4 steps to properly track the source of your leads in Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Follow these 4 simple steps to properly track the source of your leads in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, so you can see what's generating your leads and customers.
Do you know where your leads & customers are coming from? Are you able to track how many leads & customers you're getting from your Facebook Ads or Google Ads?
If the answer is no, then you need to change this ASAP, because if you can't measure which of your marketing campaigns are generating leads & customers then you won't know whether to keep investing in them or not.
Luckily, there's a solution.
In this article, we'll talk about how you can use a tool called Attributer to properly track where your leads & customers are coming from.
4 steps for properly tracking the source of leads in Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Attributer makes it easy to see the source of every lead & customer in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Here's how to do it in 4 simple steps:
1. Install Attributer and add hidden fields
After signing up for an Attributer account, you'll get given a snippet of code to place on your website.
Generally speaking, you can either add this code directly to your site (usually via the Settings section of your website builder) or add it using tools like Google Tag Manager
Once the code is on your site, the next thing to do is add a series of hidden fields to your forms, including:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
- Channel Drilldown 4
The process for adding these hidden fields will differ depending on what form tool you use, but step-by-step instructions for most form-builders can be seen here.
2. Attributer writes lead source data into the hidden fields
When a visitor lands on your site, Attributer looks at where they came from and categorizes them into a series of channels (such as Organic Search, Paid Search, Paid Social, and more). It then stores this data in a cookie in the visitor's browser.
Then when those visitors fill out a form on your website (like your 'Contact Us' form or your 'Request a Quote' form), Attributer automatically fills in the hidden fields with information on what channel they came from (I.e. Paid Search, Organic Search, etc).
3. Lead source data is sent to Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Once the visitor submits the form on your website, the lead source data that Attributer wrote into the hidden fields is captured by your form tool and sent to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Attributer works with the vast majority of form builders on the market, including Dynamics Marketing forms, Gravity Forms, Typeform, Jotform, Webflow forms, and more.
4. Run reports to see where your leads & customers are coming from
With this lead source data in Microsoft Dynamics CRM alongside all your leads and customers, you can then use it to build reports that show which of your marketing initiatives are actually working.
You should be able to run reports that answer questions like 'How many leads did I get from my Facebook Ads?' or 'How many customers did I get from my Google Ads?' 'How much revenue have I generated from my SEO efforts?' and more.
What data gets sent to Microsoft Dynamics CRM?
With Attributer, the following lead source data gets passed to Microsoft Dynamics CRM:
1. Marketing Channel Data
Attributer passes through marketing channel data very similar to the information you would see in other analytics tools like Google Analytics.
It sends high-level Channel data (like the fact a lead came from Paid Search, Paid Social, Organic Search, etc) as well as providing further details, like the campaign name, search engine, keyword, etc.
For example, if I was a marketer at Microsoft and someone clicked on one of my Bing Ads promoting Dynamics CRM, Attributer would write information like:
- Channel: Paid Search
- Channel Drilldown 1: Bing
- Channel Drilldown 2: Brand Campaign
- Channel Drilldown 3: Free Trial ad
Similarly, if the lead arrives organically through a Bing search, Attributer would capture:
- Channel: Organic Search
- Channel Drilldown 1: Bing
- Channel Drilldown 2: www.bing.com (or the specific Bing domain they came from)
- Channel Drilldown 3: Dynamics CRM (or the keyword they used to find the site, if available)
2. Landing page data
As well as passing through the Channel data, Attributer also sends through the lead's initial landing page (I.e. microsoft.com/products/dynamics-crm) as well the landing page group (I.e. /products).
This allows you to run reports to see how many leads & customers you got from entire sections of your website (I.e. your product pages) as well as drill down into how many leads you got from each individual page (I.e. each individual product page).
3 example reports you can run when you properly track the source of your leads in Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Our team have been doing analytics for many years, so to help you understand what's possible, we thought we'd share some of the reports we find most insightful:
1. Leads by channel
The above chart provides a high-level overview of where your leads are coming from.
A report like this can help you understand where you should be focusing your marketing efforts.
As an example, let's say you run the above report and notice that Organic Search is bringing in the majority of your leads, but you're actually spending most of your marketing budget on Paid Search.
If that is the case, you probably need to rethink how you're spending your time and money.
2. Opportunities by Google Ads campaign
If you're running ads on Google, then you've probably got multiple campaigns running and need to know which one's are bringing you leads and which one's aren't.
If so, the above chart can help as it shows how many opportunities are being generated from Google Ads each month, broken down by the specific Google Ads campaign they came from.
This helps you understand which of your campaigns are actually producing sales opportunities for your sales team, and which campaigns should probably just be turned off.
3. Customers by Facebook Ads Network
If you're using Facebook Ads to promote your business, then it's likely your ads are appearing on the different networks Facebook owns, including Facebook itself, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
If so, the graph above can help. It shows you how many customers you've received from each of the networks and ultimately helps you understand where you should be focusing your budget.
Wrap up
If you've been trying to understand where your leads & customers are coming from, then Attributer can help.
It will pass information on where each of your leads has come from (Paid Search, Paid Social, Organic Search, etc) into Microsoft Dynamics CRM so you can run reports that show how many leads you're getting from Google Ads, how many customers from Facebook Ads, etc.
Best of all, it's free to get started and usually takes less than 10 minutes to set up, so start your 14-day free trial today and try it out!
Get Started For Free
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About the Author
Aaron Beashel is the founder of Attributer and has over 15 years of experience in marketing & analytics. He is a recognized expert in the subject and has written articles for leading websites such as Hubspot, Zapier, Search Engine Journal, Buffer, Unbounce & more. Learn more about Aaron here.