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Create marketing goals

Last updated: February 28, 2024

Available with any of the following subscriptions, except where noted:

Marketing Hub   Professional , Enterprise

Using marketing goals, you can set, track and manage goals for your ad campaigns in HubSpot. For example, you can track ad costs for each contact in a specified lifecycle stage.

Requirements

To create a marketing goal you must:

Create goals for your ad campaigns

You can create goals to track your ad's performance from either the Ads tool or the Goals tool.

  • To create an ad goal from your Ads tool:
    • In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Ads.
    • In the top right, click Create > Goal.
    • Click the Template dropdown menu to select the type of goal you want to create.
  • To create an ad goal from your Reports tool:
    • In your HubSpot account, navigate to Reporting & Data > Goals.
    • In the top right, click Create goal.
    • Click Create from template
  • In the left panel under Category, select Customer service.
  • Select the goal type you want to create, then click Set goal.
    • Network conversions: track the sum of measured actions that contacts took as defined in each ad network for a single or multi-ad campaign. These actions are defined in each specific ad network.
    • Cost per contact in a lifecycle stage: track the ad costs for each contact in a specified lifecycle stage that meet the contact first form submission. Only default lifecycle stages can be selected, custom lifecycle stages cannot be used. 
    • Number of contacts in a lifecycle stage: track the number of contacts in a specified lifecycle stage that meet the contact first form submission. Only default lifecycle stages can be selected, custom lifecycle stages cannot be used. 
    • Contacts from first form submission: track the sum of contacts across all ad campaigns on the goal that clicked a tracked ad, then submitted a form on your website for the first time during a session. Learn more about ads attribution in HubSpot.
  • In the Name field, enter a goal name.
  • If you selected Cost per contact in a lifecycle stage or Number of contacts in a lifecycle stage, select a Lifecycle stage from the dropdown menu.
  • In the bottom right, click Next.
     

  • Click the Ad account dropdown menu and select the checkboxes next to the ad accounts you want to associate with the goal. 
  • Click the Ad campaign dropdown menu and select ad campaigns to associate with the goal. 
  • Click the Duration dropdown menu and select weekly, monthlyquarterly, yearly, or custom.

    • When using weekly, monthlyquarterly, or yearly, to align the goal's duration with your account's fiscal year, select the Align with your fiscal year settings? checkbox. 

    • When using a custom duration, enter the start and end dates.
  • In the bottom right, click Next.

 

  • To apply the same campaign or target value for each duration:

    • Select the checkbox next to the ad campaign.

    • At the top of the table, click Apply targets.

    • In the dialog box, enter the target value.

    •  Click Apply.

  • In the bottom right, click Next

 

  • To send notifications to the creator of the goal, select the checkboxes next to each notification type.
  • In the bottom right, click Done.
Please note: when using the goal type  Cost per contact in a lifecycle stage, only  Goal kick-off notifications will be available.

 

Manage goals

After creating your ad goals, you can review the performance of your ad goals directly from the ads tool or from the reporting tool.

Please note: goal progress will update every 24 hours. While the goal is ongoing, changes will be reflected in the next goal progress update. Changes made to a deal after a goal is due will not update the goal's progress.

Manage goals from the ads tool 

To review and manage your goals from the ads tool: 
  • In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Ads.
  • Click the Analyze tab. 
  • In the left sidebar menu, click Goals.
  • Click the Goal type dropdown menu and select the goal type to review.
  • To view the details of a specific goal, hover over the goal name and click View progress.
  • In the right panel, analyze the goal's details such as ad spend and cost per lead.
    • To edit an ad campaign or review more performance metrics, click the ad campaign name
    • To edit the goal, click Edit in goal settings. You will be directed to edit the goal targets within the Goals tool.
       

 

Manage goals from the reporting tool 

When reviewing your ads from the reporting tool, you can filter by ad campaign, ad account, teams, users, goal duration, status, and progress. To review and manage your goals from the reporting tool: 
  • In your HubSpot account, navigate to ReportsGoals.
  • Use the dropdown menus to filter your goals. You can apply the following filters:
    • Ad campaigns: filter by the ad campaigns that the goals apply to. 
    • Ad accounts: filter by the ad accounts that the goals apply to.
    • Teams: filter by the user that created the goal's HubSpot team
    • Users: filter by the HubSpot users that created the goal. 
    • Goal duration: filter by the goal duration 
    • Status: filter by the goal status. the following statuses indicate the goal's progress:
      • Exceeded: filter by goals that exceeded 100% of the target by the milestone.
      • Pending: filter by goals where the progress is not yet measured when the current date is before the goal's start date.
      • Missed: filter by goals that did not meet 100% of the target by the milestone.
      • Achieved: filter by goals that reached 100% of the target by the milestone.
      • In progress: filter by ongoing goals when the current date falls between the start date and end date of the goal.
    • Progress: filter by the goal's progress. You can set a minimum and maximum range. 
  • To clear all filters, at the top, click Clear all
  • To view more details about an ad campaign's goals, hover over the ad name and click View details
  • To edit a goal, hover over the ad and click Edit goal. In the right panel, edit the goal’s name, targets and notification settings, then click Save.
  • To delete a goal, select the checkbox next to the ad. Then, click Delete at the top of the table. In the dialog box, click Delete goal to confirm.
     

 

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