Franchise study calibration and correction notice
Updated 27 October 2026. The October 19 study has not passed calibration. The original PDF and findings tables are historical versions, retained for transparency. Their scores must not be presented as validated benchmarks.
What the review found
- The tracking check accepted internal form-navigation or referrer fields as evidence of UTM/click-ID capture. Of 121 original positive records, 82 cite only that kind of evidence and 17 cite ambiguous source labels. The remaining 22 contain explicit parameter names, which still do not prove working attribution or CRM delivery. These are evidence classifications, not corrected tracking prevalence.
- Related tracking combinations, funnel scores and correlations involving affected scores require recalculation. Claims such as “40% do not retain the source” and “0 of 200 have all three tracking basics” are withdrawn as validated conclusions pending remeasurement.
- The capital-question headline used 76/199. The structured answers contain 76 no, 120 yes and 4 unclear: 196 known answers. A revised percentage will not be treated as validated until the underlying evidence is reconciled.
- Four records in the 30-brand review sample disagree with their exported email/telephone field types. Original captures are needed to reconcile these.
- The JSON export contained an obsolete country split. It now correctly identifies the study sample as 178 US and 22 Australian records.
What remains before sign-off
The review matrix covers 30 brands and 1,050 checks. This is not 1,050 completed independent reviews. Original screenshots and some secondary-form evidence are missing, and human calibration has not been performed. Country editions remain on hold. Brand-level source records remain private.
Generic source fields will no longer count as attribution evidence. Future measurements must distinguish a visible parameter field, observed parameter persistence and verified delivery to the CRM. Live rechecks will carry a new observation date.
Gravity Forms documents source-page fields as form navigation state: gform_target_page documentation. They do not establish UTM capture.
Practical franchisor guides can continue to be published without relying on disputed study rates. We will publish corrected figures with their evidence, denominators and version history after review.