Track visitors in HubSpot

HubSpot tracks visitors using browser cookies. Every time a visitor lands on your website, HubSpot will check for an existing tracking cookie. If one does not exist, a cookie will be associated with that visitor and will log every page that person visits moving forward.

With regard to how HubSpot handles tracking cookies, please note the following:

• Visitors will be tracked anonymously even before they become contacts. If and when a visitor fills out a form, HubSpot will associate their previous page views based on the tracking cookie. If the email address filled in the form is associated with an existing contact, this visitor will be identified as the contact. This includes contacts that were imported.
• If a visitor deletes their cookies, they will be considered a new visitor and will be assigned a new cookie. However, HubSpot will automatically deduplicate form submissions coming from the same email address, even if different browser cookies were associated with the submissions.
• Since cookies are unique to a browser, if two people share a single computer, their submissions will be associated with the same contact record. This deduplication by cookie ensures that if a contact submits forms on your website using different email addresses, all submissions are associated with a single contact record in HubSpot.
• If you want each form submission from the same browser to create a new contact, ensure the Always create new contact for new email option is turned on in your form. This can be useful in situations such as collecting contact details at a trade show on a single device. If the Always create new contact for new email setting is turned off:
  •  HubSpot will first attempt to associate the submission with an existing contact with the submitted email address.
  • If no contact exists at that email address, HubSpot will recognize and update your contacts based on the cookies in their browsers. This may result in contacts being overwritten if the same form is submitted multiple times from the same device.

• HubSpot does not track unique visitors. This metric is based on user behavior and is not always reliable. A user may clear their cookies, use a different browser, or block cookies. While these page views are still tracked, all of these actions will count toward multiple unique visitors for the same actual visitor.
• When a website is using a cookie banner, no unessential cookies will be dropped on a visitor's browser until the visitor accepts tracking through the banner. When cookie tracking is accepted by the visitor, HubSpot will associate a cookie to their device and track their activity. The tracking begins at the point of acceptance.
• If a visitor converts into a contact after accepting cookies, you can view activities on their contact record. If a visitor converts into a contact but does not accept cookies, you will not see any activities such as page views on their record.
• Cookie banner rules can be customized based on domain, URL path, or country. Learn more about customizing your cookie consent banner.
• HubSpot will attribute page views to a contact if the contact clicks a link in a tracked marketing email which directs to a page with the HubSpot tracking code installed. 
• The HubSpot tracking code will make asynchronous requests to several HubSpot domains, such as track.hubspot.com and forms.hubspot.com. HubSpot serves these scripts on multiple domains to decrease the chance of any single script failing to load, which can occur if a visitor is using a browser extension that blocks some HubSpot domains.
• The Tracking Code API can also be used to track visitors in HubSpot.
• In marketing emails, HubSpot will only associate the cookie with an existing contact once. Any subsequent clicks on email links such as in a forwarded email will assign a temporary identity to the cookie. The contact must then submit a form, or enter their information via another method for HubSpot to identify them and associate the cookie with their record.
• It is not possible to track visitors from the files tool. When a visitor accesses a file, whether as a download or a URL, it will not count toward any page view metrics and cannot be used as a filter or for workflow enrollment.