Hubspot attributing Paid Search to Direct

[DeeCee]

We seem to be having an attribution issue where we see leads coming in through google ad campaigns being attributed to direct traffic.

I can see the First referring page is through a google campaign but then the first page seen is the page where the contact form is hosted.

What's also missing is gclid. Also the number of page views is 0.

Could this be cookie consent related or a Hubspot attribution problem?

[Josh]

Hi @DeeCee,

Here are a couple more steps to try:

1. Replicate the ad click in an incognito window

   • Click a live ad and watch the address bar:

     1. Does the landing URL still contain the gclid or utm_* after every redirect?

     2. Open DevTools → Network; confirm hs_analytics.js fires and a hutk cookie is set.

   • If the gclid disappears or the script never fires, you’ve found the issue (redirect stripping parameters or missing HubSpot code).

2. Verify the landing page’s tracking code placement

   • Make sure the HubSpot tracking snippet loads on the very first page—not after a redirect and not delayed by a cookie‑consent manager or GTM trigger.

3. I mentioned this before, but double-check check there are no HTTPS>HTTP instances. Even if the UTM remains attached, that traffic could still be labeled as Direct because it will drop the referrer.

Josh

[Josh]

Hi @DeeCee,

A few things you can troubleshoot here.

First, can you confirm if you're using the integration? Here's the knowledge base article about it. 

If you're not using the integration, you'll have to apply your UTM parameters manually. Here's a knowledge base article for that.

Do you have auto-tagging enabled on the Google Ads side? If not, the gclid won't be included.

If you are already using the integration or creating UTM parameters and it's still not working, be sure that those parameters aren't being dropped. The best way to avoid this is to ensure the users are going directly to the HTTPS version and there are no redirects in place. If a visitor is coming from HTTPS (Google), then sent to HTTP and back to HTTPS, those parameters will be dropped.

It sounds like your HubSpot tracking code is properly firing because the page visit is still happening, so that shouldn't be an issue. 

This is where I'd start. I hope that helps!

[DeeCee]

Hi @Josh, 

We're using the integration and have auto-tagging enabled on Google Ads. 

The parameters aren't being dropped as we see the UTMs being populated under the original source drill down 1 and 2 fields. 

It's a recent behavior where with certain leads we see the first referring site is a google campaign but no gclid or page views are being recorded. These leads are then being attributed to Direct Traffic.