How to track the returning contacts coming to website

[KPraveenKumar]

Hello Everyone,

As of now, in hubspot the original source type is tracking the first time time visitors that through which channel they are opening website.

Now, I also want to track the visitors through which channel(like google, social media, paid search etc) the visitors are opening website again.

test scenario - If i imported 100 contacts in hubspot, the original source type will be updated as offline sources.

Now, in 100 contacts 30 were opened the website through paid search and 20 were opened through email marketing and 20 were opened through social media. Hubspot was unable to track this. I want to know through which channel they are opening website . If i know this I can give importance to particular channel and i can spent my budget more to that particular channel.

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @KPraveenKumar,

The original source will not be updated, not, since by definition the original source is the first source.

But yes, the reports and landing page analytics are looking at the utm parameters of a link. That way HubSpot is able to attribute views and submissions to an ad or social campaign even if it's not the first touchpoint.

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

Best regards!

[KPraveenKumar]

Hi @karstenkoehler,

let me explain you with an example

a person named john has been added to hubspot then original source type will be updated as offline sources. Now, john has opened our website through email marketing. Then, we want to track through which channel he is opening our website.

Now, if we have a field called original source type 2, when john has opened our website then the original source type 2 will be updated according to the channel.

This is what i was required. I hope you got it.

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @KPraveenKumar,

The original source properties are read only, they cannot be changed the way you'd like to change them. They're locked.

However, the information you would gain if this was possible, hypothetically, is available through other reports, for example the ones I mentioned above.

You can learn more about the "Offline contacts" category here: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/reports/how-were-contacts-added-to-hubspot-from-an-offline-source

Best regards!

[KPraveenKumar]

Hi @karstenkoehler,

The process you told, it will show original source type for returning contacts as well?

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @KPraveenKumar,

HubSpot is able to track this, just from a different angle. This information is not stored in a contact property like Original source but it's available in reports. (When you think about it's hard to conceptualize what this would look like on a property level, second source? Third to last source?)

First of all, you'll see the source that are driving traffic and conversions on the landing page dashboard. Find your landing page in HubSpot and scroll to the very bottom:

This will give you information on how many people from certain sources viewed your page and submitted a form. This is one of the best ways to evaluate campaign performance.

For paid and social specifically, there are default reports in the Report library (Menu > Reports > Reports > Report library) that help with answering your questions. Select Ads and Social in the left sidebar and you'll see the report templates, especially "Ads attributed contacts by social network".

Hope this helps!