Zoho CRM

Datafly Signal delivers identify and lead events server-to-server into Zoho CRM using the V8 REST Upsert Records API. Each event creates a new record or updates the matching one (deduplicated on email), keeping your CRM in sync with first-party website signals without a browser script.

Prerequisites

Before configuring Zoho CRM in Signal, you need a Zoho CRM account and an OAuth application that can issue a long-lived refresh token.

curl https://accounts.zoho.com/oauth/v2/token \
  -d grant_type=authorization_code \
  -d client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID \
  -d client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET \
  -d code=THE_GRANT_CODE

Configuration

Configure in Signal

1. Go to Integrations > Add Integration > Zoho CRM.
2. Select the Lead Capture preset.
3. Enter your api_domain, accounts_url, module, client_id, client_secret, and refresh_token.
4. Select consent categories (typically marketing).
5. Click Save.

Signal exchanges your refresh token for a one-hour access token automatically and refreshes it as needed.

API Endpoint

POST https://{api_domain}/crm/v8/{module}/upsert

For example, US Leads:

POST https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v8/Leads/upsert

Authentication is sent as Authorization: Zoho-oauthtoken {access_token}. The body is a data array of record objects keyed by Zoho field API names.

Identity Signals

Zoho CRM is a human-facing record store, so identity is the record’s natural keys, sent in plaintext (unlike ad-platform APIs that require hashed match keys):

How to send user data

Call datafly.identify() when a user submits a form, registers, or logs in:

datafly.identify("user-123", {
  email: "jane.doe@example.com",
  firstName: "Jane",
  lastName: "Doe",
  phone: "+44 7700 900123",
  company: "Acme Ltd"
});

Event Mapping

Lead Capture preset

Page views and other analytics events are dropped — a CRM is not an analytics sink. To capture custom fields, map additional traits to your module’s field API names (retrieve them via Zoho’s Fields metadata API) in the integration’s Field Mappings.

Example: Lead Generated event

Datafly.js call:

datafly.identify("user-123", {
  email: "jane.doe@example.com",
  firstName: "Jane",
  lastName: "Doe",
  company: "Acme Ltd"
});
 
datafly.track("Lead Generated", {
  form_name: "Request a Demo",
  source: "Website"
});

Zoho CRM payload sent by Signal:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "Email": "jane.doe@example.com",
      "First_Name": "Jane",
      "Last_Name": "Doe",
      "Company": "Acme Ltd",
      "Lead_Source": "Website",
      "Description": "Request a Demo"
    }
  ]
}

Because duplicate_check_fields is omitted, Zoho falls back to the module’s system-defined unique field (Email for Leads), so a repeat submission updates the existing lead instead of creating a duplicate.

Testing

Troubleshooting

Rate Limits

Zoho CRM enforces a per-day API credit limit that varies by edition. The Upsert API accepts up to 100 records per call. For most lead-capture volumes the default one-record-per-event delivery is well within limits; enable batching if you expect high throughput.