How to track lead sources at a contractor business

It's a Tuesday in late October and the rep from the home services directory is on the phone about renewing. Twelve months, same as last year. You ask your office manager whether the listing has been worth it. She thinks some calls came from it, maybe. A few people on the jobs board mentioned it. Others said "Google," which could mean your ads, your Maps listing, your website, or the directory's own page showing up in search.

You renew, because canceling feels riskier than paying. You have the same conversation about the mailer, the yard signs and the ads budget. Each one gets decided on a hunch.

The short answer

To track lead sources you need three things. Ask every new lead how they found you, in a fixed list of answers. Tag every link and number you control so the source is recorded without asking. Then carry that source onto the job and the invoice, so you can count paid work by source and not only calls.

Most shops do the first part, loosely, and skip the rest. The third part is the one that tells you where the money should go.

What not knowing costs

When a source can't be measured, the shop keeps whatever it already pays for and never tests anything new. Spend drifts toward whichever channel the loudest salesperson represents.

The free channels get missed too. A past customer's referral or a builder who sends work your way can be the best work you get all year, and without a count nobody notices or says thanks. Bad fits hide the same way. A source that brings plenty of calls for jobs you don't do keeps the office busy and adds nothing to the bank account.

I covered the weekly numbers side of this in the Wheaton HVAC owner report post. Lead source is the column that report usually doesn't have.

How to track lead sources: the methods compared

Each method sees a different slice, which is why the setup below combines them.

A few notes on each, from the providers' own documentation:

• Tagged links use UTM parameters, which Google Analytics reads. Google's URL builder guide says to always set utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, and links to a free Campaign URL Builder that writes the link for you. Your Google Business Profile website link, your ads and your email signature can each get their own.
• Google's performance help page defines profile calls as "the number of times a customer clicked on the call button on your Business Profile." It's a useful count, but it counts taps. Some of those people hang up before you answer, or never get through.
• If you're thinking about putting a tracking number on your Google profile, read Google's guidelines for representing your business first. They say the number must connect to your individual business location and be under the direct control of the business. I checked both Google pages on October 12, 2026.

What the setup looks like

Here is how I'd set it up for a small HVAC or plumbing shop, in this order:

1. One question with a fixed list. On the web form, in the call script, and in the office's intake screen: "How did you find us?" with choices like Google search, Google Maps, a past customer, a neighbor, a truck or sign, a mailer, and other. A dropdown keeps "google," "Google" and "internet" from becoming three sources.
2. Tagged links everywhere you control the link. The profile website link, each ad, the email signature, the QR code on the invoice. Each one passes a source into the form as a hidden field, so the lead arrives labeled even if the customer picks the wrong answer.
3. One number per paid channel, where it's worth it. A mailer or a billboard is a good candidate because there's no link to tag. Calls to that number get logged with the channel's name.
4. The source rides along. When the lead becomes an estimate, then a job, then an invoice, the source goes with it into your field service software or spreadsheet. This is the step that usually breaks, because it depends on someone copying a field.
5. A weekly count. Every Monday the owner gets a short message: leads by source, estimates by source, jobs booked and paid by source. Over a season the pattern shows up.

I built a website with lead capture and tracking for a Chicago-area pool service company, and a trade shop works the same way: every inquiry gets recorded once and followed to the end. If the form itself needs work, the lead capture form post covers which questions to ask, and the HVAC automation page shows how it fits with the rest of the office.

What stays human

Reading the numbers is your job. A source that brings three jobs a year might be worth keeping if those are the three biggest installs, and one that brings forty calls might be mostly tire-kickers. The count tells you where to look. What a channel is worth depends on the work you want, and only you know that.

The conversation with the customer also stays human. When your office manager hears "my neighbor Dave," that is worth writing down by name, and maybe worth a thank-you card to Dave. A dropdown can't do that part. And when the data and your gut disagree, give it a full season before you cut anything. One slow month says very little.

When this isn't worth building

If nearly all your work comes from repeat customers and referrals and you spend nothing on ads or listings, a notebook and the one question are enough. The setup pays off once you're spending real money on more than one channel and renewing each one on a guess.

Want to know which leads pay?

I'll add the source question, tag your links, and carry the source through to the job and the invoice in the software you already use, with a Monday count by source. Builds start at $500 one-time, then a flat monthly from $99 after an included run-in period, cancellable. Or start with a free 20 minute process audit and we'll trace one lead from first call to paid invoice. Send me a note here.