Upcoming Sunset: Legacy CTAs

[hseligson]

Attention: We've recently revised our timeline on March 25th, 2025. For the most current details about this change, please refer to the latest updates in our changelog and the most recent community forum post.

We are sunsetting the Legacy CTAs (Call-To-Action) app and migrating it into a new CTA 2.0 editor tool beginning June 15, 2023. This sunset will consist of two parts:

1. Sunsetting the Legacy CTAs editor.
2. Sunsetting the Legacy CTA assets.

Please see below for more details about each part of the sunset. 

Editor Sunset

This sunset will restrict access to the CTAs editor. However, users will still be able to create, close, or edit existing CTAs.

Timeline:

• LCTAs Migrate Tool becomes available in GA Q1 2024
• New customers + customers with no Legacy CTAs lose access to CTAs Legacy homepage and editor - Q1 2024
• LCTA editor and clone options become unavailable to all remaining customers Q2 through to Q4 2024

Assets Sunset

This sunset will result in the following changes:

• Tracking will be turned off for any existing Legacy CTA.
• The assets will continue working as simple buttons, so at no point will pages be broken or missing a button during this sunset.
• HubSpot will be removing the tracking on customers’ existing CTAs, and they will turn into simple buttons. However, customers will still be able to access the historical tracking data of their existing CTAs.
• HubSpot will provide an easy way for customers to copy their legacy CTAs into new CTAs and replace them in all the pages they are used in.

Timeline:

• Sunsetting LCTA assets that haven’t received views in past 90+ days - they become simple buttons Q2 2024
• Sunsetting all remaining LCTA assets - they become simple buttons Q3 2024 through to Q1 2025

Note: Please be advised that the sunset may extend beyond September 2024. We at HubSpot will strive to follow the given timelines, but kindly note that they are subject to change.

Why is this happening?

We are launching a new CTA 2.0 in 2023, allowing customs to create engaging, reusable, trackable assets and embeddable CTAs.The current Legacy CTA tool offers fewer customer customization options and does not provide a dashboard to track, report, and compare assets for a better user experience. 

When is this happening?

HubSpot will begin the Legacy CTAs sunset on June 15th, 2023, after which new portals and existing portals with no Legacy CTAs will no longer have access to the Legacy CTAs editor. 

The Legacy CTA will continue to work as they are until Q2 2024 of next year, after which date HubSpot will start sunsetting the ability to use Legacy CTAs for tracking purposes. With that change, any existing assets on customer websites will continue to work as buttons but will stop collecting views and click data. However, HubSpot will make it easy for customers to clone and replace Legacy CTAs with new CTAs with a migration tool that will be available in Q1 2024.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

[MNault]

Thank you, yes it does! So image CTAs will NOT be turned into buttons - great! I look forward to migrating them to the new tool. 

[gabucino]

Hello!

I am struggling to understand how to Embed the new CTa on external pages?

The legacy one had the Embed option under "Actions" but the new one does not. How do I achieve that?

Thank you for support!

[hseligson]

Hi @gabucino !
Great question! When you publish the new CTA, you should receive a pop-up with the embedded code. Please see the image below.
New CTA embed on external page 

[KMcKenz]

Similar to the original question, I've found the embed code when I've chosen "embedded CTA," but I'd like to embed a "pop-up CTA" on my external site (Squarespace in this case). 

When designing the pop-up CTA, I see where it says you can choose which "hubspot hosted pages" you'd like your pop-up CTA to show up on, but I do not see where I can grab the embed code. Am I missing something, or are there plans to make embed codes available for popups and slide ins? 

[hseligson]

Hey @KMcKenz - thanks for your patience!
The pop-ups use targeting to decide where they will show up. You'll need to add the HubSpot tracking code to your site and target it in your pop-up using the URL/query parameter filter. 

Install the HubSpot tracking code: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/reports/install-the-hubspot-tracking-code 
Please let me know if you have any other related questions!

[KMcKenz]

Bingo. Got it. Thank you, @hseligson ! 

[MNault]

Can you clarify what happens to Legacy Image CTAs beginning Oct 2023? From the information you provided in "Assets Sunset," it appears they will turn into a simple button? Is that correct? Seems strange - what would determine the link text? I do understand that the analytics will be turned off.

[hseligson]

@MNault - Hello! I appreciate your patience! The post above clarifies the following:
"The assets will continue working as simple buttons, so at no point will pages be broken or missing a button during this sunset.
HubSpot will be removing the tracking on customers’ existing CTAs, and they will turn into simple buttons."
They will continue to be available as simple buttons (with no tracking) after they are sunset, and work as simple buttons on pages indefinitely. I hope this clarifies any confusion!
To adress your second question reagrding the link - the legacy CTAs will not automatically update and remain linked to the original page. It is advisable to update existing CTAs or create new button CTAs for any new pages.

[MNault]

@hseligson actually I was asking about the Legacy IMAGE ctas - not buttons. So you are saying that the image ctas will turn into simple buttons? What copy will be on the button since it was not indicated in the creating of the IMAGE cta. I appologize if I am not understanding. 

[hseligson]

@MNault - No apologies necessary! I have sent you a message to clarify your request. Once I receive your response, I will reach out to our product experts to provide a helpful response in this thread.

[SRodrigues3]

If a legacy CTA is cloned, will the analytics on the legacy CTA be preserved, or will it be lost? Will the analytics be cumulative (both new and old together)? 

[hseligson]

Hi @SRodrigues3 - thank you so much for your question! However, can you clarify if you mean cloned into CTAs 2.0? The Legacy CTAs analytics will be preserved and there will be no new analytics collected.

[HBeatty18]

Hi there Hannah!

Thank you for the update. A few clarifying questions: 

1. The editor sunset mentions that access will be restricted but you can still "create, close, or edit existing CTAs." So does the restricted access just apply to no net new tracking and creating net new CTAs in the legacy tool?

2. Will legacy CTAs always be available as simple buttons during the sunset or will they at one point disappear?

[HBeatty18]

@hseligson - hoping to get a response to my questions! Thank you so much! 

[hseligson]

Hi @HBeatty18 ! Thank you for your questions and patience! 
During the Sunset of the Editor part, customers will lose the ability to clone or create new Legacy CTAs.
During the Sunset of the Assets part customers will lose the ability to edit the existing LCTAs.
Here’s the general timeframes for both parts:
Sunset of Editor: Q4 2023  through Q4 of 2024 (with heaviest users being sunset last)
Sunset of Assets: Q1 2024 through Q4 of 2024 (with heaviest users being sunset last)
As for your second question, they will be available as simple buttons (with no tracking) after they are sunset, they will continue to work as simple buttons on pages indefinitely. If customers want to retain the ability to track they will need to copy and swap the Legacy CTA with the CTA 2.0 (this functionality will be available from Q4 2023).

[cooperelias]

While there are some major improvements to the CTA 2.0 tool, it looks like it is going to actually cause us to lose some existing capabilities, primarily because the new CTAs are loaded as iframes.

A few of the biggest issues I have run into so far include:

• Site header HTML not being applied on the domain where the CTA is rendered, resulting in some custom tracking issues
• Unable to use custom loaded site fonts
• Image module does not seem to have support for retina displays
• Limited ability to do custom styling

In other words, it seems like more in-app options were added to support less advanced users, but users who do more custom configuration are unable to do so with the new tool.

[isabelareid]

Completely agree with this ^ The lack of custom styling is a huge deficiency with the Beta CTAs. Until that's updated, I'll be sticking to the Legacy CTAs.

[hseligson]

Hi @cooperelias! Thank you for your valuable feedback! I have shared it with our tech lead, who greatly appreciates it. We understand that there may be tradeoffs when approaching our new product with a Starter+ mentality, but we plan to address them.

[Jnix284]

@cooperelias the new pop-up CTAs are using an iframe (definitely agree that's not ideal), but the standard button option looks to be a regular embed:

<div class="hs-cta-embed hs-cta-simple-placeholder hs-cta-embed-118568543637"
style="max-width:100%; max-height:100%; width:210px;height:42.390625px">
<a href="https://cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/web-interactives/public/v1/track/redirect?encryptedPayload=AVxi..." target="_blank" rel="noopener" crossorigin="anonymous">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/4740449/interactive-118568543637.png" style="height: 100%; width: 100%; object-fit: fill"
onerror="this.style.display='none'" />
</a>
</div>

[Jnix284]

Thanks @hseligson, this is a very exciting change for CTAs (especially the dashboard and reporting).

A couple of questions (not sure if the answers are available yet):

1 - will the new CTA tracking script have improved performance?

2 - will the new CTA tool be available with the same HubSpot subscriptions or will there be any changes?

[hseligson]

Hi @Jnix284! I have good news regarding your questions about the new CTA tracking script. After speaking with our product manager and tech lead, I can confirm that the new script will have improved tracking abilities while still relying on the page to load and replace a placeholder image. Additionally, the new CTA 2.0 will be available for Starter+ subscriptions and potentially for Free+ subscriptions in the future. Legacy CTAs, on the other hand, will only be available in MH/CMS Pro+.