Brevo Lead Magnet Setup: Step-by-Step Guide

Your lead magnet is finished. Now you need Brevo to hand it out automatically, every time someone signs up, without you touching a thing after today.

This guide walks through the complete Brevo lead magnet setup: creating your contact list, building the signup form, attaching your file to an automation workflow, writing the delivery email, and testing the whole flow before you send anyone to it. Per Brevo’s Free plan documentation, the Free plan includes signup forms and marketing automation, so you can build this without paying for anything yet.

What You’ll Need

• A Brevo account (the Free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts and sends up to 300 emails a day, per Brevo’s Free plan FAQ)
• Your lead magnet file, exported as a PDF, or a shareable link if it’s a video, Google Doc, or Notion page
• A file host if your lead magnet isn’t a PDF or is larger than a few megabytes: Google Drive and Dropbox both work with a public share link
• About 30 to 45 minutes for the full setup

That’s everything. No paid plan required, no developer needed.

Step 1: Set Up Your Brevo Account and Verify Your Sender

Go to brevo.com and sign up for the Free plan.

If you already have an account sitting unused, log in and skip ahead.

Before you build anything else: open Settings > Senders, Domains & Dedicated IPs and verify your sender email address. Brevo sends your lead magnet from this address, and an unverified sender is one of the most common reasons a delivery email lands in spam instead of an inbox.

The Free plan gives you:

• Signup forms you can embed or share as a direct link
• Marketing automation workflows, with active automations capped at 2,000 unique contacts, per Brevo’s Free plan limits FAQ
• A daily sending cap of 300 emails, which resets every day and does not roll over unused sends
• Storage for up to 100,000 contacts

For a solo creator building a first list, none of those caps get in the way. You will hit the 300-email-a-day limit only once your list is large enough that it is a good problem to have.

Step 2: Create a Contact List

Brevo organizes subscribers into Lists, and every automation and form needs one to point to. Set this up before you touch the form or the workflow.

1. Go to Contacts > Lists
2. Click Create a list
3. Name it something specific to the lead magnet, not your whole brand: “Lead Magnet: [Name] Subscribers” is easier to manage than a single catch-all list once you launch a second lead magnet later

If you plan to build more than one lead magnet, a dedicated list per magnet makes it obvious which automation and which delivery email belong to which offer.

Step 3: Attach Your Lead Magnet File

Brevo’s automation email editor supports attaching a file directly to an automation email, up to 5MB per file, per reports in Brevo’s community forum. For a typical PDF checklist or short workbook, that ceiling is usually plenty.

If your file is under 5MB:

You will attach it directly inside the automation email in Step 5, no separate upload step needed.

If your file is over 5MB, or isn’t a PDF:

Use a public share link instead.

• Google Drive: Right-click the file > Share > Change to “Anyone with the link” > Copy link
• Dropbox: Open the file > Share > Create link
• Notion: Open the page > Share > Enable “Share to web” > Copy link
• Canva template: Click Share > Template link > Copy

Paste that link into your delivery email instead of an attachment. The tradeoff: anyone with the link can open it, even without signing up through your form. For a solo creator’s first few hundred subscribers, that’s rarely a real problem.

Step 4: Build Your Signup Form

The form is what a visitor fills out to get your lead magnet.

1. Go to Contacts > Forms
2. Click Create a form
3. Choose Classic form for a straightforward embed-and-share form
4. Edit the headline to describe the outcome, not the format: “Stop guessing which lead magnet format fits your audience” pulls better than “Free PDF download.” See the lead magnet landing page guide for a full breakdown of what moves opt-in rates
5. Change the submit button from the default to something specific: “Send me the guide” or “Get the checklist”
6. Under the form’s settings, set the List to attach new signups to the contact list you created in Step 2

That list assignment is what connects the form to the automation you’ll build next. Skip it, and new subscribers join Brevo but never trigger delivery.

Double opt-in vs. single opt-in: Brevo lets you choose whether a new signup needs to confirm their email before they’re added to your list. Single opt-in delivers the lead magnet faster and produces fewer drop-offs. Double opt-in builds a cleaner, more engaged list over time. If you’re collecting emails from the EU, UK, or Canada, check that market’s consent requirements before choosing.

Step 5: Create the Automation Workflow

The form captures the email and assigns the contact to a list. The automation is what actually sends the file.

1. Go to Automations in the main navigation
2. Click Create a workflow and start from a blank workflow
3. Set the trigger to A contact joins a list, then select the list from Step 2
4. Add an Email step directly under the trigger — this becomes your delivery email
5. Inside that email step, attach your lead magnet file (from Step 3) or paste the share link
6. Turn the workflow on

A single email step is enough to deliver a lead magnet on day one. You can extend the same workflow later with a short welcome sequence, but the delivery step is the only one that has to work immediately.

Step 6: Write the Delivery Email

Open the email step you just added and write the message that hands over the file.

Keep it short:

Subject line: Here’s your [lead magnet name]

Email body:

Hi [First Name],

Here's what you signed up for:

[Download: Lead Magnet Name] (attached, or: YOUR_LINK_HERE)

[One sentence on what's inside and the specific result it helps them get.]

[Your name]

Three to five sentences is enough. The subscriber wants the file, not a newsletter. If you’re using a share link instead of an attachment, put it near the top of the email, not buried after three paragraphs of context.

Step 7: Embed Your Form or Share Its Direct Link

Your form and automation are built. Now put the form somewhere people can find it.

Option A: Embed the form on your site

1. Inside the form builder, click Share
2. Copy the embed code (an iframe or JavaScript snippet)
3. Paste it wherever you want the form to appear

Strong placement spots for a lead magnet form:

• Below the intro of your most-visited post
• On a dedicated resources page
• At the end of every post in your main content cluster
• In your site navigation as a “Free [resource]” link

For a full comparison of free tools and what each one’s free plan actually includes, see the free lead magnet tools guide.

Option B: Share the form’s direct link

If you don’t have a website yet, or want a link for a social bio, Brevo generates a standalone URL for every signup form. Copy that link from the Share tab and use it in a link-in-bio tool, a social post, or a QR code for an in-person event. You can start driving traffic to it before your full site is live.

Step 8: Test the Complete Flow Before You Share It

Before you send anyone to your form, run through the entire experience yourself.

1. Open your form’s link or embedded form in an incognito browser window
2. Sign up with a personal email address you can access
3. If double opt-in is on, confirm the email arrives and click through
4. Confirm the automation email arrives with the attachment or download link
5. Open the file and check it downloads or the page loads correctly
6. Check Contacts > Lists to confirm you were added to the right list

Three specific things to check:

• File accessibility: if you used a share link, open it in an incognito window. If it asks you to log into a Google or Dropbox account first, the sharing settings aren’t public. Fix that before your form goes live.
• Mobile delivery: open the delivery email on your phone. Confirm the attachment opens or the link is easy to tap.
• Spam folder: if the delivery email landed in spam, revisit sender verification from Step 1. A verified sending domain, covered in Brevo’s sender authentication documentation, also improves inbox placement.

Once the test passes, your Brevo lead magnet setup is live. Every new subscriber who fills out your form joins the right list, receives the file automatically, and is ready for whatever follow-up sequence you build next. For what to put in that sequence, the lead magnet follow-up emails guide covers the emails that turn a download into a customer relationship.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I set up a lead magnet in Brevo?

Create a contact list, build a signup form that assigns new subscribers to that list, then build an automation workflow triggered by “a contact joins a list” with an email step that attaches or links to your file. Brevo’s Free plan supports this entire flow at no cost, including forms, automation, and a daily sending cap of 300 emails.

Does Brevo have a free plan for lead magnet delivery?

Yes. Per Brevo’s Free plan FAQ, the Free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts, sends up to 300 emails a day, and includes signup forms and marketing automation workflows capped at 2,000 unique contacts in active automations. That covers a full lead magnet delivery setup without paying anything.

Can I attach my PDF directly to a Brevo automation email?

Yes. Brevo’s automation email editor supports a direct file attachment up to 5MB, based on reports in Brevo’s community forum. For a typical checklist or short PDF, that’s enough. Larger files, or non-PDF formats like Notion pages and Canva templates, work better as a public share link pasted into the email instead.

What happens if I forget to connect my form to a list?

The subscriber gets added to Brevo, but the automation never fires, because it’s triggered by list membership. They never receive the lead magnet. Always check the form’s list setting after publishing, and run the test in Step 8 before sharing the form publicly, so you catch a missing list connection before a real subscriber does.

Is Brevo or ConvertKit better for a lead magnet?

Both handle lead magnet delivery on their free tiers, but the free plans differ in shape: Brevo’s Free plan caps daily sends at 300 emails with no subscriber cap on storage, while ConvertKit’s free plan caps total subscribers instead of daily sends. If you already use one platform for other reasons, stick with it. This setup works the same on either.

Keep Reading

• ConvertKit Lead Magnet Setup: Step-by-Step Guide
• MailerLite Lead Magnet Setup: Step-by-Step Guide
• Free Lead Magnet Tools That Actually Work