Receiving Leads

ADF Leads

ADF Leads are the most common way to get leads. They allow third parties (like CarGurus, AutoTrader, Cars.com, etc.) to transfer data over so we can automatically extract the following information into a lead:

  • Both Customer and Co-Customer
    • Name
    • Address
    • Phone
    • Email
  • Comments
  • Vehicle (or trade-in)
  • Source

ADF Lead Address

Provide the following email address (you should copy/paste it) to any third-parties that send ADF leads:
ADF Lead Address: dealer-knight@leads.dealrcloud.com

Admin

Admin Only

The above ADF leads address example is a dynamic field. This means that it'll generate the ADF leads address for the account that's currently accessing the content.

Plain Emails

If a plain email (or an invalid ADF format) is sent to the ADF Lead Address, the lead will still get created with the received email in the comments, however it will not be parsed or formatted - there will be no name, source, phone number, etc.

ADF Format

The ADF Format is a very precise XML and emailing format for leads. ADF Specification

Creating ADF Leads

If you are building your own ADF emails and they don't get processed, or don't get processed correctly, our support team won't be able to help you diagnose the issue. The biggest issues that we've identified that come up:

  • Email is sent as HTML or has extra HTML characters (email must be Content-Type: plain/text and must have no content other than the ADF XML)
  • XML is not a valid (use an XML validator, like Free Formatter or Liquid Technologies), XSD Schema

It's very important that the ADF content include only the XML information, and that the email be sent with a Content-Type: plain/text

Example ADF Lead

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?adf version="1.0"?>
<adf>
  <prospect>
    <requestdate>2021-10-13T00:00:00Z</requestdate>
    <vehicle interest="buy" status="used">
      <year>2015</year>
      <make>Chevrolet</make>
      <model>Cruze</model>
      <trim>LTZ</trim>
      <vin>1G1PG5SB1F7151136</vin>
      <stock>F7151136</stock>
    </vehicle>
    
    <customer>
      <contact>
        <name part="first">Johnny</name>
        <name part="last">Appleseed</name>
        <email>johnny@example.com</email>
        <phone></phone>
        <address type="home">
          <street line="1">1234 Main St. Longmont, CO 80504</street>
          <city>Longmont</city>
          <regioncode>CO</regioncode>
          <postalcode>80504</postalcode>
        </address>
      </contact>

      <comments>
        I'd like to know if the Chevrolet is is still available.
      </comments>
    </customer>
    
    <vendor>
      <vendorname>Knight Automotive</vendorname>
      <url>https://knight.dealr.website</url>
      <contact primarycontact="1">
        <name part="full">Sales Lead</name>
        <email>dealer-knightautomotive@leads.dealrcloud.com</email>
        <address>
          <street line="1">1234 Main St.</street>
          <city>Longmont</city>
          <regioncode>CO</regioncode>
          <postalcode>80504</postalcode>
          <country>USA</country>
        </address>
      </contact>
    </vendor>

    <provider>
      <name part="full">Cars.com</name>
      <service>Cars.com Leads</service>
      <url>https://www.cars.com</url>
      <email>support@cars.com</email>
      <phone>888-252-7731</phone>
      <contact primarycontact="1">
        <address>
          <street>300 S. Riverside Pl</street>
          <city>Chicago</city>
          <regioncode>IL</regioncode>
          <postalcode>60606</postalcode>
          <country>USA</country>
        </address>
      </contact>
    </provider>
  </prospect>
</adf>