Last week, we discussed why PMC’s should be looking at the cost/lease instead of the cost/lead. We left off by saying Dynamic Source Insertion (DSI) and cookies are the answer to your Overly Attributed Property Situation (OAPS).

This week, we are going to break down both of these terms and explore how you can implement these solutions.

Finally, you can start gathering accurate, actionable metrics. Hello easy, breezy budgeting!

We recommend using a source management system since this can get a bit technical, but it’s up to you.

There are three places along the customer’s journey that cause your CRM to have incorrect source attribution.

1. Lead visits your property website
2. Lead revisits your property website
3. Lead fills out a form (guest card, schedule a tour, etc.)

How can I fix it? It’s just three steps!

Step 1: Add tracking tags to every source

Congrats! You already learned how to tag your source! (Here’s a refresher in case you don’t remember). Let’s keep going.

Step 2: Add Cookies to Remember your Source for Weeks

Adding cookies take your lead source attribution accuracy over the top! And no, we aren’t talking about Thin Mints, although I’m sure they wouldn’t hurt!

Cookies have been huge in the data-tracking world. However, there seems to be a lot of confusion about what they actually do.

We like to think of them like actual cookies.

Let’s say you eat a cookie for lunch. If you are like us, you probably have a light coating of cookie crumbs on your shirt.

You carry on with business as usual, but the cookie crumbs on your sweater tell everyone about your lunchtime indulgence.

The tracking cookie does the same thing. It clings to your prospects and tells you what source they visited before coming to your website.

The great thing about cookies is that they last for a while. For example, a prospect might find your property from Zillow.com and then visit your Facebook page to learn more before filling out a guest card. Cookies remember how the lead found your property in the first place and attribute the source accordingly.

Okay, I get the point, but who wouldn’t wipe the cookie crumbs off? Well, your prospects have that option too. They can clear their cache and just like that, your cookie crumb trail is gone.

Luckily, most people are not that concerned about having a clean cache, so most of your cookies will stay put.

Cookies are an extra step to ensure you are reporting the original source of your leads. Cookies and tracking tags work together to resolve issue #1.

Step 3: Add Dynamic Source Insertion (DSI) to Correctly Track your Source on Forms

First of all, what is DSI? DSI is just a fancy way of saying that when a prospect fills out a form, the original source is reported.

Most forms are hardwired to attribute the source to where the form is located. As you can guess, most forms are placed on the property website. This is why most leads in your CRM are attributed to the property website.

DSI inserted the correct source into the form, so your CRM will have the correct source attribution.

Adding DSI allows you to decipher which marketing initiatives are bringing new leads into your CRM.

Conclusion

There you have it. The step-by-step guide to correctly tracking web sources for your property! Whether you go the google route or invest in a source management system, you are going to see results.

Accurate source tracking gives your marketing team the data they need to make informed decisions based on cost per lease. Lead source attribution makes budgeting and justifying marketing spending a snap!

Don’t worry; we didn’t spoil all of the fun. Your marketers will still be busy A/B testing subject lines, writing compelling content and all that good stuff.

Besides, we haven’t even begun to discuss tracking phone leads.