Lead categories and sources

When you create a lead with POST /api/v1/leads, category and source are required. Values must match exactly — including capitalisation, hyphens, and spaces. Sending New vehicle enquiry instead of New Vehicle Enquiry returns 422 Unprocessable Content.

For field formats and endpoint details, see Creating and Updating Leads. OpenAPI reference: Create Lead.

Category

Use category to describe what the customer is enquiring about. The API accepts the following values, grouped by type:

Sales

Value
`New Vehicle Enquiry`
`Used Vehicle Enquiry`
`Test Drive Booking`
`Special Offer Enquiry`
`Fleet Enquiry`
`Finance Enquiry`
`Insurance Enquiry`
`Subscription Enquiry`
`Team Member Enquiry`
`Vehicle Reservation`
`Online Purchase`
`Brochure Download`
`Document Request`
`Referral Enquiry`

Trade

Value
`Trade-in Enquiry`
`Sell My Car Enquiry`

Service

Value
`Service Booking`
`Service Enquiry`
`Parts Enquiry`
`Service Retention`
`Loan Car Booking`

General

Value
`General Enquiry`
`Survey`
`Competition Enquiry`
`Phone Call`
`Event Enquiry`
`SMS Campaign`

Source

Use source to record where the lead came from. The standard values accepted by the API are:

Value
`Autograb`
`Autotrader`
`Brisbane Cars`
`Bulk SMS Campaign`
`Car Expert`
`Carbee`
`Carsales`
`CBA`
`Chatbot`
`Chatbot - External`
`Country Cars`
`Drive`
`Event`
`Facebook`
`Facebook Marketplace`
`Ford`
`Google`
`Google Ads`
`Hyundai`
`IApprise`
`Manufacturer`
`Mobile App`
`Only Cars`
`Phone Call`
`QR Code`
`Referral`
`Repeat`
`Retention`
`SMS Connect`
`Truckworld`
`Tweed Cars`
`Walk In`
`Website`

Dealership-specific sources

Individual dealerships may accept additional source values beyond this list (for example, a custom integration name configured on the dealership). If you send a source that is not valid for the target dealership, the API returns:

{
  "source": ["is not included in the list of valid sources"]
}

Contact support@dealerstudio.com.au if you need a new source value added for a dealership.

API key default source

If your API key has a default source configured, source may be applied automatically when you omit it on create. If you send source explicitly, that value is used instead.

Marketing source

marketing_source is optional. It describes paid or tracked campaign attribution (for example Adwords or Facebook). In most website integrations you should omit it and send click IDs in linked_query_params instead — Dealer Studio derives marketing_source automatically. See Marketing attribution in the create/update guide.

When you set it explicitly, accepted values are:

Value
`Adwords`
`Audience Network`
`Carsales`
`CFive AI Receptionist`
`ChatGPT`
`CRM`
`Drive`
`Email`
`Facebook`
`GMB`
`Google`
`Instagram`
`Linkedin`
`Messenger`
`Organic`
`Partnership`
`Popup`
`QR Code`
`SMS`
`Social`
`TikTok`
`Unknown`
`YouTube`