Fix a source field that is mostly empty

Get the real number first

1. 1

   Open Insights in the left-hand menu, then Analysis.

2. 2

   Pick the tool along the top.

3. 3

   Open Source truth.

   Source truth is one of the analyses in the row of buttons under the tool pills.

4. 4

   Read the four tiles at the top.

   People, With a source, Different values and Customers. With a source is the share of people whose source field holds anything at all, measured on every person synced from that tool inside the date range the page is set to.

5. 5

   Read the first finding under What is distorting your channel numbers.

   Where enough people are blank it is titled with the share — “38% of people have nothing in “Lead Source””— and its first line gives both numbers: “4,812 of 12,660 people in HubSpot have nothing in “Lead Source”.”

6. 6

   Check whether it is getting better or worse.

   Where at least 30 people were created in the last 90 days, a second line compares that group against the whole: “Among the 1,140 created in the last 90 days it is 12%, so it is getting better.” A rise of more than a quarter reads getting worse and adds a Still happening badge; a fall to under 60% of the overall share reads getting better; anything between reads holding steady.

Step one: use what you already hold

This is the part most teams skip. MarqIQ looks at up to eight other fields in the same tool that it reads as playing a source, medium, campaign or source-detail role, counts how full each one is for exactly the people who are blank, and reports what they say.

The evidence reads like this, with its own denominator every time: “You already hold the answer for most of them. “UTM Source (First Touch)” names a real channel on 3,100 of these 4,812 people (64%): google (1,420), linkedin (760), newsletter (500), partner (420).”

• A field is only named when it names a real channel for at least five of the affected people and at least one in ten of them. A field that is full of catch-all values clears neither bar and is not recommended.
• A second field is named when it does the same for at least five people and at least one in twenty.
• Where more than one field helps, a third line gives the union across the best three: “Taken together, your existing fields name a channel for 3,940 of the 4,812 (82%).”
• Where MarqIQ captured the first visit itself for at least five of them, it says so on its own line — that is the strongest evidence there is, because MarqIQ watched the arrival.
• Where nothing helps, MarqIQ says so and lists the fields it looked at, so “nothing helps” arrives with its working.
• Whatever is left over is named as a number: “That leaves 872 with no answer in any field.” Those cannot be repaired from data you hold.

Step two: fill what can honestly be filled

MarqIQ can fill empty first-touch fields for you on HubSpot and Marketo, as a reviewed change set that never replaces a value. Know exactly which fields that covers before you rely on it.

1. 1

   Map your first-touch fields under Tool Operations › Field Mapping.

   Where a field is not mapped, MarqIQ proposes against its own default name and your tool refuses every item, because no such field exists there.

2. 2

   Open Tool Operations and click HubSpot or Marketo.

3. 3

   Click Show me what would change on Fill empty first-touch fields from what MarqIQ captured.

   Run this one first. It matches a person by email address against the oldest 50,000 form fills MarqIQ has recorded, so a person with no email in your tool is never matched.

4. 4

   Read the summary line and the item table.

   The summary states how many empty fields would be filled, on how many people, and ends with No existing value is touched. A set holds at most 500 changes and says how many more are waiting.

5. 5

   Ask a Workspace Admin to approve and apply it.

6. 6

   Run Fill empty first-touch fields from the most recent touch afterwards for whoever is left.

   It is weaker evidence — the most recent touch is the first touch only for someone with a single recorded visit — so it goes second.

Step three: shut the door that keeps making more

Filling the past is worth a morning. Stopping the blank is worth a quarter. List every way a person gets into the tool and give each one a rule.

• Every form: add MarqIQ’s hidden fields, so a fill carries the source with it.
• Every import template: add a source column and refuse a file that leaves it out. Imports are the usual culprit, because nobody thinks of an import as a channel.
• Every integration that creates people: map its own source value onto your list.
• Manual creation: make the field required, with a short fixed list, so a salesperson adding a contact has to choose.
• Paid links: build them in UTM Builder so every campaign link is tagged the same way.

Step four: label the rest honestly

You will not reach zero, and chasing it produces worse data than admitting the gap. Whatever is still empty after the three steps above gets one honest label — MarqIQ suggests “Unknown (before 2026)” — so the gap is visible, stops growing, and shrinks as a share every quarter.

Keep exactly one such value. Two of them is the problem in the next article along: a catch-all bucket that passes every “is the source filled in?” check while telling you nothing.

What the analysis will not do

• It changes nothing in your tool. The Source truth screen is a read; every fix on it is something you or a change set does afterwards.
• It offers no list of the affected records. The counts are exact and countable in your tool from the See it for yourself line under each finding, and there is no click-through to the individual people from this analysis.
• It reads one tool at a time. A person who exists in two connected tools is counted once in each.
• It reads the field MarqIQ recognises as the source for that workspace, chosen by what the field holds rather than by name. The How this was worked out panel at the foot of the page says which field and why.