Every touchpoint matters when it comes to understanding and engaging with your customers. HubSpot's custom behavioral events allow you to track unique interactions across your website, product, or other assets. These events help you go beyond standard analytics, giving you actionable insights that drive automation, segmentation, and personalization.
In this guide, we'll explore how to create custom behavioral events in HubSpot (both with and without code) and discuss practical use cases, including syncing activity between external platforms (like a SaaS platform) and HubSpot.
Custom behavioral events (now called "custom events" in HubSpot) are user-defined interactions you can track to better understand user and customer actions. Unlike standard HubSpot events (such as page views or form submissions), these events are fully customizable and allow you to track activities unique to your business.
For example:
Custom properties are used to capture a single data point at one moment in time. For instance, a property might tell you the last time a user logged into your platform.
On the other hand, custom events track behavior over time. Each occurrence of an event is logged separately, giving you a timeline of activity. For example, you can log every instance of a user logging in, along with additional details like their IP address or the device they used. You can also carry over other information along with the event, such as UTM parameters.
While both custom events and timeline events record actions, timeline events are primarily used by developers building public apps for HubSpot. Timeline events often require API integrations and are associated with app activities (e.g., syncing email opens).
Custom events, by contrast, are more flexible and accessible. They're ideal for internal use cases like tracking customer interactions or syncing external systems with HubSpot.
HubSpot offers several methods to create custom events, each suited to different levels of technical expertise.
HubSpot's event visualizer makes it easy to track interactions on your website without writing code.
Steps:
This method is great for marketing teams or non-technical users looking to set up quick event tracking.
For advanced tracking, you can use JavaScript to create Custom Events.
Steps:
Custom events can be created programmatically using HubSpot's API, making it easy to sync activity from external platforms like a marketplaces or SaaS apps. You can create an API integration to send certain events into HubSpot whenever they occur.
Steps:
For offline activities, such as in-person events or phone calls, you can upload a spreadsheet of events to HubSpot. This is useful for creating event histories retroactively or testing workflows.
Imagine a scenario where your marketplace is tightly integrated with HubSpot. You can use custom events to track:
This data can power:
For SaaS companies, custom events are essential for tracking user onboarding.
Use them to:
For in-person or virtual events, custom events help track attendance and engagement.
Example workflows:
Custom events can log equipment performance issues for businesses offering hardware or technical products.
Use case:
Custom behavioral events in HubSpot empower you to track, automate, and act on the interactions that matter most to your business. Whether using a no-code visualizer or syncing external systems via API, these events help you bridge the gap between data and actionable insights.
By implementing custom events, you'll understand customer behavior and unlock new opportunities for segmentation, automation, and personalization.
At ProperExpression, we're a HubSpot marketing and development agency with full-stack expertise, from technical implementations to data-driven marketing strategies. Our team can help you unlock the full potential of HubSpot, ensuring your custom events drive meaningful results for your business.
Let's chat about your goals! Contact ProperExpression today to see how we can help you track smarter, automate better, and grow faster.