Where your leads come from
Lead attribution is the industry term for identifying where a lead came from. Lead Source describes it more simply: seeing where your leads come from, in plain English, on every lead, automatically.
The labels you’ll see
Section titled “The labels you’ll see”Every lead carries a source label. This is what each one means and the channel your dashboard groups it under:
| Label | What it means | Channel group |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Microsoft Ads | The visitor clicked a paid ad whose click was tagged by that platform | Paid Search or Paid Social |
Paid Search Ads, or \{Platform} Ads | A paid click identified from the tracking details on the link | Paid |
| Organic Google, Organic Bing, Organic DuckDuckGo | A normal, unpaid search on that engine | Organic Search |
| Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Reddit | Arrived from that social platform | Organic Social |
| ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot | Arrived from an AI assistant that mentioned or linked you | AI |
| Arrived from a link in an email | ||
| Direct | Typed your address or used a bookmark. Common for people who already know you, and for your own tests | Direct |
| The name of another website | Followed a link from a site that mentions you. The label is that site’s name | Referral |
Your dashboard groups these into channels (Paid Search, Organic Search, Paid Social, Organic Social, AI, Referral, Direct, and Email) so you can see the mix at a glance.
How sure is it? The confidence marker
Section titled “How sure is it? The confidence marker”Each lead’s source carries a confidence level, shown next to the label:
| Confidence | What it’s based on | How certain |
|---|---|---|
| High | A paid click ID or a tagged link was attached | As certain as it gets |
| Medium | The website the visitor arrived from, with no tags on the link | A reasonable read |
| Low | No source signal was captured | Lead Source says so rather than guessing |
Alongside the label you’ll always find a plain sentence explaining the call (for example, “Classified as Google Ads because the link the visitor clicked was tagged as a paid campaign.”), plus the page they landed on, the page where they filled the form, and their journey through your site in between. If you ever need the full working, each lead’s record page includes an appendix showing exactly how it was classified.
Getting the most accurate labels
Section titled “Getting the most accurate labels”- Most ad platforms and email tools tag their links automatically: that’s what separates Google Ads from Organic Google, and Email from a plain visit. If you build links by hand, keep the tags on.
- Turn on first-party tracking (Sites → Custom domain) so Safari visitors on iPhone and Mac aren’t lost. Those missing visits otherwise show up as fewer, or lower-confidence, leads.
Why a lead says Direct when it “shouldn’t”
Section titled “Why a lead says Direct when it “shouldn’t””Direct means no signal arrived with the visit. That’s what happens when you visit your own site, when someone uses a bookmark, and sometimes when a privacy tool strips the trail. To see a true source on a test, arrive through the real link: click your own ad or newsletter link, then submit.