Hubspot Analytics Glossary Guide for Marketers

Understanding how Hubspot and Google Analytics talk about data is essential if you want accurate reporting and better marketing decisions. This guide walks through core analytics terms so you can read reports, build dashboards, and align your team around the same definitions.

The terms below are based on the official Hubspot and Google Analytics glossary, simplified for busy marketers who need clear explanations and practical examples.

Why Hubspot Analytics Terminology Matters

When your CRM and web analytics tools use different language, teams can misinterpret performance. A clear grasp of shared terminology helps you:

• Compare metrics across platforms with confidence.
• Create reliable reports for stakeholders.
• Diagnose issues in your funnels and campaigns.
• Avoid double counting or mislabeling key metrics.

By aligning on definitions taken from the Hubspot and Google Analytics glossary, you reduce confusion and make every report easier to understand.

Core Traffic and Session Terms in Hubspot Reports

Traffic metrics describe how visitors arrive at your website or landing pages. Session-based metrics explain what they do while they are there.

Sessions

A session is a group of user interactions with your site that happen within a given time frame. In most analytics tools, a session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity or at midnight, whichever comes first.

• One person can generate multiple sessions in a single day.
• Sessions are used to calculate engagement metrics such as bounce rate and pages per session.

Users vs. New Users

Users represent unique visitors over a given date range, while new users are those visiting for the first time as far as the tracking system can tell.

• Returning users have visited before, usually recognized by cookies or user IDs.
• The ratio of new to returning users helps you understand acquisition versus loyalty.

Pageviews and Unique Pageviews

Pageviews count every time a page is loaded, while unique pageviews count the number of sessions in which that page was viewed at least once.

• High pageviews can indicate strong interest or navigation problems.
• Unique pageviews smooth out inflated counts from refreshes or repeat views in the same session.

Key Hubspot Conversion and Goal Concepts

Conversion metrics connect activity to outcomes. Hubspot and Google Analytics both track how visitors progress from awareness to lead, opportunity, and customer.

Goals

Goals measure completed actions that are valuable to your business, such as a form submission or demo request. In Google Analytics, you configure specific goal types and assign them to views.

In Hubspot, you think about similar milestones, but they are often tied to:

• Lifecycle stages (subscriber, lead, marketing qualified lead).
• Form submissions captured as contacts in the CRM.
• Deals created and moved through a pipeline.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors or sessions that complete a desired action. Common examples include:

• Landing page submission rate.
• Email click-to-lead rate.
• Session-to-contact rate for website traffic.

Tracking the same conversion definitions across Hubspot and Google Analytics ensures you are comparing like with like.

Attribution

Attribution describes how credit for a conversion is assigned to marketing channels or touchpoints. Common attribution models include:

• Last-click: Full credit goes to the last channel before conversion.
• First-click: Full credit goes to the first recorded interaction.
• Linear: Equal credit across all touchpoints in the path.

Hubspot and Google Analytics each offer multiple attribution reports. Make sure your team knows which model is being used before comparing numbers.

Hubspot Source and Channel Terminology

Traffic sources and channels explain where visitors come from. This is a core piece of the shared glossary between Hubspot and Google Analytics.

Channels

Channels group traffic into logical buckets so you can quickly see what is working. Typical default channels include:

• Organic search
• Paid search
• Social (organic and paid)
• Email
• Direct
• Referral

Hubspot and Google Analytics may categorize some channels differently, especially when UTM parameters are missing or inconsistent.

UTM Parameters

UTM parameters are tags added to URLs to track campaigns. Common parameters include:

• utm_source – where the traffic originates (e.g., newsletter).
• utm_medium – marketing medium (e.g., email, cpc).
• utm_campaign – the campaign name.

Consistent UTM naming makes it much easier to reconcile data between Hubspot reports and Google Analytics views.

Engagement Metrics Shared by Hubspot and Analytics Tools

Engagement metrics help you understand quality of traffic, not just volume. These appear in both Hubspot dashboards and Google Analytics reports.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions in which users view only one page and then leave without additional interaction. High bounce rate can signal:

• Misaligned search intent.
• Slow loading times.
• Weak page copy or unclear next steps.

Average Session Duration

Average session duration shows how long users stay engaged on your site. Longer sessions often correlate with higher content relevance and better user experience.

Monitor this metric alongside pages per session to see whether visitors are exploring more of your site over time.

Events

Events track user interactions beyond simple pageviews. Examples include:

• Button clicks.
• Video plays.
• Scroll depth.
• File downloads.

Event tracking lets you measure micro-conversions that matter before a form is submitted or a deal is created in Hubspot.

Lead, Contact, and Deal Terms in Hubspot

Hubspot adds CRM language that complements website analytics. Understanding these terms makes it easier to connect marketing data to revenue.

Contacts

Contacts are individual people stored in the CRM, often created from form submissions, imports, or manual entry.

• Each contact has properties such as lifecycle stage, lead status, and source.
• Contacts can be associated with companies and deals.

Companies and Deals

Companies are organizations you do business with. Deals represent potential or closed revenue opportunities tied to contacts and companies.

By connecting deals to campaigns, you can trace revenue back to marketing efforts reflected in web analytics and Hubspot tracking.

How to Use the Official Hubspot & Google Analytics Glossary

To dive deeper into the exact wording and full list of terms, review the official glossary provided by the platforms themselves. You can reference the combined resource at this Hubspot and Google Analytics glossary page, which explains hundreds of definitions in detail.

For teams that want help implementing tracking, dashboards, and reporting based on this glossary, you can also work with analytics-focused partners such as Consultevo to configure your setup correctly.

Next Steps for Better Data Alignment

Once you are familiar with the shared terminology used by Hubspot and Google Analytics, take these steps to improve your reporting:

1. Document agreed definitions for common metrics in an internal playbook.
2. Standardize UTM naming conventions across your entire team.
3. Review channel groupings and make adjustments where necessary.
4. Align conversion and goal definitions across both platforms.
5. Build a core dashboard that reports on sessions, contacts, deals, and revenue in one place.

Using the same analytics language across your tools and teams leads to clearer insights, fewer reporting disputes, and more confident marketing decisions.

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