The short answer

Preserve available acquisition evidence when a genuine inquiry enters the CRM, and track qualification and revenue separately afterward. Useful fields can include the landing page, recorded referral source and the customer’s optional answer to how they found you. Agree the integration and attribution rules rather than assuming that every CRM can automatically identify AI-driven leads.

Capture the evidence at a meaningful event

Define the event that creates a lead: a successfully submitted inquiry, confirmed meeting or another approved action. Verify that the event reaches the intended CRM record. A browser click by itself may not mean a usable contact was received.

Only collect fields needed for the business purpose and handle them under the relevant consent and privacy process. Preserve source labels as observations, including unknown values. Do not reconstruct a private AI prompt from a referring domain.

Reconcile outcomes without inflating them

Agree how duplicate contacts, repeat bookings and existing customers are handled. Keep original acquisition information separate from later touchpoints so a return visit does not overwrite the initial evidence. Record qualification and closed outcomes with their own dates.

When reviewing the channel, distinguish a self-reported AI discovery answer from a measured referral. They can complement each other but are not interchangeable. A useful report explains how many outcomes have each evidence type and where the journey remains unclear.

What to check

  1. Test that one real inquiry event reaches the correct CRM record.
  2. Preserve referral and self-reported discovery as separate fields.
  3. Define duplicate handling, qualification and attribution windows.

A practical example

A prospect says it found the business in Gemini but arrives through a direct visit. The CRM records self-reported Gemini discovery without fabricating a tracked Gemini referral.

Sources and further reading

These steps are Arrow AI's implementation guidance. The example is illustrative; it is not a measured customer result. Publication and source access do not guarantee an AI recommendation.

Apply this to your website

Identify the source gaps and decide what to improve with Arrow's free audit. Review what Arrow GEO measures before choosing a reporting scope.