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yeah this is pretty common and it’s usually not gtm misfiring, it’s just different attribution logic.
leadfeeder is session-based, so it’ll label a lot as direct if it can’t see referrer or utms, or if the user comes back later via a clean direct visit. whatconverts is lead-based and will often keep the original source in cookies, so it can still show google/cpc even when the last click looks like direct.
the usual culprits are utms getting dropped after the first page, redirects, internal links, cross-domain or subdomain hops, in-app browsers on ios, consent banner blocking, or the form submit happening on a different url where the params aren’t present. the missing leads in whatconverts usually means the trigger is flaky too, like ajax forms, thank you page not loading, or the script getting blocked.
quick way to debug is by doing a tagged test click, navigate a couple pages, then submit on desktop and iphone. watch when utms disappear and whether whatconverts fires.
fix is usually persist utm + gclid in a first-party cookie, write them into hidden fields on the form, and trigger whatconverts on actual submit, not just pageviews.
