Lead Source
A lead source is the specific channel, campaign, or referral through which a prospect first discovered your business and entered your funnel.
In depth
Knowing the lead source matters because it connects each contact back to the effort that produced it, letting you compare cost per qualified lead across paid ads, organic search, social, referrals, and events. Without clean source data, every channel looks equally good, and you lose the ability to double down on what works or cut what doesn't.
A frequent pitfall is conflating lead source with the attribution model: the source is the raw origin field on a record, while attribution is the logic that distributes credit across multiple sources. In a quiz funnel, the scorecard records the entry source automatically by reading UTM and referrer values when the visitor lands, so each captured lead arrives in your CRM already stamped with where it came from.
Example in practice
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between lead source and lead attribution?
Lead source is the raw origin of a single lead, such as an organic search or a referral. Lead attribution is the model that decides how credit is shared when a lead touched several sources.
How is lead source captured automatically?
It is typically read from UTM parameters and the referrer header when the visitor first lands. A quiz funnel can persist these values with each result so the source is stored on the lead without manual entry.
Why track lead source if I already track total leads?
Total leads tell you how many you got, but lead source tells you where your best leads come from. That breakdown is what lets you shift budget toward the channels with the lowest cost per qualified lead.