Need help with conversion tracking setup
Our team uses HubSpot for managing leads and customer registrations. We connected it with Salesforce but now we have problems with HubSpot’s automatic contact merging feature.
Our clients work in the hotel industry and they often switch between different properties or work at multiple locations. This creates duplicate contacts across various accounts. When existing customers fill out forms meant for new leads, HubSpot merges their info with old records instead of creating fresh leads.
This makes things confusing for our sales team because they can’t tell if it’s a new inquiry or existing customer activity.
HubSpot doesn’t allow us to make forms that always generate new leads even when contacts already exist in the system.
We thought about using a third party form tool embedded in our HubSpot landing pages. This would solve the duplicate issue since it always creates new leads. The problem is we lose all the conversion tracking data that comes with native HubSpot forms.
I reached out to HubSpot support asking how to make external forms send conversion data back to HubSpot through their API. They just pointed me to their API docs and said I need to build a backend server.
I know some coding but I’m not really a web developer. Can this work with PHP code on the landing page? Is there a simple way to track these conversions without building a whole server setup?
Any guidance would be really helpful. Thanks!
use hidden fields in your forms to separate new inquiries from existing ones. add a ‘submission_type’ field with ‘new_lead’ or ‘property_update’ values. sales can filter these and know what’s what even after contacts merge. much easier than fighting hubspot’s system.
I’ve dealt with this exact issue with hospitality clients. Skip the external forms - use HubSpot’s workflow automation instead. Set up workflows that catch when existing contacts submit forms, then automatically create tasks or deals for your sales team instead of updating the original contact. You’ll keep your conversion tracking intact while giving sales clear visibility into new inquiries vs. existing customer activity. Create smart lists to segment these interactions and add custom properties to flag submission types. Everything stays in HubSpot’s ecosystem, so you won’t lose any analytics or reporting - and there’s no custom dev work needed.
Had the same issue with a client running multiple restaurants. Skip the external form - use HubSpot’s contact properties instead. Set up a custom property like “inquiry_source” that gets filled whenever someone submits a form. Then trigger different workflows based on whether it’s a new lead or repeat contact. For tracking conversions from external forms, drop HubSpot’s tracking code on your landing pages and use the Forms API to push data back. The API’s simple - just a POST request with your form data and portal ID. You don’t need a full backend, just some JavaScript that fires when the external form submits. Keeps your conversion attribution intact and fixes the duplicate contact mess.
yeah, using php directly on landing pages ain’t the way to go. look into zapier or other tools that can automate this stuff for you. they can grab submissions from your forms and send em to hubspot without messing up with server setups. much simpler and keeps your tracking intact.
External forms definitely work with HubSpot tracking if you set up the code right. I’ve done this for several hospitality clients who needed separate lead gen. Just fire HubSpot’s tracking events through their JavaScript API when the form submits. Use _hsq.push(['trackEvent', { id: 'form_submission', value: 'custom_form' }]); with the contact creation API call. For PHP, handle the submission server-side and hit the API to create contacts with specific properties that separate them from existing records. Set up a webhook that processes the form data and sends it to HubSpot with custom properties like ‘lead_source’ or ‘inquiry_type’. This keeps your conversion attribution intact and dodges the contact merging problem completely. The API docs are pretty straightforward once you focus on the contacts endpoint.