Attribution (tying a lead to its ad)
Attribution is tying a lead or a sale to the ad that brought it: the campaign, the ad set and the ad. Without it, spend sits in the ad account, sales sit in the CRM, and nobody can see which creative brings in money.
Also written: attribution, ad attribution, lead attribution, CRM attribution, marketing attribution, Meta ads attribution, lead source tracking, атрибуция, atributsiya
What is attribution?
An ad’s result lives in two systems. Ads Manager knows the spend and the number of leads. The CRM knows who turned out qualified and who paid. Attribution joins them: every CRM record gets a mark saying “this person came from this ad”. Only then can CPQL, CAC and ROAS be calculated per creative.
How does attribution work?
CAPI Platform (capip.uz), a Meta Conversions API and CRM attribution platform, checks every CRM lead in four ways, in this order; the first one that matches is used.
| # | Matched by | When it works |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Meta lead ID | The lead came from a Meta lead form and the ID is stored in the CRM. The most exact method |
| 2 | The ad ID, in a CRM field or in utm_content | A website request; the ad’s link carries the UTM template |
| 3 | A hash of the phone or e-mail | The same person filled in a Meta lead form within the 72 hours before the CRM record |
| 4 | The creative name in utm_content | No ID, only a name; utm_campaign decides between creatives with the same name |
When the platform itself delivers a lead into the CRM, the lead arrives with its ad: as of 8 October 2026, 2,103 Meta leads had been delivered that way in two projects. A lead with no match is not dropped: the report shows it by channel, with the reason and the fix.
Example: a difference only attribution shows
A driving school, 2–8 October 2026: 863 ad leads, meaning leads tied to an exact ad, and 36 sales. Because every lead is tied to its ad, creatives can be compared by sales: one brought 79 leads at $0.87 each and 0 sales, another 77 leads at $1.28 each and 5 sales. Without attribution both are just “leads”.
FAQ
Are leads from Direct, WhatsApp or phone calls attributed to an ad?
Not automatically. Such a lead appears in the report by channel, under “Leads not attributed to an ad”, with the reason. One exception: if the same person filled in a Meta lead form before that, the phone hash ties them to that ad.
Is this the same as the attribution setting in Ads Manager?
No. The attribution setting in Ads Manager decides how many days after a click or a view Meta credits a conversion to an ad; that is accounting inside Meta. Attribution on this page ties a lead and a sale in the CRM to an exact ad: the bridge between the ad account and the CRM.
What happens to attribution when a lead becomes a deal, or a person applies twice?
It is kept. A Bitrix24 Lead that becomes a Deal is tracked as one lead, so the deal’s sale is credited to the ad the lead came from. Repeat requests from one phone number are counted as one person in the report.
Related terms and pages
- Lead form (Meta instant form)A lead form (Meta instant form) is a request form that opens inside a Facebook or Instagram ad: a person leaves a name, a phone number and answers to questions without visiting a website. Meta stores every submission under its own lead ID.
- ROAS (return on ad spend)ROAS (return on ad spend) is the revenue that advertising brought, divided by what the advertising cost. A ROAS of 5.99× means every $1 of ad spend came back as $5.99 of revenue, not profit.
- CAC (customer acquisition cost)CAC (customer acquisition cost) is what it costs to win one customer: spend divided by the number of sales in the same period. Ad-spend CAC holds ad spend only; a full CAC adds the other marketing and sales costs.
- Conversions API (CAPI)The Conversions API (CAPI) is Meta’s server-side interface: a business sends events from its website or CRM — a lead, a qualified lead, a sale — straight from a server to Meta, with no browser involved. Meta uses these signals to measure and optimise Facebook and Instagram ads.
- Sales funnelA sales funnel is the sequence of stages a person goes through from first seeing an ad to paying; fewer people remain at each stage, hence the name. In a CRM the funnel, or pipeline, is the list of stages a lead or a deal moves through.
- Which ad creative actually drives sales? Reading a Meta ads report by sales, not cost per leadReading a per-creative table by sales: a real pair (79 leads, 0 sales vs 77 leads, 5 sales), a waiting rule and a weekly routine.
- Conversions API without a website: CAPI for lead forms and a CRMNo website, only lead forms and a CRM? The Conversions API still works: the Meta lead ID is the key, the CRM stage is the signal. Meta’s requirements, the steps and the timing.
- ReportSee which Meta ad drives sales: spend, leads, qualified leads, sales, CAC and ROAS for every creative, with outcomes from Bitrix24, amoCRM or capiCRM.
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