Help Needed - HubSpot UTM Tags Tracking

[#1]

Hello,

Is there any way to connect HS to other tools but to leave our original UTM's (without HS overriding them)?

There is a post saying that if we put UTM's in Google Ads on ad level that HS won't override that UTM's, is that true and since we have a very large number of ads is there any way to keep UTMs made automatically by linking it to Google Analytics (we have like this atm and in analytics we see HS override tags on ads LP url's).

Does same thing as for Google Ads apply for Bing?

What about LinkedIn and Facebook? With Facebook, we had the same thing when connected FB and HS and we even tried to manually put UTM's in ads but all we saw in analytics were HS tags which overrides our tags (even when we opened ad settings next day, there were HS tags). 

Thanks in advance.

[#2]

Hi @Tonii,

You currently cannot connect a Bing ads account to HubSpot. We do not currently Support Bing or Linkedin.

In regards to Facebook, we do not override UTM parameters. If you have auto-tracking turned on for your ads account, HubSpot will automatically add our HubSpot specific parameters, but we will not override any existing UTM parameters on your ads. This is the case for all networks. 

If you have questions specific to your portal or set up, you also have access to HubSpot technical Support. I would recommend reaching out to them with any additional use case specific questions.

Thank you,

Jenny

[#3]

Hi Toni and Jenny,

I am wondering how this does not seem to be an issue for other Google Ads advertisers.
I haver experienced with several clients, that Hubspot Auto Tagging with 

utm_source=adwords
utm_medium=ppc

is overriding the actual Google Ads tagging

utm_source=google
utm_medium=cpc

 Which has the effect that in Google Analytics, when Google Ads and Google Analytics are connectec, the Akquisition > Google Ads report is worthless, as Google Analytics cannot match adwords/ppc to the respective Google Ads campaigns.
You'll se the imported click data from Google Ads but zero website behaviour measured by Google Analytics.
Furthermore, if you're optimizing your Google Ads campaigns with Google Analytics goals, the goals won't be reported to Google Ads, which makes marketing efforts worthless if they cannot be measured.

Is there something I am missing here?
Is there a way to use your own utm tags, to keep source/medium for Google Ads?

Thanks!

[#4]

Hi @Veronique,

HubSpot applies our own tracking to the ads to ensure they are bucketed correctly. If you are changing the parameters that are added by HubSpot, this will impact where the ads are bucketed. 

For more information on this setting, I wanted to share this resource.

Thank you,
Jenny

[#5]

Hi Jenny,

I see where the parameters are coming from and why they are used how they are.
But isn't there a solution which fits both systems (HubSpot and Google Analytics)?
Both tools are used by so many people and companies that I am pretty sure that this is an issue to others as well.

Best regards

Vero

[#6]

Hello @Veronique !

Do you notice the same issue if you build out the UTM parameters under HubSpot's URL Tracking Builder? 

I have noticed odd scenarios happen if I don't produce equal values on both GA and HS. 

For instance, for your example above: 

utm_source=adwords
utm_medium=ppc

is overriding the actual Google Ads tagging

utm_source=google
utm_medium=cpc

If you set the UTM to produce source and medium as google/cpc in the URL builder for HS, the parameters should not change. I always generate the tracking codes in HubSpot first and have had no issues moving forward with incorrectly applied UTMs.

Best regards,

Fred

[#7]

Hey @farnold_lac ,

thanks so much for your reply.
We haven't tried the URL Builder for Ads yet, but will definitely do.
So if I add my Google Ads params such as source=google and medium=cpc, everything will still be attributed correctly both in HubSpot and Analytics reports?
I thought HubSpot needed the autotagging of source=adwords and medium=ppc for their own system.

Best regards

Vero

[#8]

@Veronique 

I would not change how the UTM parameters from what the auto tag is set up to produce. For instance, HubSpot expects Google Ads to source=adwords and medium=ppc, that is what I set the options to in the UTM campaign builder in HubSpot. 

My data produces a clean set based on the UTM so I see UTM Source, Medium and Ad Group. See image:

I would give it a shot. The one thing that we had to figure out was the parameters were causing some weird URL strings on the Google Analytics side until we populated the UTM right for both Google and HubSpot to recognize it. We get pretty clean source information on how we have it structured. 

Best regards,

Fred

[#9]

Hi @farnold_lac ,

thanks for coming back to me 🙂

So as I understand, you are still using the adwords/ppc parameter generated by HubSpot via the URL builder.
That would still cause the Ads data in Google Analytics not to show up in the Acqusition > Google Ads Reports.
How do you populate the utm right for both HubSpot and Google Analytics?
That's the thing I am struggling with. Could you maybe show an exemplary utm parameter string?
Would be very much appreciated!

BR and stay safe

Vero

[#10]

@Veronique 

Not a problem! For us to get the Google Ads Data into the Google Analytics Ad report, we had to create a linked account for our GA View to the Google Ad account. Otherwise you do not see clicks and cost per click on that report. That is all done through Google Adwords so linking them should solve the issue.

Last would be to verify you have goalss set up correctly. For my company, we have goals in analytics, but we actually track our goals in HubSpot because that is the final place a conversion ends up, so it makes more sense for us to track goals in there. We have reports and segmentation that handle this automatically. 

I cannot show you too much of our data, but here is our ad groups populating in the acquisition report the same as they populate in HubSpot.

I would make sure you have Google Ads linked and that goal reporting is set up correctly on your ads. Then create your UTM parameters through HubSpot Tracking Link Builder with HubSpot default in mind and you should get clean data that matches. 

https://landing.mylearningalliance.com/tower-technician-program?campaign=9075765021&content=0&keywor...

This URL is duplicated in HubSpot tracking URL builder. 

Best regard,

Fred

[#11]

Hey @farnold_lac ,

Thanks for your reply again.
For us, the problem is still the connection of HubSpot Tracking automated tracking utms and Google Analytics. Let me explain again:

• We are using Google Ads with Goal Import via Google Analytics (those two accounts are linked)
• We are using HubSpot auto tagging which sets utms to source/medium = adwords/ppc
• As the Google Ads and Analytics are linked, we would expect to see the conversions in Google Analytics under the report Acquisition > Google Ads
• But Google Analytics does not recognise adwords/ppc as Google Ads traffic, therefor the mentioned report is empty (left side, imported Google Ads click data is there; right side, Analytics generated website traffic such as conversions is empty)
• As the Google Ads report is empty, we do not have a goal conversion kickback into our Google Ads account (MAIN PROBLEM)
• adwords/ppc traffic can be found under the Acquistion > All Traffic > source / medium report with the respective conversions.
• 
  That's our dilemma and with HubSpot and Google Analytics being grat players, I don't see how this is not a problem to others. There must be a way to combine those two.
  
  Hope to made it more clear 🙂
  
  BR
  Vero

[#12]

Hello @Veronique !

I would make sure everything matches. Usually, goal conversions do not show up because a URL path is being fitlered to show as something else at some point in the user journey. You will want to make sure the URL pathing maintains consistency through out the entire user journey, and for HubSpot and Google to be consistent, you want to define UTMs they both understand. That is why I would make sure your tracking URLs are built into HubSpot.

For this scenario, I cannot define a specific answer for you because I would need access to all of your assets. And that wouldn't be happening! However, I would go through these steps:

• The second campaign in your list of campaigns (second picture) shows that data is populating for majority of your goal oriented data points - goal conversion and goal completions - so what is the difference between that campaign and the others that are not showing up?
  • Check the UTM pathing
  • Identify inconsistencies 
  • Replicate the same structure to other campaigns
• Goal value is not showing up even in the campaign that is producing data. I would go through that issue with a fine toothed comb. First thing that may pop out for me is did I set a goal value for that type of conversion? I always use this when goals are coming up incorrectly from Google: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033158?hl=en - Incorrect configuration is usually why goals do not pop up correctly
• Verify Google Ads configurations - make sure your Google Ads are appropriately configured with the right pathing 

I do not know your set up. But I mainly track goal oriented conversions through HubSpot because that is where I calculate a customer life time value and I work backwards to identify the goal conversion value for, say, a landing page visit or form submission. One thing to keep in mind is that total value of the customer would not be calculated into goals via Google because the integration does not work that way. You would have to produce a 2 way API data sharing connection to push "Amount of Company Currency" data from the Deals API to the goal conversions. You can utilize these two pieces of documentation to produce it using something like Zapier:

• Goals API for Google - https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/config/mgmt/v3/mgmtReference/management/goals/list
• HubSpot Deals API - https://developers.hubspot.com/docs/methods/deals/deals_overview
• Zapier HubSpot/GA Integration - https://zapier.com/apps/google-analytics/integrations/hubspot

Let me know what you find and we can continuing discussing. I think digging into this a little more, you will be able to find the source of the hang up. Keep looking!

Best regard, 

Fred

[#13]

This is a problem for us too, and has been confirmed by Google support.  The suggested fix is to enable "UTM override" in analytics.  I assume that this will allow analytics to decipher the auto-tagged GCLID and extract correct source/medium, even though HS has added the incorrect UTM string parameters.  So Analytics will track correctly, but HS still gets the UTM params it needs via the added tracking template.  I don't see why HS just doesn't use the standard UTM values...would make this a lot simpler/cleaner.  Here's the reply from Google support:  (note I have not tested this fix yet, just got this reply as I was searching HS community for others experiencing this problem)

"On checking the Ads campaign set up, I can confirm that you're using  using UTM parameters in the click   and see that the source/medium is specified incorrectly as adwords/ppc. If values other than source/medium (google/cpc) are used in UTM parameters, you may get undesirable click/session discrepancies for integrations reports in Google Analytics.  

Source/medium has to be set to google/cpc in order to record conversions correctly and I suggest you to rectify that.  

Also, I see that you have enabled 'auto tagging' while 'UTM override' is disabled which is also contributing to the stated discrepancy. (To view this setting, sign in Google Analytics >> Admin >> Property settings >> Advanced settings)."

Hope this helps - good luck!

[#14]

Hi @Veronique @grgeorge81 

Have you guys found a solution to this issue yet?

We got the exact same problem.

What is curious that in some cases, our data goes through google / cpc, other times as adwords / ppc.

I would be more than happy to solve this problem once and for all

[#15]

Hey @DK_Seon, hi @grgeorge81,

thanks for your replys! 
I am kind of happy that we are not the only ones struggling with this issue 😄
Makes me hope that HubSpot is going to change the utm terminology.

Soo, let me share my experience so far.

We had Google's Doubleclick connected to Google Ads as well, which was also doing something to the utms, and lost our Google Ads and HS connection in between, that's why the progress took so long.
We disconnected our DoubleClick and reconnected GAds and HS freshly, after the connection loss.

What we have been doing and which seems to work is:

• connect your Google Ads Account to HubSpot
• enable Ads auto-tagging in HubSpot and let HubSpot do their magic (aka append the necessary parameters)
• go to your Google Ads account and check if HubSpot has appended the utms on campaign level
• overwrite the HS tracking template of only utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc into the common Google Ads parameters utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc 
• check if there is no other instance overwriting the paremeters in Google Ads (as we had Doubleclick connected before, Doubleclick was overwriting or reversing our manually overwritten parameter. I am not the expert on Doubleclick nor ads, but I think that is the DC configuration by nature).

We did the overwrite on campaign level. So far, this seems to work, as we are getting session and user data into our Google Analytics - Google Ads akquisition reports - and  corresponding goals, jippie jah jeah!

We still have some smaller campaigns without any session data, but those campaigns have so little traffic that it might also just not get tracked in terms of Google Analytics opt-ins.
This is still a work in progress, we are still in the testing phase and need to collect some data over time to see if this really works for all of our campaigns.

@grgeorge81 in terms of the parameters that HubSpot appends, HubSpot is appending two sets of parameters, the utm parameters and their HubSpot parameters (hs_example).
As far as I understood, what HubSpot needs to connect the traffic to a user or a contact are the HubSpot parameters hs_. 
The utm parameters are not needed for connecting a contact.
I think both adwords/ppc and google/cpc can be found under the channel Paid Search, if you dive into HubSpot's traffic analytics.

I hope this will help you guys, let me know if anyone has new experiences or a best practice!

Best regards

Vero

[#16]

Hi @Veronique ,

Thank you for your reply.

I removed the UTM parameters (source, medium, campaign, term) from Hubspot's tracking template in Google Ads on campaign level, leaving only the hsa_ parameters there. But as it turned out, Hubspot refreshed the template 10 mins later and appended the adwords / ppc, etc stuff there once again...

We are running Google Ads campaigns that use conversion tracking for automated bidding. If Google Analytics does not recognise the source / medium and the campaigns, the bidding is not working sufficiently.

Do you think if I change adwords / ppc to google / cpc manually in the tracking template, this might work differently?

[#17]

HI @DK_Seon ,

yes, we tried your first case as well, with the same result of HubSpot appending the parameters again.
So the last thing seems at least to work in our case: Leave all HS appended parameters but only overwrite source / medium from adwords / ppc to google / cpc.
The parameters stayed that way and we had no error message in HS and the session and conversion data populated in Analytics and some conversions are coming into Google Ads.
As it is not working correctly now, you should be fine with trial and error, there is nothing you could break more 😉

Let me know your results.

Best
Vero 

[#18]

Hi @Veronique 

I'm doing the test run now. 🙂

I also rewrote the campaign and term UTM params, so it won't get populated by Hubspot as well.  Did you modified those too?

Are you seeing conversions feeding back to the right campaigns in Google Ads?

Does Hubspot contributes the contact to Paid Search?

I'm a bit afraid what could still go wrong if rewrite all our campaigns.

Dóri

[#19]

Hi @DK_Seon,

no, we left utm campaign and term, as they were populated correctly by HubSpot. For utm campaign, hubspot takes the Google Ads campaign name, but this is fine in our case 🙂
If you're not sure, just take one campaign to test and change the parameters there, see how it develops. 
If it seems successful, you can adopt the changes to all other campaigns.

Yes, we do see some conversions kickback into Google Ads.
The traffic and contacts should still be attributed to HubSpot's Paid Search channel.

As far as I understand, HubSpot only needs it's hs_ parameters to attribute the contacts.
This is what the HS Support told me 🙂

Best
Vero