How do I track where my customers come from?
TL;DR
Use UTM codes on every link, unique promo codes per channel, ask in checkout ('How did you hear about us?'), and review Google Analytics monthly. Most small businesses have no attribution system — fixing this is one of the highest-leverage activities.
Detailed answer
- 1.UTM codes: tag every link with source, medium, and campaign.
- 2.Promo codes: unique code per channel (IG10, FB10, EMAIL10).
- 3.Checkout survey: 'How did you hear about us?' with 5-7 options.
- 4.Google Analytics 4: traffic source reports.
- 5.Customer-marketing platforms: auto-attribute referrals.
Common mistakes
- 1. Trusting Google Analytics alone (misses offline and word-of-mouth).
- 2. Asking 'how did you hear about us' as a free-text field (impossible to analyze).
- 3. Tracking only last-touch attribution.
What to do instead
Combine multiple attribution methods. Each catches different sources. UTM + promo codes + checkout survey covers 90% of attribution gaps.
Use a customer-marketing platform that auto-attributes referrals back to the source customer. This captures the word-of-mouth signal Google Analytics never sees.
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