Instantly is a cold-email platform for running multi-step outreach campaigns. The OrbitForms integration closes the loop on that outreach: when someone you emailed from a campaign fills out a form, books a meeting, or gets a call outcome, OrbitForms can tell Instantly what happened.Two workflow steps do the work:
Instantly Lookup
An Enrich Data step. Finds the lead in your workspace and adds fields like instantly_found, instantly_campaign_name, instantly_interest_status, and instantly_clicked_email for the rest of the workflow.
Instantly
A Send Data step. Update lead sets their interest status (Interested, Meeting Booked, No Show…) and writes details back as custom variables. Add to campaign adds a new lead to a campaign.
Triggers you can use:
A form is submitted (or abandoned with an email captured)
A meeting is booked on one of your scheduling pages
A meeting outcome is set (for example “No Show” or “Live Call”)
Click Create API Key, name it “OrbitForms”, and give it the campaigns:read, leads:read, leads:update, and leads:create scopes. The all:all scope also works.
4
Copy the key
Copy the generated key. Instantly only shows it once.
Instantly API v2 keys are scoped. campaigns:read lists your campaigns, leads:read powers the lookup, leads:update sets status and custom variables, and leads:create adds leads to a campaign.
Attribution: if instantly_clicked_email is true and the lead just submitted a form, they clicked a campaign email and then converted. You can put instantly_campaign_name in a Slack alert so sales sees where the lead came from.
Step 4: Tell Instantly what happened (Instantly step)
1
Add the step
Click +, open Send Data, and pick Instantly.
2
Choose the action
Update lead finds the lead by email and updates them. Add to campaign creates a new lead in the campaign you choose.
3
Update lead: set the interest status
Pick a status such as Meeting Booked, Meeting Completed, No Show, or Interested. Setting a status stops the lead’s sequence in Instantly. Choose whether to fail or skip the step when the email isn’t in Instantly (skip is the default).
4
Add to campaign: pick the campaign
Select the campaign and duplicate handling (skip if already in campaign or workspace, verify email on import).
5
Map the Email field (required)
Map the field that holds the lead’s email to Email. For meeting triggers this is usually attendee_email.
6
Map other fields (optional)
Map first name, last name (or a single Full Name field, which is split for you), company, phone, website, job title, and personalization. Anything else can be written as a custom variable, which you can reference in Instantly sequences as {{variable_name}}.
Example: no-show follow-up — Meeting Outcome → Filter (outcome is “No Show”) → Instantly (Update lead: No Show) → Instantly (Add to campaign: “No-show re-engagement”).
Example: inbound from a campaign — Form Submission → Instantly Lookup → Filter (instantly_found is true) → Instantly (Update lead: Interested) → Slack (” from campaign just filled out the demo form”).
Any field you map to a Custom Variable destination is written to the lead’s custom variables in Instantly. Instantly adds new variables to the campaign automatically so every lead in that campaign can use them.Values must be text, numbers, or true/false. Lists are joined with commas.
Check that the API key has the campaigns:read scope and that your workspace has at least one campaign. Click the refresh button in the node to reload.
Lookup always returns instantly_found = false
The lookup matches on exact email. Check the email field it’s reading (Auto-detect uses form email fields and attendee_email), and that the key has leads:read. If you scoped it to a campaign, make sure the lead is in that campaign.
Update lead step is skipped
The email isn’t a lead in Instantly (or not in the selected campaign). That’s expected for leads who didn’t come from a campaign. Turn on Fail the step if the lead isn’t in Instantly if you want the run to error instead.
"No email found" error in the run history
Instantly needs an email to identify the lead. Map the field that contains the email to Email. For meeting triggers use attendee_email.
Instantly rejected the API key (401)
The key was revoked or regenerated in Instantly. Disconnect and reconnect with a new key.
Missing scope (403)
Create a new key in Instantly with campaigns:read, leads:read, leads:update, and leads:create, then reconnect.
Workspace has no active paid plan (402)
The Instantly API requires an active paid Instantly plan.
Lead did not appear in the campaign
If Skip if already in campaign or Skip if already in workspace is on and the email already exists, Instantly does not add it again. Turn the option off if you want duplicates.