How to Create and Manage Ad Audiences in Hubspot

Building precise ad audiences in Hubspot is essential if you want your advertising to reach the right contacts and generate measurable ROI. This guide walks you through how to create, sync, and manage ad audiences directly inside your HubSpot account, based strictly on the official product guidance.

What are ad audiences in Hubspot?

Ad audiences in Hubspot are contact-based lists that synchronize with your connected ad networks. They let you target or exclude specific contacts while keeping performance data tied back to your CRM.

Once your ad accounts are connected, you can use different types of Hubspot data to build audiences, including:

• Contact lists based on lifecycle stage or engagement
• Website visitors and page view behavior
• Offline conversions recorded in your CRM

These audiences are then continuously synced to supported ad networks to keep targeting accurate and up to date.

Prerequisites for using Hubspot ad audiences

Before you create audiences, make sure your Hubspot account meets the necessary requirements. You will need:

• An active HubSpot subscription that includes ads tools
• At least one connected ad network account (for example, Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn)
• Permission to use ads tools and edit lists or workflows

Check your user permissions and verify that your ad accounts are properly connected inside your Hubspot settings. If anything is disconnected, fix that first so your audiences can sync successfully.

How to create ad audiences in Hubspot

You can create and manage audiences from within the ads tool. Follow these steps to start building your targeting.

1. Open the Hubspot ads tool

1. In your Hubspot account, navigate to your marketing tools.
2. Click on the Ads section to open the ads dashboard.
3. Locate the Audiences tab or section, depending on your interface version.

This area shows any existing audiences, their sync status, size, and which ad networks they are connected to.

2. Choose the Hubspot audience type

Hubspot supports multiple audience types that rely on different CRM data and behaviors. Typical options include:

• Contact list audiences – built from active lists or static lists.
• Website visitor audiences – built from pages or events tracked by the Hubspot tracking code.
• Lookalike or similar audiences – created in your ad networks based on CRM-synced lists.

Select the type that best aligns with your campaign goals, such as retargeting warm contacts or excluding existing customers.

3. Build a contact list audience in Hubspot

For most advertisers, contact list audiences are the core of CRM-powered ads in Hubspot. To create one:

1. Click Create audience in the Audiences area.
2. Choose Contact list as the audience source.
3. Select an existing list or create a new list using Hubspot filters, such as lifecycle stage, form submissions, or email engagement.
4. Give the audience a clear, descriptive name so team members know its purpose.
5. Select the ad networks where this audience should sync.

Hubspot will then start syncing the list to the selected ad networks. The initial sync may take some time, especially for larger lists.

4. Create website visitor audiences in Hubspot

If your tracking code is installed, you can also build audiences from site behavior:

1. From the Audiences section, select Create audience.
2. Choose Website visitors or a similar behavior-based option.
3. Define page or event rules, such as specific product pages or high-intent actions.
4. Set your membership duration window, for example, visitors from the past 30 days.
5. Choose which connected ad networks will receive this audience.

Website-based audiences help you retarget users who have shown interest but have not yet converted or engaged with sales.

Managing Hubspot ad audience sync and status

Once audiences are created, ongoing management in Hubspot keeps targeting accurate:

• Monitor audience size and readiness for serving in your ad networks.
• Check sync status indicators for errors or delays.
• Confirm that list criteria still match your current strategy.

Hubspot will handle continuous syncing, adding or removing contacts as list membership changes. If an audience stops syncing, review your account connection and permissions and then refresh or reconnect as needed.

Editing and removing audiences in Hubspot

You can update or remove audiences as your campaigns evolve:

• Rename audiences to reflect new goals or segments.
• Change the underlying Hubspot list filters to refine membership.
• Adjust which ad networks receive each audience.
• Delete audiences that you no longer need to reduce clutter.

Keep in mind that deleting an audience in Hubspot may remove it from your connected ad networks, depending on how sync is configured.

Best practices for Hubspot ad audiences

To get better results from your advertising, follow these recommended practices:

• Align audiences with lifecycle stages. Create separate Hubspot audiences for leads, opportunities, and customers.
• Use exclusions. Exclude existing customers from prospecting campaigns to avoid wasted spend.
• Test audience sizes. Very narrow audiences may have limited reach; broaden filters if delivery is low.
• Regularly review performance. Use Hubspot reporting to see which audiences deliver the best cost per contact or cost per deal.

Combining clear segmentation with consistent optimization will help you get more value from every synced audience.

Where to learn more about Hubspot ad audiences

For deeper technical details, supported ad networks, and current limitations, review the official documentation on creating ads audiences in Hubspot at this support article. The page provides up-to-date steps, screenshots, and network-specific notes that complement this guide.

If you need strategic help implementing CRM-powered targeting or broader Hubspot marketing operations, you can also explore services from specialized partners such as Consultevo.

Start optimizing your ad audiences with Hubspot

Well-structured ad audiences in Hubspot connect your CRM data directly to your advertising, making it easier to run relevant, efficient campaigns. By setting clear prerequisites, choosing the right audience types, and managing sync health, you create a reliable foundation for ongoing optimization across all of your connected networks.

Revisit your existing lists, build focused segments, and let Hubspot keep everything synchronized so your ads always reach the right people at the right time.

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