Track leads & customers from AI in Close
Learn how to track how many leads & customers AI tools like ChatGPT are generating in Close CRM
Use Attributer to capture AI referral data (like the fact a lead arrived from ChatGPT) with every form submission, pass it into Close CRM, and run reports showing how many leads and customers AI is actually generating.
When a new lead lands in Close CRM, do you know where it came from? Was it from your ad campaigns (Google Ads, Meta Ads, etc) or did an AI tool like ChatGPT recommend your business?
These days, more and more buyers are starting their search inside AI tools (and it's going to keep growing). The problem is that most AI tracking tools (and website analytics tools) stop at the top of the funnel. AI tracking tools tell you how many times your business was mentioned in AI chats, and tools like Google Analytics will tell you how many website visitors you got, but none of them actually tell you how many leads you got, how many customers, or how much revenue was generated.
The good news is, there is actually a really easy way to do it.
In this guide, we'll walk through how to use a tool called Attributer to capture AI referral data with every new lead you get in Close CRM. We'll also show you some reports you can run to truly understand what AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are contributing.
4 steps to track leads & customers from AI in Close
Using Attributer with Close CRM gives you a clear view of which leads came from AI. Here's how to set it up:
1. Install Attributer and add hidden fields
After starting a 14-day free trial of Attributer, you'll be given a small snippet of code to drop onto your website. There are instructions for installing it here.
With the code in place, add four hidden fields to the lead capture forms on your site:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
This is usually a two-minute job. Some form builders give you a dedicated 'Hidden' field type you can drag in, and others let you add a normal text field and hide it from the settings panel. There are step-by-step guides for Gravity Forms, Wix Forms, Webflow Forms and plenty of others here.
2. Attributer writes AI data into the hidden fields
Whenever someone arrives on your site, Attributer reads the same technical signals an analytics tool like Google Analytics would use to determine where they came from.
It then sorts that visitor into a channel, such as AI Referral, Organic Search, Paid Search or Paid Social, and stores the result in their browser.
Then, when that person eventually fills in one of your forms (a 'Request a Quote' or 'Book a Call' form for example), Attributer writes the details into the hidden fields, including which AI tool sent them.
3. AI data is captured with each lead
When the form is submitted, the data that Attributer wrote into those hidden fields is captured by your form tool alongside the name, email address, and everything else the visitor typed.
Attributer supports more than 50 form builders, scheduling tools and chat products, including Gravity Forms, Contact Form 7, Wix Forms, Webflow Forms, Typeform, Jotform and Calendly.
4. AI data is sent to Close CRM
Once the data has been captured in your form tool, the next step is to send it to Close CRM. Many form builders offer a native Close integration, and where one doesn't exist, Zapier will push the submission across as a new Lead instead.
Once this is done, the AI referral data that Attributer wrote into the hidden fields will be stored on the Lead record alongside the lead's name, email, phone, etc. and you can start to use it to build out reports. Close's own reports are a good starting point, but if you want to slice the data further, you can connect an analytics tool like Looker Studio, Databox, or Microsoft Power BI and build the reports there.
What data gets captured
Attributer passes through two kinds of information about each lead. There's how they arrived at your site (the channel) and what content brought them there (the landing page).
So imagine you handle marketing for a roofing contractor. If somebody asked ChatGPT to find a roofer in their area, then they clicked through and requested a quote, this is what data Attributer would pass through:
- Channel = AI Referral
- Channel Drilldown 1 = ChatGPT (whichever AI tool sent them)
- Channel Drilldown 2 = chatgpt.com (the domain they arrived from)
- Channel Drilldown 3 = None (there is no deeper level of detail to capture for an AI referral, so this comes through as None)
Alongside that, you'd get the page they first landed on. Sticking with the same example, that might be:
- Landing Page = meridianroofing.com/services/roof-replacement
- Landing Page Group = /services
The landing page data is what tells you which pages the AI tools are actually mentioning, and therefore what kind of content is worth writing more of.
4 example reports you can run when you capture AI data in Close
I've been in marketing for over 15 years, and in that time I've built more reports than I can count trying to work out which channels are generating leads and which ones aren't (and what to do about it). Here are 4 reports I've found most useful over the years:
1. Leads by Channel
This report shows how many leads you get each month, broken down by the channel they came from (AI Referral, Organic Search, Paid Search, Paid Social, and so on).
It's the fastest way to see where AI sits next to everything else that brings you leads.
2. Customers by AI tool
This report shows how many new customers you got from AI tools, broken down by which one sent them. It lets you see, for example, how ChatGPT compares to Claude and Gemini in terms of actually producing new customers for your business.
Knowing which tools produce paying customers, rather than just traffic or the occasional mention, is what tells you where to focus your attention. If nearly all of them arrive via ChatGPT, that's probably the best one to track and optimise for.
3. Close rate by channel
This report shows the lead-to-customer conversion rate, broken down by the channel they came from.
It's often the most interesting report of the four, because lead volume by itself can be misleading. For instance, you might find that 35% of your leads from AI Referral go on to become customers, versus 10% from Organic Search and 7% from Paid Search.
If your numbers look anything like that, one AI lead is worth several from paid search, and that should change where the next dollar of budget goes (this happens a lot because someone arriving from an AI tool has already had the basic questions answered before they land on your site).
4. Revenue from AI by landing page
This report shows how many customers, and how much revenue, each piece of content on your site has generated from AI referrals.
It's the clearest signal of which pages the AI tools are citing and sending real buyers to. When a small number of pages account for most of the revenue, you've got a fairly obvious brief for what to write next.
Wrap Up
If you've been wondering how much of your pipeline is coming from AI tools, using Attributer with Close CRM is a simple way to find out.
Best of all, it's free to get started with Attributer and setup usually takes less than 10 minutes. So start your 14-day free trial today!
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.