HubSpot attribution reports credit contacts, deals and revenue to the interactions that came before them. Contact create attribution needs Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise; deal create and revenue attribution need Marketing Hub Enterprise. Ad revenue only reaches HubSpot when a tracked ad click is tied to a known contact, so cookies, forms and tracking setup decide how much of your LinkedIn and Google Ads revenue you can see.
The three attribution reports
HubSpot has three attribution reports. Contact create attribution shows which interactions led to new contacts. Deal create attribution shows which led to new deals. Revenue attribution shows which led to closed-won revenue.
Each report applies a model to the interactions before the conversion. First touch gives all the credit to the first interaction and last touch to the last. Linear splits it equally. Time decay gives more to interactions closer to the conversion. The models do not change what HubSpot recorded; they change how the credit is shared.
Which HubSpot plan you need
Contact create attribution needs Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise, or Content Hub Professional or Enterprise. Deal create and revenue attribution need Marketing Hub Enterprise.
For paid ads, HubSpot's ads tool can show deals, revenue and return on ad spend for connected LinkedIn, Google and Facebook campaigns on Professional and Enterprise. Free and Starter accounts only get the last ad interaction report.
| Report | Free and Starter | Professional | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last ad interaction (ads tool) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| First ad interaction, re-engagement and all ad interactions (ads tool) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Deals and return on ad spend (ads tool) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Contact create attribution | No | Yes | Yes |
| Deal create attribution | No | No | Yes |
| Revenue attribution | No | No | Yes |
Where the numbers break for paid ads
HubSpot can only credit an ad when it can join an ad click to a contact. That needs the HubSpot tracking code on the page the ad links to, auto-tracking switched on for the ad account, and a HubSpot form or the HubSpot Forms API to capture the conversion.
Auto-tracking does not work backwards, so clicks from before it was switched on are never attributed. If someone clicks an ad and clears their cookies before converting, the click is lost. Revenue from buyers who never clicked a tracked ad, or who arrived through a colleague, lands under sources such as direct traffic or offline sources.
B2B buying adds a further gap. Contact-level reports credit the person who converted, while a deal is usually decided by several people at the same company over months. A campaign that reached the buying group but not the one person who filled in the form gets no credit at all.
Check your HubSpot setup
HubSpot's ad attribution is only as good as its setup, and fixes only apply from the day you make them. Check these before you trust the numbers.
- The HubSpot tracking code is on every page your ads link to.
- Auto-tracking is switched on for each connected ad account. It only tracks clicks from the day it is switched on.
- Leads are captured with HubSpot forms or the HubSpot Forms API.
- Every ad carries consistent UTM parameters.
- Reports cover a window at least as long as your sales cycle.
Judge campaigns on revenue, not leads
Cost per lead rewards campaigns that fill forms; cost per opportunity and revenue reward campaigns that reach buyers. Compare campaigns over a window as long as your sales cycle, not the last 30 days, because B2B deals often close months after the first ad.
How Adalyst approaches it
Adalyst connects your ad platforms to HubSpot with read-only access and joins spend to pipeline outside HubSpot's reports, so it does not need Marketing Hub Enterprise. It matches people and companies in your CRM to the advertising they came from using email, company domain, the first and last touch HubSpot records, and click identifiers such as Google's click ID.
It credits revenue at the company level, so a campaign that reached a buying group shares in the deal. It runs first touch, last touch, linear, time decay and position-based models nightly, and looks back as far as your typical time from first touch to close: between 30 and 730 days, starting at 90 until it has learnt your sales cycle from won deals. Like HubSpot, it can only credit what the records support: a deal with no matching person, company or click stays unattributed rather than guessed.
Questions
Does HubSpot attribution work on the free or Starter plan?
Partly. Free CRM and Marketing Hub Starter get the last ad interaction report in the ads tool. Contact create attribution needs Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise, and deal create and revenue attribution need Marketing Hub Enterprise.
Why are my LinkedIn-sourced deals showing as direct or offline in HubSpot?
Usually because HubSpot could not join an ad click to the contact: the landing page lacked the tracking code, auto-tracking was off when the click happened, the conversion did not use a HubSpot form, or the visitor's cookies were cleared before they converted.
Which attribution model should I use for B2B?
Look at more than one. First touch shows what opens deals, last touch shows what closes them, and linear or time decay show the journey in between. With long sales cycles, use a look-back window at least as long as your typical time from first touch to close.
Can I compare LinkedIn Ads campaigns by revenue in HubSpot?
HubSpot's ads tool reports deals and return on ad spend for tracked campaigns on Professional and Enterprise. Comparing campaigns on pipeline or revenue against what they cost needs ad spend and CRM outcomes joined for the same campaigns, which is what Adalyst does across LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads and your CRM.