Benchmark Hub, Q3 2026
How Accurate Are Lead Sources in Home Services?
We compared the campaign label on every closed job with the channel SearchLight verified from call tracking, click IDs and web sessions. Nearly half the revenue carried a label that couldn't credit any channel.
Based on SearchLight network data covering $1.03B in closed revenue across 346,000 paying customers in Q3 2026, 39% of closed revenue carried a lead source label that named no marketing channel at all.
Every closed job in a home services business carries a campaign or lead source label. It's the field that answers "where did this customer come from?" and it feeds every channel report, ROAS calculation and budget decision built on top of it.
We wanted to know how often that label is right. The short answer: the label often says nothing useful, and when it does name a channel, 1 in 4 revenue dollars point to the wrong one.
For channel-level cost and ROAS benchmarks, see What Is a Good Cost Per Lead for HVAC Google Ads? (2026 Benchmarks).
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39% of closed revenue carried a label that named no channel
We grouped every campaign label on a closed job by what it actually told you about the marketing source.
Q3 2026 closed revenue, by what the job's campaign label said
Nearly half of closed revenue (48%) carried a label too generic to credit any channel. A job labeled "Main Number" tells you the customer called your main line. It doesn't tell you what made them call.
Any report that groups revenue by lead source puts that 39% into buckets like "Main Line" or "Existing Customer," and the channels that actually drove it look weaker than they are.
About $125M in paid-channel revenue sat behind generic labels
The $404M in closed revenue with no channel on the label didn't come from nowhere. SearchLight traced 68% of it to a specific channel.
Where the $404M with no channel on the label actually came from, by verified channel
Roughly 31% of it, about $125M, traced back to paid channels like Google Ads, LSA, Bing and direct mail. In a report built on job labels, that revenue shows up as "Main Number" or "Existing Customer." The paid channel that produced it gets no credit, and its ROAS looks worse than it is.
When the label named a channel, 1 in 4 revenue dollars pointed to the wrong one
Where both the job label and SearchLight's verified attribution named a specific channel, they disagreed on 25% of revenue. Accuracy varied a lot by channel.
Share of labeled revenue where the verified channel matched the label, Q3 2026
LSA labels are the most reliable
LSA calls come through Google's own tracked numbers, so the label usually holds up.
Google Ads labels lose 12% to LSA
Both live under "Google," and shared numbers or a CSR's best guess blur the two. That inflates Google Ads and shortchanges LSA.
Organic labels hide paid revenue
About 15% of revenue labeled organic was verified as Google Ads or LSA. Some of SEO's credit belongs to paid search.
Bing labels were right less than a quarter of the time
Most Bing-labeled revenue verified as Google Ads or organic search.
Why lead source labels drift
This isn't a software problem. Every field service and CRM system stores the label it's given. The drift happens upstream, in how the label gets set.
- Tracking numbers get reused.A number printed on a mailer years ago, or shared across a website and a profile listing, keeps assigning the same campaign to every call it receives.
- The main line catches everything.Customers who saw an ad, then looked up your number, call the main line. The job gets labeled "Main Number."
- CSRs pick from a dropdown under pressure."How did you hear about us?" gets answered fast, or skipped, or defaults to the first option.
- Campaign names carry assumptions.A campaign named "PPC" buckets as paid advertising whether or not ad spend produced the call.
- Repeat customers erase the first touch."Existing Customer" is true, but it hides the channel that brought them in the first time.
None of these are mistakes anyone would catch by looking at a single job. They only show up when you compare the label against an independent record of what happened.
How to check your own lead source data
You can run a rough version of this audit on your own business this week.
- Pull last quarter's closed revenue by campaign.Add up everything labeled main line, existing customer, blank or a person's name. If it's more than a third of revenue, your channel reports are missing a lot.
- Audit your tracking numbers.Every channel and every listing should have its own number. Retire or relabel numbers that no longer map to a live campaign.
- Rename misleading campaigns.A campaign named "PPC" or "Google" should say exactly which source it tracks, or it will absorb credit it didn't earn.
- Make sure click IDs and UTMs reach the job.If a web lead's click ID never lands on the job record, the label falls back to whatever a person typed.
- Compare labels against an independent source.Call tracking, click IDs and web sessions show what actually happened. Where they disagree with the label, trust the record over the label.
See your own label gap
SearchLight does step 5 automatically. It matches every call, form and booking to the job it produced, then credits revenue to the channel that earned it, with no stake in which channel wins.
Data source
Sample: 10 multi-location portfolios (agency and PE-backed groups) across multiple field service and CRM systems.
Methodology: We compared the campaign label on each closed job with the channel SearchLight attributed from call tracking, click IDs and web sessions. Labels were grouped into channels by keyword. Match rates cover revenue where both the label and SearchLight's attribution named a specific channel; revenue SearchLight couldn't verify to a channel is excluded from match rates. Where tracking is weak, SearchLight falls back to the job's campaign label, which pushes agreement up, so these figures likely understate the gap. Account and portfolio names are anonymized.
Frequently asked questions
How accurate are lead sources in home services?
In Q3 2026, 39% of closed revenue across 346,000 home services customers carried a lead source label that named no marketing channel. Where the label did name a channel, it disagreed with the verified channel on 25% of revenue.
What is the most common lead source label problem?
Generic labels. “Main Number,” “Existing Customer,” blank fields and CSR names made up 39% of closed revenue. These labels are accurate about how the customer reached you but say nothing about which marketing produced the call.
Which lead source labels are most reliable?
Google Local Services Ads labels matched the verified channel 87% of the time, the highest in the sample. Facebook (82%) and Google Business Profile (78%) followed. Bing labels were the least reliable at 24%.
Why do Google Ads and LSA get mixed up in lead source data?
Both sit under Google, and shared tracking numbers or loose campaign names blur them. In Q3 2026, 12% of revenue labeled Google Ads was verified as LSA, which inflates Google Ads results and understates LSA.
How much paid advertising revenue is hidden by generic lead sources?
About $125M. Of the $404M in closed revenue with no channel on the label, roughly 31% was verified to paid channels like Google Ads, LSA, Bing and direct mail.
How do I fix inaccurate lead sources?
Give every channel and listing its own tracking number, rename vague campaigns, make sure click IDs and UTMs reach the job record, and compare labels against call tracking and web session data. Attribution platforms like SearchLight automate that comparison.