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

For HR and recruiting leaders, understanding the foundational terminology behind Keap CRM integrations and APIs isn’t just technical jargon—it’s the key to unlocking powerful automation, streamlining talent acquisition processes, and ensuring data accuracy. In today’s competitive landscape, leveraging your CRM to its full potential means bridging the gap between various platforms, from applicant tracking systems to onboarding tools. This glossary will demystify essential terms, helping you speak the language of integration and champion smarter, more efficient recruiting operations within your organization.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, a technology used to manage all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. For HR and recruiting, Keap CRM can act as a centralized database for candidate profiles, talent pipelines, and hiring team communications. It helps organize candidate data, track interactions, automate follow-ups, and manage the entire recruitment lifecycle from initial contact to post-hire engagement. By effectively managing these relationships, recruiting teams can personalize outreach, reduce time-to-hire, and improve the overall candidate experience, ultimately contributing to a stronger employer brand.

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. In the context of Keap CRM, APIs enable other systems—like your HRIS, ATS, or assessment platforms—to send and receive information directly to and from Keap. This means a new applicant in your ATS could automatically create a contact record in Keap, or a completed interview schedule could trigger an email sequence. Understanding APIs is crucial for setting up seamless, automated workflows that eliminate manual data entry and ensure all your systems are working in concert for a unified recruiting process.

Webhook

A webhook is an automated message sent from an application when a specific event occurs, essentially an API in reverse. Instead of continuously polling for updates, webhooks push real-time information to a specified URL. For HR and recruiting automation with Keap, a webhook could be triggered whenever a new candidate applies (from your career page), a status changes (e.g., “interview scheduled”), or a form is submitted. This real-time data transfer allows for immediate actions—like sending an automated confirmation email, updating a candidate’s record in Keap, or initiating a background check process—without delay, making your automation more responsive and efficient.

Integration

Integration refers to the process of connecting two or more disparate software systems to allow them to share data and functionality. In the Keap CRM ecosystem, integration means linking Keap with other tools vital to HR and recruiting, such as LinkedIn Recruiter, job boards, assessment tools, or payroll systems. Effective integrations eliminate data silos, reduce manual entry errors, and create a “single source of truth” for candidate and employee data. For recruiting, this can mean a candidate’s data flowing effortlessly from application to offer letter to onboarding within Keap, significantly streamlining operations and enhancing data integrity across the talent lifecycle.

Automation

Automation in the context of Keap CRM refers to the use of technology to perform tasks automatically based on predefined rules or triggers, reducing the need for human intervention. For HR and recruiting professionals, automation within Keap can transform daily operations: think automated candidate nurturing emails, scheduling interview reminders, updating candidate statuses, or triggering onboarding workflows. By automating repetitive administrative tasks, recruiting teams can free up valuable time to focus on strategic initiatives like candidate engagement, relationship building, and high-value decision-making, leading to faster hires and a better candidate experience.

Lead Scoring

While traditionally a sales and marketing term, Lead Scoring can be powerfully adapted for HR and recruiting within Keap CRM. It involves assigning numerical values (scores) to candidates based on their qualifications, engagement, experience, and actions. For example, a candidate might gain points for specific skills, years of experience, completing an assessment, or interacting with recruitment emails. This allows recruiters to prioritize the most promising candidates, ensuring that valuable time is spent on individuals who are most likely to be a good fit for a role, thus optimizing the recruitment funnel and improving hiring efficiency.

Campaign (in Keap)

In Keap, a “Campaign” is a sequence of automated actions designed to achieve a specific objective, often involving a series of communications, tasks, and decision points. For recruiting, Keap campaigns can be used to nurture candidates, manage onboarding sequences, or re-engage passive talent. A typical recruiting campaign might involve an initial welcome email, followed by educational content about the company culture, a reminder to complete an assessment, and internal task assignments for the hiring team. These structured, automated campaigns ensure consistent candidate communication and efficient progression through the recruitment and onboarding stages.

Contact Record

A Contact Record in Keap CRM is a comprehensive profile containing all relevant information about an individual—in the context of HR and recruiting, this would be a candidate or employee. This record typically includes personal details, contact information, resume and cover letter attachments, communication history (emails, calls), associated tasks, notes, interview feedback, and custom fields tailored to recruiting needs (e.g., desired salary, visa status, specific skills). A well-maintained contact record serves as a central hub of truth, enabling recruiters to quickly access candidate history, personalize interactions, and make informed hiring decisions.

Tagging (in Keap)

Tagging in Keap CRM is a flexible classification system used to categorize and segment contacts (candidates or employees) based on various attributes, interests, or actions. For HR and recruiting, tags are invaluable for organizing your talent pool. Examples include “Java Developer,” “Marketing Manager (Passive),” “Interviewed – Round 1,” “Onboarding Complete,” or “Sales Candidate – High Potential.” Tags allow for dynamic segmentation, enabling targeted communications, quick searches for specific talent profiles, and efficient triggering of automated campaigns, making talent management highly organized and responsive.

Custom Fields

Custom Fields in Keap CRM allow users to extend the standard contact record by adding unique data fields relevant to their specific business needs. For HR and recruiting, custom fields are essential for capturing information beyond the basic contact details. This might include “Desired Start Date,” “Portfolio Link,” “Last Assessment Score,” “Preferred Location,” or “Referral Source.” By creating custom fields, recruiting teams can tailor Keap to perfectly match their data requirements, ensuring all critical information for candidate evaluation and tracking is stored centrally and can be used for segmentation, reporting, and automation.

Data Sync

Data Sync, or data synchronization, refers to the process of establishing consistency between two or more data sources. In Keap CRM integrations for HR, data sync ensures that information about candidates or employees is identical and up-to-date across all connected systems, such as an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), an HR Information System (HRIS), or a payroll system. This prevents discrepancies, reduces the risk of working with outdated information, and eliminates redundant data entry. Robust data sync is crucial for maintaining data integrity, especially during critical phases like transferring candidate data to an HRIS post-offer, ensuring a smooth transition.

OAuth (for API authentication)

OAuth (Open Authorization) is an open standard for token-based authentication and authorization that allows a user to grant a third-party application limited access to their resources on another site, without sharing their credentials. For Keap CRM integrations, OAuth is a secure way for external applications (e.g., a scheduling tool or an assessment platform) to connect to and exchange data with Keap on a user’s behalf. It enhances security by issuing temporary tokens instead of sharing passwords, ensuring that automated recruiting workflows run securely and without compromising user account information, which is critical for sensitive HR data.

REST API

REST API (Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface) is a widely used architectural style for designing networked applications. It relies on a stateless, client-server communication model, using standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to access and manipulate resources. Most modern integrations, including those involving Keap CRM, leverage REST APIs due to their simplicity, scalability, and flexibility. For HR and recruiting, this means that external applications can easily create, read, update, or delete candidate data within Keap, facilitating robust, custom automation solutions and ensuring seamless data flow across your tech stack.

Workflow (in Keap)

In Keap, a “Workflow” is a series of automated steps or actions executed in response to a specific trigger or condition. While similar to Campaigns, workflows often handle more intricate, logic-driven processes. For HR and recruiting, a workflow could be triggered when a candidate applies to a specific job, automatically sending a personalized thank-you email, assigning an interview task to the hiring manager, and moving the candidate to the “Applied” stage. Workflows are essential for automating complex, multi-step processes, ensuring consistency in candidate handling, reducing manual oversight, and accelerating the recruitment cycle.

Trigger/Action

A “Trigger” is an event that initiates an automated process, while an “Action” is the specific task performed once a trigger occurs. This “if this, then that” logic is the bedrock of all automation within Keap CRM and its integrations. For HR and recruiting, a trigger might be “New candidate submits application,” and the corresponding action could be “Create new contact record in Keap” or “Send automated screening questionnaire.” Understanding triggers and actions allows recruiting professionals to design intelligent, responsive automation that streamlines every stage of the talent acquisition process, from initial contact to onboarding.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Keap CRM Data Protection: A Blueprint for Unbreakable Business Continuity