Troubleshoot ad tracking issues

After you connect your ad account to HubSpot and toggle 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.

Once you review and resolve 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.

Review ad tracking errors

To view tracking errors for an ad:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Ads.
• Locate a campaign with an alert under Total Contacts, Leads, or any other column related to a contact lifecycle stage. Then click on the campaign name.
• Locate the ad group or ad set that contains the ad with a tracking issue. Click the ad group or ad set name.
• Hover over the alert to see details about the tracking issue and how to resolve it.

Resolve general errors

Auto tracking is off

When you connect your ad account, HubSpot prompts 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. You can 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 doesn't have sufficient permissions for the account or business page. To resolve this issue, ensure the user has the correct 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 because URLs will lose all tracking parameters during the redirect. To resolve this issue, use the full, final URL for each ad, and don't use click tracking services that require a redirect.

The most 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.

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, please contact HubSpot Support.

Unable to track this campaign type.

This error appears when ad network API limitations prevent HubSpot from tracking the ad campaign. Due to these limitations, HubSpot cannot track the following campaign types:

• Google smart campaigns
• 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, Video ad,  Text ad, Spotlight ad, or Message ad.

Resolve Facebook ad tracking errors

Too many engagements

Facebook uses an algorithm to optimize ads in their network. To prevent interfering with this optimization, HubSpot will not apply tracking to any ads that have more than 20 engagements 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 in 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.

Invalid crop size

This error occurs if you selected Facebook's horizontal crop size option, 1.91:1, when you first created your ad and configured your ad's image. Due to a limitation in Facebook's API, HubSpot can't apply tracking to ads with this aspect ratio. You can fix this issue by cropping the image in an external image editor, or by choosing 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 the Edit Image dropdown menu, then select Crop image.
• In the dialog box, specify a new cropping option by selecting Original, Vertical, or Square.
• Click Save.

Resolve Google ad tracking errors

The HubSpot tracking template has been edited

This error appears when your 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 icon settings 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.
  • Under Tracking Template, 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

• • Click Save.

Overriding customized tracking

In Google Ads, customizing tracking parameters on the ad group or ad level will override HubSpot's tracking template. To resolve this issue, remove any customized tracking on the ad group and ad level in your Google Ads account:

• To remove custom parameters from the ad group:
  • In your Google Ads account, navigate to your campaigns.
  • 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 (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.

• To remove custom parameters from individual ads:
  • 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.

Please note: customized tracking on the campaign or account level does not interfere with HubSpot's tracking template, and is therefore compatible with HubSpot's ad tracking. Parameters added on the campaign or account levels in Google Ads will merge with the existing parameters in HubSpot's tracking template.

Resolve LinkedIn ad tracking errors

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

This error appears when you have multiple ads pointing to the same post on your LinkedIn company page. Since LinkedIn uses the same identifiers for ads made for the same published post, interactions will only be attributed to the first ad. It's recommended that you create one ad for each existing post on your LinkedIn company page, or create a new post for each Sponsored Content ad.