Keap Terms for HR: Glossary for Recruiting Automation

Keap recruiting automation fails the moment your team misreads one term. A recruiter who conflates a Campaign with a Sequence builds broken logic. A hiring manager who doesn’t understand Tags can’t interpret why a candidate received the wrong email. This glossary defines every core Keap™ term in direct recruiting and HR context — so your team builds automations that hold up without manual rescue. Start here before opening the campaign builder. And when you’re ready to put these terms to work, the Keap recruiting automation pillar maps the full pipeline architecture.

What Is a Contact Record?

A Contact Record is Keap’s™ central data object — a unified file for every person in your system, whether they are a job applicant, passive candidate, new hire, or former employee. It is the single source of truth for that individual across every interaction your team has with them.

A Contact Record stores:

• Standard fields: name, email, phone, address, company
• Custom fields: role applied for, interview score, source channel, offer status, hiring manager (see Custom Fields below)
• Tags: categorical labels that drive segmentation and automation (see Tags below)
• Activity log: every email sent, form submitted, link clicked, and note added
• Communication history: full inbox-style record of all Keap™-sent messages

A poorly structured Contact Record creates data silos. Asana research finds that workers switch between apps and tasks an average of 25 times per day when information is fragmented — the same fragmentation problem that an organized Contact Record eliminates for recruiters.

What Is a Tag?

A Tag is a label applied to a Contact Record to categorize that person based on a specific attribute, status, or action. Tags are the primary mechanism for segmentation and automation triggering in Keap™.

In recruiting, Tags serve three functions:

1. Status tracking: Stage: Application Received, Stage: Phone Screen Complete, Stage: Offer Extended
2. Skill/role categorization: Skills: Python, Role: Senior Account Executive, Pool: Passive Engineering
3. Automation triggers: applying a tag fires a campaign; removing a tag stops a sequence

Tag taxonomy is not optional. Without a naming convention enforced from day one, tags proliferate into variants that fragment your candidate pool and cause campaigns to fire inconsistently. Establish a taxonomy document — naming structure, categories, and who has permission to create new tags — before building any automation. For the mechanics of building this out, see Keap Tags and Custom Fields for candidate management.

What Is a Segment?

A Segment (sometimes displayed as a Saved Search depending on Keap™ version) is a dynamic contact list built by querying tags, custom fields, or other Contact Record attributes. It is not a tag — it is a view built on top of tags.

The distinction matters operationally:

• A Tag is applied to a contact: Pool: Healthcare RN
• A Segment queries all contacts where Pool: Healthcare RN + Stage: Available are both present

Segments are used for Broadcast sends (one-time emails to a defined list), bulk tag application, and manual campaign enrollment. They update dynamically as contacts gain or lose tags, so a Segment built correctly today stays accurate without maintenance.

What Is a Campaign?

A Campaign is the top-level automation container in Keap™. It defines the goal, the entry conditions, the decision logic, and the sequences that execute when conditions are met. Think of it as the blueprint — not the actions themselves.

For recruiting, common Campaign types include:

• Application Acknowledgment Campaign: triggers on form submission, confirms receipt, sets expectation for next steps
• Candidate Nurture Campaign: multi-touch email sequence for passive candidates over 60–90 days
• Interview Preparation Campaign: fires when interview is confirmed; sends logistics, company culture content, and day-before reminder
• Rejection Campaign: delivers empathetic decline communication with optional talent pool opt-in
• Onboarding Campaign: fires on hire date; delivers pre-boarding documents, first-day logistics, and 30-day check-in sequence

A Campaign does not do anything on its own. It orchestrates the Sequences that contain the actual actions. See setting up your first Keap candidate follow-up campaign for a step-by-step walkthrough of Campaign construction.

What Is a Sequence?

A Sequence is an ordered set of timed actions that lives inside a Campaign. Each action executes at a defined interval after the previous one. Actions inside a Sequence can include sending an email, applying or removing a tag, creating an internal task, sending an SMS, or triggering a webhook.

The Campaign-vs-Sequence distinction is the most common Keap™ vocabulary error in recruiting teams:

One Campaign contains one or more Sequences, connected by Goals and decision branches. A Sequence alone cannot route contacts — it can only execute linearly until it ends or a Goal interrupts it.

What Is a Trigger?

A Trigger is the event that starts a Campaign or moves a contact into a Sequence. Without a Trigger, nothing fires. Triggers must be defined precisely — an ambiguous or overly broad Trigger causes the wrong contacts to enter an automation.

Common Keap™ Triggers for recruiting:

• Tag applied: most reliable; fires the moment a specific tag is added to a contact
• Form submitted: contact submits an application or interest form on a Keap™-hosted page
• Date reached: used for anniversary sequences, offer expiration reminders, or 30/60/90-day onboarding check-ins
• Link clicked: fires when a contact clicks a tracked link inside a Keap™ email
• Manual enrollment: a team member manually adds a contact to a Campaign — weakest option, reintroduces human dependency

Tag-based Triggers are the recommended standard for recruiting pipelines because they decouple automation entry from human memory. The 90% interview show-up rate case study demonstrates what tag-triggered interview prep sequences deliver when the Trigger is reliable.

What Is a Goal?

A Goal is a checkpoint inside a Campaign that a contact must reach before advancing to the next phase of automation. When a contact achieves the Goal, Keap™ moves them forward and stops any running Sequence they are currently in.

Goals solve the over-communication problem. Without them, a candidate who books an interview still receives every follow-up reminder in the sequence. With a Goal set on “Calendar Link Clicked,” Keap™ pulls the candidate out of the scheduling reminder loop the moment they act.

Recruiting Goals to implement immediately:

• Application form submitted → exit pre-application nurture Sequence
• Calendar link clicked → exit interview scheduling reminder Sequence
• Offer letter viewed → exit offer follow-up Sequence
• Onboarding document signed → advance to Day 1 welcome Sequence

What Are Custom Fields?

Custom Fields are user-defined data fields added to the Contact Record beyond Keap’s™ standard fields. They are the mechanism for capturing recruiting-specific information that standard fields cannot hold.

Every recruiting team building Keap™ automation needs Custom Fields for:

• Role Applied For — drives routing logic to role-specific sequences
• Source Channel — tracks which sourcing effort generated the candidate (job board, referral, event)
• Interview Score — numeric value enables conditional branching (score ≥ 4 → advance; score < 3 → decline)
• Hiring Manager Assigned — routes internal task notifications to the right person
• Offer Status — tracks verbal/written offer, accepted/declined
• Availability Date — date field used to trigger timing-based sequences for passive candidates

Parseur research estimates manual data entry errors cost organizations roughly $28,500 per employee per year in rework and correction. Custom Fields — when mapped to structured intake forms — eliminate the freeform note-keeping that generates those errors. SHRM data reinforces this: the cost of a bad hire cascades well beyond the initial misstep, making data integrity at the Contact Record level a financial priority, not just an operational one.

What Is a Pipeline (Opportunity Pipeline)?

The Pipeline in Keap™ is a visual, stage-based tracker for an active hiring process. Each stage (Screening, First Interview, Final Interview, Offer, Closed) represents a step in the funnel. Each active candidate in process has an Opportunity record that moves across stages.

The Pipeline complements tag-based candidate management — it does not replace it:

• Tags track attributes and long-term history across all pipelines and over time
• Pipeline tracks the progress of one specific hiring event for one specific role

High-volume recruiting teams typically maintain both: Tags for talent pool management and passive candidate tracking, Pipelines for active requisitions where stage visibility matters to hiring managers. For a deeper look at how Keap™ handles what ATS platforms typically own, see how Keap compares to a traditional ATS.

What Is a Broadcast?

A Broadcast is a one-time email send to a defined Segment of contacts. It is manually triggered and not part of a Campaign Sequence. Broadcasts are appropriate for timely, non-sequential communications — a new role announcement, an event invitation, or a talent community newsletter.

Broadcasts are not a substitute for Campaign automation. Using Broadcasts to compensate for missing Campaign logic reintroduces manual dependency and eliminates the consistency that makes automation valuable. McKinsey research consistently shows that manual, ad-hoc communication workflows are among the highest-leverage processes to systematize — Broadcasts should be reserved for genuinely one-off messages, not recurring pipeline steps.

What Is a Keap Form?

A Keap™ Form is a data-capture element — hosted on a Keap™ landing page or embedded on an external site — that creates or updates a Contact Record upon submission. For recruiting, the Form is the pipeline entry point: a candidate submits an interest form, Keap™ creates their Contact Record, applies entry tags, and fires the first Campaign automatically.

Forms eliminate the manual data-entry step between candidate expression of interest and recruiter awareness. They also enable field-level data mapping — the Role Applied For field in the form maps directly to the Custom Field in the Contact Record, keeping data structured from the first touchpoint.

What Is a Landing Page in Keap?

A Landing Page in Keap™ is a standalone web page hosted within the platform, designed to present a single offer and capture form submissions. For recruiting, Landing Pages serve as the destination for job posting traffic, career fair follow-up, and passive candidate outreach campaigns.

A recruiting Landing Page should have one purpose per page: apply for a specific role, join the talent community, or register for a recruiting event. Multi-purpose pages dilute conversion. Landing Pages connect directly to Keap™ Forms, meaning every submission immediately enters the automation pipeline without manual routing.

What Is a Note Template?

A Note Template is a pre-structured note format that team members apply to a Contact Record to document standardized information — interview observations, reference check summaries, hiring manager feedback, or disposition reasons. It enforces consistent documentation across all recruiters regardless of individual habits.

Note Templates matter for two reasons. First, consistent documentation enables accurate reporting: if interview feedback is freeform, you cannot query it. Second, standardized disposition notes create an EEOC-defensible audit trail. For teams handling candidate data across multiple jurisdictions, combining Note Template discipline with Keap’s™ data management capabilities addresses the documentation requirements covered in GDPR compliance for HR data in Keap.

What Is a Webhook in Keap?

A Webhook is an automated HTTP request that Keap™ sends to an external system — or receives from one — when a defined event occurs. For recruiting automation, Webhooks enable Keap™ to communicate with your ATS, HRIS, background screening platform, or calendar system without manual export and import.

Common webhook applications in recruiting:

• ATS status update → Keap™ tag applied → campaign fires
• Keap™ offer accepted tag → HRIS new hire record created
• Background check cleared → Keap™ onboarding campaign triggered

Webhooks are the connective tissue between Keap™ and the rest of your HR tech stack. They transform Keap™ from a standalone email tool into an integration hub — the architecture that makes the advanced Keap HR automation ecosystem possible.

How These Terms Work Together

Every Keap™ recruiting automation follows the same logic chain:

1. A candidate submits a Form → Contact Record created with Custom Fields populated
2. Tags are applied based on form field answers
3. A Trigger (tag applied) fires a Campaign
4. The Campaign routes the contact into the first Sequence
5. Goals pull the contact forward when they take the desired action
6. Decision branches use Custom Field values to route to different Sequences
7. Webhooks synchronize status changes with external platforms
8. Broadcasts handle one-off talent community communications outside the Campaign logic

Understanding each term in isolation matters less than understanding how they interlock. The recruiting teams that build the most reliable pipelines in Keap™ — like the team in the 90% interview show-up rate case study — treat this vocabulary as foundational, not optional. When every team member uses the same terms with the same precision, the automation holds. When they don’t, the logic breaks at the seams.

Pair this glossary with the essential recruitment metrics and definitions reference and the full build your full talent nurture engine in Keap guide to move from vocabulary to a running pipeline.