A plumbing contractor in California asked SearchLight to take a look at their reporting. They wanted to know what would change if they switched from CRM-native attribution to SearchLight's model. Their exact request: "We are interested in your team taking a look at our reporting and data, somewhat of a data audit to see the types of changes we can expect."
As part of our standard onboarding process, our team logged into their CRM and reviewed the performance reporting. Within 15 minutes, we identified five attribution problems that were hiding where their revenue actually came from.
Here is what their CRM was showing for the most recent 30-day period:
| CRM Category | Leads | Booked | Sold Jobs | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phone Number | 205 | 259 | 68 | $273,090 |
| 104 | 115 | 37 | $97,629 | |
| Website | 94 | 93 | 23 | $66,296 |
| Search | 88 | 92 | 29 | $73,260 |
| Direct Web Traffic | 38 | 36 | 7 | $62,094 |
| Organic | 25 | 26 | 5 | $25,849 |
The single largest source was "Phone Number" at $273K. That tells them nothing about what drove those leads, bookings, or sold jobs. The second largest was "Google," which isn't specific to paid, organic, GBP, or LSA. If you don't know which Google properties are driving your business, you can't make informed marketing decisions. The third was "Website," which is a conversion tool, not a source.
None of this tells the contractor which marketing channels are producing revenue and which are wasting budget. And this scenario is common.
This isn't a problem with any one CRM. Home services CRMs are built for dispatch, scheduling, and invoicing. They're not built to be marketing attribution engines. We've seen these same issues show up across every major platform in the industry.
But when a contractor makes marketing decisions based on CRM data, they're working with a distorted picture. Channels that generate first-touch interest (like Google Ads) without defined sales cycles get undercredited. Channels that happen to be the last touchpoint (like GBP or direct calls) get overcredited. And $273K in revenue sits in a bucket called "Phone Number" where nobody can act on it.
This contractor was spending real money on Google Ads and couldn't see how much revenue it was producing. They had an online scheduling tool that wasn't connected to their attribution. Their GBP leads were completely invisible. And their CRM was using last-touch attribution, which systematically undercredits the channels that drive initial awareness. All of this was visible in 15 minutes and SearchLight's platform fixes this.
Every lead attributed to a source. SearchLight connects to call tracking providers, web forms, chat tools, and online scheduling platforms. Every conversion event is captured with its upstream marketing source, not just the tool the customer used to make contact.
Channels separated, not blended. Google Ads, Google LSA, Google Business Profile, and Google Organic are tracked as separate channels with separate revenue attribution. You see which ones are producing and which ones aren't.
Campaign-level accuracy. SearchLight pulls campaign and keyword data directly from the Google Ads and LSA APIs. Revenue flows back to the specific campaign that generated the lead, not a generic label from a third-party tool.
Closest-sale attribution model. When a customer contacts a business multiple times during their sales cycle, SearchLight credits the channel that drove the initial conversion in that cycle. This gives you an accurate picture of which channels are generating demand, not just which ones happen to be the last touchpoint.
All in one dashboard with a dedicated and meticulous onboarding process. Every channel, every conversion tool, every campaign, with revenue mapped from lead through closed invoice. Month-over-month trends, channel comparisons, and more at your fingertips.
Data Source
Independent plumbing contractor · Northern California · 30-day CRM performance snapshot · Findings from initial SearchLight data audit · Account details anonymized
