Source Reporting Questions

Anonymous
Not applicable

Source Reporting Questions

How are you currently handling source reporting? Last year, we created two fields that capture Lead Source and Lead Source Details. I’ve read that it’s best practice to create two additional fields to capture the LATEST lead source and lead source details. These two fields would be unblocked as oppose to the original lead source and lead source details. Therefore, the latest fields will continue to change as leads/contacts take more action. Is this the correct approach to take? What are the benefits of doing so?
 
Additional Questions:
  1. The field we created last year was capturing a ton of inconsistent data. I recently created picklists for lead source and lead source details to basically group things in a better way and to be more consistent. Going forward, the data will be in better shape… but what should I do with the historical data?
  2. What reports are you creating in SFDC? When we run a new campaign we want to know where people are coming from. Do we run a campaign report in SFDC (one for both leads and contacts) that pulls in the original lead source and original lead source details, or do we run a campaign report in SFDC that pulls in the latest lead source and latest lead source details? What if someone fills out a form on our website for a webinar replay (which adds them to that campaign) and then fills out a form through an email 5 minutes later to receive a white paper (which adds them to another campaign). How do we make sure our reports are pulling in accurate lead source/lead source detail values for the right campaign?
 
In the end, I guess I want to become more educated on best practices around this topic and get a sense on how others are pulling their reports
2 REPLIES 2
Aqeel_Akbar
Level 4

Re: Source Reporting Questions

There's a great article I read on this here: http://www.beachhead.io/blog/marketo-lead-source-or-acquisition-program-or-salesforce-campaign
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Source Reporting Questions

Thanks, Aqeel.

The article says to ignore the lead source field. I'm not sure if I totally agree with that. We are currently adding leads and contacts to a SFDC campaign when they take an action (form fill, webinar attendee, event attendee) so we have that covered. We also use primary campaign source to stamp the latest campaign before the lead/contact converts to an opportunity so we have that covered.
 

The only missing piece I believe is the lead source/lead source details piece. This should let us know which medium and source is working best for our campaigns and let us know which medium and source is bringing in the most net new leads.

Can anyone else comment on this topic?