How to define and track different lead sources in HubSpot?

GenMan — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 14:38:22 GMT

I am trying to define the best way to manage these two use cases.

1. The majority of leads received right now have to be entered manually. They are all referrals either from vendors, other contractors or existing customers. I am not able to edit the LEAD SOURCE field. Should I just create a new one? I don't want to repeat the same LEAD SOURCE title.

2. We do construction related projects and work both B2B and B2C. A lot of our B2B prospecting work is old school based on driving around town and we see job sites coming up. To ensure proper tracking I want to know what you guys would suggest for entering this type of lead on HubSpot for outreach?

Re: Help with defining leads

BérangèreL — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 12:07:56 GMT

Hi @GenMan, and thanks for asking the HubSpot Community and for sharing your specific use case!

I'd love to put you in touch with our Top Experts: Hi @JessicaBaskey, @Shadab_Khan and @Gilempert do you have suggestions to help @GenMan, please?

Have a wonderful day and thanks so much!
Bérangère

Re: Help with defining leads

BérangèreL — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 12:14:33 GMT

Hi @GenMan, just checking in to see if you still need any assistance!

If so, let’s reach out to our wonderful experts:: Hi @danmoyle, @tjones and @Olivia_Bagnall do you have any best practices or tips to share with @GenMan, please?

Thanks so much and have a fantastic day!
Bérangère

Re: How to define and track different lead sources in HubSpot?

danmoyle — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 14:02:09 GMT

Hey there @GenMan nice to meet you! You have a somewhat similar story to others I've worked with. So here's the thing about HubSpot: You can't edit their default Lead Source property, so the best practice is to add your own source-of-truth lead source property and use it (plus a couple of helper fields) for referrals and drive-by job-site leads. For job-site prospecting, treat them as outbound/field-sourced leads with a consistent property value (dropdown properties are perfect for this) and a simple process your team can follow every time.

Because HubSpot’s default Lead Source (and Original Source properties) are system properties that are tied to analytics, we can't edit them. It's helpful one one hand, but in your case not so much. But most teams dealing with a situation like yours just create a custom dropdown contact property. I like something like “Lead Source (Custom).” Then add values that match real-world sources (Referrals, Vendor Referral, Customer Referral, Contractor Referral, Networking Event, Field Prospecting, etc.).

To avoid repeating labels, you could keep one canonical value for each concept (for example, “Referral – Vendor” rather than multiple variations). Then you can add a separate text or dropdown property like “Referred By” or “Referral Partner” to capture the specific person, company, or event.

Here's what that would look like for you.

Create a custom dropdown property “Lead Source (Custom)” with options such as “Referral – Vendor,” “Referral – Contractor,” “Referral – Customer,” “Field Prospecting – Job Site,” “Inbound – Website,” etc.
Create a text property “Referred By (Name/Company/Event)” to store who or what specifically referred the lead.

Optionally, you can use workflows to copy HubSpot’s Original Source into your Lead Source (Custom) when it's something you want to keep (like Organic, Paid, etc.), and rely on your own values for offline/manual leads like referrals.

Now for capturing B2B vs B2C and job-site leads, you can distinguish between B2B and B2C by creating a multiple-checkbox or dropdown contact property such as “Market Type” with values “B2B” and “B2C” (and optionally “Both” if you ever deal with mixed situations).

For your drive-around-town job-site leads, part of the solution is process. You'll want to train the team to use a consistent pattern. That might look like this.

Create the Company (for B2B) with basic info: company name (or “Unknown – Project at [Street/Intersection]”), address, and any notes about the site.
Create or associate a Contact if you have a person’s name; if not, you can start with just the Company and add a Contact later once you find a site supervisor, owner, or GC contact info.
Set “Lead Source (Custom)” to something like “Field Prospecting – Job Site” and “Market Type” to B2B or B2C depending on who you expect to sell to (owner vs GC vs homeowner).
Use a Note or a custom text property (e.g., “Job Site Description” or “Observed Work Type”) to log what you saw: type of project, stage, and any identifying signage (GC name, owner, permit number).

Hopefully that helps unlock some ideas for you!

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How to define and track different lead sources in HubSpot?

Re: Help with defining leads

Re: Help with defining leads

Re: How to define and track different lead sources in HubSpot?