Converting vs. Original Source

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Are more people tracking how leads originally get to their site, or the pages they convert on? Example:

A lead googles our company, clicks through and visits the site. Then in two days they see our online ad, and fill in our form.

Original source - organic search (captured from original referrer field in Marketo)

How they converted - online ad (captured from URL parameters to hidden fields)

Which are you using to measure the "source" of your leads?

Thanks,

Jamie

[Anonymous]

Jamie,

There are countless debates on this very topic and the short answer is that you have to determine what suits your org best.

Here are some of the models companies are using, ranging from least sophisticated to the most sophisticated:

• 100% goes to first touch (original source)
• 100% goes to most recent touch (most recent source)
• Split between first and last
• Split equally between all touches
• Weighted splits by perceived importance and/or recency

[Aslihan_Ayan_Ha]

In addition to Carlie's comment around attribution models, I think there is a distinction between the insights these fields provide.

To measure the lead gen efforts, the acquisition programs provide insights into which programs are effective to get new leads into our database to followup with. To measure the demand gen efforts, the original referrer fields give insight to all marketing activities that create awareness about your products, solutions, company and industry.