How It Works

Lead Source works quietly in the background. Here’s what happens from the moment a visitor lands on your site to the moment you see their source data in your dashboard.

A Visitor Arrives on Your Site

Someone clicks your Google Ad, your Facebook post, a link on another website, or types your URL directly. They land on one of your pages — and the URL may contain UTM parameters (like ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc) or a platform click ID (like ?gclid=abc123).

Lead Source Captures the Source Data

A lightweight JavaScript snippet (no jQuery, minimal impact on page speed) reads the URL parameters and stores them in a first-party session cookie. If there are no UTM parameters or click IDs, it checks the HTTP referrer to identify organic search or referral traffic. The cookie persists as the visitor browses your site until the browser is closed. Attribution is last click: a new ad click or a visit from another site replaces the stored source.

The Visitor Fills Out a Form

The visitor browses your site — maybe they read a few pages, check your services, and eventually fill out a contact form, quote request, or enquiry form. Lead Source hooks into the form plugin’s submission process automatically. No hidden fields or form edits needed.

Source Data Is Saved With the Lead

When the form is submitted, Lead Source reads the cookie, identifies the traffic source using a 3-tier detection system (click IDs first, then UTM parameters, then referrer), and saves everything to a custom database table alongside the lead’s contact information.

You See It in Your Dashboard

Open the Lead Source dashboard in your WordPress admin and every lead is listed with a colour-coded traffic source badge. Click any entry to see the full detail — UTM parameters, click IDs, landing page, form page, and referrer. Search and sort every entry.

Get Email Alerts

You also receive an email notification for every new lead — complete with their contact details and full source attribution — plus optional daily, weekly or monthly summary digests. All included free, no paid tier required.

A man reviewing campaign data on his laptop

What Gets Tracked for Every Lead

Every form submission captures the following data points (when available):

Data

Description

Example

Traffic Source

Human-readable source label

Google Ads, Organic – Google, Referral – example.com

utm_source

Where the traffic came from

google, Facebook, linkedin

utm_medium

The marketing medium

cpc, email, social, organic

utm_campaign

Campaign name

summer_promo, retargeting_q1

utm_term

Paid keyword

plumber near me

utm_content

Ad variation or content ID

banner_a, video_ad_2

Click ID

Platform-specific click identifier

gclid, fbclid, msclkid, etc.

Landing Page

First page the visitor arrived on

/services/plumbing/

Form Page

Page where the form was submitted

/contact/

Referrer

The referring URL

google.com, partnerblog.com

Submitter Name

Name from the form

Jane Smith

Submitter Email

Email from the form

jane@example.com

Message

Message excerpt from the form

“I’d like a quote for…”

Set Up in Under Two Minutes

Install the plugin, run the wizard, and start seeing where your leads come from.

Download Free