Ad Sources

What it is

Ad Sources is your company's list of the places leads come from — Google Ads, Yelp, Facebook, a referral, a yard sign, a repeat customer. You build the list once in Settings›Pipeline›Ad Sources, and after that every lead can carry one source. That single field is what turns "we spend money in five places" into a report that shows how many jobs and how much profit each place produced.

Each entry in the list has three things:

• Ad Source Name — what your team sees in every dropdown, for example "Google Ads"
• Call Groups — optional. Link the source to one or more call groups so phone leads tag themselves
• Active — on means the source appears in dropdowns; off hides it without deleting anything

When to use it

• You advertise in more than one place and want to know which one is worth the money.
• You just bought a new tracking phone number for a campaign and want its calls tagged automatically.
• You are about to run a report by source — the report is only as good as the list behind it.
• A partner site starts sending you work (Facebook Lead Ads, Thumbtack) and you want those leads separated from your own advertising.
• You are finishing setup — Settings shows a "Finish setting up your account" banner, and the checklist behind it lists Lead sources as a required step.

Two things ad sources are not for:

• Who created the lead. That is the Created By column on the Leads page, not a source.
• Partner companies you pay a commission to. Those belong in Settings›Pipeline›External Lead Sources (shown when your company uses partner lead sources), which tracks the company, its commission percent, and what the lead cost you.

Before you start

• You need an admin account. The Ad Sources screen opens for admins only. If a teammate with Settings access clicks it and lands back on the Dashboard, that is why.
• Write your names down first. Names are what appear on every lead and every report row, and a lead keeps the name it was saved with even if you rename the source later. Short and stable beats clever: "Google Ads", "Yelp", "Referral", "Repeat Customer".
• For automatic phone tagging, set up call groups first. Go to Settings›Channels›Call Groups and give each marketing number its own group. One group per channel is what makes the automatic tagging trustworthy.
• Decide who is allowed to add sources. Office agents can create a source on the fly from the New Lead form, so agree on naming before you turn a team loose on it.

Step-by-step

Create an ad source

1. Click your name at the bottom of the left sidebar and choose Settings.
2. Scroll to the Pipeline section and click Ad Sources. (Faster: type "Ad Sources" into the Search settings… box at the top.)
3. Click Add Ad Source at the top right of the card.
4. Fill in Ad Source Name — for example "Google Ads", "Yelp", or "Referral".
5. Optional: open Call Groups and tick every call group whose calls should get this source.
6. Leave Active switched on.
7. Click Create. The new source appears at the top of the list.

Link a source to a call group

This is the part that saves your team from forgetting. When a call group is linked to a source, a new lead created for that group is stamped with the source by itself — the agent does not have to remember anything.

1. In Settings›Pipeline›Ad Sources, click the pencil icon on the source's row.
2. Open the Call Groups box and select the groups that belong to this source.
3. Click Update.

Add a source while creating a lead

Agents do not have to stop and open Settings. On the lead form (Leads›+ New Lead), the Ad Source box lets you type a new name and choose Create new ad source. The name is added to the company list right away and selected on the lead. It is created with no call group attached, so an admin should link it later if it has its own phone number.

On the same form, choosing a Call Group fills the Ad Source box in for you when that group is linked to a source. You can always overwrite it by hand.

Rename, hide, or remove a source

• Rename or re-link — pencil icon on the row, change the name or the call groups, then Update.
• Hide without losing history — pencil icon, switch Active off, then Update. The row stays in Settings with an Inactive badge, and the source disappears from the dropdowns and filters everywhere else. This is the safe way to retire a channel.
• Delete — trash icon, then confirm on the Are you sure? box. Deleting cannot be undone. Leads that were already saved with that source keep the name on them, but the source is gone from every dropdown.

How to check it worked

1. Check the list. In Settings›Pipeline›Ad Sources, your new source sits at the top with the linked group names shown under Call Group(or "Not assigned" if you skipped that step) and a green Active badge.
2. Check the lead form. Open Leads›+ New Lead and click the Ad Source box — the source should be listed.
3. Check the automatic tagging. On that same form, pick the call group you linked. The Ad Source box should fill itself in with your source name. If it stays empty, the link did not save.
4. Check the reporting. Once a few leads carry the source, open Reports›Statistic Reports and click the Sources tab. You should see a row for the source with lead counts, done and cancelled percentages, revenue, parts, and profit.

Common mistakes

• Renaming a source and expecting old leads to follow. A lead keeps the name it was saved with. Rename "Google" to "Google Ads" and your reports will show both rows forever. Pick names you can live with, and if you must change one, accept the split or fix the older leads by hand.
• Trying to create two sources with the same name. Names must be unique within your company, so the second one will not save. Check the list before adding.
• Deleting instead of deactivating. Deleting is permanent and removes the source from every dropdown. If a channel is just paused for the season, switch Active off instead.
• Linking one call group to several ad sources. Automatic tagging then has no way to know which one you meant, and leads can end up with no source at all. Keep it to one call group per ad source.
• Letting the list sprawl. Agents can add sources from the lead form and automations can add them from incoming data, so lists grow "Google", "google ads", "GoogleAds". Review Settings›Pipeline›Ad Sources once a month and deactivate the duplicates.
• Using ad sources for commission partners. If you owe a company money per lead, use Settings›Pipeline›External Lead Sources instead — that is where the commission percent and the lead cost live. Ad sources only answer "where did this come from".
• Assuming every lead gets a source. Nothing forces the field to be filled. If your Sources report has a big blank row, coach the team to pick a source on every manual lead, and link your call groups so phone leads never depend on memory.