Skip to content

What Is a Lead Source?

A lead source is the place a customer found you: a Google ad, a map listing, a neighbor, a repeat call. It can be typed in by a person or measured from the call itself, and the two often differ.

By Ariel Tarayants, founder · Updated

What Is a Lead Source? A Worked Example

Example

Made-up numbers. Ten jobs booked in a month. For seven of them, the person taking the call typed "Google" in the source box. The call tracker shows that four of the ten calls came from a Google ad, two from a Facebook ad, one from a neighbor who gave the number, and three from a Google map listing you never paid for. So the typed answer said seven from Google. The measured answer said four from Google ads.

How It Is Usually Miscounted

  • Asked at the end of the call. "How did you hear about us?" gets the easy answer. People say Google for anything they typed into a phone.
  • The last click wins. A customer who saw a Facebook ad last week and searched your name today is credited to search.
  • Repeat customers are blank. A past customer calling your number is not an ad result, but a blank looks like one.

In HeadHoncho

Job source is a column on Jobs and a list in Filter. When a call came through a connected call tracker, the source is filled from the call, not from what someone typed. Where it cannot be, you set it by hand, and a blank stays blank.

Cost per Lead, What Counts as a Lead, GCLID.

The full chain, from the ad to the paid job, is in Track Leads to Booked Jobs.

Track Leads to Booked JobsThe guide that uses this term.
Under five minutes, all in. No credit card required.See it with my jobs