A CRM lead source is usually blank or wrong because the landing link lacked campaign data, a redirect removed it, the form did not submit it, the integration mapped a different field, duplicate handling changed the record, or automation overwrote original source with a later touch.
First separate a missing lead from a missing source
If the record itself is absent, diagnose delivery, authentication, validation, duplicates, and routing. If the record exists but the campaign fields are blank or wrong, focus on source capture, persistence, mapping, and overwrite rules.
Use the CRM Lead Delivery Troubleshooter for a missing record. Use the attribution audit when the lead arrived but the marketing history did not.
Check the exact landing URL
Confirm the visitor reached the final page with the intended source, medium, and campaign. Ad previews, redirects, URL builders, and link wrappers can differ from the live click. For Google Ads, also check whether auto-tagging supplied a GCLID.
Inspect capture before the CRM
Analytics can see campaign data without the form submitting it. Inspect hidden fields or the raw payload at submit time. If the visitor moved to another page, confirm the original values survived that navigation.
Compare field names and types
utm_source, source, and lead_source may be three different properties. The form name, integration mapping, and CRM internal property must agree. Picklists can also reject or normalize values that a text field would accept.
Do not confuse record source with traffic source
Record source can mean how a CRM object was created—form, import, API, or manual entry. Traffic source describes how the person reached the business. Both can be useful, but one should not stand in for the other.
Find overwrite and duplicate rules
Returning visits, workflow updates, contact merges, imports, sales edits, and opportunity creation can change or drop source fields. Review field history on one exact record. Preserve original source separately from latest source.
Check lead-to-opportunity mapping
The contact may show the right campaign while the deal or opportunity has no source. Confirm the record relationship or field copy used when an opportunity is created, then verify that later stage updates do not erase it.
Fix in evidence order
- Prove the live landing values.
- Prove the form or lead method captured them.
- Prove the integration submitted them.
- Prove the CRM mapped them.
- Review field history for overwrites.
- Confirm opportunity and revenue association.
- Repeat the same controlled path after repair.
Find the first loss point
Audit the full source path.
Use the UTM-to-CRM Attribution Audit to separate captured, persisted, mapped, assumed, and unknown stages.