Clear out catch-all sources like Offline Sources and Other
A value such as Other is a filled-in field with no information in it, and it is worse than a blank because it passes every “is the source filled in?” check. This page sizes the bucket, splits it by how those people actually got into your tool, and gives each part a real label. If the field is empty rather than vague, read Fix a source field that is mostly empty instead.
Before you start
Connect the tool and let one sync finish. The analysis reads MarqIQ’s synced copy of every person in that tool, counted in the database rather than sampled.
Permissions required
Reading the analysis needs no special role. The rewrite happens in your tool, under the permissions you hold there.
Take care
Export the affected records before a bulk rewrite. MarqIQ cannot undo a change it did not make.
Size the bucket
Open Insights in the left-hand menu, then Analysis.
Pick the tool along the top.
Open Source truth.
Find the finding titled with the share — 32% of sourced people sit in a bucket that names no channel.
The share is measured against everyone who has a source at all, not against everyone in the tool. People with a blank field are a separate finding with a separate number.
Read the first line for the values and their counts.
One value reads “3,980 people have “Lead Source” set to “Other””. Several read as a list with a count each: “Other (2,110), Unknown (980), Offline Sources (890)”, up to four values.
Read the second line for what it is costing.
Where your won deals carry amounts, it gives the money: “27% of won revenue (1.2M) is credited to those buckets.” Where they do not, it gives customers instead: “96 of your 430 customers are in them.” One or the other, never an invented figure.
Scan the Every source, side by side table for the amber names no channel chip.
Every value MarqIQ treats as a catch-all carries that chip, so you can see the rest of the list in the same view. The table shows the 25 largest values.
When the finding appears at all
It needs at least 20 people in catch-all values, and those people must be at least one in ten of everyone with a source. It is marked Distorting your numbers when they are three in ten or more, or when they hold a quarter or more of your won revenue; otherwise Early signs.
Take care
The revenue figure is the amount on won deals, split evenly between the people attached to each deal, so a deal with three contacts is not counted three times. Quote it with the customer count beside it, because the two rest on different denominators.
What MarqIQ counts as a catch-all
The list is fixed, and it is matched on the whole value rather than on part of it, so “Other Referral” is a real channel and “Other” is not.
- Other, Others, Unknown, N/A, None, Misc, Miscellaneous, General, Various.
- Web, Website, Online, Internet.
- Offline, Offline Source, Offline Sources.
- Import, Imported, List, Upload, API, Integration, CRM, System.
- Default, Test, Legacy, Migrate, Migrated, and the three-letter to-be-decided shorthand.
- A value that is nothing but dashes, and a value that is nothing but question marks.
Note
Values are read as your tool labels them, so an internal code your tool displays as a word is judged on the word. Two stored values that your tool shows under one label are counted as one source.
Split it by how those people got in
A catch-all bucket is rarely one thing. MarqIQ looks at the other fields in the same tool for exactly these people and reports what they say, with the count every time.
- Where another of your fields names a real channel for them, MarqIQ names it and how far it reaches: “ “UTM Source (First Touch)” names a real channel on 1,240 of these 3,980 people (31%).” A field has to answer for at least five of them and at least one in ten to be named at all.
- Where a field records how they got in rather than where from, MarqIQ reports it separately: “ “Original source drill-down” says how they got in: Imported from a file (1,800), Pushed in by an integration (720), Created by hand in HubSpot (310), Added from a rep’s inbox (sales email extension) (140).” At most four routes are listed, largest first.
- Where one of those routes accounts for three in ten of the bucket or more, MarqIQ names it as the biggest door: making that one route record a channel fixes most of what arrives from now on.
- Where MarqIQ captured the first visit itself for at least five of them, it says so. That is the strongest evidence available, because MarqIQ watched the arrival.
- Where nothing helps, MarqIQ says so and lists the fields it looked at.
Note
This block needs at least 20 people in the bucket and at least one other candidate field in that tool. Below either, MarqIQ reports the size and skips the split, because there is nothing to search.
HubSpot’s Offline Sources means something specific
In HubSpot it means the person did not arrive through tracked web traffic: they were imported, created by hand, or pushed in by an integration or the API. HubSpot keeps that field for itself, so it is not the place to record a business channel, and MarqIQ says so rather than proposing that you rewrite it. Record the channel in your own field and report from that.
Give each part a real label
Export the records in the bucket from your tool, with the drill-down or route field beside the source field.
Work from the split above, so each group in the export has an answer waiting for it.
Decide a real value for each route.
An imported list becomes the event, the partner or the purchased list it came from. An integration becomes the channel that integration represents. Records created by a rep become outbound.
Run the rewrite in your tool, one route at a time.
One route at a time keeps each step countable: the number you updated should match the count MarqIQ gave for that route.
Choose the one honest fallback to keep.
Where your list already has a fallback such as Unknown, MarqIQ names it in the fix and tells you to keep that one.
Delete every other vague option from the list.
An option left in the list will be chosen again.
Fix the point of entry for each route.
Make the import template ask for a source, give the integration its own mapping, and make the field required with a short fixed list on manual creation.
Watch the fallback’s share each quarter.
One honest Unknown that falls every quarter is a healthy field. One that holds steady means a door is still open.
Take care
MarqIQ will not do this rewrite for you. A change set fills only empty fields, and a field holding Other is not empty.
The records with no better answer
Some of the bucket genuinely cannot be resolved. MarqIQ names that number — “That leaves 872 with no answer in any field” — and those records should stay in one labelled group rather than being guessed at.
- Use one value, and date it: “Unknown (before 2026)”. A dated label stops the group growing and makes it obvious when something new lands in it.
- Keep them in your reports rather than filtering them out. A channel report that hides its unknowns overstates every channel it does show.
- Say the number whenever you quote a channel share. “Paid search is 22% of sourced people, and 7% of the database has no usable source” is the honest pair.
What the analysis will not do
- It changes nothing in your tool. The Source truth screen reads and advises.
- It offers no click-through to the individual records from this finding. The See it for yourself line under the finding says how to reproduce the count in your own tool.
- It matches whole values only, so a catch-all word inside a longer value is not counted as a catch-all.
- It reads one tool at a time, and the field MarqIQ recognises as the source for that workspace. The How this was worked out panel names the field and why it was chosen.
If it did not work
The finding is not there although plenty of records say Other
Why: It needs at least 20 such people and at least one in ten of everyone with a source. The date range on the page can also put most of them outside the count.
Fix: Widen the range, and check the names no channel chips in the Every source, side by side table, which appear whatever the finding does.
A value you consider useless has no names no channel chip
Why: It is not on the fixed list, or it is a longer value that contains a catch-all word. MarqIQ matches the whole value.
Fix: Rename it to something that names a channel. MarqIQ will not guess that a value of your own invention means nothing.
No revenue figure appears, only a customer count
Why: Your won deals carry no amounts, so MarqIQ shows no money rather than money built on a handful of deals.
Fix: Fill the amount on your closed-won deals, then make it required before a deal can reach a won stage. The revenue line appears once the amounts are there.
MarqIQ names no field that could split the bucket
Why: Either the workspace holds no other field playing a source role, or every candidate is itself full of catch-all values.
Fix: Read the list of fields MarqIQ says it looked at. Where the right field is missing, check it under Field Intelligence.
A change set will not fill these records
Why: A change set fills only empty fields, and these fields hold a value.
Fix: Do the rewrite in your tool. Use the split above so each group has a real answer before you start.
The bucket refilled after a quarter
Why: The values were rewritten but the options were left in the list, or the route that produced them still writes nothing.
Fix: Delete the emptied options, keep one fallback, and give the biggest route MarqIQ named a rule that fills the field.
The figures have not moved since your rewrite
Why: The analysis is cached for five minutes per tool and per date range, and it reads MarqIQ’s synced copy rather than your tool live.
Fix: Run a sync, wait for it to finish, then reload the page.
Next steps
Related articles
Was this article helpful?