Mastering Conference ROI: Custom Events, Objects, and Marketing Events in HubSpot

Hey ESHOPMAN community!

As HubSpot users, RevOps professionals, and marketers running thriving stores, we all understand the critical importance of connecting every customer touchpoint to our CRM. But what about those crucial, often high-investment, offline interactions like conferences, trade shows, and industry events? How do you truly track their influence, measure ROI, and integrate that data seamlessly into your HubSpot portal?

This exact challenge sparked a fantastic and highly relevant discussion in the HubSpot Community recently. The original poster brought up a common dilemma: trying to build the most robust conference reporting possible and wondering if she needed both Custom Events and Custom Objects, or if Custom Events alone would suffice. This question resonates deeply with any business investing significant resources in offline engagement, especially those looking to tie these efforts back to their online sales and customer journeys.

The Core Question: Custom Events, Custom Objects, or Marketing Events?

The original poster outlined her current setup, which involved using what she initially called 'Custom Events' for 'event interaction' after each conference. These events included granular details like event name, contact email, interaction type, interaction level (MQL, SQL), who collected the information, and notes. She also associated contacts with deals, using an 'association label' if the interaction directly led to a deal. Despite this detailed approach, she felt she was missing something for comprehensive influence measurement, even though the conference source was covered.

Right off the bat, a helpful community member jumped in to clarify a key distinction: were we talking about 'Custom Events' or 'Marketing Events'? This is a crucial point many HubSpot users might overlook because, while they sound similar, they function quite differently within the HubSpot ecosystem.

Unpacking HubSpot's Event & Object Types

To provide clarity, a HubSpot product manager specializing in the data platform and custom events offered a valuable breakdown:

• Object: An entity in HubSpot designed to represent a process (e.g., Deal, Ticket) or a relationship (e.g., Contact, Company). Objects tell you the current state of the world and are mutable, meaning their property values can be edited.
• Event: An entity in HubSpot designed to represent a moment in time or an action (e.g., Page View, Email Open). Events serve as a paper trail, helping you understand the evolution of activity. They are immutable, meaning their property values cannot be edited after the fact.
• Custom Object: A flexible object type for processes or relationships unique to your business.
• Custom Event: A flexible event type for moments in time or actions unique to your business.
• Marketing Events Object: This is a purpose-built object (yes, the product manager acknowledged the confusing nomenclature!) specifically designed to represent the attendance of a conference, webinar, or other events.

As clarified, the original poster was indeed using a combination of these:

• Marketing Events: Used to upload and associate contacts who interacted at the event.
• Campaigns: These included the Marketing Event for broader strategic grouping.
• Custom Event (Conference Interactions): Imported after the conference for granular details like interaction type, notes, and level of interest (MQL, SQL).
• Contact Properties: A multi-select custom property on the contact record provided a quick overview of a contact's full conference history.
• Association Labels: Used to link contacts to deals, specifically noting if a deal was created due to a conference interaction.

Despite this comprehensive setup, the core question remained: was she missing something in attribution or reporting? How could leadership measure the true ROI of conference engagements, understand the number and type of interactions needed to close deals, and quantify MQLs or SQLs resulting from these efforts?

Building a Robust Conference Reporting Framework in HubSpot

For businesses, whether you're a B2B SaaS provider or an e-commerce brand leveraging a powerful retail website creator for your online storefront, connecting offline efforts to online outcomes is paramount. Here’s how to build a robust framework:

1. Leverage the Marketing Events Object as Your Foundation

The Marketing Events object is HubSpot's dedicated solution for tracking events. It's designed to be the primary record for the conference itself. Use it to:

• Centralize Event Data: Create a Marketing Event record for each conference you attend.
• Associate Contacts: Link all contacts who interacted at the conference to this Marketing Event. This provides a clear list of attendees/interactees.
• Report at the Event Level: Track overall engagement and performance for each conference.

2. Custom Events for Granular Interaction Tracking

While the Marketing Events object captures who attended, Custom Events are perfect for the nuanced 'event interaction' details the original poster described. Use Custom Events to:

• Capture Specific Actions: Record every demo, deep conversation, business card exchange, or content download.
• Add Rich Context: Include properties like 'Interaction Type' (e.g., 'Demo', 'Discovery Call', 'Casual Chat'), 'Interaction Level' (e.g., 'Unknown', 'MQL - Wants More Info', 'SQL - Wants a Demo'), 'Collected By', and 'Notes'.
• Track Over Time: Since Custom Events are immutable, they create a precise historical record of every interaction, crucial for understanding the customer journey.

3. Campaigns for Holistic ROI

HubSpot Campaigns are essential for tying all your marketing and sales efforts related to a conference together. By including your Marketing Event and any associated content, emails, or follow-up sequences in a Campaign, you can:

• Measure Overall Performance: Use Campaign Analytics to see the collective impact of all activities related to a conference.
• Track Influenced Revenue: HubSpot's attribution reports (available in higher tiers) can link deals back to the campaign that influenced them, providing a clearer picture of ROI.

4. The Role of Custom Objects (Advanced Use Cases)

While the Marketing Events object is generally the 'right' answer for representing the conference itself, Custom Objects might be considered for highly specific, complex internal processes related to event management that go beyond attendee tracking. For example, if you manage intricate sponsorship tiers, booth logistics, or partner collaborations that require their own unique properties and associations, a Custom Object might be warranted. However, for tracking attendee interactions and ROI, a combination of Marketing Events, Custom Events, and Campaigns is usually sufficient and more streamlined.

5. Leverage Association Labels and Properties

The original poster's use of association labels like 'Conference Lead' for deals is excellent. Continue to use these to clearly delineate the relationship between a contact, a deal, and the conference. Custom contact properties (like a multi-select 'Conference History') also provide quick, at-a-glance insights.

6. Harness HubSpot's Reporting Powerhouse

To answer leadership's questions about ROI, influence, and interaction frequency, dive into HubSpot's robust reporting tools:

• Attribution Reports: Understand which touchpoints (including your Marketing Events and Custom Events) contributed to deal creation and revenue.
• Custom Report Builder: Create bespoke reports combining data from Marketing Events, Custom Events, Contacts, and Deals to answer specific questions like 'How many MQLs resulted from Conference X?' or 'What's the average number of interactions before a deal closes from a conference lead?'
• Customer Journey Reports: Visualize the path contacts take from initial conference interaction to becoming a customer.
• Funnel Reports: Identify drop-off points in your conference-to-customer pipeline.

Even if your primary sales channel involves a hubspot crm woocommerce integration, understanding the full customer journey, including offline interactions, provides invaluable context for nurturing leads and closing deals. A unified view across all touchpoints, online and off, is the ultimate goal for maximizing your RevOps strategy.

Conclusion

Building a truly robust conference reporting process in HubSpot involves a strategic combination of its powerful features. By clearly understanding the distinction and complementary roles of Marketing Events, Custom Events, and Campaigns, you can move beyond mere attendance tracking to comprehensive ROI measurement and actionable insights. This integrated approach ensures that your significant investments in offline engagement translate into measurable business growth, providing the data leadership needs to make informed decisions.