Why a lead isn't a registration
LinkedIn's Lead Gen Forms are good at one thing: they fill themselves in. Someone taps your ad or your event post, LinkedIn pre-fills their name, email and company from their profile, and they submit without typing. That's why they convert well.
But the form's job ends there. The lead sits in Campaign Manager, or in a CSV you download later. The person who just said yes doesn't get a confirmation, doesn't get a calendar file, isn't on your list when the reminder goes out, and isn't in your numbers. A day later they've forgotten what they signed up for.
So the goal is simple: every lead should become a registration within a minute, through the same path as everyone else who registers, so it gets the same confirmation and the same reminders, and so you can see how many came from LinkedIn.
Your options for getting leads out of LinkedIn
| Option | How fast | What it takes | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Download the CSV | When you remember | Nothing | A one-off campaign, small numbers |
| Zapier or Make | About a minute | A Zapier or Make account, admin access to the form | Most hosts |
| LinkedIn's Lead Sync API | Near real time | An approved developer application | Software vendors building an integration |
LinkedIn's own API for reading leads is a separate program: its documentation says access to the Advertising API does not automatically grant access to the Lead Sync API, and you must apply for it separately. That's sensible for a CRM vendor, and too much for one event. A Zapier or Make step runs on your own account, needs no approval, and can be set up in ten minutes.
Step 1: build the form to ask only what you need
Every extra question costs you leads. For an event, ask for what you'd ask on your own registration page and nothing more:
- Email address. Required. Use the pre-filled one; a work email is usually what you want for a B2B event.
- First name and last name. Pre-filled, so they cost nothing.
- Company name. Pre-filled, and useful if you research who's coming.
- One custom question, at most. "What do you hope to get out of this?" is worth asking; it goes to the host with the registration.
Put the event's date and time in the form's headline or description. The lead form isn't the confirmation, so the person should leave it knowing when to show up.
Step 2: make the receiving address
You need somewhere for each lead to go: a registration webhook. It's a secret address that registers whoever is posted to it, exactly as if they had used the event page. Make one per event, so the event is known from the address, or one for your whole account, in which case each post names the event.
Give it a name you'll recognise in your numbers, such as "LinkedIn Lead Gen". Copy the address: anyone who has it can register people, so keep it in your Zap and nowhere else.
Step 3: connect the form with Zapier or Make
Zapier's LinkedIn Ads app has a trigger called New Lead Gen Form Response, in two versions: Sponsored content (leads from ads) and Organic content (leads from a Company Page, a Product Page or an Event). Pick the one that matches where your form runs.
- Trigger: LinkedIn Ads → New Lead Gen Form Response. Connect the LinkedIn account that manages the form, then pick the ad account and the form.
- Action: Webhooks by Zapier → POST. URL: the address from step 2. Payload type: JSON.
- Data: one line per field, from the table below.
- Test: send a test lead. The registration should appear on your event within seconds, and the address should show it was used.
- Turn it on. New leads now register as they come in.
| Data field | From the LinkedIn lead | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | Required. Without it the post is refused, and the error is kept on the address. | |
| first_name | First name | Joined with last_name into one name. |
| last_name | Last name | |
| company | Company name | Optional. |
| hope | Your custom question | Optional: what they hope to get. |
| event | The event's address name | Only for an address made for your whole account. |
On Make, the shape is the same: the LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms module that watches for new responses, then an HTTP "Make a request" module, method POST, body type JSON, with the same fields.
Who can read the leads matters. LinkedIn only lets certain roles read form responses: an ad account role for sponsored leads, and a Page admin or content admin role for event leads. If the Zap can't see your form, check the role of the account you connected.
Step 4: check it's working
Register yourself through the live form once it's running, not only with Zapier's test. You should get the confirmation email from the event, not from LinkedIn. If you don't:
- Nothing arrived at all: the Zap is off, or it's watching a different form.
- The address shows an error: usually no email was mapped. The error says what was missing.
- The registration is there but has no name: first_name and last_name weren't mapped.
Leads that come in while the event is full go to the waitlist like anyone else. Leads after the event has ended are refused, so switch the campaign off when the event is over.
Measuring what LinkedIn brought
Because every lead comes through its own address, every registration it makes is counted to it. You can compare it directly with your other ways in: the newsletter, a partner's post, a speaker's link. Look at two numbers, not one: how many registered, and how many of those came. Lead forms make registering so easy that some people sign up on a whim; a way in that brings many registrations and few attendees is worth less than it looks.
You don't need tracking pixels for this. A person chose to register; the record says how they got there.
Doing this in Programmable Talk
Developers → Webhooks has the LinkedIn recipe ready: "Make a LinkedIn address" creates the receiving address for your event, and its leads count to a way in labelled "LinkedIn: LinkedIn Lead Gen" (a LinkedIn kind in your sources and on the leaderboard). The panel lists the fields to map. Each lead is registered through the same path as the event page, so they get the confirmation, their own page and the reminders, and your webhook, CSV and CRM get them too. See how other ways in compare in How to track where event registrations come from.