How to Properly Track Google Ads Leads in Salesforce (and Why It Matters)

If you’re running Google Ads and using Salesforce as your CRM, getting your lead tracking and attribution dialed in isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s essential. Without a clear system in place, it’s hard to know which leads are actually driving revenue, which campaigns deserve more budget, and whether your sales team is effectively following up.

Let’s break down what a solid lead tracking and attribution setup should look like in Salesforce, especially when it comes to paid search.

1. Is Your Lead Source Tracking Automated or Manual?

Here’s the first big question: when a lead from Google Ads comes into Salesforce, does the system know where it came from—or does someone have to enter that by hand?

The ideal scenario is automation.
If you’ve got Google Ads integrated with Google Analytics or Tag Manager, you can capture UTM parameters and the GCLID (Google’s unique ad click ID) and pass that data into Salesforce. This way, when someone fills out a form, Salesforce automatically logs that they came from a Google Ads campaign—no manual entry required.

But sometimes, manual tracking still happens.
Maybe you’re importing leads from events, offline conversions, or third-party tools that aren’t integrated. That’s fine in small doses, but for digital channels like Google Ads, relying on manual processes almost always leads to gaps in attribution and messy data.

2. What Happens After the Lead Comes In?

Once a Google Ads lead lands in Salesforce, what’s next?

You need a clear follow-up process. That includes:

• Assignment rules: Are leads routed by region, product interest, or round-robin?
• Response time targets: Do SDRs have an SLA to respond within an hour?
• Follow-up steps: Are you using automated emails, calls, or tasks?

If this isn’t clearly defined, even high-quality leads can go cold quickly—and you’ll never know if the campaign actually worked.

3. How Are You Dispositioning Leads?

It’s one thing to capture a lead—it’s another to know what happens to it.

• What makes a lead “qualified”? Do you use BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) or MEDDIC? Is someone actually reviewing those criteria?
• What counts as disqualified? Are you tracking when leads are a poor fit, unresponsive, or already working with a competitor?

Having clear definitions for qualified vs. disqualified leads helps keep your pipeline clean and gives your marketing team better data on what’s working.

4. Who Gets the Credit When a Lead Becomes an Opportunity?

This is where attribution gets tricky.

• If a Google Ads lead turns into a new opportunity, do you give full credit to Google Ads?
• If it’s an upsell or renewal from an existing customer, do you give partial or no credit?

This isn’t just a technical decision—it’s a strategic one. You need to define when a lead source like Google Ads deserves attribution and how much. That way, your reports reflect actual influence, not just last-touch vanity metrics.

5. What About Leads from Large Companies?

When a lead comes in from a big organization, where do you track the opportunity? At the corporate level? A specific department or region?

If you’re not consistent, your data will be inconsistent too. And that makes it hard to answer basic questions like: “How much pipeline did Google Ads generate last quarter?”

6. And What If the Lead Joins an Existing Deal?

This happens all the time: A new contact from a Google Ad joins a company already in your pipeline.

So what now?

• Do you add them to the existing opportunity?
• If the deal closes, how much credit does the new lead (and Google Ads) get?

Some companies use advanced attribution models like linear, W-shaped, or time decay to handle this. Others assign credit manually. Whatever you do, just make sure you have a process—and that it’s being followed.

7. Net-New Contact, Net-New Company

This one’s straightforward: A lead from a Google Ad fills out a form and it’s a brand-new contact from a company not in your system.

• Do you treat this as a new opportunity by default?
• Does Google Ads get 100% of the attribution?

That depends on whether you’re using a single-touch or multi-touch attribution model. Just make sure everyone is on the same page—especially when you’re measuring campaign ROI.

Wrapping It Up

If you want to get real insight into how Google Ads is performing, your Salesforce setup needs more than just a “Lead Source” field. You need a system—one that’s thought through, automated where possible, and clearly defined across marketing and sales.

When done right, you’ll stop guessing what’s working and start investing in what actually drives revenue.

Want help setting up or auditing your lead tracking system? Drop a comment or reach out—I’ve worked with teams of all sizes to clean this stuff up. And yes, it makes a huge difference.

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