Tracking source to CRM outcome

Cost per started patient by source is only as good as the link between the two ends: where an enquiry came from, and what happened to it. That link lives in your enquiry log or CRM. This page sets out what to record and how to keep it clean.

What to record for every enquiry

Nothing in this list is clinical. The enquiry log is for growth reporting, so keep symptoms and treatment notes in the clinical record where they belong.

Asking how they heard about you

Ask every new enquirer, every time, and pick the answer from a fixed list: Google search, Google map, a social media advert, a friend or family member, passing by, an existing patient, other. Free text produces thirty spellings of the same answer. The self-reported answer and the tracked source will sometimes disagree. Keep both. Someone may have been recommended by a friend and then clicked an advert to find the number, and both facts matter.

Keeping the click identifier with the lead

With auto-tagging switched on, Google adds a parameter called GCLID, a Google click identifier, to the landing page address after an ad click ^[1]. If your website redirects visitors, Google advises making sure the identifier reaches the final landing page ^[1]. Your website form should pick it up from the address and save it in a hidden field, so it arrives in the CRM with the enquiry.

Calls are harder, because a phone number cannot carry the identifier on its own. Record the self-reported answer for every call, and treat any call without a tracked source as unattributed rather than guessing.

Consent for website tracking

Under the UK's Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, storing information on a visitor's device, or reading it, needs clear information and the visitor's consent, with narrow exemptions such as storage strictly necessary for a service the visitor requested ^[3]. Advertising measurement is not among those exemptions, so tags that store or read ad click information should wait for consent. Google notes, for example, that with its analytics tag in place the GCLID is stored in an analytics cookie on your domain ^[1].

The practical consequence is that some enquiries will never carry a tracked source. That is expected. Judge channels on your full enquiry log, and use tracked sources to compare campaigns within a channel.

Your CRM, call tracking and form suppliers process enquirers' personal data for you. UK GDPR requires that processing to be governed by a written contract that sets out its subject matter, purpose and the types of data involved, and you may only use processors that give sufficient guarantees ^[4]. Check each supplier has one in place with you.

Reporting outcomes back without clinical detail

Once enquiries reach later stages, those outcomes can go back to the ad platform so it learns which clicks became patients. Google's enhanced conversions for leads imports offline outcomes and matches them to the original lead using hashed details such as an email address, and Google recommends including the click identifier whenever possible ^[2].

Send the minimum. Under the General Dental Council's standards, patient information, including what treatment someone is having and how much it costs, is confidential and should only be used for the purpose for which it was given ^[5]. So:

• Never send symptoms, diagnoses, treatment notes or anything from the clinical record.
• Name conversions by stage ("Qualified", "Started"), not by treatment.
• Only report people who came through an ad, and only what your privacy notice tells them about.
• Take privacy advice before attaching any value to a reported outcome.

The stage definitions these outcomes rely on are in the KPI guide, and why the qualified stage matters most is explained in cost per qualified enquiry versus paid treatment.