To understand which marketing efforts drive revenue, you need attribution, which provides clear insight into what’s working and what’s not.
Marketing attribution software connects the dots for you. It shows you where your leads come from so you can focus on your highest-performing touchpoints.
In this article, you’ll discover the best marketing attribution tools for small businesses, find the right fit for your team and learn how to track campaigns effectively.
Types of marketing attribution software (and what your small business needs)
Marketing attribution software shows you exactly which marketing activities lead to sales. It tracks how customers interact with each marketing touchpoint, revealing which channels drive the most conversions.
You can then focus on these channels and improve your return on investment (ROI).
Example: Say you’re a productivity software company. You use attribution software to see if your best leads come from email campaigns or social media marketing. If 65% of sign-ups to your plans come from email, you should invest more resources there.
Attribution-focused marketing software generally fits into two groups: single-touch and multi-touch attribution.
Both types use different models to decide which steps (like an ad click or website visit) in a buyer’s journey deserve credit for a sale.
Single-touch attribution models
Single-touch models credit all sales with one key customer interaction, such as the first or last touchpoint. Here’s how they work:
Single-touch attribution models | What it does |
First-touch attribution: Gives full credit to the first channel that attracted a customer. Helpful in tracking brand awareness and top-funnel performance. | Helps you understand how people first find you. For example, if a sales prospect clicks a LinkedIn ad before signing up weeks later, this model gives LinkedIn full credit. |
Last-touch attribution: Fully credits the last interaction before the sale. Ideal for optimizing your final-step messaging and calls to action (CTAs). | Helps you know what finally convinced someone to convert. If someone clicks multiple links but only makes a purchase after reading an email, the email receives 100% credit. |
These simple models work well when the user journey is short or concentrated around one or two channels.
Multi-touch attribution models
Multi-touch models split credit across several interactions, showing how each step leads to a sale. Like this:
Multi-touch attribution models | What it does |
Linear attribution: Spreads credit evenly across all interactions. Useful when you’re consistently using several marketing touchpoints. | Gives a balanced view of every channel’s role. Credits each step equally, such as when a customer sees a social ad, reads a blog post and finally clicks an email. |
Time-decay attribution: Gives more credit to interactions closest to the sale. Useful for long or complex sales cycles, where later-stage interactions impact decision-making. | Prioritizes actions taken later in the sales funnel. If a lead engages with your Facebook ad but books a demo a week after seeing your pricing page, most credit goes to the latter. |
Multi-touch attribution is often too complex for small businesses. It requires a lot of data and marketing automation, which might be impractical if you have limited resources.
Single-touch attribution is simpler and more affordable, though it doesn’t always show the whole picture.
Small businesses usually need something in between – an affordable, easy-to-use marketing attribution platform that provides clear insights without breaking the budget.
For example, a small IT company running Google Ads, social media ads and email marketing can pair free tools like Google Analytics with a customer relationship management (CRM) system like Pipedrive to see which campaigns drive sales.
In the next section, you’ll discover the best digital marketing attribution tools for small businesses.
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7 best marketing attribution software solutions for small businesses
The best digital marketing attribution tools depend on your needs, goals and marketing mix.
The following list includes seven top-performing solutions based on features, ease of use and how well they serve everyday small business needs:
Three free or low-cost solutions that are accessible, easy to set up and effective for basic attribution
Four mid-range paid tools with more advanced features for marketing teams handling more granular data, ad spend or complex reporting
Whether you’re looking for a simple solution, a hybrid approach or a platform that scales with you, there’s something here to support smarter marketing decisions.
1. Google Analytics (GA4)
Google Analytics (GA4) is a mostly free platform for tracking user interactions with your website or app.
GA4 uses single-touch, last-click attribution by default. With enough data, you can also apply data-driven attribution, which uses machine learning and predictive analytics to estimate the effect of channels using historical data from your account.
Here’s what you can do with Google Analytics:
Google Analytics feature | How it helps with attribution |
Track traffic sources | Using source data, it identifies which single channel (e.g., paid ads, organic search, social mobile apps, email campaigns) drove a visitor to your site. |
Measure conversions | Tracks form submissions, purchases, email tracking and other specific actions visitors take on your site. |
Analyze user paths | Shows which pages users visit before converting, helping you understand lead flow and drop-off points. |
Built-in attribution models | Uses last-click attribution for paid and organic channels or data-driven attribution if you generate enough marketing data. |
Google Ads integration | Automatically links conversions to Google Ads campaigns and keywords. |
Custom dashboards | Provides custom attribution reporting views that show how each marketing channel performs. |
With enterprise-level features available on paid plans, Google Analytics supports different attribution needs depending on your setup and data volume.
Who should use Google Analytics?
Google Analytics suits small businesses that need single-touch attribution insights, such as those that want to quickly identify the channel that generates their website leads.
For example, a startup offering B2B software can use GA4’s web analytics to track the number of sign-ups from paid campaigns compared to newsletter clicks. While the platform doesn’t show every step in a cross-channel buyer journey, it highlights which channels lead to final actions.
When you connect Google Analytics with Pipedrive’s CRM, you can see exactly which campaigns bring in your highest-value deals. Simply use the GA Connector on Pipedrive’s Marketplace to track a lead from their first click to closed revenue.
Pipedrive also connects with Google Ads to send form submissions directly into your CRM, linking ad responses to pipeline stages without you needing to get involved.
2. Platform-specific attribution tools
Most major ad platforms offer free, built-in attribution tools that track user interactions. They typically use last-click or view-through attribution (assigning credit to ads people viewed but didn’t click).
Here are the main platform-specific attribution tools and what they can do:
Ad platform | What it tracks and how it helps |
Meta Ads Manager |
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Google Ads Conversion Tracking |
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LinkedIn Campaign Manager |
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TikTok Ads Manager |
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Microsoft Ads |
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Twitter/X Ads Manager |
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These tools don’t track users across platforms, but most support urchin tracking module (UTM) links. You can combine them with Google Analytics and a CRM to capture source data and compare marketing performance – more on UTM functionality and CRMs in the next section.
Who should use platform-specific attribution software?
Platform-specific tools are best for small businesses that run paid campaigns on one or two platforms and want valuable insights.
For example, a retail brand running Facebook and Instagram campaigns can use Meta Ads Manager to see which ads drive purchases without setting up additional tools.
3. Manual tracking with your CRM
Manual tracking is a free way to connect leads to marketing data sources with tools you already use. It gives you basic attribution without adding software costs, but relies on setting things up correctly each time you run a campaign.
The most important part of this setup is UTM tracking, which uses short text labels added to the end of a URL to track a visitor’s origin.
Here’s how these labels show up in your analytics:
For example, if your original link is https://example.com/pricing, you might add these UTM tags:
utm_source=google (shows the platform the visitor came from)
utm_medium=cpc (shows that the visitor clicked a cost-per-click ad)
utm_campaign=spring_sale (highlights the campaign name)
Your final UTM link would be:
https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=spring_sale
When someone clicks that link and fills out a form, your CRM (or Google Analytics) captures the data. You’ll see which platform, ad campaign or email brought in the lead.
Here’s what you can do with manual attribution tracking:
What to do | How it helps with attribution |
Create UTM-tagged URLs: Use a UTM builder (like Google’s) to tag every campaign with a source, medium and campaign. | “Source” identifies the platform (e.g., LinkedIn), “medium” shows the type of channel (e.g., paid ad) and “campaign” names the specific initiative. This structure lets you trace each lead to the exact campaign that generated it. |
Embed UTMs in links: Add UTM tags to emails, ads and social media posts. | Captures campaign-level data when someone clicks one of your links. Gives you a reliable way to compare performance across platforms and channels. |
Connect forms to Pipedrive: Use one of Pipedrive’s form integrations (like Typeform) to capture hidden UTM fields in your web forms and sync that data with your CRM. | Pulls UTM data into your CRM at the moment of form submission. Lets you see attribution in each lead’s record within Pipedrive. |
Use deal stages to assess conversion: Track leads through deal stages and measure how long they take to close from each source. | Adds a layer of insight by showing which lead sources produce higher-quality or faster-converting leads. |
Cross-check in Google Analytics: Compare campaign traffic and behavior with what you captured in Pipedrive. | Validates that your UTM links are set up correctly and performing as expected across platforms. |
You can also integrate Pipedrive with Google Analytics, giving insight into how someone arrived at your site on a session level. If you want to store this data at a lead or deal level, you’ll still need to set up UTM capture manually through hidden form fields.
Who should use manual tracking?
Every small business running online campaigns should manually track as a baseline. It’s a reliable, low-effort way to connect campaign activity to results.
If you already use platform-specific tools like Meta Ads Manager or Google Analytics, UTM parameters make your data even more usable. When you pass that data into your CRM, you also identify which marketing campaigns drive real revenue outcomes.
Shift to automated attribution tools as your marketing expands across more platforms or longer funnels. Until then, this approach keeps things simple and affordable.
4. Funnelytics
Funnelytics is a funnel-tracking and mapping tool that shows how users move through your marketing campaigns. It focuses on the flow between pages, ads and actions, giving you a clear view of which steps drive conversions and where people drop off.
Funnelytics creates a visual map of your funnel with traffic and conversion data. It supports source tracking from common channels like Google Ads, Facebook, email and organic search. You can use UTM parameters to group traffic and compare performance across campaigns.
Here’s what you can do with Funnelytics:
Funnelytics feature | How it helps with attribution |
Funnel mapping | Builds a map of your campaign steps – ads, landing pages, emails and forms – in the order leads experience them. |
Traffic source tracking | Sees where users enter your funnel, including Google Ads, Facebook and search. |
UTM-based grouping | Uses UTM parameters to group visitors by source, medium and campaign. |
Conversion tracking | Marks key actions like form submissions or page views to see which steps lead to conversions. |
Customer segment comparison | Breaks down funnel performance by traffic source or campaign to see which audiences convert more. |
Historical performance tracking | Monitors funnel results over time to spot patterns and streamline campaign performance. |
Funnelytics also lets you create custom steps without writing code, making it accessible for teams without developers.
Who should use Funnelytics?
Funnelytics is suitable for businesses that use multiple channels and want to see how far leads go down the funnel.
For example, a SaaS company can track traffic from Google Ads to a landing page, follow visitors through an email sequence and then see who signs up.
Funnelytics works best when you already use UTM tracking and want to go beyond surface-level marketing metrics like clicks or sessions. While it doesn’t replace tools like GA4 or your CRM, the software connects them by showing what happens between the first click and final action.
5. RedTrack
RedTrack helps you understand how different paid channels contribute to conversions, combining marketing spend, click data and results in one dashboard.
The platform uses either first-party cookies or server-side tracking to monitor performance. The latter improves accuracy when your leads have blocked cookies or switch devices, but it takes longer to set up.
Here’s what you can do with RedTrack:
RedTrack feature | How it helps with attribution |
Paid channel tracking | Tracks and compares results across Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, Bing, native ad networks and affiliate traffic in real time. |
Click and conversion tracking | Matches each conversion to clicks using tracking URLs or postback links, avoiding problems with cookie restrictions. |
Cost integration | Imports cost data from ad platforms and shows return on ad spend (ROAS) by channel and campaign. |
Attribution models | Assigns credit using first-click, last-click or custom rules. |
Affiliate tracking | Tracks performance from affiliates and referral partners using unique links. |
Reporting dashboard | Shows traffic, conversion and cost data across channels in a single view. |
RedTrack also prevents duplicate conversion reporting – when multiple platforms track the same event – meaning your data is accurate even with numerous tools.
Who should use RedTrack?
RedTrack works for businesses that run performance-based marketing, where advertisers pay for conversions rather than impressions. It gives you a comprehensive picture of how profitable your paid traffic is.
For direct-to-consumer brands and e-commerce companies, RedTrack provides a way to measure the contribution of affiliates and influencer marketing.
6. SegMetrics
SegMetrics is B2B marketing attribution software that links your CRM, ad platforms and email tools to show how marketing activity leads to revenue. It tracks customer lifetime value and revenue per lead source across the whole funnel.
SegMetrics uses historical CRM data, UTM parameters and integrations to attribute revenue to marketing touchpoints. It focuses on how marketing influences downstream revenue.
Here’s what you can do with Segmetrics:
SegMetrics feature | How it helps with attribution |
Lead source attribution | Ties each sale to the first recorded marketing source, using historical data from your CRM. |
Revenue tracking | Shows total and average revenue per traffic source, campaign or email sequence. |
Email performance analysis | Attributes revenue to email campaigns and sequences that influenced a sale. |
Time-to-sale reporting | Measures how long it takes each traffic source to generate a sale, showing short vs. long conversion cycles. |
CRM integration | Integrates with and pulls data from most CRM systems, including Pipedrive, to match revenue to contacts and lead sources. |
Funnel breakdown | Breaks down revenue across funnel stages to show when and where your conversions are happening. |
Who should use SegMetrics?
Segmetrics fits B2B businesses where leads take longer to convert and revenue isn’t immediate. While other tools focus on clicks or form submissions, Segmetrics determines which marketing efforts generate revenue weeks or months later.
It’s better suited to businesses with established CRMs and recurring revenue models than those relying on quick campaign-level tracking.
7. Ruler Analytics
Ruler Analytics connects marketing activity to revenue by tracking leads across channels. It links each conversion to its trustworthy source, closing the loop between first-touch attribution and final sale.
The platform collects session data across multiple visits, then sends conversion and revenue information to your CRM and ad platforms.
Here’s what you can do with Ruler Analytics:
Ruler Analytics feature | How it helps with attribution |
Multi-session tracking | Tracks a visitor across multiple visits and devices and shows how touchpoints lead to conversions. |
Offline and online conversion capture | Logs phone calls as well as digital actions like forms and live chat. |
Integrates with Pipedrive and sends lead and revenue data back to your CRM, linking marketing to pipeline outcomes. | |
Ad platform sync | Sends conversion data back to Google Ads and Meta to make data-driven business decisions within those platforms. |
Revenue reporting | Uses marketing analytics to break down revenue by channel, campaign or keyword. |
Who should use Ruler Analytics?
Ruler works for businesses that generate leads through digital channels but convert through offline or multi-step sales processes. If you rely on cold calls, sales outreach and longer funnels, Ruler helps connect attribution data to the campaigns that started them.
Final thoughts
Marketing attribution software helps you understand which efforts grow your business. For small businesses, the right attribution tool makes tracking performance and boosting your marketing ROI easier.
Pipedrive works with attribution tools to help you track lead sources from first touch to closed deal, connecting all your marketing data to actual sales outcomes. Start a 14-day free trial to see how Pipedrive supports your data-driven marketing strategies.
