A Glossary of Key Terms in Keap Integration & API Terminology for HR & Recruiting Professionals

In today’s fast-paced HR and recruiting landscape, leveraging technology to streamline operations is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. Understanding the core terminology associated with CRM platforms like Keap, especially regarding integrations and APIs, empowers HR leaders, recruitment directors, and operations professionals to build more efficient, automated workflows. This glossary defines key terms to help you navigate the world of Keap and API-driven automation, ensuring your team can focus on what matters most: finding and nurturing top talent.

Keap CRM

Keap is a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform designed primarily for small and medium-sized businesses. It combines CRM functionalities with sales and marketing automation tools, enabling businesses to manage contacts, automate communications, track leads, and streamline sales processes. For HR and recruiting professionals, Keap can serve as a powerful database for talent pools, candidate pipelines, and client management. Its automation capabilities allow for automated follow-ups with candidates, scheduling interviews, sending onboarding materials, or nurturing passive talent with drip campaigns, significantly reducing manual administrative load and ensuring a consistent candidate experience.

API (Application Programming Interface)

An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate and exchange data with each other. Think of it as a waiter in a restaurant: you (the application) tell the waiter (the API) what you want (data request), and the waiter goes to the kitchen (the server) to get it for you and brings it back. In HR tech, APIs are crucial for integrating various systems—like your Keap CRM with an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), HRIS, or a specialized recruitment tool—allowing candidate data to flow seamlessly between platforms without manual entry, improving data accuracy and saving countless hours.

Webhook

A webhook is an automated message sent from an application when a specific event occurs. Unlike a traditional API request, where you “pull” data, a webhook “pushes” data in real-time. It’s essentially a user-defined HTTP callback. For HR and recruiting teams, webhooks are incredibly powerful for event-driven automation. For example, when a new candidate applies to a job in your ATS, a webhook can instantly notify Keap to create a new contact record, trigger an automated “thank you” email, or even initiate a sequence of tasks for the recruiting team, ensuring timely engagement and preventing leads from falling through the cracks.

Integration

An integration refers to the process of connecting two or more disparate software systems or applications to work together seamlessly, sharing data and functionality. The goal of integration is to create a unified ecosystem that eliminates data silos, reduces manual data entry, and enhances overall efficiency. In the context of HR and recruiting, integrating Keap with platforms like LinkedIn Recruiter, job boards, assessment tools, or payroll systems allows for a holistic view of candidates and employees. This means less time spent switching between systems, fewer errors, and a more synchronized workflow from initial contact to onboarding and beyond.

Automation

Automation in a business context refers to the use of technology to perform tasks or processes with minimal human intervention. This can range from simple, repetitive tasks to complex, multi-step workflows. For HR and recruiting professionals, automation transforms operations by handling tasks such as sending follow-up emails, scheduling interviews, updating candidate statuses, lead scoring, and even initial candidate screening. By automating these time-consuming activities, teams can significantly reduce administrative overhead, minimize human error, improve candidate experience through consistent communication, and free up recruiters to focus on high-value strategic initiatives like relationship building and talent acquisition strategy.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a technology system designed to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. The goal is to improve business relationships with customers, assist in customer retention, and drive sales growth. While primarily associated with sales and marketing, a CRM like Keap is equally vital for HR and recruiting. It functions as a centralized database for all candidate and client interactions, allowing recruiters to track communication history, manage talent pipelines, segment candidates, and personalize engagement strategies, much like a sales team manages its leads and clients.

Campaign

In Keap, a “Campaign” is a series of automated marketing or sales actions designed to achieve a specific business goal. It’s a visual builder where you can design intricate workflows including emails, texts, tasks, and conditional logic. For HR and recruiting, Keap Campaigns are invaluable for nurturing relationships. You can build campaigns to onboard new hires with a series of welcome emails and resource links, engage passive candidates with relevant industry updates, automate follow-ups after initial interviews, or even manage a phased re-engagement strategy for former employees. These structured campaigns ensure no candidate or employee touchpoint is missed and communication remains consistent.

Tagging

Tagging in Keap is a flexible method of categorizing contacts based on their characteristics, behaviors, interests, or stages in a process. Tags are custom labels you can apply to individual contacts, allowing for highly granular segmentation and personalized communication. For HR and recruiting, tagging is crucial for organizing talent pools. You can tag candidates by skill set (e.g., “Java Developer,” “Senior Recruiter”), status (e.g., “Interviewed – Round 1,” “Passive Talent”), location, or even source (e.g., “LinkedIn,” “Referral”). This enables precise targeting for job openings, automated drip campaigns based on specific criteria, and efficient search and retrieval of relevant talent.

Custom Fields

Custom fields in Keap allow users to store unique, specific data about their contacts that isn’t covered by the platform’s standard fields. These fields can be of various types, such as text input, dropdowns, dates, or checkboxes. For HR and recruiting professionals, custom fields are indispensable for capturing detailed candidate information vital to the hiring process. Examples include “Desired Salary,” “Visa Status,” “Years of Experience,” “Notice Period,” “Portfolio Link,” or “Skill Assessment Score.” By diligently using custom fields, you ensure that all critical data points are centralized and accessible within Keap, enabling better candidate matching and personalized communication.

Lead Scoring

Lead scoring is a methodology used to rank prospective leads on a scale, typically assigning points based on their demographic information, firmographic data, and behavior (e.g., website visits, email opens, form submissions). The higher the score, the more “qualified” the lead is considered. In a recruiting context, lead scoring can be adapted to “candidate scoring.” Recruiters can assign points based on a candidate’s experience, skills, engagement with recruitment content, or responses to pre-screening questions. This helps prioritize which candidates to focus on, ensuring that valuable recruiting time is spent on those most likely to be a good fit, thereby optimizing the recruitment funnel.

Sequence

Within Keap, a “Sequence” is a series of automated actions that are executed in a specific order, triggered by a particular event or action. While similar to campaigns, sequences are often simpler and more linear, designed for specific follow-up or nurture paths. For recruiting, sequences can automate critical communication touchpoints. Imagine a sequence that sends a welcome email immediately after a candidate applies, followed by a reminder email a few days later to complete a screening questionnaire, and then a follow-up about next steps once the questionnaire is submitted. This ensures a consistent and timely candidate experience without manual intervention from the recruiting team.

Data Sync

Data sync refers to the process of ensuring that data across multiple systems or databases is consistent and up-to-date. When data is synchronized, changes made in one system are automatically reflected in all other connected systems. For HR and recruiting, robust data sync is critical for maintaining a “single source of truth” for candidate and employee information. If a candidate updates their contact information in an application portal, data sync ensures that Keap also reflects this change. This prevents discrepancies, reduces the risk of communicating with outdated information, and ensures that recruiters and HR professionals are always working with the most current and accurate data available, minimizing errors and improving efficiency.

OAuth 2.0

OAuth 2.0 is an industry-standard protocol for authorization. It allows a user’s account information to be used by third-party services without exposing the user’s password. Instead, it issues access tokens that grant specific, limited permissions. For Keap integrations, OAuth 2.0 is the modern and secure way to connect applications. For example, when you connect your Keap account to a third-party application like a calendaring tool or a reporting dashboard, OAuth 2.0 enables that application to access your Keap data (e.g., contact information or campaign data) with your explicit permission, ensuring data security and privacy without requiring you to share your Keap login credentials.

REST API

REST (Representational State Transfer) API is a widely used architectural style for designing networked applications. It defines a set of constraints for how applications should communicate over the internet, typically using standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to interact with resources (like contacts, campaigns, or tasks) via unique URLs. Most modern Keap integrations utilize REST APIs due to their simplicity, scalability, and stateless nature. For HR and recruiting, understanding REST APIs means understanding how external systems can reliably and programmatically create new candidate records, update interview statuses, or extract performance data from Keap, forming the backbone of powerful, custom automation solutions.

Opportunity

In Keap, an “Opportunity” is a record used to track a potential sale or revenue-generating activity from initial lead to close. It moves through various stages (e.g., “New,” “Qualified,” “Proposal Sent,” “Won”) and has an associated value. While primarily a sales term, HR and recruiting professionals can creatively adapt the Opportunities feature to manage their client relationships or even track the progression of key hires. For instance, an “Opportunity” could represent a new client engagement for a recruiting firm, tracking stages from “Initial Contact” to “Signed Contract.” Or, it could track a high-priority executive search, moving through stages like “Candidate Identified,” “Interviewing,” and “Offer Extended,” providing a visual pipeline for critical talent acquisition initiatives.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Keap Data Recovery: The 5-Step Checklist for HR & Recruiting Firms