Attribution
From ad click to sales-accepted opportunity
The minimum attribution model a service or B2B team needs to optimize for revenue quality instead of cheap leads.
01
Cheap leads can be expensive
Cost per lead is useful only when a lead has a consistent meaning. A campaign producing low-cost spam, unsupported requests, or unreachable contacts can look efficient while consuming sales capacity.
The measurement model should follow an inquiry far enough to determine whether the business wanted the opportunity.
Optimize to the deepest reliable business signal—not the easiest platform conversion.
02
Capture the minimum viable record
At inquiry creation, preserve the source, campaign, landing page, conversion type, contact information, service need, location, and timestamp. Avoid overwriting original attribution when the record is updated later.
- Original and latest source
- Campaign and click identifiers
- Landing page
- Call or form event
- Service and market
- Consent and communication status
03
Define sales acceptance
Sales acceptance is the bridge between a marketing conversion and a real opportunity. Create a small set of disposition reasons that the sales or service team can apply consistently.
Examples include accepted, duplicate, spam, unsupported service, outside territory, unable to contact, unqualified, and existing customer. Keep the list useful enough for action but short enough for adoption.
04
Use the feedback in optimization
Return accepted-opportunity and disposition data to channel reporting. Compare campaigns by accepted rate, cost per accepted opportunity, pipeline value, and win rate when volume allows.
This feedback changes targeting, keyword strategy, offers, forms, routing, and budget allocation. Attribution becomes an operating system rather than a retrospective report.