What is a HubSpot campaign?
A record in HubSpot that groups the assets of one marketing effort, such as landing pages, forms, emails, workflows, segments, social posts and ads, so you can plan them together and report their sessions, new contacts and revenue in one place. The campaigns tool needs Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise, and HubSpot provides 12 campaign templates to start from.
This guide follows HubSpot's documentation as of October 2026. Plan each campaign's goal, assets and launch checks with our free campaign brief template.
How do you set up a campaign in HubSpot?
Create the campaign with a clear name, owner, dates and goal, then add each asset to it as you build. Use HubSpot's auto-generated UTM value on every link outside HubSpot. On Marketing Hub Professional you can also add custom campaign properties, budget and spend, and plan work in the marketing calendar with campaign tasks.
- 01 BriefGoal, audience, offer
- 02 Create campaignOwner, dates, UTM
- 03 Build assetsPage, form, email
- 04 Add to campaignEvery asset
- 05 LaunchQA checked
- 06 ReportSessions, contacts, revenue
- Assets: HubSpot's asset table lists what can be added; multiple forms per campaign need Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise.
- Naming: use one pattern, such as quarter, theme and offer, so campaigns sort and filter cleanly.
- Approvals in Marketing Studio, a beta, need Marketing Hub Enterprise.
How do UTMs and budgets work in campaigns?
HubSpot generates a unique campaign UTM value automatically, and keeps old values as secondary ones if you change it. Sessions from links carrying that utm_campaign value count toward the campaign. Budget items and spend, on Marketing Hub Professional, show remaining budget as budget minus spend, and connected ad spend can sync, taking up to 24 hours.
Ad spend sync only works with lifetime budgets, so enter daily-budget ad spend by hand.
What do HubSpot campaign metrics count?
Sessions count visits to website assets tied to the campaign through its UTM value or associated content, and exclude traffic from workflows, CTAs and ad campaigns. New contacts are shown by first touch and last touch. Influenced contacts are new or existing contacts who engaged with a campaign asset, and once marked, stay marked. Revenue needs Marketing Hub Professional.
| Metric | What HubSpot counts | Plan (Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions | Visits to campaign website assets via utm_campaign or associated content | Professional |
| New contacts | Contacts created, by first touch and by last touch | Professional |
| Influenced contacts | New and existing contacts who engaged with a campaign asset | Professional |
| Revenue | Closed-won deal revenue, spread evenly across the interactions before the deal closed | Professional |
| Attributed revenue, deal create attribution | Credit from HubSpot's attribution models | Enterprise |
Choosing an attribution model is a separate decision; our attribution guide covers which model to use and how to explain it to leadership.
Campaign reports nobody trusts? Bring one to a free 30-minute call and we will check its assets, UTMs and attribution settings.
What are the common HubSpot campaign mistakes?
Assets left out of the campaign, so its numbers are incomplete; links outside HubSpot without the campaign UTM; reporting influenced contacts as if the campaign created them; and comparing HubSpot sessions with Google Analytics as if they used the same rules. Deleting a campaign is risky too, because HubSpot's pages disagree on whether it can be restored.
Check each campaign's asset list before launch and again at the end, using the brief template's asset tab.
HubSpot campaigns checklist
Key takeaway: A campaign report is only as good as its asset list. Name campaigns consistently, add every asset, put the campaign UTM on outside links, and explain what sessions and influenced contacts count before anyone acts on them.
Frequently asked questions
Which HubSpot plan includes the campaigns tool?
Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise, when we checked HubSpot's documentation in October 2026; some pages also list Legacy Marketing Hub Basic. Free and Starter accounts can use the separate campaign assistant, an AI tool for drafting campaign content, which HubSpot limits to a maximum of 10 campaigns.
Does HubSpot create UTM parameters for campaigns?
Yes. HubSpot automatically generates a unique campaign UTM value for each campaign, with the setting to auto-generate unique identifiers on by default. Use that value as utm_campaign on links outside HubSpot, such as ads, partner emails and social posts, so the sessions are counted in the campaign.
Why don't HubSpot campaign sessions match Google Analytics?
HubSpot counts sessions on website assets linked to the campaign through its utm_campaign value or associated content, and its documentation says those sessions don't include traffic from workflows, CTAs or ad campaigns. Google Analytics counts sessions by its own rules, so expect the two numbers to differ.
Can you track budget and spend in HubSpot campaigns?
Yes, on Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise. You add budget items and spend, and HubSpot shows remaining budget as the budget total minus the spend total. Connected ad spend can sync automatically, which HubSpot says can take up to 24 hours and only works with lifetime budgets.
Can you restore a deleted HubSpot campaign?
HubSpot's delete and restore article says deleted campaigns can be restored within three months, but its Marketing Studio settings page says deleted campaigns can't be restored. When we checked in October 2026 the two pages disagreed, so treat deleting a campaign as permanent and archive or rename instead.
Sources
HubSpot documentation behind the feature and tier notes above, checked October 2026. HubSpot changes features and tiers often, so check your own portal too.
- Understand campaigns (HubSpot)
- Associate assets and content with a campaign (HubSpot)
- Manage your campaign UTM values (HubSpot)
- Manage your campaign budget (HubSpot)
- Understand campaign metrics (HubSpot)
- Use campaign attribution reports (HubSpot)
- Delete and restore campaigns (HubSpot)
- Campaigns FAQ (HubSpot)