Can Hubspot conversion events be used to optimize Facebook lead ads?

Marketing & Content Hub Ads
1

Hi,

I’m willing to pay a developer / Hubspot partner to help me with this if you are an expert and can solve this for us. I wanted to create this post to get expert opinions on is this even possible.

We followed the setup here Create and sync ad conversion events with your Meta Ads accounts using Meta's Conversion API

What is working fine:

- Facebook lead ads sync just fine to Hubspot and the contact records have Facebook ad ID etc.

- The conversion events update when leads go through lifecycle stages in Hubspot.

- Hubspot syncs the events back to Facebook events manager as offline events. The events show up as “Other”.

What we can’t get to work:

- Facebook campaign delivery can’t be optimized for these offline events.

- It is not possible to set up the offline events data source in Facebook to do anything.

- The Facebook pixel we have connected to Hubspot does not receive these conversion events from Hubspot. When we try to optimize a lead ad for conversion leads, Facebook says our CRM setup is incomplete.

We were just told by our Hubspot onboarding team that they have no idea is it possible to optimize ad delivery for the Hubspot lifecycle stage changes at all :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

From the documentation it looks like we should be able to but I’d need to set up 3 companies with this setup so I’m interested in hiring someone more technical to help me out.

Best Regards,

Tero Vaalamäki

Head of Growth

Performance Unit

2

Hi @Tertsi,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community!

Regarding the error you’re getting about the CRM setup being incomplete: seeing that the data flows between the 2 systems, the Meta pixel seems to be loading successfully (if you’d like to test this just in case, you can use this Chrome extension: Meta Pixel Helper).

Are there any essential onboarding steps in HubSpot that you’d need to complete (like verifying the domain, setting up branding, or publishing lead-capturing forms)? If everything looks good in your HubSpot account, I’d recommend reaching out to Meta support to get more insight into the error.

I wanted to invite a couple of subject matter experts to this conversation to see if they have capacity to help with the Facebook lead ads optimization project:

Hi @Bryantworks, @Jonno_Price, @KTownsend, @Franci, @HFisher7, would you be able to help with this? Thank you!

Cheers
Mia, Community Team

3

Hi Mia,

thank you for the reply. We have completed all onboarding steps.

We have had 3 calls with Meta Technical Pro team and opened a support ticket with Meta Tech support. They blame the Hubspot-Facebook integration and suggest implementation via 3rd party tool. According to them the CRM (Hubspot) integration won’t move forward until the Facebook events manager receives an event in the correct format and for some reason it is not receiving correct data from Hubspot, thus preventing us from getting further with the setup. How it’s supposed to work is detailed in this Facebook document: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversions-api/conversion-leads-integration/crm-integration/1-connecting-your-crm-with-lead-ads

Also Facebook lists Hubspot as a direct CRM partner for connecting lead ads without third party solutions needed: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/262210457734906/hubspot

We would prefer to get this working with just Hubspot + Facebook and the ready-made integration because based on all the documentation it looks like it should be possible.

Thank you for any advice anyone can provide on the topic.

Best Regards,

Tero Vaalamäki

Head of Growth

Performance Unit

4

Hi Tero,

In the company where I work, we have experienced the same issues as you have. When I read your post it seemed like I was re-reading a chronology of my exact experience.

I was not able to get useful answers from HubSpot or Meta support on this topic. Both seemed to blame the other and in the end, we gave up trying to use the Hubspot-Facebook event optimization integration for the time being.

I am sorry that I do not have a solution for you. However, I thought it is important to let you know that you are not the only HubSpot client using Meta Ads and experiencing this issue. I think this feature was brought out too early before it was fully funtional.

Best,

Jonathan Fichman

Global Head of Paid Marketing

5

Hi Jonathan,

I wanted to send you an update I got from Hubspot support early September 2023:

"

I can say that our internal product team is aware of this and we will be migrating and releasing Instant Form conversion leads on CAPI in the next couple of months. But we won’t have offline conversions (ie lifecycle stages) for non-Instant Form ads until likely 2024.

I gathered this info from a couple of other cases that seemed to have the same inquiry as you.

"

So the situation seems to be exactly as you stated. They released the feature and it doesn’t actually work. I’m really unhappy that I had to spend months trying to get this working until someone finally admitted it’s not even possible to get it working. They should remove the events for Facebook and Linkedin if they do nothing in the ad platforms.

BR, Tero

6

Hi Tertsi,
We’ve had many similar problems with the HS<>FB/Meta integration. After speaking with several different marketing firms, we’ve come to the conclusion that the current integration is simply broken.
In addition to the issue you mentioned, the Auto-Tracking from HubSpot added UTM-like parameters that also interfered with our internal tracking, and offline conversions (HS Ads Events) did not function either.
The solution that we came up with is to use Zapier - and I believe that this will solve your issue as well, even if it is a bit of a pain to set up.
Here are the general steps:

  • Before starting remove any existing permissions inside of Facebook for Zapier. Existing permission sets can block new ones, and even though you disconnect in Zapier, it won’t disconnect in Facebook. Note this only applies if you’ve set up a different FB page or a different Zapier account with your same FB account. Just mentioning on the off chance it’ll save you the hours of troubleshooting I did. :slightly_smiling_face:
  • After that, create a Zap. The goal is to capture information from HubSpot, and then send it via Zapier to Facebook as a conversion. You can have the Zap trigger on a lifecycle stage, but I found it more effective and easier to track by using a HubSpot workflow and custom property as the trigger. Our workflow updates a property called “Zap Conversion” to “Yes” - which is then the trigger for the Zap to fire.
  • Then, in the Zap, choose the “Facebook Conversions” action, and fill out all the information you’d like to send to Zapier. Be sure to include the FB Lead ID, so FB can easily identify the lead. In general, the more info you send the better… there’s a template somewhere with FB’s recommended conversion info, but I couldn’t find it quickly.
  • After that, you should be finished. A conversion will trigger the workflow, which will trigger the Zap, and push the conversion into FB. You should then be able to optimize for that conversion type you’ve chosen.
    • Note: Depending on your specific needs, you may want to create a custom FB conversion for this purpose. You can still optimize ads for custom conversions, except for carosel ads, IIRC.

I hope all that helps! Good luck!

7

Thank you for the detailed reply. Awesome that you spent the time to detail it for anyone who finds this thread! I agree Zapier is a better solution for now.

Just to update: I received an update from Hubspot saying their internal team is aware of the Hubspot events - Facebook CAPI not working and there has been a communication issue which is why the knowledge base articles inaccurately make it seem like it’s possible to optimize ad delivery towards these lifecycle stage changes.

They are working on a fix but it’ll likely be 2024 by the time it actually works. They are first fixing the form fill event - FB CAPI.

BR, Tero

8

Hi Andrew, thank you very much for this!

To which field do you send the fb click id? I don’t seem to find a dedicated field during the facebook conversion setup stept for this.

Also, when I create my test Zaps, I never see this field populated.

Looking forward to hearing back from you on this.

Cheers

9

Looks like there is still no solution to this problem? all I am trying to do is send lead stages (SQL) to meta as conversion event through zapier.

10

In today’s post from Search Engine Land, I saw that Meta announced they’re rolling out the ability for: “Hubspot. To support businesses in generating high-quality leads efficiently, Meta is introducing HubSpot as a new CRM integration partner, offering a straightforward click-through setup. Additionally, Meta is streamlining CRM integration with Zapier.”
You can find the whole post from Search Engine Land here

And it was also posted on Social Media Today

In Meta’s help section I do see HubSpot available as a “direct integration” but this deals with the setup from the Meta side, not HubSpot. In HubSpot, if I try to set up an event today, I still see the notice that “Facebook’s lead generation optimization is in a learning phase and you won’t be able to use it on any ad campaigns for a few months.”

Anyone else see this announcement or know anything about it?

11

Hi Tertsi
I have just gone through the process of synching our Facebook ads account and then creating the events. They seem ok, but like you I then wanted to optimise our campaigns/adsets to this event, and it wasn’t an option.
Did you manage to find a workaround / a solution that allowed you to run Facbook ads campaigns effienctly towards Hubspot lead generation forms being completed / lifecycle changes in the end?
If so, I’d love to understand how or who helped you to find a solution?
Thanks
Simon

12

Hi Simon,

Unfortunately we never solved it, but I’m pretty sure it was impossible with just Hubspot and FB. The only solution would have been to use a 3rd party integration, e.g. Zapier.

I know Hubspot is working on improving this so eventually it will be possible as a direct integration. Though if you look at the LinkedIn CAPI for Hubspot, that is via Zapier, so I’d say Zapier is the safer solution than direct Hubspot integration. Zapier has a long history of successful implementation.

BR, Tertsi

13

Its 12-05-24 and still this issue is not solved. I am receiving terrrible Leads quality from FB and most probably FB think they are doing a great job! If this integration doesn’t work then I find it very useless to spend money in Facebook. Better off with differency channels then..

14

I can’t understand why Hubspot have not worked with Facebook to find a fix for this! It’s so poor that there is no easy solution in 2024!

15

I’m jumping in here because this still seems to be an issue. Has anyone managed to solve it this year?

What I am seeing now is that Hubspot are serving the pixel from the embedded Hubspot code on pages. But when it does that it looks like the Hubspot lead events created by the browser pixel are using inconsistent event labels, such as LEAD instead of Lead. And this is messing with my data and existing campaigns. As LEAD and Lead are seen as 2 separate events so now the campaigns need to be rebuilt to optimise for LEAD. Is anyone else seeing this too?

16

Hi Tero,
You’ll need a tool like Hyros that will collect those events from Hubspot and then sent them to Facebook. Then you’ll be able to optimize your ads for those specific Hubspot events. See HYROS Documentation - Setup Guides & API Reference
Here’s an example of a FB ad expert doing the thing you are asking about: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02ewrZmW4jdiVus4aJzBfzgdwxHhnNHxPqfyVNH3E3iCu7MQKhFzh5wPEjDGGQtCQ3l&id=5138089

17

The short answer is:

You are correct in observing that the native HubSpot-Facebook integration for optimizing ads with post-conversion events (like a lifecycle stage change to SQL or Customer) has been unreliable or non-functional for many users.

The core problem is that HubSpot’s event sending is often delayed or incorrectly formatted for Facebook’s system.

The best solution is to skip the native integration entirely and build a highly reliable, custom server-side connection.

This involves using the HubSpot API to trigger a conversion event push directly to the Facebook Conversions API whenever a significant contact property changes, ensuring the data is fast, accurately formatted, and high-quality for effective ad optimization :white_check_mark:

The long answer is:

The frustration you and the community are expressing is extremely common and stems from the difference between two types of integrations: the low-fidelity, browser-based one and the high-fidelity, server-based one.

The issue where a browser pixel is sending events like LEAD and Lead is a classic case of client-side tracking inconsistency that breaks optimization.

The primary hurdle for using a lifecycle stage change like SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) is that it’s an offline conversion - it happens inside HubSpot, not immediately on a website.

While HubSpot’s native Ads tool *tries* to bridge this, it frequently fails.

A far superior solution is to establish a dedicated server-side pipeline.

This process begins with setting up a server-side tagging environment, such as Stape or Google Cloud Platform, managed by Google Tag Manager.

Instead of relying on the HubSpot-Facebook “direct integration” to push events, you use a HubSpot workflow to trigger an action via the HubSpot API whenever a contact’s lifecycle stage changes to your desired conversion point (e.g., SQL).

This action triggers your server-side environment.

Within that server environment, a custom script takes the contact data from HubSpot, including the crucial `fbclid` (Facebook Click ID) or other identifiers like email and phone number for effective matching, and then immediately formats it into a perfect conversion event payload.

This payload is then sent directly to the Facebook Conversions API.

This combination of HubSpot API and Facebook Conversions API is better because it is instantaneous, is not affected by ad blockers or cookie consent banners, and ensures the event label (e.g., Purchase) is perfectly consistent every time, providing Meta’s optimization algorithms with the high-quality data they need to improve your lead quality, which is the ultimate goal.

This API-to-API communication is the most robust way to attribute deep-funnel, CRM-based conversions back to your Facebook Lead Ads.

This comment was generated with the assistance of an AI tool, incorporating my expertise in conversion tracking :slightly_smiling_face:

18

Just wanted to reply to the thread as an update:

"I can say that our internal product team is aware of this and we will be migrating and releasing Instant Form conversion leads on CAPI in the next couple of months. But we won’t have offline conversions (ie lifecycle stages) for non-Instant Form ads until likely 2024.

I gathered this info from a couple of other cases that seemed to have the same inquiry as you."

Unfortunately Hubspot still haven’t rolled out offline conversions (i.e. lifecycle changes) for non-instant form ads :disappointed_face: