Free implementation guide

A lead magnet is not a page. It is a system.

Four pieces have to agree with each other: the offer, the form that captures the contact, the automation that reacts to the submission, and the page that hosts it. Build them in the wrong order and you spend the afternoon going back.

Start the checklist Why build order matters The four prompts

Four pieces, one job.

Most people build the page and stop, because the page is the part you can show someone. The page is the least important piece. A page with no automation behind it is a contact list nobody is talking to.

01

The offer

A discount, a guide, a loyalty sign-up, a checklist. Something a stranger would trade an email address for.

02

The form

The only piece that actually creates a contact record. Everything downstream depends on it existing first.

03

The automation

Tags the contact, sends the thing you promised, and tells you a lead came in. This is the part people skip.

04

The page

Where the form lives so you have a link to share. Built last, because it needs the form's embed code.

The rule that keeps this honest

Every action gets a reaction.

Someone presses submit. Something has to happen. If the only thing that happens is a row appearing in your contacts, you built a form, not a lead magnet.

PageSomeone lands and presses the button
FormName, email, one useful question
ContactA real record in the CRM
They hear from youTagged, welcomed, and sent the thing you promised, within seconds
You hear about itAn internal notification so a real lead never sits unseen
Do this in order

Each piece needs the one before it.

This is not a style preference. Build out of order and the builder will ask you for something that does not exist yet.

Form first. The workflow trigger is "form submitted" and it needs to pick your form from a list. No form, nothing to pick.
Email template second. The workflow's send-email action can point at a saved template. Build the template first and the action is a two-click job instead of writing copy inside the workflow.
Workflow third. Now both things it references already exist, so you can turn it on the moment you finish it.
Page last. The page needs the form's embed code, which only exists once the form is saved.
If you let AI draft the workflow first, it will guess at a form name and attach a trigger pointing at nothing. That is fine as a draft, but you have to go back and repoint the trigger at your real form before you turn it on. Building the form first saves you the round trip.
Copy these

The four prompts that do the work

You only need to write four things in this whole build. Swap the bracketed parts for your business and paste. The rest of the time you are answering questions the AI asks you, not writing prompts.

Prompt 1 · the briefAsk AI

Starts the whole thing. Keep it short, because the AI interviews you afterwards.

I am a [type of business] in [city, state]. I want to create a lead magnet to attract new customers. Can you please help me do that?

The worked example

Spoken into the microphone, not typed: "Hey, I am a particular coffee shop inside the local area. I am in Newark, New Jersey and I want to create a lead magnet to attract new customers inside my coffee shop. Can you please help me do that?"

That is deliberately vague about the offer. The AI comes back asking what to call it, whether it should be a discount or a loyalty program, who the audience is, what fields to collect and what the vibe should be. Those five answers are the actual plan.

Prompt 2 · the pageAI Studio or funnel builder

Paste the landing page copy Ask AI already wrote, then add the look on top.

Can you help me build a lead magnet page for this company? Here is my general idea: I want a [look and feel]. My colors are [colors], and I don't have a logo yet, so I need a little help creating a logo for this business.

The worked example

"I want a futuristic yet cozy and rustic look. My colors are brown and I don't have a logo yet, so I need a little help creating a logo for this business."

Two adjectives that half contradict each other works better than one safe one. "Futuristic yet cozy and rustic" produces something with a point of view. "Modern and clean" produces the same page everyone else gets.

Prompt 3 · the workflowWorkflow AI builder

You do not write this one. Ask AI already produced a workflow description in step 3, so paste that.

When someone submits [form name], tag them as [tag], send them the [template name] welcome email, and send me an internal notification with their name, email and their answer to [custom question].

Why this shape

Naming the trigger, the tag, the template and the notification in one sentence is what gets you a workflow you only have to correct rather than rebuild. It will still point the trigger at a form name it invented, so fix that first.

Leave out any nurture sequence you are not going to write. Ask for three actions and you get three. Ask vaguely and you get a thirty-day follow-up you then have to delete.

Prompt 4 · the popupAI Studio or funnel builder

Paste the form's embed code into the same message, right after the sentence.

I need to change it so that when you hit the [button text] button, it opens a popup. In the popup, I want you to embed this form:

The worked example

"I need to change it where when you hit the join the brew crew button, it opens a pop-up. And in the pop-up, I want you to embed this form." followed by the popup embed code copied from Integrate.

Name the button by the words actually on it. "The main button" or "the CTA" gets you a coin flip when the page has more than one.

Talk, do not type. Ask AI has a microphone in the input box. A spoken brief runs about three times longer than a typed one and gets a noticeably better plan back, because you naturally include detail you would not bother typing.
Table of contents

See every step before you begin

Blue is planning the offer. Green is building the four pieces. Gold is the launch test that proves a real lead makes it all the way through.

Times are active build time for your first one. Your second lead magnet is much faster, because you clone the workflow and the form instead of starting over.

    Interactive checklist

    One small step at a time

    Everything here happens inside a single sub-account. If you have not set one up yet, start with the GoHighLevel setup checklist first, because this guide assumes your sending domain already works.

    Part 1 · plan the offer

    Decide what you are giving away

    Twenty minutes here saves you rebuilding the form twice. Ask AI inside the sub-account is genuinely good at this part, because it already knows what the platform can deliver.

    Plan01

    Brief Ask AI on the business

    Describe the business in one paragraph and ask for a lead magnet. Be specific about the location and the customer, because a generic brief gets you a generic offer.

    • Say what the business is and where it is
    • Say who you want to attract, not just "more customers"
    • Ask it to help you design the lead magnet rather than asking it to write copy
    Faster: use the microphone in the Ask AI box and talk it through. A spoken brief is usually three times longer than a typed one, and longer briefs get better answers.
    Copy the opening brief
    Where: Sub-account → Ask AI
    Plan02

    Answer the questions it asks back

    It will come back with a short interview instead of an answer. That is the useful part. Every question it asks is a decision you would otherwise discover halfway through the build.

    • Name of the offer. Give it something people can repeat
    • Offer type. Discount, guide, loyalty sign-up, free consult
    • Target audience. Narrow beats broad
    • Fields to collect. Decide this now, it becomes your form
    • Look and tone. This becomes the page copy and the design brief
    On fields: every extra field costs you submissions. Email alone converts best. Name plus email is the usual compromise. Ask for a phone number only if someone is genuinely going to call.
    Where: Sub-account → Ask AI
    Plan03

    Save everything it hands back

    The plan is not the only output. Scroll the whole answer before you move on, because it usually produces assets you would otherwise write yourself.

    • The landing page copy and headline
    • The offer wording for the button and the form
    • A workflow description you can paste straight into the workflow AI builder later
    • A social post to promote it, image included
    Work in two tabs. Right-click the browser tab and hit Duplicate. AI responses take a minute, and you can build the form in the second tab while the first one finishes.
    Where: Sub-account → Ask AI → copy the response into a scratch doc
    Part 2 · build the system

    Form, email, workflow, page

    In that order. Each one is referenced by the next.

    Build04

    Create the folders before anything else

    Two minutes now, and you can still find this in six months. Forms and workflows both support folders, and both default to dumping everything in one flat list.

    • Create a folder in Forms and a matching one in Workflows
    • Give them the same name so the pair is obvious
    • Prefix with a number so sorting stays under your control
    Naming that holds up: 00 Brew Crew in Forms and 00 Brew Crew in Workflows. When you build the second lead magnet it becomes 01, and the list stays in the order you built things.
    Where: Sub-account → Sites → Forms → Builder · Sub-account → Automation → Workflows
    Build · the critical piece05

    Build the capture form

    Open your folder, add a form, and name it before you touch a field. A form called "Untitled" is impossible to find in the workflow trigger dropdown later.

    • Name the form at the top, matching the folder
    • Set first name and last name to required via the cog on each field
    • Delete the phone field if you are not calling people
    • Delete the SMS consent checkboxes too, once the phone field is gone
    • Recolor the submit button to match the brand
    Do not delete the consent boxes while you still collect a phone number. Those checkboxes are how you evidence opt-in for messaging. They come out with the phone field, not instead of it.
    What you should seeA new form starts with Phone and both SMS consent checkboxes already on it. If you are only collecting an email address, all three come off together.
    Where: Sub-account → Sites → Forms → Builder → your folder → Add Form
    Build06

    Add the one question worth asking

    One custom field. Not four. Pick the single answer that would change how you follow up, and make it a radio button so it is one tap on a phone.

    • Switch the left panel to Add Object Fields, then hit the + button
    • Choose a radio select so answers stay consistent and segmentable
    • Set Folder name to Additional Info, not General Info
    • Keep the options short, three or four maximum
    • Save, then drag the new field into position
    Why Additional Info: General Info is for the details that identify a person. Additional Info is for things you learned about them. Putting it in the right folder is what makes the contact record readable later.
    New fields always land at the bottom. After saving, the field appears at the end of the form regardless of where your cursor was. Drag it where you want it before you leave the builder.
    What you should seeFour things matter here: Field type is Radio select, Add to object stays Contact, Folder name is Additional Info, and the Key is generated for you. The live preview on the right updates as you add options.
    Where: Form builder → Add Object Fields → + → Create custom field
    Build07

    Create the welcome email template

    This is the email that delivers what you promised. Ask AI will build it for you if you ask it to, and the result is usually a decent starting point you then edit.

    • Ask Ask AI to create the welcome email template from the plan it already wrote
    • Check it actually delivers the offer, whether that is a link, a code or an attachment
    • Give it one clear next action, such as come in and claim it
    • Save it as a template rather than writing it inside the workflow
    Saved template, not inline copy. A template stays linked to the workflow, so editing the template updates what goes out. Copy written inside a workflow action lives only there and gets forgotten.
    Where: Sub-account → Marketing → Emails → Templates
    Build08

    Build the automation

    Workflows and automations are the same thing in HighLevel. The menu says Automation, the thing you build is called a workflow.

    • Create the workflow inside the folder you already made
    • Choose build with AI and paste the workflow description from step 3
    • Set the trigger to Form Submitted and point it at your form by name
    • Add a tag so you can find these contacts later
    • Add Send Email and select your saved template
    • Publish the workflow, then confirm it shows as live
    The AI draft will point at the wrong form. It guesses a name from your description. Open the trigger, pick your actual form from the dropdown, and save before you do anything else.
    Send Email will refuse to save without a from address. Use a real mailbox on your verified sending domain. A from address on an unverified domain is how welcome emails end up in spam.
    Delete the filler. AI drafts love to add a seven-day check-in, a thirty-day follow-up and a loop back to the start. Keep what you will actually write. Every wait step you leave in is an email you have committed to sending.
    What you should seeFrom the workflow list, Build using AI takes your pasted description and drafts the whole thing. Create workflow starts you on a blank canvas. Either way you check the trigger before turning it on.
    Copy the workflow prompt
    Where: Sub-account → Automation → Workflows → your folder → Create Workflow
    Build09

    Tell yourself a lead came in

    The half of the reaction people forget. The customer gets an email. You get nothing, so the first real lead sits in a list for a week.

    • Add an Internal Notification action to the same workflow
    • Send it to the person who will actually follow up, not a shared inbox nobody reads
    • Put the name, email and the custom field answer in the body
    • If the business is small enough, send it as a text instead of an email
    Make it useful on a phone screen. A notification that says "new form submission" makes someone log in to find out who. A notification with the name and the answer in it means they can reply straight away.
    Where: Workflow builder → Add Action → Internal Notification
    Build10

    Build the page that hosts it

    Two routes, and they are both fine. Pick based on how much control you want, not on which one sounds more advanced.

    • Paste the landing page copy from step 3 into whichever builder you choose
    • Describe the look you want, including colours and mood
    • If you have no logo yet, ask it to generate one as a placeholder
    • Leave a clear button for the offer, because the form gets attached to it next
    Do not rely on the builder's own form. Whichever route you take, the contact should come from the form you built in step 5. That is the form your workflow trigger is watching.
    Copy the page prompt
    Where: Sub-account → AI Studio · or Sub-account → Sites → Funnels
    Build11

    Wire the form to the button

    Grab the embed code from the form itself rather than trusting the page builder's form picker. The embed code always points at the right form.

    • Open your form and hit Integrate in the top right
    • On the Embed Code tab, set Embed Layout Type to Popup
    • Copy it, then tell the page builder to open that popup when the main button is pressed
    • Preview the page and press the button to confirm the popup opens
    Popup over inline. A popup keeps the page focused on the offer and means one form serves every button on the page. It also survives a redesign, because the button is the only thing wired to it.
    Copy the popup prompt
    What you should seePick Popup, not Inline. Leave Trigger type on Always show, because your page button is what opens it. Then Copy embed code.
    Where: Form builder → Integrate → Embed Code → Embed Layout Type: Popup
    Part 3 · launch check

    Push one real lead all the way through

    Before you promote it anywhere. A broken lead magnet that is getting traffic is worse than no lead magnet, because you are paying to lose people.

    Launch check12

    Submit a real test entry

    Use a real inbox you can open. A fake address proves the form works and proves nothing about the email.

    • Open the page preview and press the button like a visitor would
    • Fill it in with a real address you control
    • Pick an answer on the custom field
    • Read the thank you message and rewrite it if it is still the default
    The default confirmation is a giveaway. "We appreciate your feedback" on a loyalty sign-up tells people this was assembled in a hurry. One sentence that repeats the offer is enough.
    Where: Page preview → your live form popup
    Launch check13

    Check all three reactions fired

    The submission succeeding is one of four things that had to happen. Confirm the other three individually rather than assuming.

    • The contact exists, with the custom field answer on the record
    • The tag is on the contact
    • The workflow shows the contact in its Execution Logs
    • The welcome email arrived, and landed in the inbox rather than spam
    • Your internal notification arrived
    Check the exclusion logs when nothing happens. A contact that never enrolled is usually sitting in exclusions. Common causes are a duplicate contact the workflow already ran for, or workflow re-entry being switched off.
    If the email failed, the from address is the first thing to check, then whether the sending domain is verified. That is a setup problem, not a workflow problem.
    Where: Contacts → your test record · Automation → Workflows → your workflow → Execution Logs
    Launch check14

    Publish it and point a domain at it

    Until you do this, the only link you have is a preview URL, which nobody should be given.

    • Review the page title and description the builder generated, and fix anything wrong
    • Apply changes, then publish
    • Add the custom domain in the funnel or site settings
    • Add the DNS record it gives you at your registrar, then wait for it to verify
    • Load the live URL in a private window and submit once more
    Test again after the domain is live. The preview and the published page are not always identical, and a popup that worked in preview is worth ten seconds to reconfirm.
    Where: Funnel or site → Settings → Domains → Add custom domain
    Launch check15

    Put the link where people will see it

    A lead magnet nobody can find is a lead magnet that does not exist. You already have the promotional assets from step 3.

    • Use the social post and image Ask AI generated, with the live URL in it
    • Schedule it through the Social Planner rather than posting manually
    • Add the link to your email signature and social profiles
    • Put it on the main website, not only on social
    Watch the first ten submissions. That is where you find out whether the custom field options were the right ones, and whether people are abandoning at a particular field.
    Where: Sub-account → Marketing → Social Planner
    The one real decision

    AI Studio or the funnel builder?

    People lose an hour to this. It matters less than it feels like it does, because in both cases the contact comes from the form you built, not from the page.

    AI Studio

    Fastest to something that looks finished

    • Describe the page and it builds a full layout, copy included
    • Will generate a logo if you do not have one yet
    • Writes the page title and description without being asked
    • Weaker on native form capture, so you embed your form as a popup
    • Best when you want a good page today and will refine it later
    Funnel builder

    More control, more clicks

    • Element-level control over layout, spacing and sections
    • Native form and survey elements built into the page
    • Multi-step funnels, upsells and order forms when you need them
    • Slower from a blank page, faster if you are starting from a template
    • Best when the page is part of a longer funnel rather than standing alone
    The honest answer: for a first lead magnet, use AI Studio, embed the popup form and ship it. You will learn more from ten real submissions than from another two hours of layout work.
    Before you promote it

    If you only verify one thing, verify that a stranger gets an email.

    Everything else on this page is recoverable. A form with no reaction behind it is not, because the people who signed up in the first week never hear from you and never come back. Submit one real entry from an address you can open, and watch it land.

    Keep this guide honest

    HighLevel moves labels and menu positions regularly, and the AI features move fastest of all. The route under each step is the current destination. The reason for the step is the part that stays true.

    More GoHighLevel guides
    Sources & further help

    Want the official detail?

    This guide is the practical order. These are the official HighLevel articles behind each feature when you need the exact screen.

    Last reviewed September 22, 2026.

    Keep going

    Next steps in the same account

    Foundations

    Set up the account properlyDomains, email, phone and users in the right order. Do this before the lead magnet if your sending domain is not verified yet.

    Onboarding

    Turn a baseline into a launchOnce this works for one business, the same wiring becomes part of how you launch every client account.

    Overview

    What GoHighLevel actually isThe plain-language explanation of the platform, and which guide to read for the job you are doing.

    Free stuff

    More free GHL resourcesDownloads, trials and the community, all free.
    Plain-language help

    What counts as a lead magnet?

    Anything useful enough that a stranger will hand over an email address for it. That is the whole test. It does not have to be a PDF.

    Works well
    A discount code. A loyalty sign-up. A short checklist. A template. A free consult. Early access to something.
    Works badly
    A newsletter with no promise attached. A forty-page ebook nobody finishes. Anything that reads as a sales call in disguise.
    The bar to clear: if someone got this and never bought anything from you, would they still feel like they got something? If the answer is no, it will collect email addresses and not much else.
    Plain-language help

    Workflows and automations

    They are the same thing. HighLevel uses both words, help articles use both words, and so does everyone in the community. There is no difference to learn.

    Automation
    The name of the section in the left menu, where workflows are stored.
    Workflow
    The name of the thing you build inside it: a trigger, then a series of actions.

    Every workflow is one trigger plus actions. The trigger is the thing that happens, such as a form being submitted. The actions are the reactions, such as adding a tag, sending an email and notifying you.