Skip to main content
Every lead that enters Dealer Funnel came from somewhere — a Facebook ad, a form on your website, a phone call, a walk-in at the lot. Lead Sources are the labels that capture that origin, and they are one of the most powerful pieces of data in your CRM. When you know which channels produce the most appointments and the most closed deals, you can invest your marketing budget where it actually moves metal.

​
What Lead Sources Are

A lead source is a short, descriptive label attached to a lead record that identifies the channel or campaign that originally generated that buyer’s interest. Examples include:
  • Website — A form submission from your dealership’s website
  • Facebook — A Facebook Lead Ad or Messenger inquiry
  • Cars.com — A lead submitted through a third-party listing site
  • Phone — An inbound call logged by your team
  • Walk-In — A buyer who came to the lot directly
  • DMS Feed — A lead pushed in from your Dealer Management System
  • Import — A lead added via CSV upload
Lead sources are assigned once when the lead is created and can be updated manually at any time if the original channel was misidentified.

​
Why Lead Sources Matter

Dealer Funnel’s Reports → Lead Sources dashboard breaks down performance metrics — volume, response rate, appointment rate, and close rate — by source. Without consistent, accurate source data, this report loses its value.
Tracking lead sources lets you answer the questions that drive smarter spending:
  • Which channel sends the most leads? Volume tells you where buyers are finding you.
  • Which channel sends the most engaged leads? Response rate and appointment rate reveal lead quality — a source that sends 200 leads with a 5% appointment rate may be less valuable than one that sends 50 leads with a 40% appointment rate.
  • Which channel closes the most deals? Close rate by source is the ultimate measure of ROI.
  • Which funnels should fire based on source? You can configure automated funnels to trigger only for leads from a specific source, so Facebook leads get a Facebook-specific follow-up sequence and website leads get a different one.

​
Built-In Lead Sources

Dealer Funnel ships with a set of default lead sources that cover the most common inbound channels. These are available immediately with no setup required.

​
Creating a Custom Lead Source

When your dealership uses a channel that isn’t covered by a built-in source — a specific third-party listing site, a radio campaign, a direct mail piece, or a co-op event — create a custom source to track it separately.
1

Open Lead Sources Settings

Go to Settings → Lead Sources. You’ll see a list of all existing sources, both built-in and custom.
2

Add a New Source

Click Add New Source in the top-right corner of the list.
3

Enter the Source Name

Type a clear, descriptive name for the source (e.g., Cars.com, AutoTrader, Spring Radio Campaign, March Direct Mail). Click Save.
Your new source is immediately available in the source dropdown on lead records, in the CSV import wizard, and in the Reports dashboard.
Use a consistent naming convention across your entire team. Decide upfront whether you’ll use Cars.com or Carscom or Cars, and document it. Inconsistent naming creates fragmented reporting — you’ll see three separate sources that all mean the same thing, and your volume numbers will be split across them. Less is more: favor broad source names and use Labels for more granular campaign-level tagging.

​
How Sources Get Assigned

Lead sources are attached to a lead at the moment of creation and can be updated at any time. Here’s how assignment works across every entry point.

​
Automatically Assigned

Dealer Funnel automatically applies the correct source when a lead enters through an integrated channel:
  • Facebook Lead Ads — Any lead captured through a Facebook Lead Ad integration is tagged Facebook automatically.
  • SMS Widget — Leads who text in through a Dealer Funnel-powered SMS widget are tagged with the widget’s configured source.
  • DMS Feed — Leads pushed from your DMS carry the source your DMS integration is configured to pass; if none is passed, they default to DMS.
  • Web Form Integrations — Leads from embedded web forms are tagged Web unless your form integration passes a custom source value.

​
During CSV Import

When you bulk-import leads via CSV, the import wizard lets you assign a single source to the entire batch, or use per-row source values from a column in your file. See the Importing Leads guide for details.

​
Manually on the Lead Record

Any team member with edit access can update the source on an individual lead record:
  1. Open the lead’s detail panel.
  2. Scroll to the Lead Information section.
  3. Click the Source field and select the correct source from the dropdown.
  4. The change is saved automatically and logged in the lead’s activity history.

​
Viewing Source Performance

Navigate to Reports → Lead Sources to see a full breakdown of every source’s performance over any date range you choose. The report includes:
  • Total Leads — How many leads came from this source in the selected period.
  • Response Rate — The percentage of leads from this source that received a reply within your target response window.
  • Appointment Rate — How often a lead from this source resulted in a booked appointment.
  • Close Rate — How often a lead from this source resulted in a Sold status.
Use this data during monthly marketing meetings to make the case for reallocating budget toward your highest-performing channels — or cutting spend on sources that generate volume but no appointments.