Route ad leads into the right list

Once Meta or Google Ads is connected, leads from your lead forms arrive as contacts. Routing rules decide which list each one lands in.

Add rules

Open the connection from Connections. If you have not set any up yet you will see No routing rules yet.

Click Add rule, give it a name, then Add condition to describe which leads it should match — for example the form they came from, or the answer to a specific question. Conditions can match on the question text exactly as it was asked.

Each rule sets:

• The list the lead is added to. A rule can also be set to No list.
• Tags to apply, comma separated.

Order matters

Rules run in order, and the first match wins — unless a rule is set to keep checking later rules, in which case evaluation continues.

That gives you two useful shapes:

• Specific rules first, a catch-all last.
• A "keep checking" rule that tags everything, followed by rules that file people into lists.

Test before you trust it

Send test lead runs a synthetic lead through the real ingest path, so you can see exactly where a rule sends someone before real traffic arrives. Test leads are stored and counted separately, so they do not pollute your reporting.

Worth doing. A misordered rule is invisible until the wrong people get an email.

Being routed is not being subscribed

This is the part that surprises people. Adding someone to a list does not subscribe them. Marketing consent comes from the lead form's own consent setting — not from list membership.

Campaigns only send to contacts who can actually receive them, so a routed list of 5,000 may have a far smaller sendable audience. That is the system working correctly, and it is why a lead list should never be assumed to be a mailing list.

Next: open Connections, choose your ad connection, and click Add rule — then prove it with Send test lead.