Mastering HubSpot Attribution: The Essential Campaign Setup Checklist
Why a Checklist is Your Campaign’s Best Friend
You know the feeling: the high-stakes moment of launching a major marketing campaign, followed by the sinking realization that a crucial link is broken, a form isn’t capturing data, or, worst of all, your tracking is missing entirely. When campaigns have dozens of moving parts, it’s incredibly easy to miss one small step in HubSpot, leading to wasted effort, skewed data, and lost leads.
The solution is structure. This comprehensive checklist provides a clear, step-by-step roadmap that ensures a smooth, effective, and fully-trackable campaign launch every single time.
This guide covers the five critical phases of a HubSpot campaign: Strategy, Asset Creation, Automation, Quality Assurance (QA), and Launch/Analysis. Use this to transform your launches from moments of anxiety into predictable paths to profit.
Phase 1: The Foundation – Pre-HubSpot Strategy & Planning
Before you even log in to HubSpot, a solid strategy is non-negotiable.
Define Your Campaign Goal (The “Why”)
Use the SMART framework: Ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Examples: “Generate 150 MQLs from our new ebook in Q3,” or “Drive 500 webinar registrations by June 30th.”
Align the goal with a core business objective (e.g., pipeline generation, brand awareness).
Identify Your Target Audience (The “Who”)
Select the primary Buyer Persona(s) for this campaign.
Define the specific segment you’re targeting (e.g., customers in a certain industry, leads who haven’t engaged in 90 days).
Determine Your Core Offer & Messaging (The “What”)
What is the central piece of content or offer? (e.g., Ebook, webinar, case study, free trial).
Craft the key value proposition and messaging points that will immediately resonate with your audience’s pain points.
Map Your Promotional Channels (The “Where”)
List all channels you will use to promote the campaign (e.g., Email, blog, social media, paid ads, sales outreach). This ensures you build all necessary tracking links later.
Phase 2: The Build – Creating Your Assets in HubSpot
This is the phase where you bring your strategy to life inside the HubSpot portal.
Create the Campaign in HubSpot
Navigate to Marketing > Campaigns > Create Campaign.
Give it a clear, consistent name (e.g.,
Q3-2024-Ebook-Launch-SaaS-Industry).Set the campaign goal, budget, and timeline within the tool. Crucial: Associate all related assets (emails, pages, forms) with this campaign to enable end-to-end reporting.
Build Your Conversion Path
Call-to-Action (CTA): Design a visually compelling CTA with action-oriented text (e.g., “Download Now,” “Reserve Your Seat”).
Landing Page: Create a new landing page with a clear headline, benefit-driven copy, and minimal navigation to maximize focus. Embed your HubSpot Form.
Form: Build the form with only the essential fields. Enable smart fields and progressive profiling to avoid asking returning contacts for information you already have.
Thank You Page: Create a dedicated page that confirms the submission and delivers the offer. Use this page to guide the new lead to a secondary, high-value action (e.g., “Book a demo,” “Follow us on LinkedIn”).
Develop Your Promotional Content
Promotional Emails: Write and design emails for your launch, reminders, and segmentation sends.
Blog Post(s): Write a supporting blog post that introduces the campaign theme and drives organic traffic to your landing page.
Social Media Posts: Prepare copy and creative for all social channels.
Set Up Your Tracking
UTM Tracking URLs: Use the Tracking URL Builder in HubSpot to create unique tracking links for all external channels (social, paid ads, partner links). This is non-negotiable for accurate source attribution.
Lists: Create an active list to segment contacts who convert on the campaign (e.g.,
Form Submission is on [Campaign Landing Page]). Create a static list for your initial promotional sends.
Phase 3: The Engine – Setting Up Automation & Nurturing
Automation turns a one-time conversion into a long-term, revenue-generating relationship.
Build Your Post-Conversion Workflow
Enrollment Trigger: Set the trigger to be the form submission from your campaign’s landing page.
Immediate Actions:
Send an internal notification (email or Slack) to the contact owner (Sales/SDR team).
Set a contact property to identify them as part of this campaign (e.g., “Recent Conversion: Ebook Title”).
Send a follow-up email that delivers the asset (even if it was on the thank you page).
Nurturing Sequence:
Add appropriate time delays (e.g., wait 2 days).
Send a series of 2-4 follow-up emails with related, helpful content that guides the lead toward the next step in the buyer’s journey (e.g., a case study or a demo request).
Configure Lead Scoring & Lifecycle Stages
Ensure your form submission updates the contact’s lead score correctly.
Set a rule in your workflow to change the Lifecycle Stage to “Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)” if the contact meets your predetermined criteria (e.g., form submission + job title + lead score > 50).
Phase 4: The Double-Check – Pre-Launch Quality Assurance (QA)
Never skip this step. A 15-minute check can save you from a major campaign failure and weeks of lost data.
The User Experience Test
Submit a Test: Use a unique, internal email address to submit a test through your landing page form.
Confirm:
Did you get redirected to the correct Thank You Page?
Did you receive the correct follow-up email?
Did the contact record appear correctly in HubSpot?
Was the contact enrolled in the correct workflow?
Was the sales team notified (if applicable)?
The Asset & Link Review
Proofread: Proofread all copy (emails, pages, posts) for typos and grammar.
Click Every Link: Click every single link in your emails and on your pages, including CTAs, to ensure they lead to the correct destination and that all tracking is active.
Check Responsiveness: Verify that your landing page and emails render correctly on both mobile and desktop devices.
Final Settings Check: Confirm all assets (emails, pages, CTAs, etc.) are correctly associated with your HubSpot Campaign and your promotional email send lists are accurate.
Phase 5: Go-Live & Beyond – Launch, Monitor, and Report
The job isn’t done once you hit “publish.” It’s just beginning.
Execute the Launch
Schedule and send your promotional emails.
Publish your blog post.
Post on your social media channels using your UTM tracking links.
Activate your paid ad campaigns.
Monitor Initial Performance (First 24-48 Hours)
Watch for any immediate issues (e.g., high email bounce rates, 404 errors on the landing page).
Monitor real-time traffic and conversion rates in the HubSpot dashboard.
Analyze and Report
Use the HubSpot Campaign Dashboard to track performance against your initial goals.
Key metrics to watch: New contacts, MQLs generated, influenced revenue, landing page submission rate, email open/click rates.
Schedule a regular check-in (weekly/bi-weekly) to review performance and identify opportunities for optimization (e.g., A/B test a CTA, adjust ad spend).
Make Every Campaign a Success
A successful HubSpot campaign is not a matter of luck; it is the direct result of meticulous planning, careful execution, and continuous analysis. By adopting this structured, checklist-driven approach, you eliminate common points of failure, ensure data integrity, and transform your launches from guesswork into a predictable path to profit.
Need help optimizing your HubSpot portal? Schedule a free consultation with one of our experts.
Resources:
HubSpot Knowledge Base – Campaigns: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/campaigns
HubSpot Knowledge Base – Tracking URLs: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/tracking-urls
HubSpot Knowledge Base – Workflows: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/workflows
