HubSpot marks the original and latest source for aound 80% of the client leads that we’ve received in the last 3 months as Direct Traffic, but on the drill-down roughly the traffic source for roughly half of the Direct Traffic leads is market as Auto-tagged PPC. If they have indeed come from PPC then I’d expect the original source and/or latest source to be Paid Search. Has anyone else seen similar results and, if so, do you have an explanation for what might be going on?
Hey @FWH2018 - thanks for posting in the Community!
I’d like to tag in some experts here to see if they may have any insight as to what’s happening here! @beeginman, @karstenkoehler, and @danmoyle - any thoughts that may explain @FWH2018’s scenario above?
Shane, Senior Community Moderator
Hey @FWH2018 and welcome to the Community. First question - have you contacted HubSpot Support? This sounds like unexpected behavior, especially if it seems to have changed recently. I’d start there.
Second question - when you say PPC, are referring to Google Ads? Or another platform?
Here’s what I found, and how I understand HubSpot tracking and why “Direct Traffic” might show up as auto-tagged PPC. When HubSpot receives visits with Google’s auto-tagging (which attaches a GCLID parameter), it tries to associate those with Paid Search campaigns. However, if it can’t extract campaign values (like utm_campaign, utm_source, or the GCLID doesn’t match what’s expected), it may label the source as “Direct Traffic” while still capturing “Auto-tagged PPC” in the drill-down. This indicates HubSpot knows the visit originated from paid search, but lacked enough campaign-level detail to properly classify it as Paid Search, defaulting to Direct.
Here’a list of “Common Causes for Attribution Anomalies” I found when searching around.
- Missing or malformed UTM parameters in ads, or campaign URLs lacking expected tags.
- Incompatibility or lag between HubSpot’s tracking and Google Ads auto-tagging, especially if the Ad account or auto-tracking in HubSpot isn’t set up perfectly.
- Users returning to the site via direct URL or bookmark after their first PPC click—HubSpot may then record the latest session as Direct, but the original source could reflect the PPC pathway.
- Privacy tools, ad blockers, or browser settings stripping referrer details, which pushes otherwise attributable traffic into the Direct bucket.
Based on this list, I’d do two things to try and troubleshoot. First, review your Google Ads campaign URL structure and ensure consistent use of UTM parameters. Also, double-check that HubSpot auto-tracking is enabled for ad accounts. Second, I’d confirm the GCLID parameter is properly passed and that nothing (like a redirect or page script) is stripping URL parameters before the tracking code fires.
Hopefully that helps get your team some troubleshooting and help.
Dan, thank you. Yes we are primarily using Google Ads with some ads copied over to Microsoft Ads as well.