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Troubleshoot ad tracking issues

Last updated: April 14, 2023

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After connecting your ad account to HubSpot and toggling auto-tracking on, HubSpot will attempt to apply tracking to all the ads in the ad account.

If HubSpot cannot track any of your ads, an error will appear in your Ads dashboard. After reviewing and resolving these errors, HubSpot will attempt to apply the tracking template again within 15 minutes. 

Please note: the ad networks' interfaces frequently update, and while HubSpot monitors these changes closely, the screenshots included below may not always match what you see in your ads account.

Identify and review your ad tracking errors

To review your ad tracking errors:

  • In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Ads.
  • Review your ad campaigns for any tracking errors. Then, click on the campaign name.
  • Locate the ad group or ad set containing the ad with a tracking issue. Click the ad group or ad set name.
  • Hover over the alert and click View errors. 
  • In the right panel, review the errors and steps to resolve. 

General errors


Error

What the error means

 Steps to resolve the error

Ads tool not loading

If you're facing issues loading any ad content or the ads tool, it is likely due to ad blockers installed on your browser.

Ad blockers such as Ghostery or AdBlock can prevent the ads tool from loading.

 To resolve this error, check your browser and disable any ad blockers, then try loading the ads tool again. 

Auto tracking is off

When connecting your ad account, HubSpot will prompt you to turn auto-tracking on for your ads.

If you toggle auto-tracking off, HubSpot will not able to attribute contacts to your ads.

 To prevent this error, re-enable auto-tracking in your HubSpot Ads settings.

Insufficient permissions

This error appears when the user who originally connected the ad account to HubSpot does not have sufficient permissions for the account or business page.

Generally, the connecting user will require admin permissions. 

 To resolve this issue, ensure that the user has sufficient permissions for the Facebook Ads, Google Ads, or LinkedIn Ads account, and sufficient permissions for the relevant Facebook or LinkedIn business page. 

Redirected ad URLs

Redirected URLs are not compatible with HubSpot's ad tracking. When a URL is redirected, any attached tracking parameters are lost. 

 To resolve this issue, use the full, final URL for each ad. Do not use click tracking services that require a redirect.

Some common redirect situations are:

  • Link-shortening services, such as bit.ly and hubs.ly.
  • Click tracking services that require a redirect.
  • URLs that redirect from an http to an https version of your page.
  • URLs for boosted social posts in other networks such as LinkedIn. Boosted social posts are currently only supported in HubSpot with Facebook.

We can't track your ads right now. We'll automatically try again every day

This error appears when HubSpot is unable to apply tracking to your ad, but no further information is available from the ad network. 

 If the error does not resolve itself after some time, please contact HubSpot Support.

Unable to track this campaign type

This error appears when ad network's API limitations prevent HubSpot from tracking the ad campaign.

 Due to these limitations, HubSpot cannot track the following campaign types:

  • Facebook Messenger campaigns

  • Facebook campaigns configured to appear on Instagram Feed, Instagram Explore, or Instagram Stories.

  • Facebook campaigns that do not link to an external website.

  • LinkedIn campaigns configured to use any of the following ad formats: Carousel image ad or Inmail message ad.

Facebook ad tracking errors

Error

What the error means

 Steps to resolve the error

Too many engagements

Facebook uses an algorithm to optimize ads in its network. To prevent interfering with this optimization, HubSpot will not apply tracking to any ads that have more than 20 engagements. This is determined at the time you connect your Facebook ad account to HubSpot.

 To resolve this issue, duplicate the ad to create a new version with no engagements. You can also manually copy HubSpot's tracking template to the ad in your Facebook Ads account:
  • In your Facebook Ads account, navigate to the Ad Manager.
  • Locate the campaign to edit, then click Edit.
  • Click the specific ad to edit.
  • In the Tracking section of the editor, click Build a URL parameter.
  • Enter each of the parameters from HubSpot's tracking template, omitting the hsa_src parameter (this is a variable that can only be added via API).
  • Set the proper numerical values for your account ID, campaign ID, ad set ID, and ad ID for the hsa_acc, hsa_cam, hsa_grp, and hsa_ad parameters, respectively.


Alternatively, you can also choose to override Facebook Ads tracking limits. When doing so, HubSpot will then append tracking parameters to the ad. However, doing so may sometimes cause your Facebook ads to go back to the learning phase. 

To override Facebook Ads tracking limits:
  • In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Ads.
  • Click the ad campaign that the untracked ad is under.
  • Click the ad set that the untracked ad is under.
  • Hover over the ad, then in the alert, click Fix alert.
  • In the dialog box, click Yes, add tracking. 

Invalid crop size

This error occurs if Facebook's horizontal crop size option, 1.91:1, is selected when creating and configuring your ad's image.|

Due to a limitation in Facebook's API, HubSpot cannot apply tracking to ads with this aspect ratio.

 To resolve this, crop the image in an external image editor or select a different cropping option for the ad in your Facebook ad account:
  • In your Facebook Ads account, navigate to your Facebook Ads manager.
  • Locate the campaign of the ad with the tracking error, then click Edit.
  • Click the specific ad with the crop size error.
  • In the Ad creative section of the editor, click Edit > Edit media.
  • In the dialog box, select a new cropping option.

Google ad tracking errors

Error

What this error means

 Steps to resolve

The HubSpot tracking template has been edited

This error appears when the tracking template in your Google Ads account or campaign settings does not start with {lpurl}. This issue can occur when external click tracking services, such as Clickserve, automatically updates the tracking template.

 To resolve this issue:
  • Disable HubSpot's auto-tracking for that account:
    • In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the main navigation bar.
    • In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Marketing > Ads.
    • Locate your Google Ads account and click to toggle the Auto tracking switch off.
  • Manually apply HubSpot's tracking template to your Google Ads account settings:
      • Log in to your Google Ads account.
      • In the left sidebar menu, click Settings, then click Account Settings.
      • Click Tracking.
      • In the Tracking template field, enter the parameters below, replacing the value for hsa_acc with the account ID of your Google Ads account, excluding dashes.
{lpurl}?utm_term={keyword}&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign={_utmcampaign}&hsa_cam={campaignid}&hsa_grp={adgroupid}&hsa_mt={matchtype}&hsa_src={network}&hsa_ad={creative}&hsa_acc={ID of account/customer}&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_kw={keyword}&hsa_tgt={targetid}&hsa_ver=3

Customized tracking

This error occurs when customized parameters added as part of a third-party service interferes with HubSpot's ad tracking.

If you'd like to configure each tracking parameter for your ad account yourself, you can manually add the HubSpot tracking template.
 
To use HubSpot's tracking template to track your ads, you will need to remove any customized tracking on the account, ad group, and ad level in your Google Ads account:



 To remove customized tracking from your ad account:
  • In your Google Ads account, navigate to your account settings.
  • In the left sidebar menu, click Settings, then click Account Settings.
  • Click Tracking to expand the section.
  • Under Tracking template, delete the customized tracking template or any other parameters you may have previously added.
  • Click Save.
To remove custom parameters from the ad group:
  • In your Google Ads account, in the left menu, click Ad groups.
  • Select the checkboxes next to the ad groups you want to edit, or select the top checkbox to select all ad groups.
  • Click the Edit dropdown menu and select Change tracking templates.
  • Leave the field blank and click Apply to remove any existing tracking templates.
  • Click the Edit dropdown menu again and select Change custom parameters.
  • Select Remove parameters and click Apply to remove any additional custom parameters.

To remove custom parameters from individual ads:
    • In your Google Ads account, in the left menu, click Ads & extensions.
    • Select the checkboxes next to the ads you want to edit, or select the top checkbox to select all ads (recommended).
    • Click the Edit dropdown menu and select Change tracking templates.
    • Leave the field blank and click Apply to remove any existing tracking templates.
    • Click the Edit dropdown menu again and select Change custom parameters.
    • Select Remove parameters and click Apply to remove any additional custom parameters.
  • After you've removed any customized tracking, navigate back to your HubSpot account and click Refresh tracking in the Contact tracking errors side panel.

LinkedIn ad tracking errors

Error 

What this error means

 Steps to resolve

Your ad is using shared content or the tracking has been edited

This error occurs when you have multiple ads pointing to the same post on your LinkedIn company page.

 LinkedIn uses the same identifiers for ads made for the same published post, interactions will only be attributed to the first ad. To resolve this error, try the following:
  • Create one ad for each existing post on your LinkedIn company page.
  • Create a new post for each Sponsored Content ad.

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