How to Integrate Keap Dynamic Tags with Your Applicant Tracking System for Seamless Data Flow
In today’s fast-paced recruiting landscape, efficiency and accuracy are paramount. Manual data entry between your CRM and ATS is not just a time sink; it’s a breeding ground for errors that can derail your hiring process and impact candidate experience. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to integrate Keap’s powerful dynamic tags with your Applicant Tracking System (ATS), ensuring a seamless, automated data flow that frees up your team to focus on strategic hiring, not administrative tasks. By eliminating redundant data entry, you’ll gain a single source of truth for applicant information, streamline communications, and significantly boost operational efficiency.
Step 1: Define Your Data Flow Strategy and Objectives
Before any technical implementation, clearly articulate what data you need to transfer and why. Begin by identifying the critical applicant data points residing in Keap (e.g., lead source, initial contact notes, marketing funnel stage) that need to be pushed into your ATS. Conversely, determine which key statuses or details from your ATS (e.g., application received, interview scheduled, offer extended) should update the applicant’s record in Keap. This strategic mapping ensures that both systems contain the most relevant, up-to-date information, supporting a holistic view of each candidate and enabling targeted communications. Without a clear objective, your integration risks becoming a complex system that doesn’t fully serve your business needs or solve specific bottlenecks.
Step 2: Identify Key Dynamic Tags in Keap
Keap utilizes dynamic tags (merge fields) to store and retrieve specific data points associated with contacts. Your next step is to comprehensively identify all relevant dynamic tags within your Keap application that hold applicant-related information. This includes standard fields like first name, last name, email, and phone, as well as any custom fields you’ve created for specific recruitment data (e.g., desired salary, position applied for, last marketing interaction). Access your Keap custom field settings to ensure you have a complete list of these tags and understand their exact naming conventions. Accurate identification is crucial for ensuring that the correct data is extracted from Keap and prepared for transfer to your ATS in subsequent steps.
Step 3: Map Keap Dynamic Tags to ATS Fields
With your Keap dynamic tags identified, create a detailed mapping document that clearly links each Keap tag to its corresponding field in your ATS. This step is critical for data integrity and successful integration. For example, ‘Keap Contact First Name’ would map to ‘ATS Applicant First Name,’ and ‘Keap Custom Field: Desired Role’ would map to ‘ATS Job Title Preference.’ Pay close attention to data types (e.g., text, number, date) to prevent errors during transfer. Document any fields that don’t have a direct match or require transformation. This meticulous mapping ensures that when data moves between systems, it lands in the correct place and maintains its intended meaning, preventing data corruption and misinterpretation.
Step 4: Choose Your Integration Method and Platform
Selecting the right integration method is paramount. While some ATS platforms offer native Keap integrations, a more flexible and robust solution often involves an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) like Make.com (formerly Integromat), Zapier, or Integrately. Given 4Spot Consulting’s expertise, Make.com is highly recommended for its powerful visual builder and extensive customization options, allowing for complex multi-step workflows. Make.com provides a low-code environment to connect Keap to virtually any ATS with an API, even if a direct connector isn’t available. This flexibility is essential for creating tailored data flows that precisely match your business processes and scale with your needs, avoiding vendor lock-in and maximizing ROI.
Step 5: Configure the Integration Workflow in Make.com
Within Make.com, you’ll design and build your integration scenario. This typically involves setting up a trigger (e.g., a new contact in Keap, a specific tag applied, or a stage change in your ATS). Follow this with an action module that interacts with the other system. For example, a Keap trigger for a new “Applicant” tag could activate an ATS module to “Create New Applicant.” During this stage, you’ll use the mapping document from Step 3 to ensure each Keap dynamic tag is correctly pulled and inserted into the corresponding ATS field. Leverage Make.com’s data transformation functions to reformat data if necessary, ensuring seamless compatibility between Keap and your ATS, thereby automating the transfer with precision.
Step 6: Implement Robust Error Handling and Thorough Testing
Automated data flows are powerful, but they require vigilance. Implement robust error handling mechanisms within your Make.com scenario to catch issues like missing data, invalid formats, or API connection failures. Configure alerts to notify your team immediately when an error occurs, allowing for swift resolution before it impacts your recruiting process. Crucially, conduct extensive testing with sample data. Create test applicants in Keap, apply relevant tags, and observe their progression through your ATS. Verify that all mapped fields populate correctly and that updates in one system are accurately reflected in the other. This rigorous testing phase is non-negotiable for ensuring data integrity and the reliability of your integration.
Step 7: Monitor, Optimize, and Maintain Your Data Flow
An integration isn’t a “set it and forget it” solution. Once live, continuously monitor your Make.com scenarios for successful executions and any emerging errors. Regularly review logs and performance metrics to identify potential bottlenecks or areas for improvement. As your business processes evolve or your ATS/Keap configurations change, be prepared to revisit and update your integration workflows. This proactive approach ensures that your seamless data flow remains optimized, accurate, and aligned with your operational needs over time. Consistent maintenance prevents data drift and ensures your hiring teams always have access to the right information at the right moment, maximizing the value of your automated systems.
If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Beyond Native Backups: Complete Keap & High Level CRM Data Protection
