How to find out where your contractor leads really come from

Ask three people at your company where last month's jobs came from. The office manager says Google, your lead tech says referrals, and you say the yard signs. Nobody's lying, and nobody has a number.

You can fix that with a spreadsheet, or a notebook in the truck, and fifteen minutes a month.

How do you track contractor leads without buying software?

With a lead log: one row for every new inquiry, whether or not it becomes a job. Seven columns are enough:

1. Date of the first contact.
2. Contact: call, form, text, email or in person.
3. Their words: how they say they heard about you.
4. Source: your label for it. Google profile, website, referral, repeat customer, sign or truck, ad, unknown.
5. Job: what they want, and small, medium or big by your own rule.
6. Estimate: given or not, and how much.
7. Result: won, lost, waiting or never answered.

The third column does the most work. Ask every caller how they heard about you. People say "Google" for the map, a search, a review or an ad. If they do, ask once more: "What did you type?" or "Was it the map or our website?"

A 2026 survey of local shoppers found that most people who use AI for a local search go back to Google or another channel to check.^[1] A customer who first saw you in a ChatGPT answer may still say "Google."

It won't be tidy. A referral can start with a review you never saw, and a call can land on your cell and skip the log. Write "unknown" when you can't tell, log cell calls that evening, and keep going.

How do you read your profile, Search Console and analytics?

Open your Business Profile on Google and choose Performance. It shows Calls, Website clicks and Directions. The Calls number counts taps on the call button, not calls that connected, and the numbers include anything your Google ads drive.^[2] Our Google Business Profile checklist covers the rest of the profile.

A click isn't a lead either.

Search Console is Google's free report on how your site does in search. Its Performance report shows which pages and which searches bring clicks.^[3]

Searches that include your company name come from people who already knew you. A referral or your truck did the work. Google only carried them.

In Google Analytics, the Traffic acquisition report lists your visits by source.^[4] To find visits from ChatGPT, look for chatgpt.com in that list.^[5]

Some AI visits also arrive with no source and get filed as direct traffic, so the real number is higher.^[5] Clicks from Google's AI answers count as ordinary search clicks.^[6] What Search Console shows about those answers is in how to show up in Google AI Overviews. If nobody can show you your site's analytics, fix that first.

Do you need a separate tracking number?

Not to start. A tracking number tells you which sign, mailer or ad made the phone ring. But different numbers on your site, profile and listings can make you look like more than one business.

Google's profile guidelines ask for a local number that connects to your own location and stays under your direct control. They don't mention tracking numbers.^[7] A profile holds a main number and up to two more.^[8]

So I'd keep your real number as the main one on the profile and the website. If you add a tracking number, list it as one of the extras, or print it only on things like a truck wrap, yard signs or a mailer.

What do you check in the fifteen-minute monthly review?

Four checks, then one change:

1. Count inquiries by source.
2. Count them by job size. Many small jobs and a few big ones are different things.
3. Count the estimates that became jobs, source by source.
4. Compare Performance and Search Console with the same month last year.

Then change one thing. In the Tampa example, referrals brought most of the money, so I'd ask every finished customer who else they know. If a source brings many inquiries and few jobs, listen to how those calls get answered before you cut it.

Judge a seasonal business against the same month last year, not last month. For a pool builder in Frisco or an HVAC company in Columbus, March looks nothing like December. Search Console keeps 16 months of data,^[9] and last year's invoices show your jobs by month.

What should you avoid, and what should you ask a vendor?

Skip these five:

• Judging by clicks alone.
• Believing one month. Ten inquiries is too few to prove anything.
• Swapping your main number for a tracking number.
• Paying anyone who can't show you calls and jobs.
• Trusting a report that opens with rankings. A position isn't a booked job.

Then ask any vendor:

• "Show me the calls from last month."
• "Which became jobs?"
• "Who owns the number on my profile if I leave?"
• "What changed last month, and what moved?"

Is it worth paying someone to set this up?

Not for the log itself, which is a spreadsheet. But if you can't tell whether analytics is even installed on your site, or what your ads and your agency bring in, that's worth paying someone to sort out. A local SEO audit checks whether your name, phone and hours match everywhere. A Found Sprint is $1,500 fixed for up to 10 fixes from your report, with free visitor analytics installed. Neither keeps your log for you.

Where this stops helping

A lead log records what the customer remembers, and that isn't always what brought them to you. Someone who read your reviews, saw your truck and asked a neighbor will say "Google," and that's what you'll log.

It also says nothing about the people who looked at you, decided against you and never called. No log can.