How to track lead source in Intercom

Intercom is one of the few chat tools where every meaningful conversation passes through the Inbox. The piece that’s usually missing is which marketing channel earned each conversation, the source data your reps need before they hit reply.

SourceLoop closes that gap with a one-click OAuth connection. Every chat that captures an email lands in the SourceLoop Contacts Hub with first-touch and last-touch source, UTMs, landing page, and the full pre-chat journey.

Two steps, about three minutes. Works on every Intercom plan.

What SourceLoop captures from Intercom

For every Intercom conversation that surfaces an email or phone number, SourceLoop attaches:

• First-touch source (e.g., google / cpc, linkedin / organic)
• Last-touch source of the converting session
• UTM parameters from the landing URL (source, medium, campaign, content, term)
• First-touch landing page plus the referrer chain
• Pages browsed before the chat started
• Time on site and return-visit count
• Contact details from the Intercom contact record (email, name, phone)
• Device, country, browser of the converting session

Before you start

You’ll need:

• A SourceLoop workspace (free trial)
• A SourceLoop tracker installed on every page where the Intercom Messenger appears
• An Intercom workspace with the Messenger embedded on your site
• Admin access on the Intercom workspace (required to approve the OAuth consent screen)
• Admin or Owner role in SourceLoop

Step 1: Connect Intercom via OAuth

1. Sign in to SourceLoop.
2. Open Setup -> Chat in the left sidebar.
3. Find the Intercom card under OAuth chat integrations and click Connect.

4. You’ll be redirected to Intercom’s OAuth consent screen. Sign in with an admin user, pick the workspace, and click Authorize access.

5. Intercom redirects you back to SourceLoop. The card flips to Connected with the workspace name displayed.

What SourceLoop does in the background, automatically:

• Stores the OAuth access token, encrypted at rest
• Creates a custom attribute on your Intercom contact model called sourceloop_id, marked as Messenger-writable so the tracker can populate it without code changes on your site
• Subscribes to the Intercom webhook topics that fire when a visitor identifies (adds email) or starts / replies to a conversation

No further configuration needed. The tracker on your site automatically pushes the visitor’s marketing attribution onto their Intercom contact every time the Messenger loads.

Step 2: Verify it’s working

Open your site in an incognito window, append ?utm_source=test&utm_medium=verify&utm_campaign=intercom-check to the URL, click the Intercom Messenger, and start a real conversation, sharing an email you can access.

Within seconds of the email landing, the lead appears at the top of the Contacts Hub in SourceLoop with the three test UTM values, the converting landing page, and the full pre-chat session timeline.

Where to see Intercom conversations in SourceLoop

Contacts Hub

Every Intercom conversation that captures an email or phone becomes a contact row at app.sourceloop.ai/contacts. Open a contact for the visitor’s complete pre-chat journey, every page they viewed, every ad they clicked, every session they had, useful context if you ever need to reopen the conversation.

Attribution dashboard

For the channel-level rollup, app.sourceloop.ai/dashboards/traffic groups Intercom conversations by source, medium, and campaign so you can compare which channels actually open meaningful dialogue.

Funnel reports

Build a funnel at app.sourceloop.ai/funnels ending in “Intercom conversation”. Slice by source, landing page, or device to find the highest-converting paths from first visit to chat opened.

For paid acquisition feeding the chat queue, forward Intercom conversations back to Google Ads, Meta, and LinkedIn as offline conversions so the bidding algorithms train on real qualified conversations rather than vanity clicks. Connect your Google Ads account covers the wiring.

Need to revoke access later? See How to disconnect Intercom from SourceLoop for the full flow, including what’s retained, what to clean up manually in Intercom, and how to request GDPR data removal.