How to Set Up GoHighLevel for Your First Client

Create a Sub-Account

Sub-accounts are GoHighLevel’s way of keeping each client’s data completely separate. Each sub-account gets its own CRM, automations, funnels, and settings — nothing leaks between clients.

1. Navigate to Agency Settings → Sub-Accounts → Create Sub-Account
2. Enter your client’s business name, timezone, and industry vertical
3. If you have built a snapshot (template) from a previous setup, apply it here. Otherwise, start with a blank account
4. Upload the client’s logo under Business Profile
5. Set up their custom domain by adding a CNAME record pointing to GoHighLevel — this lets their funnels and booking pages live on their own domain (e.g., go.clientbusiness.com)

Take 5 minutes to fill out the business profile completely: business name, address, phone, email, and website. This information auto-populates throughout the platform — in email footers, SMS templates, and booking confirmations.

Set Up the CRM Pipeline

The pipeline is how your client will track every lead from first contact to closed deal. A clean pipeline makes it easy to see where leads are getting stuck and what needs attention.

1. Go to Opportunities → Pipelines → Create Pipeline
2. Create your stages:
   • New Lead — just came in, not yet contacted
   • Contacted — first outreach made
   • Qualified — confirmed they are a good fit
   • Proposal Sent — pricing or proposal delivered
   • Won — deal closed
   • Lost — did not convert (track the reason)
3. Customize the stage names if your client’s industry uses different terminology (e.g., “Consultation Booked” instead of “Qualified” for a law firm)
4. Add custom fields relevant to their business: budget range, service needed, referral source, location, or whatever data points matter for their sales process

Import Existing Contacts

Most clients already have leads and customers sitting in a spreadsheet, old CRM, or email marketing tool. Bringing those in gives you a head start.

1. Export the client’s contacts from their old CRM or spreadsheet as a CSV file
2. Go to Contacts → Import → Upload CSV
3. Map each CSV column to the corresponding GoHighLevel field (name, email, phone, etc.)
4. Apply tags during import to segment contacts — for example, tag them as “imported-leads” or “existing-customers” so you can identify them later

Important: Do not immediately blast imported contacts with emails or SMS. Warm up any new sending domain first. Start by sending to small batches (50–100 per day) and gradually increase over 2–3 weeks. Jumping straight to mass sends will get your domain flagged as spam.

Build Core Automations

Automations are where GoHighLevel really earns its keep. Instead of building a dozen workflows on day one, start with these three essentials. They cover the entire customer journey from lead capture to review collection.

Build each workflow under Automation → Workflows → Create Workflow. Use the visual builder to drag and drop trigger, wait, and action steps. Test each one by running yourself through as a contact before going live.

Create a Landing Page

Your client needs a place to send traffic. GoHighLevel’s funnel builder lets you build a landing page without touching code.

1. Go to Sites → Funnels → Create Funnel
2. Keep the layout simple: a clear headline, 3–4 benefit bullets, a lead capture form, and a section of social proof (testimonials or review count)
3. Connect the form to your CRM pipeline — when someone submits the form, they should automatically appear as a “New Lead” in the pipeline and trigger your lead follow-up workflow
4. Set up UTM parameter tracking so you and your client can see which traffic sources drive the most leads
5. Publish the page to the client’s custom domain

Do not spend three hours perfecting the design on day one. Get a clean, functional page live and iterate based on real data. You can always A/B test headlines and layouts later.

Configure Communication Channels

Your automations need working SMS, email, and chat channels. Here is how to set up each one.

SMS and Voice (Twilio)

1. Create a Twilio account if you do not have one
2. Purchase a local phone number in your client’s area code
3. Complete A2P (Application-to-Person) registration — this is now required for business SMS in the US
4. Connect Twilio to GoHighLevel under Settings → Phone Numbers → Twilio
5. Test by sending yourself an SMS from the sub-account

Email Domain Authentication

1. Go to Settings → Email Services
2. Add your client’s sending domain
3. Set up three DNS records: DKIM (verifies email authenticity), SPF (authorizes sending servers), and DMARC (tells receivers how to handle unauthenticated email)
4. Wait for verification (usually 15–60 minutes for DNS propagation)
5. Send a test email to confirm delivery

AI Chatbot

1. Navigate to Conversations → Chat Widget
2. Configure the chatbot with your client’s basic FAQ responses: business hours, service areas, pricing ballpark, and next steps
3. Set fallback behavior — if the bot cannot answer, route to a live person or capture the question for follow-up
4. Embed the chat widget on the client’s website

Set Up Reporting

Clients want to see results. A clean dashboard keeps them informed and keeps you looking professional.

1. Go to Reporting → Dashboards → Create Dashboard
2. Add widgets for the metrics that matter most:
   • New leads this week / month
   • Appointments booked and attended rate
   • Pipeline conversion rate (leads to won deals)
   • Revenue attributed to marketing efforts
3. Generate a shareable dashboard link and send it to your client so they can check in any time
4. Set up an automated weekly email report that sends every Monday morning with the previous week’s numbers — this keeps clients engaged without you having to manually report

Client Handoff

The setup is done. Now hand it off in a way that makes your client feel confident and supported.

1. Record a Loom walkthrough of their dashboard, pipeline, and key automations. Keep it under 10 minutes and walk through the most common tasks: checking new leads, viewing appointments, and reading reports
2. Provide login credentials — create a user account for the client with appropriate permissions (you probably do not want them editing automations on day one)
3. Schedule a 30-minute training call within the first week. Let them click around and ask questions while you are there to guide them
4. Set expectations for the first 30 days: explain that you will be monitoring automations, tweaking messaging based on response rates, and optimizing the pipeline. Let them know this is a living system, not a set-and-forget setup