At a glance
- In your templates
- One link per car, built from your dealer key and Elead's VIN merge field
- Field to use
- <{SoughtVin}>, the VIN field in iPacket's public guide to Elead template links
- Leads back
- Questions from Car Pages, emailed to Elead's lead address in ADF/XML
- Plan
- Car Pages Pro, $149 a month per rooftop, with no free trial
On this page
What you need before you start
- Car Pages Pro. The template link and ADF/XML leads are Pro features, $149 a month per rooftop with the plan's photos included.
- Cars with pages. Every car you shoot in CarShots gets a Car Page, and Pro can also import your inventory from your website without new photos.
- Someone who can edit Elead templates, usually your CRM administrator or BDC manager.
- Your store's ADF lead address in Elead, from your administrator or Elead support, if you want Car Page questions routed back.
Where the link goes in an Elead template
The link is your store's Car Pages address plus a VIN: carshots.ai/c/d/, your dealer key, a slash, and then Elead's VIN merge field. Elead swaps the field for the real VIN when it sends the message, so one template covers every car on the lot.
iPacket's public guide to Elead email template links writes the VIN field as <{SoughtVin}> and puts it inside the web address itself, the same way this link does. Paste the link where your template's button or text link points rather than into the words people read, and give it a few words of its own, such as See the photos, the window sticker and the price.
https://carshots.ai/c/d/{your dealer key}/<{SoughtVin}>
- For example
- https://carshots.ai/c/d/k7m2qx/<{SoughtVin}>
- The VIN merge field
<{SoughtVin}>, as iPacket Help Center: eLead email template URLs writes it. Pick it from Elead's own list of merge fields if yours looks different.
This is a link you paste into your own templates, not a certified Elead integration, and Elead doesn't endorse it. Car Pages Pro shows your link with your dealer key filled in. Send a test to yourself before your team uses it.
If the link comes out broken
Most broken template links come from the merge field, not the address. Check these in order:
- The brackets. Copy the field exactly, angle brackets and curly ones both. One missing bracket can stop Elead from filling the field in, and then the link carries the field's name instead of a VIN.
- Spaces. A space inside the address, often picked up while pasting, cuts the link short.
- The record. The field can only fill in a VIN the customer's record has. With no vehicle on the record, the link has nothing to open.
- The car. If the VIN has no Car Page, the link says the car isn't available instead of opening the wrong one. Shoot the car, or check the VIN on the record.
After every change, send the template to a test customer with your own email address.
Route Car Page questions into Elead
When a shopper sends a question from a Car Page, Car Pages Pro can email a copy to Elead in ADF/XML, the lead format dealer CRMs read. Elead then opens it as a new lead with the shopper's details, their message and the car, much like a lead from a listing site.
Setting it up takes one address. Ask your Elead administrator for the store's ADF lead email, and ask for a lead source named CarShots so Car Page leads show up on their own in reports. Enter the address in your Car Pages Pro settings in CarShots, then send a test question from one of your own Car Pages.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?adf version="1.0"?>
<adf>
<prospect status="new">
<id sequence="1" source="CarShots Car Pages">4821</id>
<requestdate>2026-10-30T19:05:00+00:00</requestdate>
<vehicle interest="buy" status="used">
<year>2021</year>
<make>Toyota</make>
<model>RAV4</model>
<vin>2T3P1RFV8MC000000</vin>
<stock>T1234</stock>
<trim>XLE</trim>
<odometer units="mi">38412</odometer>
<price type="asking" currency="USD">27995</price>
</vehicle>
<customer>
<contact primarycontact="1">
<name part="first">Jordan</name>
<name part="last">Lee</name>
<email>[email protected]</email>
<phone type="voice">512-555-0100</phone>
</contact>
<comments>Question from a CarShots Car Page. Message: Is it still available? Car Page: https://carshots.ai/c/2021-toyota-rav4-xle-4kq9</comments>
</customer>
<vendor>
<vendorname>Your Dealership</vendorname>
<contact primarycontact="1">
<name part="full">Your Dealership</name>
</contact>
</vendor>
<provider>
<name part="full">CarShots Car Pages</name>
<service>Car Pages</service>
<url>https://carshots.ai</url>
</provider>
</prospect>
</adf>Texts, emails and what you can track
The same link works in a text template, where it's often most of the message: a line of greeting, then the link. Shoppers open it in the phone's browser with nothing to install.
Opens of a template link count toward the car's views in CarShots. They aren't tied to a shopper's name, because every customer who gets that template gets the same link for that car. For a shopper you want to follow closely, send a personal link from CarShots; Car Pages Pro then shows that shopper's visits with a hot score and alerts you by email or text when they come back.
Is this an Elead integration?
Not a certified one. Elead hasn't reviewed or endorsed Car Pages, and the two systems don't share data through an API. The setup is a link in your own templates plus leads sent by email, which Elead takes from many outside sources. If your Elead account lists a different VIN field, use that one; iPacket's guide is simply the public example we found. Switching from iPacket? Our guide to what an iPacket is and the CarShots vs iPacket comparison cover the rest, and pricing lists both plans.