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The CRM Problems We See Most Often, and How to Fix Them

Published On:
October 21, 2026

You can have the best ad campaigns, with landing pages optimized for conversions, and still end up with budget going to the wrong channels if your data isn't tracking correctly in your CRM.

Usually the cause is a short list of setup problems, including workflows that contradict each other, ad platforms that optimize for clicks, deals with no lead source, and marketing and sales teams that define life cycle stages differently. Together, these issues can leave you with reports you can’t trust.

But don’t panic just yet. These problems are common, and every one of them is fixable. 

The True Cost of a Poor CRM Setup

Poor tracking can cost you a lot downstream. If you're spending $10,000 a month on ads with no reliable attribution to deals and their volume, you can't tell whether that money is earning anything, and any results you do have are hard to trust.

It can also cost you budget. For example, Google Ads might drive 80% of your qualified leads while 80% of your spend goes to Reddit, and you’d never know because you can’t see the data. Your ROAS is bad because most of your money is going to a channel producing few results.

It will, most certainly, cost you performance. Without the right conversion signals, Google might optimize for clicks and impressions instead of finding more qualified leads. But, if you send your CRM’s qualified leads and closed deals back to ad platforms as conversion events, they can focus your budget on the people most likely to become customers (we’ll cover how in Problem #5).

Luckily, all of these CRM problems are fixable. Here are the most common issues we see, and how to fix each one. 

Problem #1: UTMs Don’t Make It Into Your CRM

Even if you already tag your links with UTMs (source, medium, and campaign), they often never reach your CRM. When that happens, your CRM has no source to report on.

Here are the three problems to look out for:

  • They aren’t captured on the form. Capture UTM source, medium, and campaign on every form submission, either as separate fields or in one landing-page URL field. Both work.
  • The naming doesn’t match. ‘linkedin’, ‘LinkedIn’, and ‘linkedin_ads’ show up as three different sources, so one channel looks like three small ones. Google Analytics treats utm_source=google and utm_source=Google as different values. To fix it, agree on one naming convention and use it on every link.
  • Raw UTM values aren’t a lead source. To fix it, use a workflow to translate them into a clean lead source. For example, links clicked inside ChatGPT carry utm_source=chatgpt.com, so a rule can set the lead source to “ChatGPT referral.” Now AI search shows up in your reports as its own channel.

Once you address these potential problems, your new leads should show up with a source your CRM can report on. 

Recap:

  • Capture UTMs on every form, not only on your ad landing pages
  • Agree on one naming convention
  • Translate raw UTM values into a clean lead source

Problem #2: Deals End Up With No Source or No Contact

Once your leads come in with a clean source, the next step is making sure that source carries over to the deals they turn into. 

Two things commonly go wrong with deals. Either they have no source, or they have no contact. Here’s how to fix each problem. 

For deals with no source, this happens because nothing copies the contact's original source onto the deal when it's created. To fix it, set up a workflow that copies the source onto every new deal.

A rep can create a deal without attaching a person to it, because the system allows it. That leaves the deal with no one to trace back to. 

To fix it, make the contact association required, so a deal can't be created without one. Here’s how to make a contact required. 

  • Click the settings icon, then go to Objects and select Deals.
  • Under Creating deals, click Customize the “Create deal” form.
  • Add the Contacts association to the form.
  • Hover over the association in the right panel and click the required icon.
  • Save your changes.

Recap:

  • Deals with no source: set up a workflow that copies the contact’s original source onto every new deal
  • Deals with no contact: make the contact association required, so a deal can’t be created without one

Problem #3: You Have Bad Data

Even with a source on every lead and deal, your reports can still give the wrong channel credit if your CRM only looks at one moment in the buyer’s path.

So you think you have “bad data”, but what is it? The best way to think about it is to think about the marketing funnel’s textbook definition versus how it plays out in real life. 

Most buyers don't move through the funnel in a straight line. Someone might jump straight to an opportunity, go cold, forget about you, and come back months later through an ad or a Google search.

If your CRM only credits the most recent form fill, this person gets counted as an “ad lead” even though it might have been an email that originally brought them in. When they come back months later, click an ad, and fill out a form, the CRM logs the ad as their most recent activity, which means the ad gets the credit, and the email that started the relationship gets none.

Across hundreds of contacts, this misattribution skews your channel reports, so budget decisions get made on numbers that over-credit certain channels while ignoring others.

Which brings us to lead source.   

Lead Sourcing: First Touch vs. Last Touch

Lead source, or attribution, is the credit your CRM gives to the channel that produced a lead. First touch is the channel that brought someone in originally, while last touch is the most recent thing they did before converting. Both are useful data points to know, but it’s imperative to make sure they’re set up and tracking correctly.

If your reports only use last touch, they’ll over-credit the channels people use right before they convert and under-credit the ones that started the journey. HubSpot’s attribution reports can show first touch and last touch side by side, which makes the gap easy to see. These reports require Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise.

Recap:

  • Track first and last touch, if possible.
  • Capture UTMs on every campaign and form so each touch has a clean source (see Problem #1 for more).

Problem #4: Sales and Marketing Define Lifecycle Stages Differently

Giving the right channel credit depends on knowing which leads count, and that’s hard when sales and marketing don’t agree on what a qualified lead is. 

A typical CRM runs through the lifecycle stages of subscriber, lead, MQL, SQL, opportunity, and customer. Definitions vary by business, but the real problem is when one department defines them differently than another department.  

For example, if marketing and sales each carry their own definition, a lead might count as qualified on one side of the handoff and not on the other, causing  your teams to spend meetings arguing about lead quality instead of fixing it. 

Lifecycle Stage Quick Reference

  • MQL (marketing qualified lead): A real person, not a bot or spam, who has shown interest. That can be a form fill, or enough engagement to hit your lead score threshold.
  • SQL (sales qualified lead): Real, interested, and a fit (right industry, right size), with two-way communication underway. They've replied to outreach.
  • Opportunity: Actively in the market now, with a dollar amount or budget known.

And to make sure your team is aligned, go over what counts as a qualified lead, who follows up and how fast, and which revenue number both teams are held to. 

Recap: 

  • Streamline lifecycle stage definitions across teams 
  • Confirm ownership of leads between marketing and sales 

Problem #5: Your Ad Platforms only Optimize for Clicks Or “Thank You Page” Conversions

Once both teams agree on what a qualified lead is, you can send those leads back to your ad platforms so they know who to look for.

Another problem we see is when weak conversion signals aren’t sent back to your ad platforms, which leaves them to optimize for clicks and impressions rather than what’s moving pipeline. 

What Conversion Events Are and Why Google Needs Them

Your CRM already knows when someone becomes a lead and when they become qualified. Those moments are conversion events. Connecting a CRM like HubSpot to Google, Meta, and LinkedIn Ads passes those milestones back to each platform, which teaches their algorithms where your leads came from and who to target next. The platforms keep learning, and your targeting keeps improving.

Why Clicks and Impressions are the Wrong Thing to Optimize For

If your conversion tracking isn’t set up correctly, your ad platforms only see clicks and impressions, or simple unqualified conversions like “thank you page” visits, so they’re working hard to target people who click rather than people who buy. Impressions or conversions, you’re paying for it either way, so choose what’s most valuable to you. 

Here’s how to make sure your conversion events are being tracked and optimized for revenue.

Step 1: Connect your ad accounts to your CRM, HubSpot is our preferred platform. Link Google Ads, Meta Ads, and LinkedIn Ads so HubSpot can apply tracking to your active ads.

Now is also a good time to check which ads can’t be tracked. Performance Max and YouTube ads, LinkedIn Message, Thought Leader, and Document ads, and Facebook Messenger ads are not supported.

Step 2: Turn on auto-tracking. In HubSpot’s Settings, go to Marketing, then Ads, and switch on Auto tracking for each ad account. HubSpot only credits contacts to ads they clicked after this is on, so do it first.

Step 3: Match your UTMs to your other reports. HubSpot’s tracking template uses its own utm_source and utm_medium values. If Google Analytics needs different ones, edit the template.

Step 4: Determine which lifecycle stage(s) are good to send back to the platform. We recommend qualified lead (MQL or SQL), Deals/Opportunities, and Closed Won Deals (customers). Then determine the relevant value of each of those stages so the ad platforms know how to prioritize them. 

  • Example: A closed won deal = $10,000. 30% of deals close, so a deal is worth $3,000. 50% of SQL’s turn to deals, so a SQL is worth $1,500

Step 5: Test and confirm data is flowing back in appropriately. You can send qualified leads back to each platform as conversion events. Google calls this enhanced conversions for leads. LinkedIn has a Conversions API integration in Campaign Manager, and Meta has a Conversions API for CRM integration.

Recap:

  • Connect your ad accounts to HubSpot and turn on auto-tracking for each
  • Match your UTMs to your other reports
  • Send qualified leads back as conversion events

Problem #6: Automation Isn't Always a Good Thing

And lastly, it’s essential to make sure your workflows are benefiting you and not getting in the way.

Question: Who doesn't love a good workflow automation? 

The answer: us, sometimes.

At its base, a workflow is a rule that tells your CRM to do something on its own, like updating a field when someone fills out a form. These automations can be super useful, until there's a long list of them and nobody knows what they do. What often ends up happening is that automations contradict each other because they were set up by someone who isn’t at the company anymore, and nobody else understands how they all fit together. 

Even small gaps in documentation and tracking can snowball into much bigger gaps in attribution. 

The fix? Consolidate workflows and turn off any automations you don't need. 

And if you plan to integrate an AI tool with your CRM, label everything clearly. A workflow named “Copy of Test 2 FINAL” tells your AI tool nothing, and it doesn't tell your new hire much either. 

Recap:

  • Consolidate workflows 
  • Get rid of automations you don’t need 
  • Label all workflows/automations clearly 

Other Common CRM Questions

What’s the difference between an MQL and an SQL?

An MQL is a real person who has shown interest. An SQL is also a fit for your business and has replied to outreach. See problem #4 for more. 

How do I track lead source in HubSpot?‍

Capture UTM source, medium, and campaign on every form submission, then use a workflow to translate those values into a clean lead source. Problem #1 covers the details.

Why don’t my HubSpot deals have a source?‍

Nothing copies the contact’s original source onto the deal when it’s created. To fix it, set up a workflow that copies it over. Problem #2 has the steps.

How do I send offline conversions from HubSpot to Google Ads?‍

Connect HubSpot to Google Ads so your lead and qualified-lead milestones pass back as conversion events. See Problem #5 for the setup, and for more information, refer to Google’s enhanced conversions for leads page.

How often should we audit our CRM?‍

At least once a year, or any time you change your lifecycle stages, tools, or sales process.

Conclusion: A Clean CRM Means Smarter Ad Spend

A clean CRM means smarter ad spend, reports you can trust, and a sales team and marketing team looking at the same numbers. If you'd like a second set of eyes on your setup, talk to us about a CRM audit.

Walter Ellard
Walter Ellard is the Head of Marketing Innovation at Dodeka Digital. He handles automations, custom integrations, conversion tracking, building dashboards for clients to easily visualize data, and much more.