Tracking and attribution with the tools SGEN connects to

How to know where your traffic and conversions come from in SGEN

SGEN has no single "attribution" report. There is no built-in dashboard that draws a line from a marketing channel to a sale and labels it for you. Tracking and attribution in SGEN is assembled from a few real tools that SGEN connects to, plus one piece that SGEN does capture on its own — the lead source on every form submission. This page documents each piece truthfully: what SGEN does, what Google does, and where each number is read. Read it once and you will know exactly which screen answers which question — and which questions SGEN cannot answer without Google in the loop.

What is this for?

This page is for the marketing-minded admin who wants to answer "where did this visitor — or this lead, or this sale — come from?"

SGEN approaches that question with four moving parts, and it helps to keep them separate in your head:

• Google Analytics (GA4) — the channel, audience, and conversion reporting most teams mean when they say "analytics." SGEN connects to it; the reports live in Google.
• Google Tag Manager (GTM) — a container that loads your tags (GA4, ad pixels, and others) without editing page code by hand. SGEN connects to it; the tags are managed in Google.
• UTM parameters — the utm_source / utm_medium / utm_campaign tags you add to your own campaign links so a destination can tell paid from organic from email. You author these; SGEN does not generate them.
• Form lead-source capture — the one native piece. When a visitor submits a form, SGEN records where that visitor came from, automatically, on the server. This is read inside SGEN.

The honest summary: SGEN is the site, plus a connection panel that loads Google's tracking code on every page, plus an automatic source label on form leads. The cross-channel attribution math itself happens in Google Analytics, not in SGEN.

There is also a small, separate, server-side traffic viewer built into SGEN — Analytics, with Event Logs and Reports. It counts page views, 404s, form submits, and store events without any third-party script. It is useful, and it is covered in its own guides, but it is a traffic log, not a marketing-attribution report. Keep that distinction: native Analytics tells you what happened on your server; Google Analytics tells you about visitor behavior and channels.

Good use cases

• Standing up basic analytics for a new site. Paste one Measurement ID into SGEN, and every public page loads GA4 from that moment on.
• Telling paid, organic, social, and email apart. Tag the links you control with UTM parameters so Google Analytics and the form lead-source label can sort the incoming traffic into channels.
• Knowing which channel produced a lead. Open a form submission and read the captured source, or open the Distribution by Source chart to see the split across all submissions.
• Loading a non-Google tracker. Add a Meta Pixel, a Hotjar tag, or any other measurement snippet through Custom Codes without touching a developer.
• Recording an ad conversion. Drop your Google Ads conversion ID into the connection panel so Google can attribute a conversion back to a click.

What NOT to use this for

• Do not expect a one-screen, cross-channel attribution dashboard inside SGEN. It does not exist. The closest in-product views are the form Distribution by Source chart (leads only) and the native Analytics traffic log (events only). Full multi-touch attribution lives in Google Analytics, where the channel grouping, conversions, and attribution models are configured.
• Do not treat SGEN as the place your GA4 data is stored. SGEN loads the GA4 code on your pages; it does not receive, keep, or display the resulting analytics. When you want those numbers, open Google Analytics. SGEN's only job there is making sure the code is on the page.
• Do not rely on SGEN to build your UTM links. There is no link-tagging tool in the admin. You add UTM parameters to campaign links yourself, in your email tool, ad platform, or by hand. An untagged campaign link collapses into the Direct bucket, because there was nothing in the link to identify the channel.
• Do not add a hidden "source" field to your forms. You do not need to, and it would double-count. SGEN already records the source for every submission on the server from the visitor's referrer and landing page. A manual field would only capture what someone typed.

How this connects to other features

• Event Logs — the native server-side log. Each Form Submit and Page View row carries the referrer that sent the visitor, so you can trace a traffic moment without any Google account connected. It complements GA4; it does not replace it.
• Traffic Reports — the charted, aggregated companion to Event Logs. Use it for a date-ranged view of native traffic. Still server-side, still channel-light compared with GA4.
• Forms → Reports and Submissions — where the captured lead source is read. Distribution by Source charts the channel split; each submission row shows the source for that single lead.
• Custom Codes — where any non-Google measurement snippet (Meta Pixel, Hotjar, a raw GA4 tag, and similar) is pasted, so it loads on every page alongside the Google connection.
• Tracking Consent — governs the third-party scripts that the Google connection and Custom Codes inject. Native server-side Analytics is not gated by visitor consent; Google's tags can be.

Before you start

• Decide what each tool will answer before you connect anything. GA4 answers "which channels and audiences?"; UTM parameters make those channels legible; form lead-source answers "where did this lead come from?"; Custom Codes is for trackers Google does not cover. Connecting all of them blindly produces overlap and confusion.
• Have your IDs ready. A GA4 Measurement ID looks like G-XXXXXXXXXX. A Tag Manager Container ID looks like GTM-XXXXXXX. A Google Ads conversion ID looks like AW-XXXXXXXXX. Create these in the matching Google product first; SGEN only stores and loads them.
• Know that you are an admin to do any of this. The connection panel, Custom Codes, and Forms all live in the SGEN admin and require an admin sign-in.
• Expect your own visits to read as "Direct." When you test by submitting your own form from a bookmarked tab, there is no campaign referrer, so the source is Direct. That is correct behavior, not a tracking gap.

Where to find it

Each piece lives in a different place in the admin. Keep this short map handy:

• Google Analytics and Tag Manager — open Tools, then Google Integrations. The page is at /sg-admin/tools/google_integrations. It is a grid of cards; each has a Configure button that opens a drawer with the form.
• Non-Google trackers — open Custom Codes, then + Add New (/sg-admin/custom_codes).
• Form lead source — open Forms, then Reports (/sg-admin/forms/reports) for the channel split, or Submissions (/sg-admin/forms/submissions) for the source on a single lead.
• Native traffic log — open Analytics (/sg-admin/analytics) for Event Logs and Reports.

Do not look for a menu item called "Attribution." There is not one, and that is the point of this page — attribution is assembled from the surfaces above.

Steps

The end-to-end setup runs from connecting Google, to tagging your links, to reading the source on the leads those links produce. You can stop after any step; each one stands on its own.

1. Connect Google Analytics in the Google Integrations panel.

Open Tools → Google Integrations and find the Google Analytics card (its description reads "Track visitor behavior and site performance"). Click Configure to open the drawer. Paste your GA4 Measurement ID into the field — it takes the G-XXXXXXXXXX shape — turn Enabled on, and save. SGEN now loads the GA4 measurement code in the head of every public page. On success you see the flash message "Analytics settings updated successfully." From here on, the reporting itself is read in Google Analytics, under Reports → Realtime and the standard channel reports — not in SGEN.

2. (Optional) Connect Tag Manager if you prefer to manage tags in Google.

If you would rather load GA4 and your other tags through a single container, open the Tag Manager card ("Manage marketing tags without code") and Configure it. Paste your Container ID in the GTM-XXXXXXX shape, turn Enabled on, and save. If you choose this route, turn on Load via Tag Manager in the Google Analytics drawer so GA4 loads through the container rather than twice. After this, you add and edit tags inside Google Tag Manager; SGEN's role is loading the container on every page.

3. Tag your campaign links with UTM parameters.

UTM parameters are the part you control. Whenever you send traffic to your site from a place you own — a newsletter, a social post, a paid ad — add utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign to the link. Those tags travel with the click, so Google Analytics can sort the visit into the right channel, and SGEN's form lead-source can read the campaign that produced a lead. A link with no UTM tags has nothing to identify it, so it lands in Direct. SGEN does not build these links for you; you assemble them in your email tool, your ad platform, or by hand.

4. Read the lead source on form submissions.

This is the one attribution view that lives inside SGEN. Open Forms → Reports and read Distribution by Source — a doughnut split of every submission across the source buckets — and Trends Over Time for the same data as a line. To check one lead, open Forms → Submissions and read the Source column, or click a row to see Visitor Details (IP, User Agent, Referrer, Landing Page). You do not configure any of this. SGEN derives the source on the server from the visitor's referrer and landing page at the moment the form is submitted.

5. (Optional) Add a non-Google tracker in Custom Codes.

For anything Google does not cover — a Meta Pixel, a Hotjar tag, a LinkedIn Insight tag — open Custom Codes → + Add New. Give the code a Title for your own reference, paste the snippet into the Code field, set Placement to Head for most measurement tags, set Status to Active, and create it with Create a Code. The snippet then loads on every public page. Note that the Head placement rejects block elements like a <div> or a <p>, because measurement snippets belong in the page head, not the body.

6. (Optional) Record an ad conversion ID.

If you run Google Ads and want clicks attributed to conversions, open the Google Ads card in the Google Integrations panel and Configure it. Paste your conversion ID in the AW-XXXXXXXXX shape and save. SGEN loads the Google Ads conversion snippet on your pages; the conversion attribution itself is configured and read in Google Ads. To count a form submission or a purchase as a conversion, define that conversion in Google Analytics or Google Ads — SGEN supplies the page load, Google supplies the conversion model.

What success looks like

You know tracking and attribution is wired correctly when each tool answers its own question:

• Google Analytics shows live traffic. Visit your public site in a private window, then open Google Analytics → Reports → Realtime. Your visit appears within a minute or two. That confirms the Measurement ID is loading.
• UTM-tagged links sort into channels. Click one of your own UTM links, then check that the visit shows up under the matching source/medium in Google Analytics — and, if it leads to a form submission, that the form Source reflects the same channel.
• Form leads carry a source. New submissions in Forms → Submissions show a value in the Source column other than blank, and the Distribution by Source chart adds up to your total submissions.
• Your own test reads as Direct. A self-made submission from a bookmark shows Direct, with no referrer in Visitor Details. That is the system working, not failing.

A healthy month of form leads looks like one dominant bucket and a spread across the rest — most often Direct and Google Organic leading, with paid, referral, and social filling in behind.

What to do if it does not work

• Google Analytics shows no traffic. Confirm the Measurement ID is the G-XXXXXXXXXX one from the same property you are reading, and that Enabled is on in the drawer. Test in a private window so an ad blocker or your own filtered traffic does not hide the visit. Remember that GA4 reporting can lag for standard reports — use Realtime to confirm the code is live.
• Every form lead reads as Direct. Two common causes. First, you are testing from a bookmark or by typing the address, which has no referrer — that is correctly Direct. Second, your campaign links carry no UTM tags, so there is nothing to identify the channel. Tag the links and test again from a real click.
• A campaign you tagged still lands in the wrong bucket. Check the UTM spelling. utm_medium=Email and utm_medium=email are different values to the tracking, and inconsistent casing splits one channel into two. Pick a convention and keep to it.
• A pasted tracker is not firing. Confirm the Custom Code Status is Active, not Inactive, and that Placement is Head for a measurement snippet. If the snippet contained a block element, the Head placement will have rejected it — paste the script-only version the vendor provides.
• You expected a built-in attribution report and cannot find it. There is not one. Read the form Distribution by Source for leads, and open Google Analytics for channel and conversion attribution. The empty state below is what the source chart shows before any submissions arrive.

Examples

Example 1: Stand up GA4 on a brand-new site in two minutes.

You created a GA4 property in Google and have the Measurement ID. Open Tools → Google Integrations, Configure the Google Analytics card, paste G-XXXXXXXXXX, turn Enabled on, and save. SGEN now loads GA4 on every page. You add nothing to your pages by hand and you write no code. From here, all the GA4 reporting — acquisition channels, engagement, conversions — is read in Google Analytics. SGEN's contribution ends at "the code is on every page."

Example 2: Prove a newsletter drove leads, not random direct traffic.

You send a newsletter with the link from Step 3, tagged utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email. Two days later you open Forms → Reports. The Distribution by Source doughnut shows a bump in the bucket your tagged traffic resolves to, and Forms → Submissions lists the new leads with a non-Direct Source. Click one to open its Visitor Details and read the Landing Page the visitor arrived on — the same campaign page you linked. The newsletter is now evidenced by lead source, inside SGEN, without opening Google.

Example 3: Add a Meta Pixel without a developer.

Marketing hands you a Meta Pixel snippet. Open Custom Codes → + Add New, title it "Meta Pixel — main site", paste the snippet into Code, leave Placement on Head, set Status to Active, and click Create a Code. The pixel loads on every public page from then on. You confirm it in Meta's own tools, not in SGEN — same pattern as Google Analytics: SGEN gets the tag onto the page, the vendor reports the data.

Related reading

• Read your site Event Logs — the native, server-side traffic log that shows the referrer on every page view and form submit, with no third-party script.
• Visualize traffic with Analytics Reports — the charted, date-ranged companion to Event Logs for native traffic.