Multi-touch attribution made simple in HubSpot
Understand which channels truly move your buyers
Marketing feels uncertain when you cannot tell which channels actually influence your pipeline.
If you are here because you want clarity before spending more budget or launching another campaign, you are in the right place.
If you want attribution that removes the guesswork, book an audit with us and we will walk you through it.
Gartner reports that most B2B buying groups involve six to ten stakeholders. They interact with multiple channels before they ever show up as leads.
Without structured attribution, you see only fragments of that journey.
Multi-touch attribution gives you the full picture.
What multi-touch attribution actually does
Multi-touch attribution distributes credit across all meaningful interactions in the buyer journey. It replaces last-click bias with a more accurate view of how people move from awareness to purchase.
If someone hears you on a podcast, clicks a social post, reads an email, and downloads a guide, attribution shows the value of each step instead of assigning the win to the final interaction.
What counts as a touchpoint in HubSpot?
Tracked automatically
• Page views
• Form submissions
• Marketing email clicks (note: In 2026, email opens are excluded from attribution credit due to privacy-shielded data like Apple MPP.)
• CTA clicks
• Ad clicks from tracking URLs
• Chat interactions
• Meeting bookings
• Workflow-triggered events
Requires configuration
• UTMs for paid ads
• Webinar attendance
• Offline events
• Community engagements
• Custom product usage events
Not tracked by default
• Podcast listens
• Dark social shares
• Slack communities
• Word of mouth
Knowing what is and is not tracked is the foundation of trustworthy attribution.
How HubSpot collects attribution data
HubSpot combines three elements.
- Cookies connect anonymous sessions to known contacts.
- UTMs label where traffic comes from.
- Interaction records store each event in the attribution database.
Attribution loses accuracy when UTM naming is fragmented, cookie consent is missing, or cross-domain tracking is disabled.
You might benefit from checking out our guide on HubSpot UTMs (all about how to pass parameters into HubSpot forms.)
The attribution models you can use in HubSpot
Each model answers a different question.
Here are the simplest ways to understand them.
- Linear assigns equal credit to every interaction (best for a neutral, balanced view.)
- Time decay gives more credit to interactions closer to conversion, highlighting the momentum builders.
- U-shape prioritizes first interaction and lead creation. It's ideal for marketing teams focused on early-stage influence.
- W-shape prioritizes first interaction, lead creation, and deal creation. It essentially aligns marketing and sales impact.
- J-shape assigns heavy credit to the final interaction - useful when conversion actions matter most.
- Inverse J-shape assigns heavy credit to the first interaction. Good for brand and awareness investment.
- Full path (available in Marketing Hub Enterprise) assigns 22.5% credit to the four major milestones: first interaction, lead creation, deal creation, and closed-won.
A simple example that shows how attribution changes interpretation
Sally, our buyer, moves through four interactions.
She lands on a podcast page, clicks a LinkedIn post, engages with an email, and finally downloads a guide.
Different attribution models interpret that same journey in different ways.
Linear treats each touch as equally important, giving all four steps the same credit.
Time decay gives more credit to the email and the guide because they happened closer to the conversion.
U-shape puts most of the weight on the first touch and the moment the buyer becomes a lead, so the podcast and the guide stand out.
W-shape elevates the first interaction, the lead creation point, and any moment that opened a deal if one exists.
Although we have one single buyer, we can employ many different models to assist us in interpreting her behavior.
As a general guide, use Linear when you want a neutral baseline, Time decay when late-stage engagement and timing matter most, and U-shape when you care about how people
first enter and then become leads, W-shaped when both marketing and sales milestones are important, and Full path when you have clean data across all stages and need
revenue level clarity for leadership decisions.
The right choice still depends on your sales cycle length, channel mix, and data quality, so treat these as starting points rather than hard rules.
How to build multi-touch attribution in HubSpot
1. Choose what you want to measure
Contact creation, deal creation, or revenue influence.
2. Create a new attribution report
Go to Reports. Select Create a custom report. Choose Attribution.
3. Pick your model and chart type
HubSpot offers First interaction, Last interaction, Linear, U shape, W shape, Time decay, J shape, Inverse J shape, and Full path.
4. Choose dimensions that reveal meaningful patterns
Most common include channel, campaign, asset type, form, interaction source, and deal stage.
5. Apply filters to remove noise
Use date ranges, lifecycle stages, specific campaigns, or known marketing channels.
These steps produce a clean, usable attribution model.
How to spot inaccurate or incomplete attribution
Your data may be off if you notice:
→ High volumes of direct traffic with unclear origin
→ Paid channels showing minimal influence
→ Missing early-stage interactions
→ Empty top-performing page reports
→ Contacts created with no interaction history
To fix this, check UTMs, cookie settings, Salesforce sync timing, imported list structure, and offline event tagging.
Why attribution matters in RevOps
Attribution gives you evidence for budget allocation, campaign planning, and content priorities.
It prevents teams from overreacting to incomplete data and gives leadership a shared view of what drives revenue.
When attribution is set up correctly, it becomes one of the clearest ways to understand how your buyers behave.
If you want attribution that actually reflects your customer journey, we can help you build it!
Trade uncertainty for experience-backed clarity. Book an audit with Tate to get started.
