You're running Facebook ads, posting on LinkedIn, sending email newsletters, and maybe doing some Google advertising. Leads are coming in. But here's the question that keeps many business owners up at night: which of these activities is actually working?

This is the problem lead attribution solves.

The attribution problem

Imagine this scenario. A potential client sees your Facebook ad on Monday. They don't click it, but they remember your name. On Wednesday, they Google your company and browse your website. On Friday, they receive your newsletter and finally click through to fill out your contact form.

Which marketing channel gets credit for that lead? Facebook for the initial awareness? Google for the search? Email for the final conversion? The answer matters because it determines where you should spend your marketing budget.

Without attribution tracking, you're making expensive decisions based on gut feeling. You might cut the Facebook ads because you're not seeing direct conversions, not realising they're creating the awareness that drives those Google searches.

How attribution tracking works

At its simplest, attribution tracking adds small markers to your links that identify where traffic came from. These are called UTM parameters, and you've probably seen them in URLs, those long strings after a question mark that look like ?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer_sale.

When someone clicks a link with UTM parameters and eventually becomes a lead, those parameters get captured along with their contact information. Now you can see not just that someone filled out your form, but that they came from your summer Facebook campaign.

The basic UTM parameters are:

  • Source: Where the traffic comes from (facebook, google, newsletter)
  • Medium: The type of traffic (cpc for paid ads, email, social)
  • Campaign: The specific campaign name (summer_sale, new_service_launch)
  • Content: Optional, for distinguishing similar links (blue_button vs red_button)
  • Term: Optional, mainly for tracking paid search keywords

Why most small businesses don't do this

Attribution tracking sounds technical, and historically it has been. You needed to set up Google Analytics correctly, ensure your forms captured UTM data, somehow get that data into your CRM, and then build reports to make sense of it all.

Most small businesses tried, got frustrated, and gave up. They went back to asking leads "how did you hear about us?" in their forms, a question that provides unreliable data because people don't remember or give vague answers like "the internet."

The good news is that modern CRMs can handle much of this automatically. When your contact form captures UTM parameters and your CRM stores them against each contact, attribution becomes something you can actually see and use.

What you can learn

Once you're tracking attribution properly, patterns emerge quickly.

You might discover that your LinkedIn posts generate lots of traffic but few enquiries, while your relatively neglected Google Business profile drives a surprising number of quality leads. You might find that your email newsletter, which feels like shouting into the void, actually nurtures leads who convert months later. You might learn that your expensive Google ads bring tyre-kickers while word-of-mouth referrals are your best customers.

This isn't just interesting information. It's the basis for spending your marketing budget intelligently. Double down on what works. Fix or abandon what doesn't. Test new channels with proper measurement.

Getting started with attribution

You don't need perfect attribution tracking from day one. Start simple and improve over time.

First, start using UTM parameters consistently. Every link you share in ads, emails, or social posts should have at least source, medium, and campaign parameters. There are free UTM builder tools online, or you can create a simple spreadsheet template.

Second, make sure your CRM captures this data. When someone fills out a form, the UTM parameters in their URL should be saved to their contact record. If your CRM doesn't do this automatically, it's worth finding one that does. This information is too valuable to lose.

Third, review your attribution data monthly. Look at which sources bring the most leads, and more importantly, which sources bring leads that become customers. A source that sends lots of enquiries that never convert isn't valuable.

Attribution isn't everything

A word of caution: attribution tracking is useful, but it's not the complete picture.

It struggles with offline activity. If someone hears about you at a networking event and later Googles your name, attribution will credit Google, not the event. It struggles with word of mouth. If a happy client recommends you to a friend, you might never know what prompted the original client to find you.

Attribution also tends to credit the last touch before conversion, which can undervalue awareness-building activities. That Facebook ad might have planted the seed even though email got the credit for harvesting.

Use attribution data to inform your decisions, not dictate them. It's one input among several, including your own knowledge of your business and customers.

Making it practical

The businesses that get real value from attribution are the ones who act on the data. There's no point tracking everything if you never change anything as a result.

Set a regular review, monthly is usually right for small businesses. Look at what's working and what isn't. Make one or two changes based on what you learn. Then measure again next month.

Over time, this cycle of measure-learn-adjust compounds. Your marketing becomes more efficient. Your budget goes further. You stop wasting money on channels that don't work for your specific business.

That's the real value of attribution: not the data itself, but the better decisions it enables.