Tax and accounting
54% better lead quality after using LeadJourney for marketing
Karsten Guhr
Managing Director
Read the storyCustom traffic channels
Custom traffic channels for every source that has no ad account.
A newsletter, a podcast or a conference booth gets its own tracking link, the cost you paid, and every deal it closed.
- Any link or number can be a channel
- Costs entered, return computed
- Next to Meta and Google in one report
Rated by teams that track more than their ad accounts
- Trustpilot4.9 out of 5 on Trustpilot
- G25.0 out of 5 on G2
- Capterra5.0 out of 5 on Capterra
Custom channels tracked at
Five sources, none of them with an ad account
Your workspace
Traffic channel reportCustom channels beside paid, closed revenue from the CRM, last 30 days
ChannelCostLeadsRevenue
Newsletter€1,80041€38.4k
Podcast€1,20019€27.6k
Affiliate€2,90033€24.1k
Print€2,40012€15.3k
Event€4,5009€11.8k
Five custom channels, €12.8k entered cost€117.2k
Costs are the invoices you entered. Revenue is the closed-won amount in the CRM.
The definition
What are custom traffic channels?
In short
Custom traffic channels are traffic sources you define yourself, beyond the ad platforms: a newsletter, a podcast sponsorship, an affiliate, a PR article, an influencer, a print ad, a radio spot or an event. Each one gets a tracking link or a phone number and a cost you enter, so it reports clicks, leads, revenue and cost per lead the way a paid campaign does.
Carry the source in the link
The channel is stamped by the tracked link itself, not read from a referrer, because podcast apps and email clients pass none. Build the link with the UTM builder and the click lands already labelled.
Give offline sources a number
A print ad, a radio spot or a booth cannot carry a click, so it gets a fixed call tracking number and every call arrives with the channel attached. See call tracking software.
Take a cost without an API
No ad account means no spend sync, so the channel takes the cost you paid: the invoice for the placement, the commission, the print run. Cost per lead and return then compute like everywhere else.
Report it beside the ad platforms
The channel appears in the traffic channel report next to Meta, Google and LinkedIn, measured on the same tracked journeys and the same CRM revenue.
Case studies
What changes once the attribution is right
One measured result per customer, with the person, the role and the company behind it.
SEO agency
€500k MRR reached profitably, scaling an SEO agency on performance marketing
Nikita Yatsun
Managing Director
Read the story
Klickkraft GmbH
Business coaching
€10-20k in monthly Meta spend, tied to qualified leads and revenue per ad
Florian Buck
Managing Director
Read the story
LinkedIn growth agency
2x customer retention, once every LinkedIn touchpoint was tracked to revenue
Marc Richard
CEO
Read the story
Digital publishing
Which article produced the lead and the revenue, across AI and organic search
Andreas Malkow
CEO & Head of PR
Read the story
SEO and GEO agency
Proven ROI on every retainer, from organic and AI search leads through to revenue
Philipp Nessmann
Managing Director
Read the story
Getreach
Backlinks marketplace (SaaS)
Integrations
Every source and every CRM, connected.
The ad platforms and channels a touchpoint can come from, and the CRMs the outcome is read back from. Open any tile for what exactly moves between LeadJourney and that tool.
Ad platforms
Spend, campaign structure and click IDs come in. Closed deals go back out as offline conversions.
Meta Ads
Google Ads
LinkedIn Ads
Microsoft Bing Ads
TikTok AdsSoon
Pinterest AdsSoon
Reddit AdsSoon
X AdsSoon
ChatGPT AdsSoon
AI search engines
The traffic your analytics still files under direct. No setup, the tracking script separates it.
CRM and sales
Lead stage and deal value flow in. Every campaign sees the revenue it actually produced.
HubSpot
Salesforce
Pipedrive
Attio
Close
GoHighLevel
ActiveCampaign
Odoo
Patch Retention
Podium
monday.comSoon
What the feature does
Every source you pay for, tracked like a campaign.
Channels named your way
Create a channel for the newsletter, the podcast, the affiliate, the PR article, the trade show, even the single episode or issue. Each one reports on its own, and a new one takes seconds to add.
A tracking link per channel
Every channel gets its own link, built with the UTM builder inside LeadJourney, and the parameters are kept for months, so a lead that converts weeks later still credits the channel. See UTM and click ID tracking.
A fixed number for offline sources
Print, radio, packaging and event banners get a number of their own that forwards to the phone you already answer, so the call arrives with the channel attached and counts as a lead.
Tracked server-side, through in-app browsers
Podcast apps and email clients open links in in-app browsers, and ad blockers thin out the rest. Clicks are recorded server-side on your own domain at 95%+ accuracy, and every one is inspectable in the transparent logs.
Cost per lead and return per channel
Enter what the placement cost, once or per month, and the channel reports cost per lead, cost per customer and return next to the ad platforms, computed the same way.
Revenue matched from the CRM
When the deal closes in HubSpot, Pipedrive, Close or Attio, the amount lands on the channel that started the journey, so a sponsorship is judged on deals rather than on a traffic spike.
In the product
What a custom channel looks like once it is tracked.
Your workspace
Custom channelsWhat identifies each channel, what it cost, what it produced, last 30 days
5custom channels
€12.8kcost entered
€117.2kclosed revenue
ChannelLink or numberCostLeadsRevenue
Newsletter · Issue 112/go/nl112€1,80041€38,400
Podcast · Episode 41/go/ep41€1,20019€27,600
Affiliate · Brightline Studio/go/bls€2,90033€24,100
Print · trade magazine+49 30 555 0142€2,40012€15,300
Event · trade fair boothQR · /go/fair€4,5009€11,800
Revenue is closed-won in the CRM, matched to the channel that started the journey.
Channel setup
Every channel with its link or number, its cost and its result.
One table holds every source you run that has no ad account: what identifies it, what you paid, and what it produced. The cost is the invoice you entered, the leads are tracked journeys, and the revenue is what the CRM closed.
- A tracking link or a fixed phone number per channel
- Cost entered per channel, per month or per placement
- Leads, cost per lead and closed revenue per channel
- A new channel in seconds, no developer involved
Your workspace
Lead journeyOne lead, sponsored click to closed deal
MSMira SchulzNorthwind LogisticsClosed won
- Podcast · Episode 41Clicked the sponsored link in the show notesDay 1
Google organicSearched the brand name, read /pricingDay 5- DirectBooked a call from the pricing pageDay 6
- HubSpotDeal moved to Closed won, €14,800Day 23
Attributed to the podcast€14,800
Podcast apps pass no referrer. The link carried the channel, so the referrer did not matter.
Lead journey
From the podcast link to the closed deal, one journey.
Open any lead the channel produced and read the path: the sponsored click with its channel attached, the brand search days later, the booked call, and the stages up to the closed amount.
- The channel stamped by the link on the first visit
- Return visits through search or direct still credit it
- CRM stages and the closed amount on the same timeline
- Every click behind it inspectable in the logs
Live in 21 minutes
A custom channel set up in three steps
No developer, no spreadsheet, and nothing the host, the partner or the printer has to do differently.
- 1About 5 minutes
Install
Add one script to your site on your own tracking subdomain. From then on every visit, click ID and form fill is recorded first-party, whichever source sent it.
- 2About 10 minutes
Create the channel
Name the channel, build its tracking link with the UTM builder or assign it a tracking number, and enter what the placement cost. Hand the link to the host, the partner or the newsletter.
- 3Same day
Connect the CRM
Connect HubSpot, Pipedrive, Close or Attio natively, or any other CRM by webhook, so a deal that closes weeks later lands on the channel that started it. The report fills the same day.
Original reviews
What our customers wrote, word for word
4.9 out of 5 across 11 public reviews. Quoted as they were left, shortened only by dropping whole sentences.
- 5 out of 5 starsGoogle
“Before LeadJourney, we had no reliable tracking concept for our five-figure ad spend. We were manually building spreadsheet and CRM reports, inaccurate and time-consuming. Within two days, everything was set up. For the first time, I know exactly what I pay per lead and which campaigns actually bring in the best-qualified prospects.”
Florian BuckCEO, Klickkraft GmbH “With LeadJourney we are able to track all our leads and connect them with sales and attribution data to make better decisions. In the first month of using it we scaled from 0 to 100k revenue from paid ads only.”
GetreachBacklinks Marketplace (SaaS)- 5 out of 5 starsG2
“LeadJourney finally fixed my Marketing Analytics. It goes way beyond basic Ad Tracking Software. The Customer Journey Report saves hours of digging, and capturing everything from Offline Conversions to AI Search Tracking makes it the Best B2B Attribution Platform available.”
Sascha LenzMarketing Manager
- 5 out of 5 starsTrustpilot
“Connected LeadJourney for 2 clients, setup took literally 20 minutes each. The data became more accurate, the reports actually make sense. Now clients look at the dashboard and the 'why don't the numbers match?' questions are gone.”
Alexander SamarPerformance Marketing Agency - 5 out of 5 starsGoogle
“With LeadJourney, we have finally found a tool that provides us with the data we need to scale our performance marketing campaigns. The most important KPI is no longer lead price but cost per qualified lead.”
Steffen SiesingCEO, Bilanzmanufaktur GmbH
- 5 out of 5 starsG2
“The ability to track both online and offline conversions in one unified dashboard has given us insights we never had before. Our ROI has improved dramatically since we started integrating LeadJourney with our CRM. We're finally able to see the full customer journey, and it's been a game changer for our strategy.”
Andre WitzelFounder, Trading.de - 5 out of 5 starsTrustpilot
“The ability to seamlessly integrate data from multiple channels and see real-time insights has significantly improved our campaign results. We now focus on metrics that truly matter, like ROI and qualified leads.”
Nikita YatsunCEO, RLV Media GmbH
Read the reviews where they were left
Common questions
Custom traffic channels, the questions teams ask
What marketers want to know before the first newsletter, podcast or partner becomes a channel.
What is a custom traffic channel in LeadJourney?
Any traffic source you create and define yourself, beyond the standard ad platforms. An affiliate program, an influencer campaign, a PR article, a newsletter placement, a podcast sponsorship, a print ad, a radio spot, an event or a referral partner is tracked exactly like a paid channel, with the leads, the closed deals and the revenue it produced.
Which sources can I track as custom channels?
If it can carry a link or a phone number, it can be a channel. The common ones are affiliates, influencers, PR, newsletters, podcasts, partner referrals, direct outreach, and offline sources such as print, radio, packaging and events, where a QR code, a short URL or a fixed tracking number does the job. Organic search and AI search engines are tracked as their own channels already.
How does the tracking work when there is no referrer and no pixel?
The link carries the channel, so the click is labelled the moment it lands, whatever the referrer says. Every click gets a click ID that is kept for months, so a lead that comes back through a brand search or a typed URL still credits the channel. Tracking runs server-side on your own domain at 95%+ accuracy, and every recorded click is in the logs.
How do I get cost per lead and return when there is no ad account?
Custom channel costs. You enter what the placement, the commission or the print run cost, once or per month, and LeadJourney puts it next to the leads and the CRM revenue the channel produced. Sponsorships, SEO, content and print then report cost per lead and return the same way your ad platforms do.
Do I need a developer, and is there a limit on channels?
No developer. Creating a channel means naming it, building its link or assigning its number, and entering the cost, which takes seconds. There is no limit on how many channels you create on the plans that include them, so every affiliate, episode or issue can have its own.
Will custom channels show up next to my paid and organic channels?
Yes, that is the point. Every custom channel sits in the traffic channel report beside Meta, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, organic and AI search, measured on the same journeys and the same CRM revenue. The sponsorship tracking page walks through one placement from the link to the renewal decision.
See your own channels
Put every source you pay for in the same report as your ads.
Book a demo and we set up your first custom channel live: the newsletter, the podcast or the partner you can never quite prove.
Your workspace
Clicks from channels without an ad accountLive, each on its own channel
Live- Newsletter click, Issue 112yourdomain.com/go/nl112Lena Vogt · FintoryLead
- Podcast click, Episode 41In-app browser, no referrerChannel kept by the linkTracked
- Call on the print tracking number+49 30 555 0142 · 4:12 minTom Becker · BuildRightQualified
- Affiliate click, Brightline StudioPartner link · recorded server-sidePostback pendingVerified
Four sources your analytics files under Direct, each on its own channel.
