How to Connect LinkedIn Ads to HubSpot

Tired of manually downloading CSV files and uploading lead lists from your LinkedIn campaigns into HubSpot? There’s a much better way to handle your workflow. By connecting your LinkedIn Ads account directly to HubSpot, you automate the entire lead handover process, allowing your sales team to follow up faster while giving you a crystal-clear picture of your campaign ROI. This guide walks you through the entire setup, from connecting the accounts to fine-tuning your tracking.

Why Connect LinkedIn Ads to HubSpot?

Before we get into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." Linking these two powerhouse platforms is more than just a time-saver, it fundamentally improves your marketing and sales operations. The benefits are immediate and impactful.

1. Instant Lead Syncing and Faster Follow-Up

The single biggest advantage is speed. When a lead submits a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form, their information automatically appears as a new contact in HubSpot within minutes. Manually exporting and importing lead lists can take hours or even days, by which time a lead's interest might have gone cold. According to studies, businesses that follow up with a lead within an hour are nearly seven times more likely to have a meaningful conversation.

This automation removes the friction between marketing and sales. There’s no more "waiting on the list from marketing." Sales reps get notified instantly and can act while your brand and offer are still top-of-mind.

2. Closed-Loop ROI Reporting

How do you know if your LinkedIn Ad spend is actually leading to paying customers? By connecting the platforms, you close the reporting loop. HubSpot's attribution reporting can track a contact from their initial click on a LinkedIn Ad all the way through the sales funnel until they become a customer.

This allows you to answer critical questions like:

• Which specific LinkedIn campaigns are generating the most valuable leads?
• What is the average customer lifetime value from leads acquired via LinkedIn?
• What is our final ROI on that $5,000 ad spend from last quarter?

This data empowers you to double down on what’s working and cut spending on campaigns that aren't delivering business results, not just clicks or form fills.

3. Deeper Lead Intelligence

HubSpot doesn't just create a new contact, it pulls in rich data associated with the lead's LinkedIn profile. The information you get can include their company, job title, industry, and location. This context is incredibly valuable for your sales team, allowing them to personalize their outreach and have more relevant conversations from the very first interaction.

4. Automated Nurturing with Workflows

Once a lead is in HubSpot, you can use its powerful workflow automation to nurture them immediately. You can automatically enroll leads from a specific LinkedIn campaign into a targeted email nurture sequence, assign them to a salesperson based on territory, or send them a second piece of relevant content. This keeps your leads engaged and moving down the funnel without any manual effort.

What You’ll Need Before You Start

To make the connection as smooth as possible, make sure you have everything ready before you begin. A little preparation now saves a lot of headaches later.

• HubSpot Account Access: You need to be a Super Admin or have App Marketplace Access permissions in your HubSpot account.
• HubSpot Subscription: This integration requires a subscription to Marketing Hub (Professional or Enterprise) or Sales Hub (Professional or Enterprise).
• LinkedIn Ads Account Access: You'll need to be an Account Manager or have higher permissions for the specific LinkedIn Ads account you want to connect.
• Pop-up Blockers Disabled: Temporarily disable any pop-up blockers in your browser, as they can interfere with the authorization windows from LinkedIn.

Step-by-Step Guide: Connecting Your LinkedIn Ads Account to HubSpot

Alright, you're ready to get started. Linking the accounts is a straightforward process that you can complete in just a few minutes within your HubSpot portal.

Step 1: Navigate to the HubSpot App Marketplace

Once you're logged into your HubSpot account, look for the gear icon in the top-right corner to go to your settings. On the left-hand navigation menu, find the 'Integrations' section and click on 'App Marketplace'. This is HubSpot's hub for all third-party app connections.

Step 2: Find and Install the "LinkedIn Ads" App

In the App Marketplace search bar, simply type "LinkedIn." You should see an official app called "LinkedIn" developed by HubSpot. Click on it. On the app's page, you'll see a button in the top-right corner that says "Install app." Click it to begin the setup process.

Step 3: Connect to Your LinkedIn Profile

A pop-up window will appear, prompting you to log in to your LinkedIn account. Enter your credentials and sign in. LinkedIn will then ask you to authorize HubSpot to access your account information. This step is to grant permission for HubSpot to see your ad accounts and sync data. Click “Allow.” It's important to use the LinkedIn profile that has administrative access to the Ad Account you’re trying to connect.

Step 4: Select Your LinkedIn Ads Account

Once you've authorized the connection, HubSpot will display a list of all the LinkedIn Ads accounts associated with your user profile. Check the box next to each ad account you want to connect to this HubSpot portal. You can select multiple accounts if you manage more than one. After making your selections, click "Connect."

Step 5: Configure Lead Syncing for Your Ad Accounts

This is where the magic happens. After connecting your ad accounts, HubSpot will bring you to the settings page for the integration. Navigate to the “Lead Syncing” tab.

Here, you need to turn on lead syncing. There's a master switch at the top that says something like “Sync leads from your LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms.” Toggle this ON.

• Historical Syncing: HubSpot gives you the option to sync leads from the past 90 days. This is great for getting immediate value from the integration and populating your CRM with your most recent leads.
• Lifecycle Stage: You can also choose the default HubSpot lifecycle stage (e.g., Lead, Marketing Qualified Lead) for all new contacts coming from LinkedIn. This helps with organization and reporting right from the start.

Step 6: Map Your Lead Gen Form Fields (Super Important!)

Stay on the Lead Syncing settings. For each synced ad account, HubSpot will list your existing Lead Gen Forms. This is where you map the fields from your LinkedIn form (like First Name, Email, Company Name) to the correct contact properties in HubSpot. HubSpot does a good job of automatically matching common fields (e.g., 'email' on LinkedIn matches 'Email' in HubSpot), but you should always double-check.

For any custom questions on your form, you'll need to create a corresponding custom property in HubSpot first. Then you can map your custom LinkedIn question to that new HubSpot property. Get this right, and all your lead data will flow into your CRM perfectly organized.

Step 7: Enable auto-tracking for all new campaigns

Finally, go to the “Tracking” tab in the LinkedIn Ads integration settings. Enable the toggle for "Auto-track ads". This adds a small tracking parameter to the end of your ad's destination URL. It doesn’t affect the link itself, but it allows HubSpot's web analytics to see exactly which ad clicks are driving traffic to your site. This is what makes the powerful attribution reporting possible.

And that’s it! Your LinkedIn Ads account and HubSpot portal are now connected. New leads will start syncing automatically.

Putting It All Together: Best Practices

Connecting the platforms is the first step. To get the most value, here are a few best practices to implement.

Automate Follow-Up with HubSpot Workflows

Don’t let your new leads just sit there. Create a workflow that triggers whenever a contact is created from a specific LinkedIn Lead Form.

• Send an Instant Welcome Email: Deliver a personalized email the moment they submit the form. Deliver the e-book, webinar link, or whatever you promised in your ad.
• Create a Sales Task: Automatically create and assign a task to a sales rep to "Follow up with new LinkedIn lead." You can even set due dates and rotate assignments.
• Personalize Lead Nurturing: Add new leads to a relevant email sequence. If they downloaded a guide about social media marketing, send them a follow-up email in a few days about a case study on the same topic.

Build a Custom LinkedIn Ads Dashboard

Use HubSpot's reporting tools to build a custom dashboard dedicated to your LinkedIn Ads performance. This can be your single source of truth for campaign impact. Include reports like:

• Contact Create Attribution: A report that shows how many new contacts were generated by each LinkedIn campaign.
• Deals Created by Campaign: A powerful report showing how many deals in your sales pipeline were opened with a contact originating from a specific campaign.
• Campaign Performance with Deal Revenue: Take it one step further and show the actual revenue generated from closed-won deals associated with your LinkedIn Ads campaigns. This is the ultimate ROI metric.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Sometimes, things don't go perfectly. Here are a couple of quick fixes for common problems:

• Leads aren’t syncing: The most common culprit is a field mapping issue. Go back to your Lead Syncing settings and make sure every field on your LinkedIn form is correctly mapped to a HubSpot property. Another common issue is that ads from different Business Manager profiles are running.
• Tracking not working: Ensure that "Auto-track ads" is enabled in your HubSpot settings. If you created a campaign *before* enabling this, HubSpot won't be able to track it. You may need to duplicate the ad set for tracking to kick in properly.

Final Thoughts

Connecting your LinkedIn Ads account to HubSpot bridges the gap between ad spend and real business results. By automating your lead flow and enabling closed-loop reporting, you empower your marketing and sales teams to work more efficiently and make smarter, data-driven decisions that grow your business.

At Postbase, we understand that marketing gets complicated when your tools don't talk to each other. Juggling multiple social platforms, content formats, and analytics dashboards can feel overwhelming. That’s why we built a simple, modern platform that brings all your planning, scheduling, engagement, and analytics into one clean space, with stable connections that don't constantly break. If you're tired of legacy tools that feel like they're working against you, learn more about Postbase.