HubSpot utilizes a variety of methods to track and attribute the sources of visitors to your website, allowing you to understand where your traffic is coming from and assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. The platform employs a combination of direct tracking, cookies, UTM parameters, and referral data to determine the source of each visitor accurately. In this comprehensive explanation, I’ll delve into how HubSpot calculates the source of a visitor to your site and the key factors involved in this process.
1. Direct Traffic:
Organic search traffic refers to visitors who discover your website through a search engine results page (SERP) without clicking on a paid advertisement. HubSpot tracks organic search traffic by analyzing the search terms (keywords) used by visitors to find your website. When a user enters a search query into a search engine, clicks on a search result that leads to your website, and lands on your site, HubSpot attributes the visit to organic search traffic and captures the search query used by the visitor.
4. Paid Search Traffic:
Paid search traffic comprises visitors who click on a paid advertisement (e.g., Google Ads) to access your website. HubSpot tracks paid search traffic by capturing information from UTM parameters appended to the URL of the advertisement. UTM parameters are tags added to the URL that provide additional tracking information, such as campaign name, source, medium, and keyword. When a user clicks on a paid ad with UTM parameters pointing to your website, HubSpot records the source and campaign details to attribute the visit to paid search traffic.
5. Social Media Traffic:
Social media traffic includes visitors who arrive at your website by clicking on a link shared on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Pinterest. HubSpot tracks social media traffic by analyzing the referring URL and, in some cases, UTM parameters appended to the shared link. When a user clicks on a link shared on social media that leads to your website, HubSpot records the social media platform (e.g., facebook.com, twitter.com) as the source of the visit.
6. Email Traffic:
Email traffic refers to visitors who click on a link in an email campaign or newsletter to visit your website. HubSpot tracks email traffic by capturing information from UTM parameters added to the URLs included in email campaigns. When a user clicks on a link in an email sent through HubSpot’s email marketing tool or another email marketing platform, HubSpot attributes the visit to email traffic and records the campaign details provided in the UTM parameters.
7. Other Sources:
In addition to the primary sources mentioned above, HubSpot may track traffic from other sources, such as offline campaigns, direct messaging apps, or custom sources not covered by standard tracking methods. HubSpot uses a combination of direct tracking, cookies, and URL parameters to capture and attribute visits from these sources accurately. Custom sources can be defined and tracked using UTM parameters or HubSpot’s custom tracking options.
