Home Guides Forms: What They Are and How to Create One

Forms: What They Are and How to Create One

Last updated on Sep 28, 2026

What it is

A Form is a signup or lead-capture widget you build in Convert and place on your website, a newsletter signup, a waitlist, an event registration, or a lead-gen form. Every submission automatically becomes a contact in your workspace, ready to reach through Email, SMS, or WhatsApp. Your Forms live under the Forms tab in the sidebar, where you can see each one's views, submissions, and conversion rate.

Why it matters

Campaigns need an audience to send to, and Forms are one of the main ways that audience grows organically. Instead of manually uploading a spreadsheet of contacts, a Form captures leads directly from your website (or a shared link) and adds them straight into your contact lists, with their consent already built in via a checkbox. Because every submission becomes a real contact, the people you capture through a Form are immediately available for campaigns, personalization, and segmentation, no extra import step needed.

Before you start

Have ready:

  • A clear purpose for the form, what you're trying to capture (newsletter signups, event registrations, leads, etc.)

  • A decision on where it will live, embedded in your website, a popup, or a standalone hosted link

  • The contact list you want new submissions saved to (or use the default)

How to set it up: step by step

Step 1: Click "Create form"

Step 2: Choose your form's purpose

Pick a starting template based on what you're building: Newsletter signup, Generate leads, Request a demo, Waitlist, Event registration, Email signup, WhatsApp signup, SMS signup, or Start from scratch. Every template stays fully editable afterward, so don't overthink this — it's just a starting point.

Click Continue.

Step 3: Choose how it should appear

Select a display type:

  • Embedded: placed inside a page or footer on your website

  • Popup: appears over your site after a delay or on scroll

  • Hosted: a ready-to-use Convert link you can share anywhere, no website required

Click Continue.

Step 4: Name your form and set where contacts go

Give the form an internal name (only visible to your team, you can change it later), and choose which contact list new submissions should be added to. This is optional; contacts are saved even without selecting a list.

Click Create form.

Step 5: Build your form in the editor

You'll land in the form builder, split into two tabs on the left:

Blocks tab, drag in content and fields:

  • Content: Heading, Paragraph, Image, Divider, Spacer

  • Contact fields: Email, Phone, First name, Last name, Full name, Text, Long text, Number, Dropdown, Radio, Checkbox

  • Actions & permission: Consent, Hidden value, Submit button

Form tab: configure settings:

  • General: internal name, display type

  • Audience: which contact list to save to, and tags to apply automatically

  • Success: what happens after submission (show a message, redirect, etc.)

Step 6: Style your form

Open Form style in the right-hand panel to adjust background and text color, button color, corner radius, form width, content alignment, and fonts, all reflected live in the preview.

Step 7: Preview on desktop and mobile

Use the toggle above the live preview to switch between desktop and mobile views, making sure your form looks right on both before publishing.

Step 8: Save a draft or publish

Click Save draft if you're not ready to go live, drafts appear on the Forms page with a Draft status. When you're ready, click Publish to make the form live and start collecting submissions.

Step 9: Install your published form

Once published, you'll land on a confirmation screen: "Your form is live." From here:

  • Install on your website, copy the embed snippet shown (a <div> plus a <script> tag) and paste it into your site's HTML wherever you want the form to appear. Click Open form to preview the live, published version, or Back to editor if you need to make changes.

  • Next best step: Follow up while intent is fresh, Convert suggests using the form.submitted webhook event to automatically trigger a follow-up email, WhatsApp, or SMS message the moment someone submits. Click Configure a webhook to set this up.

This is also the moment to actually grab your embed code, you won't need to hunt for it elsewhere, since Convert surfaces it right after publishing.

Final checklist before publishing

  • Form purpose and template match what you're actually trying to capture

  • Display type fits where you're placing it (embedded, popup, or hosted link)

  • Required fields (like Email) are marked, and a Consent block is included if you're collecting for WhatsApp/SMS

  • The correct contact list is selected under Audience

  • A success message or redirect is set up

  • Styling has been checked on both desktop and mobile preview

  • You've tested a submission yourself before sharing it publicly

Common problems

Submissions aren't showing up as contacts: Check that a contact list is selected under the Form tab's Audience section, and confirm the form has actually been published, not just saved as a draft.

Consent checkbox is missing: If you're planning to message these contacts on WhatsApp or SMS, add a Consent block from Actions & Permission: this documents their opt-in and keeps you compliant.

Form looks broken on mobile: Switch to the mobile preview toggle while editing and adjust Form width or Content alignment until it renders cleanly at that size.

Embedded form doesn't appear on my website: Double-check the display type is set to Embedded and that you've copied the correct embed snippet into your site (rather than the Hosted link).

What's next

Once your form is live and collecting submissions, head to Contacts to see new signups landing in your chosen list, and consider building a Welcome campaign to greet new subscribers automaticall