Native lead ads

Smileline can receive submissions from provider-hosted forms on Meta and Instagram, Google Ads, and TikTok. Native lead capture is included in Smileline Core. Every submission becomes a lead: it creates the same patient and treatment journey used by other capture sources; it does not create or change advertising campaigns.

Open Ads to see provider health and recent lead activity. Use Meta Ads, Google Ads, or TikTok Ads to connect and switch on the Pages and accounts whose leads you want — once a platform is connected its page opens on a dashboard, and the connection, Pages, accounts and forms sit behind Settings at the top right. Use Lead capture to see every lead your forms sent and fix the few that need attention.

Who can use it

Owners and managers can connect providers, switch Pages and accounts on or off, change form settings, import recent leads, retry a lead and disconnect an integration. Front desk and analysts can view connection health, form settings and every lead with its answers; telesales have no lead-ads access, although they read a lead's answers in Today and on the patient record. Choosing the patient for a lead, and dismissing a lead, also require permission to update patients.

Connect a provider

A platform that is not connected yet opens straight on setup. Once it is connected, the page opens on the platform dashboard and everything below is under Settings at the top right of the page. Granting access on the platform returns you to Settings, and a reconnect prompt from a notification takes you there directly.

Settings keeps the connection at the top — it shows who connected the platform and when, when it last synced, when the last live lead arrived and how many forms are live — and splits the rest into tabs:

• Facebook Pages (Meta) or Lead forms (Google Ads and TikTok): the Pages and accounts you switch on, with their lead forms.
• Ad accounts (Meta only): the ad accounts used for campaign reporting and conversion tracking.
• Conversion tracking: see conversion feedback.
• Import recent leads: see Import recent leads.
• Webhook key (Google Ads only): the optional webhook for the fastest delivery.

Import recent leads and Webhook key appear once the connection is active.

Select Sync now under Settings to refresh accounts and forms; the page updates by itself when the sync finishes. With the SEO & Ads add-on, the same action also imports campaigns and reporting for your enabled ad accounts; see Platform dashboards. On Google Ads and TikTok, newly discovered accounts stay off until you switch them on. On Meta, only the Pages and ad accounts you add appear (see Meta and Instagram). Each switch takes effect straight away; there is no separate save. Switching one off asks you to confirm first.

Each Page or account also has a Default location (shown only when the practice has more than one location) and a Default owner for the leads it brings in. Both save as soon as you pick them. A form or account owner always wins; leads without one take turns under Settings → Assignment.

Meta and Instagram

1. Open Ads → Meta Ads and select Connect Meta.
2. Sign in with the personal Facebook account that manages the practice's Page. In Facebook's dialog, tick the practice's Page itself rather than "all current and future Pages", tick its ad account, and approve every requested permission. Pages an agency manages for the practice connect through this login without moving them into the agency's portfolio. If you manage several practices from the same Facebook login, keep their Pages ticked too: unticking one takes it away from the practice that uses it.
3. Back in Smileline, Add this practice's Facebook Pages and ad accounts opens. Tick only this practice's Pages and ad accounts, then select Add and switch on. Each one starts capturing straight away, and every form on a Page is live, including forms created later. Instagram Instant Forms are delivered through their associated Facebook Page, so they appear under the same Page.
4. Optionally open a form's Settings to change how it is set up — see Form settings.
5. Select Send test lead on a form, send a lead from Meta's Lead Ads Testing Tool, and confirm that the form shows Test received.

Meta remembers everything your Facebook login has ever granted Smileline. If you manage several practices, the list therefore also shows the other practices' Pages and ad accounts, whatever you ticked in Meta this time. Nothing you leave unticked is saved in the practice, and anything another practice has already switched on is marked Connected to another practice and cannot be added. To add more later, for example a new Page, select Add Pages and ad accounts on the connection. To stop using one, switch it off on its tab.

Only the person who connected Facebook can open the list, because it shows their own Facebook Pages. Everyone else sees who connected, and can select Reconnect to connect with their own Facebook login instead.

Ad accounts have their own tab. They carry no lead forms: they are used for campaign reporting and conversion tracking.

Meta may require the practice to grant Smileline access in Lead Access Manager as well as during authorization. The connection, under Settings, shows an action warning if Smileline can see a Page but cannot retrieve its leads.

If the connection reports Meta authorization is missing permissions, select Reconnect and approve every requested permission. The error names the missing permissions. If Meta does not offer them, contact Smileline support so the app's permissions and access can be checked.

If a sync finds that Facebook no longer gives Smileline access to a Page that was capturing, Smileline switches that Page's capture off and shows Lead capture paused on the connection, naming the Page. Select Reconnect, which is available even while the connection says Connected, and tick that Page for every requested permission. Once Facebook gives access again, the Page switches back on by itself at the next sync. Smileline keeps checking for its leads from the moment capture stopped; to bring in the leads from the gap straight away, use Import recent leads. A Page you switched off yourself stays off. A Page another practice has since connected is not switched back on: switching it on again reports that it is connected to another practice. If Smileline's hourly lead check reaches the Page before a sync does, the connection asks you to Reconnect instead; leads on the practice's other Pages wait and are processed once you reconnect.

Smileline reads each of the practice's Pages directly, so a Page you reach through an agency's business access works even when Facebook leaves it out of your own list of Pages. Older connections made through a business system user keep working until their access expires; then select Reconnect, which uses your Facebook login.

The list shows every Page and ad account the grant can see, however many there are. Each sync refreshes only the Pages and ad accounts you added. It reads a bounded number of listing pages and resumes from where it stopped, so a grant with hundreds of Pages is complete after a few syncs. A Page or ad account is only marked as no longer discovered once a complete listing has failed to include it. Instant Forms fill in over successive syncs in the same way as Google and TikTok forms: each sync reads a bounded number of form pages across the practice's Pages and resumes from where it stopped, so a Page with many forms is complete after a few syncs (its row says so while forms are still arriving) and a form is only marked as no longer discovered once a complete walk of its Page has failed to list it.

New connections use Meta’s 60-day user access tokens (a short-lived token from Meta's login is traded for the 60-day one before anything is stored). Smileline attempts to renew user tokens before they lapse. An existing system-user token with an expiry needs fresh consent instead; its expiry warning asks you to reconnect. Meta's 90-day data-access window is different: the automatic renewal cannot extend it, so its warning — 14 days and again 3 days before access ends — asks you to re-authorise in Meta, which reconnecting does. Connecting also grants Meta's pages_read_engagement and pages_manage_ads permissions, which Meta requires for lead retrieval, and ad-account access (ads_read, ads_management) in the same consent, so leads carry their ad, ad set and campaign names. A connection made before ad-account access was part of connecting has Page permissions only: its leads arrive with their form answers but no attribution, and no ad accounts can be added until you select Reconnect to grant ad permissions on the Conversion tracking tab, then add the ad account with Add Pages and ad accounts.

Google Ads

1. Open Ads → Google Ads and select Connect Google Ads.
2. Enter the practice’s Customer Google Ads ID (10 digits, with or without hyphens). If you access it through an agency manager account, also enter the Manager account ID (optional).
3. Select Continue with Google and sign in with an account that can access that customer. Smileline checks access before connecting.
4. On the Lead forms tab, switch on the chosen account under Ad accounts. Every lead form on it is live straight away, including forms created later.
5. For the fastest delivery, generate a key on the Webhook key tab under Settings and copy the webhook URL and key into each Google lead form, then use Google's Send test data action. Google allows one webhook integration per form. While the key is on screen, Copy for AI puts a ready-made brief on your clipboard for ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor or whoever runs the Google Ads account: the URL, the key, the form names and the steps in Google Ads.

Google connection requests two permissions: Google Ads access (adwords) for accounts, lead forms, reporting and supported campaign and conversion-action management; and Data Manager access (datamanager) for conversion feedback. The connection does not request Chrome Web Store publishing or add permissions from other Google integrations. Campaign management still requires the SEO & Ads add-on, and conversion feedback must be enabled separately.

Smileline also reconciles connected Google Ads accounts through Google's API. The API path recovers missed deliveries and forms that do not use the optional webhook. A form configured with another CRM webhook can therefore remain connected to that service. A lead from a form Smileline has not synced yet is still captured: the form is added and set up automatically, and the next sync fills in its questions.

Recovery and imports respect the requested time window, including when the Google Ads account uses a different time zone or the clocks change.

Only the chosen customer is connected to this practice. The manager’s other customers are not imported or displayed. Older connections that did not record a customer choice ask you to reconnect; their account inventory stays hidden until you complete setup. Conversion feedback uses the chosen customer, and only when that customer tracks its own conversions: a manager that tracks them for all its clients is never used (see Conversion feedback). A practice with conversion history cannot be switched to a different customer: connect that customer in its own practice.

Lead forms fill in over successive syncs. Each sync reads a bounded number of form pages for the chosen customer and resumes where the last one stopped. Its row indicates when forms are still arriving. A form is only marked as no longer discovered after a complete walk of that customer’s forms.

TikTok

1. Open Ads → TikTok Ads and select Connect TikTok.
2. Authorize the advertiser account and choose the account used by the practice.
3. On the Lead forms tab, switch on the advertiser under Ad accounts. Every Instant Form on it is live straight away, including forms created later.
4. Select Send test lead on a form, create a TikTok test lead, and confirm that the form shows Test received.

Each advertiser also shows a Direct messages form for leads that arrive through TikTok direct-message ads. It is captured like any other form. Direct-message leads arrive live only: TikTok offers no export for them, so Import recent leads does not cover that form. TikTok currently offers direct-message lead ads to advertisers registered in APAC and LATAM; elsewhere the feature needs a TikTok allowlist, and the form stays visible but empty until it applies.

TikTok lead storage is regional. Smileline uses the European lead region for UK, EEA and Swiss advertiser accounts, and whenever a catch-up import comes back empty it checks the other regions as well, so ads targeted at another region are still reconciled.

An advertiser with several hundred Instant Forms fills in over successive syncs: each sync reads a bounded number of form pages and picks up where the last one stopped, so the full inventory appears after a few daily syncs (or a few presses of Sync now), and an advertiser whose forms are still arriving says so on its row. The first complete inventory walk marks any previously stored form it did not list as no longer discovered; after that a form is only marked once two consecutive complete walks have failed to list it. If you have moved an advertiser's leads into a Business Center form library, Smileline records the library from TikTok's form listing and from the first lead it delivers, and exports that form's leads through the library rather than the advertiser account.

Form settings

Every form on a Page or account you switch on is set up automatically and shows Automatic:

• the name, email, mobile phone and message questions are picked from the form's own question types;
• for an unusual form where that finds no email or phone, or leaves a free-text question unused, Smileline's AI reads the form's questions — never anyone's answers — on the next sync and fills the gap. The form shows AI mapping pending until then;
• every answer the person gave is kept, so staff see the whole form in Today and on the patient record;
• the Page's or account's default location and owner apply;
• the lead source comes from the platform — Facebook / Instagram Ads, Google Ads or TikTok Ads — the way a click on that platform's ad would;
• leads open on General enquiry unless you route them to a treatment, except on a form Smileline built for a campaign template (see below).

A form that shows No email or phone can still be live: its leads wait in Lead capture until you pick the question, and are then added on their own.

AI mapping pending can also mean that contact details are already mapped and Smileline is checking a remaining question for the enquiry message. It does not, by itself, hold up leads. Mapping runs in batches during sync; Sync now starts the next eligible batch. If an AI attempt fails, that form becomes eligible again after 24 hours and is retried on a later sync. You do not need to reconnect the platform.

Select Settings on a form to change it. You can switch the form Live or off; pick different contact questions; override the location, owner and lead source; set the treatment route — a fixed treatment, or Route from an answer, where you link each answer to a treatment and every answer you leave on General enquiry opens as one — and record marketing consent. Only what you change is saved, and a changed form shows Customised; Reset to automatic undoes your changes when you save. Smileline never switches back on a form you switched off, and when a form's questions change on the platform only the settings that name a changed question are reset.

Use General enquiry when the form does not establish a treatment. The person is still a lead: the submission appears in Today under New · Call now as New Meta Ads lead · General enquiry (or Google Ads, TikTok Ads), with the same first-call task, automations and conversion feedback as any other lead. Ask what they're interested in, then change the treatment in the lead's header. Smileline adds the General enquiry treatment to Settings → Treatments the first time it's needed.

Smileline keeps the submitted answers with the capture record. Provider payloads and credentials are not exposed as general patient fields.

Forms built from a campaign template

An instant form Smileline creates for a campaign template (UK and US practices with the SEO & Ads add-on) is set up from the campaign that built it, from its first lead:

• its leads open on the treatment the campaign advertises instead of General enquiry; when your catalogue has no such treatment, they open on General enquiry like any other form's;
• in the US, its consent question is linked for you as SMS and WhatsApp consent evidence (see Marketing consent).

Anything you change in the form's Settings is kept, and Reset to automatic goes back to the campaign's setup.

Marketing consent

Submitting a native lead form does not by itself grant promotional consent. Apart from the consent question on a US template form (below), consent is never set up automatically: Smileline records an opt-in only when you deliberately link a form checkbox or disclaimer response and specify the covered channels—email, SMS or WhatsApp: open the form's Settings and expand Explicit marketing-consent evidence. The provider, form, field, submitted value, notice text and submission time are retained as evidence.

Automatic contact mapping uses free-text answers. A choice such as Email or Phone is not an email address or phone number. On a form that identifies both a patient and a referrer, suggestions use the patient's details and leave missing patient contact fields for you to map. Mappings you saved manually stay unchanged.

An absent, blank or unmapped checkbox leaves the patient's existing preference unchanged. It never opts a patient in automatically.

Template forms (US). The instant form of a US campaign template asks for consent to automated calls and texts, and Smileline links that question for you. Yes records an explicit SMS and WhatsApp opt-in, with the question as the evidence, and the consent to automated calls that the AI caller needs. No opts the person out of SMS and WhatsApp marketing and withdraws an earlier consent to automated calls, but never stops your team calling them back. The newest answer wins, and email isn't covered. See the consent question on template lead forms.

Lead capture

Lead capture in the Ads workspace lists every lead your forms sent, newest first. It opens on Needs attention — the leads waiting on a person — and All leads shows everything. With more than one platform connected, the platform buttons narrow the list. Each row shows the Facebook, Instagram, Google or TikTok mark, the person's name (a link to them in Today once they are added), the form and when it was submitted, an outcome, and a plain reason when something is wrong. Answers opens every question with its answer, then the form, campaign, ad set, ad and platform by name.

Imported marks a lead brought in by Import recent leads. Retry and the settings links are for owners and managers; Choose the patient and Dismiss need permission to update patients. Dismiss asks first: the lead leaves Needs attention and is never added to the CRM. A lead is only ever discarded that way, by a person.

Provider test leads validate authorization, delivery and form settings, but they never create a patient, journey, task or automation enrollment. Neither Meta nor TikTok flags a test lead, so Smileline recognises the placeholder text their testing tools fill in (test lead: dummy data for …, including Meta's angle-bracketed <test lead: dummy data for …>); a test lead you complete with real-looking details is treated as a real enquiry.

A submission for an ad account or Page the practice had not connected yet waits in the review queue as lead-ads-unknown-asset: connect the account, then Try again there and the lead lands in the practice that owns the account.

Import recent leads

New connections capture live submissions by default. Owners and managers can optionally import the last 7 days, 30 days or the provider maximum from the Import recent leads tab under Settings on the platform page, from All live forms or from one form:

• Meta and TikTok: up to 90 days;
• Google Ads: up to 60 days.

The card follows the import while it runs and ends with what it found — for example Checked 78 forms · 12 found · 12 added · 0 need attention · 0 already here, or Checked 78 forms · no leads found in this period. It picks up again after you leave the page and come back. If an import fails, Resume continues it from where it stopped. With no live form to import from, the buttons stay off until you switch on a Page or account.

Imported leads appear in Today exactly like live ones, placed by when they were submitted, so a lead from last month sits below today's. Historical imports do not start automations, send conversion events, notify connected systems through webhooks or ring a notification for each lead.

If an imported lead is On hold or Couldn't import, fix it from its row in Lead capture. Re-running the import skips leads already stored.

Imports and routine reconciliation are idempotent. Receiving the same provider lead through a webhook and a recovery scan does not create it twice.

A lead that has not been added or dismissed is kept, with its raw details, until a person resolves it — it never expires on its own. Raw provider and normalized lead payloads are erased 30 days after a lead is added to the CRM, 30 days after a person resolves or dismisses it, and 30 days after a test lead arrives; the non-sensitive receipt and status history remain. When someone asks Meta to delete their data, Smileline erases their lead straight away and never restores it.

What native lead capture does not do

Native lead capture only brings submissions in — it never creates campaigns, spends budget, or captures Instagram/Facebook direct messages. The rest of the Ads workspace covers the other direction and the money:

• Conversion feedback reports Lead, Booked and Going ahead back to the platforms (Smileline Core).
• Ad campaigns create and manage campaigns (SEO & Ads add-on). Practices in the UK and the US build them from campaign templates, with pictures from Ad images.
• The Ads Overview compares platform-reported spend with CRM truth per campaign under Campaigns → All campaigns (SEO & Ads add-on); the Ads weekly digest report is its email counterpart.