Skip to main content

Source Events

Alex Wolfe

Source Events

The Starting Point of Every Lead Journey

Source events mark the beginning of a lead's lifecycle in LeadConduit. They capture everything about how a lead enters your system - from initial submission through acceptance or rejection. Understanding these events helps you optimize acceptance rates, debug integration issues, and maintain source quality.

📍 You are here: Learning about lead submission and source processing
📊 What you'll track: Submissions, acceptances, rejections, and reasons
🎯 The outcome: Better source management and higher acceptance rates

Understanding Source Events

Event Types

Source events occur in sequence:

source.submitted
    ↓
source.validated (internal)
    ↓
source.accepted OR source.rejected

Each captures different aspects of lead processing.

The Source Event Flow

What happens during submission:

1. Lead Submitted:
   - Raw data received
   - Timestamp recorded
   - Source identified
   - IP captured

2. Validation Applied:
   - Field parsing
   - Type validation
   - Required field checks

3. Acceptance Decision:
   - Rules evaluated
   - Duplicate check
   - Cap verification
   
4. Event Recorded:
   - Final outcome
   - All lead data
   - Processing details

Source.Submitted Event

What It Captures

Raw submission data:

{
  "event_type": "source.submitted",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:45.123Z",
  "lead_id": "lead_7K9mHpQR3x2B5N8j",
  "source": {
    "id": "src_3B8nM5kL2Q9p",
    "name": "Landing Page A"
  },
  "data": {
    "first_name": "John",
    "last_name": "Smith",
    "email": "JOHN.SMITH@EXAMPLE.COM",
    "phone": "(555) 123-4567",
    "postal_code": "90210",
    "ip_address": "192.168.1.100",
    "user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0...",
    "landing_page": "https://example.com/insurance"
  },
  "metadata": {
    "api_key": "key_abc123",
    "submission_method": "POST",
    "content_type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
  }
}

Key Information

What to look for:

Submission Method:

  • API POST
  • Form submission
  • Batch upload
  • Manual entry

Raw vs Parsed:

  • Raw: Exactly as received
  • Parsed: After normalization
  • Both stored for debugging

Metadata:

  • Submission IP
  • User agent
  • Referrer
  • Custom headers

Source.Accepted Event

Successful Acceptance

Lead passes all checks:

{
  "event_type": "source.accepted",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:45.456Z",
  "lead_id": "lead_7K9mHpQR3x2B5N8j",
  "source": {
    "id": "src_3B8nM5kL2Q9p",
    "name": "Landing Page A"
  },
  "outcome": "accepted",
  "duration_ms": 234,
  "lead_data": {
    "first_name": "John",
    "last_name": "Smith", 
    "email": "john.smith@example.com",
    "email.valid": true,
    "phone": "5551234567",
    "phone.valid": true,
    "phone.type": "mobile",
    "postal_code": "90210",
    "state": "CA"
  },
  "acceptance": {
    "rules_passed": [
      "email.valid is true",
      "phone.valid is true",
      "age >= 18"
    ],
    "duplicate_check": "passed",
    "cap_check": "passed"
  },
  "metadata": {
    "parser_version": "2.1",
    "rules_evaluated": 12,
    "enhancements_applied": []
  }
}

Acceptance Details

Key acceptance information:

Validation Results:

  • All field validations
  • Type parsing results
  • Component extraction

Rules Passed:

  • Which criteria evaluated
  • All passed conditions
  • No failures to report

System Checks:

  • Duplicate: None found
  • Volume cap: Space available
  • Time window: Within hours

Source.Rejected Event

Rejection with Reasons

Lead fails validation:

{
  "event_type": "source.rejected", 
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:45.789Z",
  "lead_id": "lead_8L0nK4pR2x5C6M9k",
  "source": {
    "id": "src_3B8nM5kL2Q9p",
    "name": "Landing Page A"
  },
  "outcome": "rejected",
  "duration_ms": 123,
  "rejection": {
    "reason": "Failed acceptance criteria",
    "failed_rules": [
      {
        "rule": "email.valid is true",
        "result": false,
        "actual": "invalid-email-format"
      }
    ],
    "error_code": "VALIDATION_FAILED"
  },
  "lead_data": {
    "first_name": "Test",
    "last_name": "User",
    "email": "not-an-email",
    "email.valid": false,
    "phone": "1234",
    "phone.valid": false
  },
  "metadata": {
    "rules_evaluated": 5,
    "first_failure": "email.valid is true"
  }
}

Rejection Reasons

Common rejection categories:

Validation Failures:

Email Invalid:
  - Bad format
  - Disposable domain
  - Role account

Phone Invalid:
  - Wrong length
  - Bad area code
  - Disconnected

Required Missing:
  - No email or phone
  - Missing consent
  - No state

Business Rules:

Quality Issues:
  - Age under 18
  - Outside service area
  - Blacklisted

Duplicate Detection:
  - Seen in last 30 days
  - Already sold
  - In suppression list

System Limits:

Volume Caps:
  - Daily limit reached
  - Monthly limit reached
  - Source cap hit

Time Restrictions:
  - Outside business hours
  - Holiday blackout
  - Maintenance window

Using Source Events

Acceptance Rate Analysis

Monitor source quality:

Calculate Acceptance Rate:
  Accepted Events / Submitted Events × 100
  
By Time Period:
  - Last hour: 87%
  - Today: 85%
  - This week: 83%
  - This month: 84%
  
By Source:
  - Landing Page A: 92%
  - Partner API: 78%
  - Organic Form: 95%

Rejection Analysis

Understand why leads fail:

Top Rejection Reasons:
  1. Invalid phone (35%)
  2. Duplicate (28%)
  3. Missing email (15%)
  4. Under age (12%)
  5. Wrong state (10%)

Action Items:
  - Add phone validation to form
  - Increase duplicate window
  - Make email required
  - Add age verification
  - Limit state dropdown

Source Debugging

Trace submission issues:

Common Investigations:

"Why was this lead rejected?"
  1. Find source.rejected event
  2. Check failed_rules
  3. Review lead_data
  4. Identify issue

"Is integration working?"
  1. Check recent source.submitted
  2. Verify data mapping
  3. Look for patterns
  4. Test with sample

"Source quality dropping?"
  1. Compare acceptance rates
  2. Analyze rejection reasons
  3. Check for changes
  4. Contact source

Event Patterns

Successful Submission Pattern

Ideal flow:

Timeline:
  10:30:45.123 - source.submitted
  10:30:45.234 - (internal validation)
  10:30:45.456 - source.accepted
  10:30:45.678 - (enhancement begins)
  
Characteristics:
  - Fast processing (<500ms)
  - All validations pass
  - No duplicate found
  - Caps available

Rejection Pattern

Failed submission:

Timeline:
  10:30:45.123 - source.submitted
  10:30:45.234 - (validation fails)
  10:30:45.345 - source.rejected
  
Characteristics:
  - Quick rejection (<250ms)
  - Clear failure reason
  - No further processing
  - Source notified

Duplicate Pattern

Previously seen lead:

Timeline:
  10:30:45.123 - source.submitted
  10:30:45.234 - (duplicate check)
  10:30:45.345 - source.rejected
  
Rejection Details:
  reason: "Duplicate lead"
  duplicate_of: "lead_5T8nK3mP9Q2w"
  first_seen: "2024-01-01T08:15:00Z"
  days_ago: 14

Source Event Metrics

Key Performance Indicators

Monitor source health:

Volume Metrics:
  - Submissions per hour
  - Acceptance count
  - Rejection count
  - Duplicate rate

Quality Metrics:
  - Acceptance rate
  - Validation pass rate
  - Average field completion
  - Data accuracy score

Performance Metrics:
  - Processing time
  - Validation duration
  - Time to decision
  - API response time

Spot patterns:

Daily Patterns:
  - Morning: 85% acceptance
  - Afternoon: 82% acceptance
  - Evening: 78% acceptance
  - Night: 73% acceptance

Weekly Patterns:
  - Monday: Highest quality
  - Friday: Most volume
  - Weekend: Lower quality

Monthly Patterns:
  - Start: Budget fresh
  - Middle: Steady flow
  - End: Quality drops

Advanced Source Analysis

Source Scoring

Rate your sources:

Quality Score Components:
  - Acceptance rate (40%)
  - Contact rate (30%)
  - Conversion rate (20%)
  - Data completeness (10%)

Source Rankings:
  1. Organic Forms: 95/100
  2. Premium Partner: 88/100
  3. Standard Partner: 75/100
  4. Budget Partner: 62/100

Anomaly Detection

Catch issues early:

Alert Triggers:
  - Acceptance < 70% (1 hour)
  - Rejections spike >200%
  - New rejection reason
  - Unusual field values

Example Alert:
  "Source A acceptance dropped to 45%
   Primary issue: Invalid phones (89%)
   Started: 2:15 PM
   Action: Check integration"

Best Practices

Source Monitoring

  1. Real-Time Dashboards

    • Current acceptance rate
    • Recent rejections
    • Volume tracking
    • Error patterns

  2. Regular Reviews

    • Weekly quality reports
    • Monthly trending
    • Rejection analysis
    • Source comparisons

  3. Proactive Alerts

    • Quality degradation
    • Volume anomalies
    • New error types
    • Integration failures

Source Optimization

  1. Feedback Loops

    • Share rejection reasons
    • Provide field guidance
    • Suggest improvements
    • Track progress

  2. Testing Programs

    • Sample submissions
    • Edge case validation
    • Format verification
    • Regular health checks

  3. Documentation

    • Clear requirements
    • Example submissions
    • Common errors
    • Best practices

Your Next Steps

Essential Reading

  1. Recipient Events - Delivery outcomes
  2. Acceptance Criteria - Validation rules
  3. Source Configuration - Source setup

Common Tasks

  • Debug rejected leads
  • Analyze source quality
  • Set up monitoring
  • Optimize acceptance

📊 Remember: Source events are your quality gates. They protect your system from bad data, enforce business rules, and provide the foundation for optimization. Monitor them closely, analyze patterns regularly, and use insights to improve source quality.

Next: Learn about Recipient Events to track delivery success.

Comments

0 comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.