How to Track Where Your Leads Come From

Most contractors can't answer this with any confidence. They know roughly how much they spend on marketing. They know roughly how many leads they get. But they can't tell you whether Google Ads generated five customers last month or fifty.

Without this information, you're flying blind. You might be wasting thousands on channels that don't convert while underinvesting in ones that do.

Why Attribution Matters

Marketing attribution is figuring out which marketing activities led to which customers. It sounds basic but it's surprisingly hard to do well.

Let's say you're spending $2,000/month on Google Ads and $1,000/month on Yelp advertising. You're getting 50 leads per month total. Which channel is generating them?

If Google Ads produces 40 leads and Yelp produces 10, you should probably increase your Google budget and cut Yelp. But if Yelp produces 40 and Google produces 10, you should do the opposite.

Without attribution, you'd never know. You'd keep splitting budget based on gut feel, potentially wasting money for years.

It gets more complicated when you consider conversion rates. Maybe Google generates more leads but Yelp leads close at twice the rate. Now which is better? You need to track through to actual revenue to know.

Start with Call Tracking

For home services, most leads come by phone. This means call tracking is the foundation of your attribution system.

Call tracking works by assigning different phone numbers to different marketing channels. Your Google Ads use one number. Your website uses another. Your Yelp listing uses a third. All numbers forward to your main line, but now you know which source generated each call.

Services like CallRail, CallTrackingMetrics, and ServiceTitan's built-in tracking handle this. They provide pools of numbers, track which calls came from which sources, and often record calls for quality purposes.

The simplest setup uses static numbers: one number per major channel. More sophisticated setups use dynamic number insertion, where website visitors each see a unique number that tracks their specific journey to your site.

Start simple. Get a different tracking number for your top 3-5 marketing channels. You can get fancier later.

Track Web Forms Properly

Form submissions are easier to track than calls but still require setup.

Every form submission should capture the source that brought that visitor to your site. Google Analytics can tell you this, but you need to pass that information into your CRM or wherever you manage leads.

Most form builders and CRM systems can capture UTM parameters, which are tags added to URLs that identify the source, medium, and campaign. When someone clicks a Google Ad with proper UTM tags, those tags follow them through to form submission.

The goal is simple: when you look at a lead in your system, you should be able to see where they came from without having to look it up somewhere else.

Attribute Leads from Directories and Marketplaces

Third-party platforms like Angi, Thumbtack, Yelp, and HomeAdvisor present attribution challenges because they control the customer interaction.

Some platforms provide their own tracking and reporting. Use it, but verify. Their incentive is to show value, so take their numbers with some skepticism.

Where possible, use unique tracking numbers for each platform. Instead of using your main business number on Yelp, use a tracking number that forwards to you. Now you know exactly how many calls Yelp generated.

Ask How They Found You

The simplest attribution method is just asking. When someone calls, your team asks "How did you hear about us?" and records the answer.

This is imperfect. Customers often don't remember or give vague answers like "the internet." But it's better than nothing and sometimes reveals sources you weren't tracking at all.

Train your team to ask consistently and record answers in your CRM. Over time you build a dataset of self-reported attribution.

Combine self-reported data with your tracking data. If call tracking says the call came from your Google Ads number, but the customer says their neighbor recommended you, you know a referral was involved even if Google got the initial click.

Track Through to Revenue

Lead count isn't what matters. Revenue matters.

A channel that generates 50 leads but only 5 customers is worse than a channel that generates 20 leads but 15 customers. You need to track which leads convert to estimates, which estimates convert to jobs, and what the average job value is for each source.

This requires connecting your marketing tracking to your job management or CRM system. When a lead becomes a customer, you need to know what source that lead originally came from.

Then you can calculate real ROI: if you spent $2,000 on Google Ads, generated 30 leads, closed 8 jobs, and those jobs generated $24,000 in revenue, you have a much clearer picture than just knowing you got 30 leads.

Build a Simple Attribution Dashboard

You don't need complex software to track attribution. A spreadsheet can work.

Create a monthly tracking sheet with columns for each lead source. Track: marketing spend, number of leads, number of estimates scheduled, number of jobs won, and revenue generated.

Calculate cost per lead, cost per estimate, cost per job, and marketing ROI for each source. Compare them side by side.

Even rough numbers reveal useful patterns. If Google Ads consistently shows $150 cost per job while Angi shows $400, you know where to shift budget.

Update this monthly. Over time you'll see trends that quarterly or annual reviews would miss.

Common Tracking Mistakes

The biggest mistake is not tracking at all. Any system is better than none.

The second biggest mistake is tracking leads but not revenue. A channel that generates low-quality leads looks great until you realize none of them convert.

Another common mistake is inconsistent data entry. If your team sometimes records lead sources and sometimes doesn't, your data is useless. Make it mandatory and easy.

Finally, don't let perfect be the enemy of good. You won't achieve 100% attribution accuracy. Some leads will be unclear. Some data will be messy. Track what you can and make decisions on directionally accurate data.

Using Attribution Data

Once you have attribution data, use it to make decisions.

Monthly or quarterly, review your cost per acquired customer by channel. Identify your best and worst performers.

Shift budget from underperforming channels to outperforming ones. Don't do this rashly since you need enough data to be confident, but be willing to make changes.

Look for channels you might be underinvesting in. If SEO shows the best ROI but gets the smallest budget, there's probably an opportunity.

Also look for channels you should cut entirely. If Thumbtack consistently shows terrible ROI, stop spending there and redirect that money elsewhere.

Start Simple, Improve Over Time

If you're not tracking attribution at all, don't try to build a perfect system immediately. Start with the basics.

• Week one: set up call tracking numbers for your top three lead sources
• Week two: ensure web forms capture source data
• Week three: start consistently asking leads how they found you
• Month two: build your first attribution tracking spreadsheet

From there, improve iteratively. Add more sophisticated tracking as you get comfortable. Integrate with better tools as you outgrow spreadsheets.

The goal isn't perfect data. It's better data than you have today, so you can make better decisions about where to invest your marketing budget.