a reminder task.
Important: The no-activity trigger only fires once per period per lead. After it fires, the lead's activity clock resets. It will not fire again until another full period of silence passes.
Automation Run History and Debuggingโ
Every time an automation runs on a lead, LeadHub records the result. To see this history:
- Go to Leads > Automations.
- Click the eye (view) icon on an automation.
- Open the Run History tab.
For each run you can see:
- Which lead triggered it
- When it started and finished
- How long it took
- The status: Success (all steps completed), Partial (some steps ran, some failed), or Failed (the automation could not complete)
- A log showing what happened at each step
If an automation shows failures, click on the failed run to see the log. The log tells you exactly which step failed and why (e.g. "Lead has no email address โ Send Email step skipped" or "Webhook returned HTTP 500 error").
The navigation badge on the Automations menu item shows a red count of failures in the last 24 hours, so you know immediately if something needs attention.
Enabling and Disabling Automationsโ
To pause an automation without deleting it:
- Go to Leads > Automations.
- Find the automation in the list.
- Click the toggle in the Enabled column to switch it off.
The automation stops running immediately. Turn it back on the same way.
You can also enable or disable automations in bulk by ticking multiple checkboxes and using the Bulk Actions menu.
Best Practices and Examplesโ
Example 1: Welcome Email on New Leadโ
- Trigger: New Lead Received
- Condition: (optional) Source Is = Facebook Lead Ads
- Action: Send Email to Lead โ select your "Welcome Email" template
This sends a personalized welcome email the moment someone fills out your Facebook Lead Ad.
Example 2: Assign Leads by Sourceโ
- Trigger: New Lead Received
- Condition: Lead Source Is = LinkedIn
- Action: Assign Lead to User โ pick your enterprise sales rep
Create multiple automations, one per source, each assigning to a different rep. This routes inbound leads automatically with no manual work.
Example 3: Follow-Up Reminder After No Activityโ
- Trigger: No Activity (Time-based) โ 3 days
- Condition: Lead Status Is Not = Converted or Lost
- Action: Create Task โ "Follow up with {{lead.first_name}}", due in 0 hours (immediately), assign to the lead's assigned user
This creates a to-do task for your sales rep whenever a lead goes quiet for 3 days.
Example 4: Hot Lead Alertโ
- Trigger: Lead Score Crosses Threshold โ above 50
- Action: Send Slack Notification โ "Hot lead alert: {{lead.first_name}} {{lead.last_name}} ({{lead.email}}) has scored {{lead.score}} points!"
- Action: Create Task โ "Call this hot lead now", due in 1 hour
This fires the moment a lead becomes high-value, alerting your team to act fast.
Example 5: Tag-Based Workflowโ
- Trigger: Tag Added to Lead
- Condition: Lead Has Tag = "Needs Proposal"
- Action: Move to Pipeline Stage โ Proposal stage
- Action: Create Task โ "Prepare proposal document", due in 2 days
When someone on your team adds the "Needs Proposal" tag to a lead, it automatically moves to the right stage and creates the task to prepare the proposal.