Playground's CRM integrations connect your marketing tools straight to your admissions pipeline, so new inquiries flow into your CRM the moment a family inquires, no matter where they are coming from! No more downloading CSVs, retyping leads, or losing prospects because follow-up took too long. With Zapier, every Facebook Lead Ad submission automatically becomes a Playground lead with guardian info, student details, and stage already filled in, ready to trigger your automations and move families through your pipeline faster. Native integrations with Meta, Winnie, and Care.com are coming soon.
💡 For additional integration requests, reach out to your account manager or [email protected]
Facebook Zapier Integration
Facebook Lead Ads (also called Instant Forms) let families submit inquiries without ever leaving Facebook or Instagram. Facebook prefills the form with the contact info from their profile, so signing up takes just a tap or two. That low friction is exactly why these ads convert so well: families who might never finish a form on your website will happily send you their info from inside their favorite app. Connecting Facebook to Zapier drops each new lead straight into Playground, so you can follow up with personalized emails, texts, and tour invites while their interest is still fresh.
💡 Creating leads in Playground from Facebook ads requires the use of Zapier Premium.
How the integration works
Without an integration, leads from your Facebook forms pile up in Facebook's Leads Center. Someone at your school has to download a CSV, clean it up, and manually import it into your CRM. That takes time your admissions team doesn't have, and every hour a lead sits unattended is a family whose interest is cooling down.
With this integration, every new Facebook lead flows into your Playground CRM the moment it's submitted, with the guardian info, student details, stage, and any custom properties already filled in.
Here is what happens behind the scenes:
A family submits your Facebook Lead Ad form
Zapier picks up the new lead from Facebook
Zapier sends the lead data to Playground
The lead appears in your CRM tab, ready for your admissions team to follow up
Set up Facebook Lead Zapier Integration
Setup happens in three parts: gather what you need, build the Zap, and test that leads flow into your CRM.
Before you begin
Make sure you have all of the following before starting. If any are missing, sort those out first.
A Playground CRM subscription
A Facebook Page that you have administrator access to
A Meta Business account linked to that Page
A published Lead Ad form attached to the Page (not in draft state)
A Zapier account (the free plan works for testing, but paid plans are required for long term)
A Playground Public API key.
Request this key from your Playground account manager
Your Crm ConfigId
You can find this ID in the URL of your Playground CRM dashboard
🚨 Your API key is unique to your school. Don't share it with anyone outside your organization, and store it somewhere secure like a password manager.
Build the Zap
The Zap has two steps: a Facebook Lead Ads trigger and a Webhooks by Zapier action that sends the lead into Playground.
Set up the trigger
In Zapier, click Create Zap.
For the trigger app, choose Facebook Lead Ads and select the event New Lead.
Connect your Facebook account and grant Zapier access to your Page.
Select the Page and the Form you want to pull leads from.
Click Test, choose a lead record to test with, and then click continue with selected record.
Set Up the Action
For the action app, choose Webhooks by Zapier and select the event Custom Request.
Configure the request with the following values:
Method: POST
Replace {crmConfigId} with your actual ID. Do not keep the brackets in the URL. Your final URL should look something like this: https://pg-api.tryplayground.com/api/v1/crm/FRCcIEhReoldleiXzj4V/leads
Data Pass-Through: False
Data: see next step
Unflatten: No
Headers:
x-api-key: your Playground API key granted to you by a Playground account manager
Content-Type: application/json
Return Raw Response: No
In the Data field, paste the following JSON. Use the + Insert Data button in Zapier to drop Facebook field chips into each value position. The correct chips will preview the information that is available in your test lead that you selected earlier. If the chip does not have previewed data, this information is not being collected in your lead form and the Zap will fail.
{
"guardians": [
{
"guardianName": "{{Full Name chip}}",
"guardianEmail": "{{Email chip}}",
"guardianPhone": "{{Phone chip}}",
"guardianRelationship": "Parent",
"guardianSmsOptInStatus": false,
"primary": true
}
],
"students": [
{
"studentName": "{{Student Name chip}}",
"studentBirthday": "{{Birthday chip}}"
}
],
"stage": "New Lead"
}
Customizing the JSON
If you have multiple sites, add a comma after "New Lead", and type "Assigned Site": "SITE NAME". The site name should be the School ID for the site you want to create the lead in. Your School ID is the all capital letter portion of your URL when on the CCMS. The School ID will look something like this "HAPPY_HANDS_PRESCHOOL."
If you have custom lead properties that you collect on the form, you can add these below the stage or the assigned site. The title for your custom property should be the API name specified in your CRM property settings. If the property is "single choice" the value must exactly match one of the options for the property.
The stage value must exactly match the stage you have configured in Playground. In this example, the value would be "New" not "New Lead" as shown in the JSON above.
🚨 API names are case-sensitive. program_name and Program_Name are treated as different properties, and the wrong casing will cause your Zap to fail.
Test the Integration
Once your Zap is configured, run a test to make sure leads land in your CRM correctly.
In the Zapier editor, click the action step and continue to the Test tab.
Click Test step.
If the test is successful, Zapier will show a green success message and you'll see a new lead appear in your Playground CRM within a few seconds.
Once you've confirmed the test lead shows up correctly, click Publish to turn the Zap on for real submissions.
💡 In the first few days you have this automation running, keep a close eye on incoming leads in Facebook to make sure these leads are flowing through to the CRM.