LESSON 03 · QUICK TOPIC
GOHIGHLEVEL
GoHighLevel Custom Fields vs. Custom Values: When to Use Each (and Why It Matters)
Custom Fields and Custom Values sound almost identical, but they solve two very different problems.
Learn the difference through real examples — then use them to personalize funnels and emails, automate documents, preserve marketing attribution, and make your CRM dramatically more useful.
If you've ever opened GoHighLevel, seen Custom Fields and Custom Values and thought: “Okay… those sound like the same thing.” You are forgiven. 😂
Information about them
Custom Field
Information that can change from one contact, company or opportunity to another.
Reusable information from your business
Custom Value
Reusable information that should remain consistent wherever you use it.
The entire difference
They Both Deal With Information. The Difference Is Actually Very Simple.
Could this answer be different for every person or deal?
→ Custom Field
Should this information stay consistent everywhere I reuse it?
→ Custom Value
That's it.
Screenshot that if you need to. 😂
Interactive
Let's See If This Makes Sense Already
Where should this information live?
Tap a card, then tap a destination. (On desktop you can drag them too.)
Custom Field
Specific to this person/deal
Custom Value
Reusable business information
Person/deal specific
Preferred Service: CRM Automation · Project Fee: $5,000 · Shirt Size: Medium · Service Interest: Facebook Ads
Reusable business information
Booking Link: yourbusiness.com/book · Support Email: support@yourbusiness.com · Company Legal Name: Amazing Business LLC · Current Promo Deadline: August 31
Congratulations. You understand the difference. 😂
Everything else in this lesson is just showing you what you can DO with it.
Why should an entrepreneur care?
This Isn't Really a Lesson About CRM Settings
Your booking URL currently appears inside
- 5 Emails
- 3 SMS Messages
- 1 Funnel
- 2 Workflows
- 1 Proposal Email
- Old booking link
- Calendar changes
- “OMG where else did I put this link?” 😭
Custom Value
Booking Link
yourbusiness.com/book
Email
yourbusiness.com/book
SMS
yourbusiness.com/book
Funnel
yourbusiness.com/book
Workflow
yourbusiness.com/book
Proposal
yourbusiness.com/book
Every asset above reads the same value: yourbusiness.com/book
Callout
One update. No scavenger hunt.
That's the entire promise of a Custom Value: the information lives in one place, and everything that uses it stays correct.
Practical example #1 — funnels
A Funnel That Actually Remembers What Someone Wants
- 📝
Form
“What are you most interested in?”
- 🏷️
Custom Field
Service Interest = CRM & Automation
- 👤
Maya's contact record
The answer is now something you can act on.
- ⚙️
If Service Interest = CRM & Automation
- · Send CRM/automation resources
- · Add to the relevant nurture
- · Personalize future messaging
- · Create a useful audience segment
- · Notify the appropriate person if needed
Ask this instead
“Which fields should I put on this form?”
“What should happen next?”
You're not collecting information because forms have fields. You're collecting information because it should help you decide what happens next.
Practical example #2 — custom values
Stop Updating the Same Information Everywhere
Custom Value
Strategy Call Link
yourbusiness.com/book
Welcome Email
yourbusiness.com/book
Nurture Email
yourbusiness.com/book
SMS
yourbusiness.com/book
Funnel CTA
yourbusiness.com/book
Workflow
yourbusiness.com/book
Proposal Email
yourbusiness.com/book
Every asset above reads the same value: yourbusiness.com/book
Callout
This tiny feature doesn't look exciting…
…until it saves you from making the same edit 27 times. 😂
Custom Field + Custom Value
Okay… Now Let's Use BOTH
About Maya
Custom Fields / contact data
- First Name
- Maya
- Service Interest
- CRM & Automation
- Business Type
- Consulting
From your business
Custom Values
- Consultant Name
- Natalia
- Strategy Call Link
- yourbusiness.com/book
- Support Email
- support@yourbusiness.com
The email they receive
Hi Maya,
I saw you're interested in CRM & Automation, so I wanted to send you a few resources that might help.
If you get to the point where you'd like to talk through the strategy together, you can book a call here: yourbusiness.com/book
Natalia
Personalization isn't just
“Hi {first name}”
Real personalization means using what you know about someone to make the communication more relevant.
Practical example #3 — email segmentation
Now Your Email Marketing Gets Smarter
Audience A
- Service Interest: Facebook Ads
Send
Facebook Ads resources
Audience B
- Service Interest: CRM & Automation
Send
Automation resources
Audience C
- Webinar Attended: Yes
- Consultation Booked: No
Send
Relevant follow-up
THIS is why storing useful information matters.
Your CRM isn't simply remembering things. It's helping you decide who should receive what.
Callout
Personalization isn't adding someone's first name to an email.
It's using what you know about someone to make the message more relevant.
Practical example #4 — automated documents
Now Let's Let the System Do the Boring Parts 😏
- New Lead
- Qualified
- Strategy Call
- Send Proposal
- Contract Signed
- Client Onboarding
The manual version 😮💨
- Open proposal
- Copy template
- Type client name
- Add service
- Change price
- Add business info
- Check signature
- Update CRM
The automated version
- Opportunity moves to: Send Proposal
- Workflow starts
- Document template — dynamic data populated
- Proposal / contract sent
- Document status tracked
- Signed
- Next onboarding action
Opportunity Custom Fields
About the deal
- Package Selected
- Growth Strategy
- Project Fee
- $5,000
- Project Start
- September 15
- Payment Plan
- 2 Payments
Contact Data
About the person
- Client
- Maya Thompson
- maya@example.com
Reusable Business Data
Custom Values
- Legal Business Name
- Amazing Business LLC
- Support Email
- support@yourbusiness.com
- Standard Business Details
- Terms, address, tax details
Document template — waiting for data
- Prepared for
- — pending —
- Package
- — pending —
- Investment
- — pending —
- Start date
- — pending —
- Prepared by
- — pending —
- Questions
- — pending —
Good automation begins with good data.
If your data is messy, automation simply becomes a very fast way of moving messy information around. 😂
Remember Maya?
This Is Where Facebook Ads Meets Your CRM
UTM chips travelling with her
- utm_source=facebook
- utm_medium=paid_social
- utm_campaign=automation_audit_2026
- utm_content=video_01
- 📱
Meta Ad
She sees a video about automation audits.
- 👆
Maya clicks
- 🧭
Funnel
- 📝
Form
- 🗂️
CRM
- ⚙️
Automation
In Lesson 02 we learned
A customer journey can have more than one marketing touchpoint.
Now we're asking: how do we preserve the clues?
The Marketing Dictionary
Quick Dictionary: UTM Parameters
A UTM parameter is a label attached to a URL that helps marketing and analytics systems understand where traffic came from.
A label attached to a URL that helps marketing and analytics systems understand where traffic came from.
Where did they come from? Example: facebook.
What kind of traffic was it? Example: paid_social.
Which campaign? Example: summer_strategy_2026.
Which creative or version? Example: video_testimonial.
The process of determining which marketing activity gets credit for a lead, conversion or sale.
Information that can change from one contact, company or opportunity to another.
Reusable information that should remain consistent wherever you use it.
- utm_source=facebook
- utm_medium=paid_social
- utm_campaign=summer_strategy_2026
- utm_content=video_testimonial
- Source
- Where did they come from?
- Medium
- What kind of traffic was it?
- Paid Social
- Campaign
- Which campaign?
- Summer Strategy 2026
- Content
- Which creative/version?
- Video Testimonial
Instead of knowing only: “Maya became a lead.”
We can potentially preserve clues such as Source: Facebook · Medium: Paid Social · Campaign: Summer Strategy · Creative: Video Testimonial.
Now THAT is useful marketing data.
Important
Before You Create 15 New UTM Custom Fields…
HighLevel already supports native attribution and UTM information. Current functionality includes attribution properties such as:
- UTM Source
- UTM Medium
- UTM Campaign
- UTM Content
- Additional campaign/ad identifiers
- Session Source
- First Attribution
- Latest Attribution
HighLevel Sites analytics can also read common UTM parameters such as utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign when present.
Ask this instead
“Which custom fields should I build for my ad data?”
“Does HighLevel already store this?”
If yes: use the native information unless you have a deliberate reason not to.
Why would we use our own marketing fields?
Sometimes We Want a Cleaner, Business-Friendly Layer
Acquisition Source
- Meta Ads
- Google Ads
- Organic Search
- Referral
- Partner
- Event
Acquisition Campaign
- summer_strategy_2026
Lead Source Detail
- Instagram — Video Testimonial
Original Offer
- Marketing Funnel Audit
Be clear
These fields don't necessarily replace native attribution.
They're an intentionally controlled CRM layer, used when the business has a reason: workflow logic, imports, integrations or cleaner segmentation.
Show me contacts where
- Acquisition Source=Meta Ads
- andAcquisition Campaign=Summer Strategy
- andService Interest=CRM & Automation
48 contacts in the list
Your CRM isn't simply storing names and email addresses anymore.
It's helping you understand your audience.
Putting it together
Facebook Ad → Useful CRM Data
UTM chips attaching to the journey
- utm_source=facebook
- utm_medium=paid_social
- utm_campaign=automation_audit_2026
- utm_content=video_01
- 📱
Meta Ad
Maya clicks.
- 🧭
Funnel
- 📝
Form
- · Name
- · Service Interest = CRM & Automation
- 🗂️
CRM
Both stories are now stored on the record.
What Maya told us
Service Interest
CRM & Automation
What the marketing journey told us
- Source
- Medium
- Paid Social
- Campaign
- Automation Audit 2026
- Content
- Video 01
Automation
IF Acquisition Source = Meta Ads AND Service Interest = CRM & Automation, THEN:
- Add to relevant segment
- Send automation resource
- Personalize nurture
- Notify team if appropriate
- Measure what this group does next
Businesses spend money learning things about their audience… and then throw the information away the moment the form is submitted.
Please don't do that. 😂
Back to Lesson 02
First Attribution vs. Latest Attribution
- Conversion
First Attribution
How did this tracked journey begin?
Latest Attribution
What latest tracked acquisition/session context is being reported?
Neither automatically tells the entire human story.
But attribution + UTMs + CRM data + sales outcomes give you much better clues than “I think Facebook is working?” 🤷♀️
← Review Lesson 02: Facebook Ads, Metrics & AttributionUTM naming disaster
Please Don't Turn Your UTMs Into This 😂
The chaos version
Eight spellings of the same source. Your reports now think you run eight different channels.
The clean version
- utm_source=facebook
- utm_medium=paid_social
- utm_campaign=automation_audit_2026
- utm_content=video_testimonial_v1
One spelling per source, medium, campaign and creative. Boring — and exactly why the reporting works.
Callout
Pick a naming convention. Then actually use it.
You just created multiple sources that basically mean the same thing — and eight rows in a report.
Also: do not place personally identifiable or sensitive information in UTM parameters.
Let's see if I've done my job. 😂
🧠 Custom Field or Custom Value?
Question 1
A client's preferred service.
Build-it-better cheat sheet
Before You Click “+ Add Field”…
Answer four quick questions
Does the information vary by person, company or deal?
The whole cheat sheet
Does the information vary by person, company or deal?
- Yes → Custom Field
- No → Is it reusable account/business information?
Is it reusable account/business information?
- Yes → Custom Value
- No / not sure → Does HighLevel already have a native field for it?
Does HighLevel already have a native field for it?
- Yes → Use the native field
- No → Is this attribution information?
Is this attribution information?
- Yes → Check native attribution + UTM data first
- No → Do I need a normalized field for workflows, imports, integrations or segmentation?
Do I need a normalized field for workflows, imports, integrations or segmentation?
- Yes → Do I actually know what I'm going to DO with this information?
- No → Do I actually know what I'm going to DO with this information?
Do I actually know what I'm going to DO with this information?
- Yes → A purposeful Custom Field makes sense. Perfect. 💜
- No → Maybe step away from the Add Field button. 😂
Final lesson
The Bigger Lesson Isn't About Custom Fields
Custom Fields and Custom Values are tiny features.
But they teach a much bigger marketing lesson:
Your systems become more powerful when information has a clear place to live.
- Good Data
- Personalization
- Segmentation
- Automation
- Better Reporting
- Better Decisions
You don't need 300 Custom Fields. You need the RIGHT information, stored in the RIGHT place, for a REASON.
That's the difference between owning a CRM… and actually USING one. 💜
Quick answers
Common Questions
- What is the difference between a Custom Field and a Custom Value in GoHighLevel?
- A Custom Field stores information about a specific contact, company or opportunity — something that can change from one record to another. A Custom Value stores reusable business information, such as your booking link or support email, that should stay consistent everywhere you use it.
- When should I use a Custom Value instead of a Custom Field?
- Use a Custom Value when the same information is reused across emails, SMS, funnels, workflows and documents and should be updated in one place. Use a Custom Field when the answer can be different for each person or deal.
- Should I create Custom Fields for UTM parameters?
- Usually not first. HighLevel already supports attribution properties such as UTM source, medium, campaign and content, session source, and first and latest attribution. Create your own normalized field only when you have a deliberate reason, such as workflow logic, imports, integrations or cleaner segmentation.
- Can Custom Fields be used on opportunities as well as contacts?
- Yes. Information that belongs to a deal — such as the package selected, the project fee or the start date — often fits best as an opportunity custom field, because it describes the deal rather than the person.
Keep Following Along
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Does Your GoHighLevel Account Have a Few… “lead_source_final_NEW_v2” Fields? 😂
Good Automation Starts With Good Architecture.
If you're not sure how your funnels, CRM fields, attribution, emails, documents and workflows should fit together, you don't need to figure out the technical architecture before asking for help.
That's my job. 💜