Considering integrating HubSpot and Google Analytics? We run you through what reporting capabilities you currently have, and how you can supercharge them to close the loop on your sales and revenue.
A challenge many marketers face when it comes to reporting on the effectiveness of their marketing is getting their true ROI. We’re not talking about how many leads they manage to generate. We mean understanding which of your leads go onto close into revenue, and how much.
B2B marketers struggle with this particularly due to difficult-to-track conversions like form fills, live chat and phone calls. While they might be able to track lead volume from these conversion types, they’ll likely struggle to connect an online lead to an offline sale.
Does HubSpot have analytics?
Yes, HubSpot has plenty of reporting options in its dashboard but remember, a lot of its functionality is locked behind a paywall. There are plenty of free reporting dashboards available in HubSpot that allow you to track your website performance, email performance and more. But, features like attribution come at a cost.
And, attribution is the missing link to closing the loop on your sales and your marketing.
What is closed-loop reporting?
Closed-loop reporting is a simple way to describe how marketers can attribute closed sales back to their marketing channels, campaigns and keywords.
Think of it like this.
You drive 100 new leads from your website. But, what then? Do you know:
- How many of those leads close into a sale?
- Which channels and sources drove those leads?
- How much revenue do those leads generate?
- How long does it take for those leads to convert?
With closed-loop reporting, you can track your leads through their full customer journey. It allows you to accurately determine which channels drive the best leads, in terms of revenue.
So, how do you implement it?
Closed-loop reporting with HubSpot and Google Analytics
If you’re already using HubSpot, then chances are you’ve got fairly good oversight of your leads.
But, there are limitations to HubSpot. While it can track a lot of data natively, that data is stuck in HubSpot.
To get your data where you need it, you’ll need to do a bit more work. But, once it’s set up, you can log into Google Analytics and see generated revenue by marketing channel and campaign. Even better, you can see your calls (and other events) too. It gives you one holistic, accurate view so your team can start making data-driven decisions.
Can you connect HubSpot to Google Analytics?
Yes, you can integrate your HubSpot website and blog content with Google Analytics by adding your Google Analytics Tracking ID in your HubSpot settings. But this is only available for three set plans:
- Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise
- CMS Hub Professional and Enterprise
- Legacy Marketing Hub Basic
That means that basic Google Analytics and HubSpot integration isn’t available for anyone unless they’re paying £729 per month. But don’t worry, there’s a workaround.
How to track your website in HubSpot
On all plans, you can add tracking code to your website so that HubSpot can accurately track website visitors and update contacts based on activity.
Here’s how. Head to settings (the gear icon) in the top right menu.
Here, you’ll find the tracking code you need to add to your website. You’ll need to copy and paste it into every page of your site that you want to track.
How to integrate HubSpot and Google Analytics
If you’re not interested in paying upward of £700 per month to connect HubSpot to Google Analytics, there is an alternative.
Ruler Analytics is a marketing attribution tool that works to connect data between key apps. In this example, HubSpot and Google Analytics.
Using a tool like Ruler Analytics, you can automate data collection of leads and sales.
How Ruler Analytics works
It works like this:
A user visits your website. Ruler tracks them, their source, their interactions and more. Each time that user visits, Ruler continues to track them.
When they convert, whether that’s via phone, live chat or form fill, Ruler will fire all of the data held on that user over to HubSpot.
As the lead is now with sales, Ruler will continue to track and update that lead. When sales convert them into closed revenue and update HubSpot, Ruler will scrape that revenue data and fire it to your analytics platforms. There, it can accurately attribute it to your influencing marketing channels and campaigns.
How to set up Ruler and HubSpot
Ruler is an easy tool to integrate, and it has tons of integrations available beyond just HubSpot and Google Analytics.
Ruler can be set up like this:
Add tracking code: You’ll be given a unique tracking code to add to your website. This will allow Ruler to scrape your website data. You need to paste this into every footer of pages you wish to track.
Form and call tracking: To set up call, form and live chat tracking requires a few extra steps to ensure you can monitor when leads convert. You can read the full integration guide here.
Once you’ve set up Ruler Analytics, then you’ll be able to quickly integrate Google Analytics and HubSpot. And from there, it’s all automatic. Ruler will do the hard work for you; collecting and collating lead data and firing necessary data from HubSpot to Google Analytics.
What data will you get in HubSpot
Ruler can add 60 variables to your HubSpot CRM, so we can hardly list them out here! However, some examples include first and last click marketing source, landing page, keyword, GCLID, page views and sessions. You can even trace your lead’s journey through your website.
What data will you get in Google Analytics
Ruler fetches data from HubSpot and links your lead information to your won or lost deals. So, when leads close into revenue, Ruler will scrape the sale data and fire it over to your Google Analytics account. It means you can log into GA and revenue will be automatically attributed to the influencing marketing channels, campaigns and more.
Wrapping Up
There you have it, a hopefully helpful guide on how you can integrate HubSpot with Google Analytics to get closed-loop reporting.
Remember, Ruler is a cheaper and much more viable option than HubSpot’s costly paid plans. Ruler is easy to integrate and once it’s up and running, you can leave it to do all the hard work for you.
And that’s not all Ruler Analytics is capable of. Download this eBook for a clear understanding of Ruler’s core elements and how it can support your business.
Want to get stuck in with closed-loop reporting and marketing attribution? Book a demo with our team to see the data in action.
