The short definition
A lead source is the channel that produced an enquiry.
The common ones for a Houston service business: organic search, Google Business Profile, paid ads, referral from a past customer, trade referral, directory, van or signage, and repeat customer.
Why recording it matters more than any tool
Every meaningful marketing question depends on it. Which channel produces work. Which produces work worth having. Where next month's budget should go.
Without source data, those questions get answered by impression — and impressions are systematically biased toward whatever happened most recently or most memorably.
The problem with automatic tracking
Analytics can tell you where website visitors came from. It cannot tell you:
- Which of them phoned, unless you use tracking numbers
- Which enquiries became jobs, ever
- That a customer heard about you from a neighbour and then searched your name
That last case is common and it distorts everything. Word-of-mouth referrals frequently appear in analytics as branded search or direct traffic, so referral gets undercounted and search gets credit it did not fully earn.
The habit that fixes it
Ask. "How did you hear about us?" on every enquiry, recorded in whatever system you already use.
It is imperfect — people misremember, and some say "Google" when they mean a neighbour told them and they then googled you. But it captures the things no tool can see, and combined with tracking data it produces a picture neither gives alone.
First touch, last touch, and reality
A customer might see your van in March, search in June, click an ad, and call after asking a neighbour. Which source gets the credit?
Any single answer is wrong. First touch credits discovery; last touch credits the final step. Both are simplifications of a real path.
For a small business the practical approach is to record the last touch, ask how they heard about you, and accept that referral and brand effects are undercounted everywhere.
What to do with the data
After sixty days, calculate cost per booked job by source. That single table usually reorganises a marketing budget more effectively than any analysis.
Starting today
Add one field to your job records: where did this come from. Fill it in for every enquiry from now on.
Frequently asked questions
What can automatic tracking not tell me?
Which visitors phoned, unless you use tracking numbers; which enquiries became jobs, ever; and that a customer heard about you from a neighbour before searching your name.
Why does referral get undercounted?
Word-of-mouth customers usually search your business name afterwards, so analytics records them as branded search or direct traffic. Referral loses the credit and search gains it.
Is first touch or last touch better?
Both are simplifications of a real path. For a small business, record the last touch, ask how they heard about you, and accept that referral and brand effects are undercounted everywhere.
What should I do with source data?
After sixty days, calculate cost per booked job by source. That single table usually reorganises a marketing budget better than any analysis tool.