Watch: How to see which marketing channels bring you customers in SalesThumb (0:48)
If you can't tell what share of your customers came from Google Maps vs Instagram vs referral, your marketing spend is guessing. Here's how SalesThumb's lead-source tagging actually works today, and how to use it.
The categories
SalesThumb's "How did you hear about us?" selector (shown when you create a customer) covers around 30 channels, grouped as:
- In-person — walk-in, drive-by/saw the shop, signage/billboard, saw our branded vehicle/wrap
- Organic / Search — Google, Yelp, online booking form
- AI Assistant — ChatGPT, Google Gemini/AI Overview, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, other AI assistant
- Social — Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Nextdoor
- Word of Mouth — referral, repeat customer, car club/enthusiast group
- Paid / Outbound — text/SMS campaign, email campaign, direct mail, flyers, radio/podcast, trade show/event
- B2B — fleet/B2B account, insurance/dealer referral
- Other — free-text write-in
This is a rep-selectable field, not an automatic one — there's no HTTP Referer capture, no UTM-parameter parsing, and no ad-platform click-ID tracking (gclid/fbclid/ttclid/msclkid) today. Every lead gets tagged by whoever creates the customer record.
Step 1 — Tag at customer creation
At customer creation (quick-create dialog, a new quote/invoice, or the Sales Matrix walk-in flow), pick the channel from the dropdown. If none of the ~30 preset options fit, choose "Other" and write in a short description.
Make it a habit for front desk and every installer who books walk-ins — the data is only as good as your tagging discipline.
Step 2 — Use unique tracking for offline channels
SalesThumb doesn't auto-attribute web traffic, so for offline or campaign-specific channels, build the attribution in manually:
- Promo codes — "RADIO20" only mentioned on a radio ad, applied at checkout
- QR codes — a separate QR per piece of signage, each pointing to a page or booking flow you can identify
- Dedicated phone numbers — a separate number per channel if you're set up for it
Then tag the resulting customer with the matching source when they book.
Step 3 — View the report
Reports → Customers → Source Attribution shows lead count and percentage of total per source, based on the tagged customer source field (plus any matching tags), for the date range you select. It does not currently calculate conversion rate, average ticket, LTV, CAC, or ROI per source — those would need to be worked out manually from your other reports (e.g. cross-referencing Top Customers or LTV Segments by source).
There's also Reports → Operations → Booking Sources, which breaks down how appointments were booked (manual entry, your public booking page, or import) — a different, narrower breakdown than customer lead source.
What to do with the data
Common patterns
Every market is different — compare each source's lead count and close rate in your own reports before deciding which channel works best.
Budget shifts
If Google Maps drives 40% of leads and you're spending $0 on it, but Facebook Ads drives 10% and you're spending $2,000/month — your spend is misaligned. Reallocate.
Channel-specific landing pages
If 30% of your leads come from Instagram, build a tighter Instagram landing page (yourshop.com/ig) with that audience's questions answered. Conversion will lift.