In the wide world of CRM software, there's arguably none more popular than HubSpot. The platform started as an inbound marketing tool and has since grown into a Swiss Army Knife of sales, customer service, operations, and—if you're lucky—a tiny corkscrew and set of scissors.
I'm here to guide you through a feature that helped HubSpot grow into the powerhouse it is today: lead scoring. I'll break down everything you need to know to start a HubSpot lead scoring campaign and find your best-fit prospects.
Table of contents:
What is lead scoring (and why use HubSpot)?
Lead scoring is a system that ranks leads based on their likelihood to become customers. Think of the top of your sales funnel like a giant fishing net: you can try to catch only your perfect prospects, but you'll likely snag a few tires and license plates along the way.
A solid lead-scoring philosophy helps you catch fewer pieces of aquatic litter and line your pipeline with your best-fit leads.
You could keep a wayward spreadsheet or a cluttered CRM to manage your lead scoring, but you'd be better served to use HubSpot instead. It's often seen as the industry standard because it lets you score based on property criteria rather than just a name and an email address.
HubSpot helps you zero in on aspects like:
Firmographics: Company size, industry, or annual revenue
Demographics: Job title, seniority level, or geographic location
Website activity: Which specific pages your leads visited (like your pricing page vs. just a blog post)
Email engagement: Whether leads are actually engaging with your campaigns and clicking your CTAs
Event participation: If a lead attended a sales call or webinar, or missed it
HubSpot collects all this data to identify exactly when a lead becomes a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL), signaling the perfect moment for marketing to hand the baton to sales.
3 types of HubSpot lead scores
To understand HubSpot lead scoring, you have to look at it as a two-part equation: what you're scoring and how you're scoring it.
The "What": Depending on your HubSpot plan, you can apply scores to Contacts (individual people), Companies (entire organizations), or Deals (specific sales opportunities).
The "How": This is the methodology you use to actually calculate the points, which I cover in detail below.
While you can mix and match these—say, if your acquisition and retention teams have different goals—it's best to start with one primary model if you don't have a complex setup yet.
Here are the three ways you can calculate a lead score.
1. Engagement scores
Engagement scores qualify your leads based on activities they complete. This can include visiting your website, opening your marketing emails, or subscribing to your newsletter. In HubSpot, these are available only for contacts and companies (not deals).
2. Fit scores
Fit scores qualify your records based on the firmographic or demographic info you deem relevant—variables such as age, job title, company size, and annual revenue. Like engagement scores, these are also only available for contacts and companies.
3. Combined scores
Combined scores (are you ready for this?) qualify your records based on both your engagement and fit criteria. You can either take this metric at face value or dig into both individually if you want to analyze them separately. The key differentiator here is that combined scores are the standard for tracking deals, so if you want to score your pipeline specifically, a combined score is your go-to.
How HubSpot calculates lead scores
HubSpot calculates your scores based on events or actions that result in positive or negative points awarded to your prospect. This grading scale—or "scoring model"—is customizable to fit your specific needs.
For example, you could assign 2 points for opening an email, 6 points for a CTA click, and -10 points for missing a webinar the prospect signed up for. This scoring system keeps a running total of a prospect's score, allowing your team to see when to ramp up engagement or when to release the prospect into the wild.
You can also organize lead scores by department (which HubSpot calls a group). So, if a prospect opens an email (+2 points; marketing), clicks a CTA (+6 points; marketing), and books a meeting with a sales rep (+10 points; sales), they would score 8 points with your marketing group, and 10 with your sales group.
If that wasn't enough, here are a few other key terms you should know.
Score limits
Score limits are the maximum range a record can hit, for example, -100 to 100, or -500 to 500. HubSpot clearly believes there's such a thing as too much of a good (or bad) thing, because once your record reaches the upper or lower limit, no soup for you; the score freezes, and no more points can be added or removed.
Group limits
Group limits are the maximum points that can be added or subtracted for a specific group. Like score limits, once a group limit is reached, the points cap out. So, if a record keeps spamming your CTAs but never schedules a sales call, they'll likely top out with your marketing group, but not your sales group.Â
Criteria points
Criteria points are your grading scale: the points assigned to each event or action. These are fully customizable depending on what you deem most important—you could even go crazy and include decimal points in your grading scale (that is, if you want to perpetually enrage your sales and marketing teams).Â
How to use HubSpot for lead scoring
Before setting up your lead scoring campaigns, it will really help if you have at least a half-baked strategy. You could create it on the fly in the tool, but it'll take longer, and you may end up contradicting yourself in the process.
Here are six steps you can follow to start tracking your prospects.
1. Navigate to the lead scoring area
You can find the Lead Scoring section in the left sidebar, nested within the Marketing tab.
From here, you could proceed manually (via the Start from scratch button) or enlist some AI assistance (via the Start with AI button). I'll be starting from scratch, so you can see how it works step by step.Â
2. Choose score type
Here, you'll be prompted to choose who (contacts, companies, or deals) and how (engagement, fit, or combine) you'd like to score.
3. Establish criteria
Once you make your selections, you'll be brought to the Criteria tab; here, you can set your fit score range, create new scoring activities, and more.Â
It's also here where you do most of your tinkering. For an extra 2,000 words on the subject, you can follow the official HubSpot walkthrough.
4. Select how to store records
Click into the Contacts tab, and you'll decide which records to score. You can either score everything or choose a select portion of companies, contacts, or deals to track.
5. Set up your thresholds
The Settings tab lets you fine-tune the score properties. You can establish group thresholds, color-code score categories, and set custom values for engagement, fit, and total scores.Â
6. Turn on lead scoring and monitor
Once you've tinkered and tweaked to your liking, all that's left to do is turn on your lead scoring. In the top-right corner, you can test your system and preview how your distribution looks—if that checks out, hit the blaze orange Review and turn on button, and you're off to the races.
HubSpot lead scoring best practices
I know you're antsy to get started in HubSpot, but I need to leave you with just a little more guidance on how to actually make those scores work for you.
Use AI to analyze leads
HubSpot is packed with AI and automation capabilities you can use to better your pipeline.
For example, with the Predictive Lead Scoring feature (which you can find in the Start with AI option), you can task HubSpot's AI to analyze your leads—and like a determined bloodhound, it will evaluate past lead conversions and give new leads a score based on what actually led to a closed deal.Â
Add automation to remove manual effort
You can implement workflow automations on HubSpot to streamline lead analysis and sales processes. For example, you could set up an email series that triggers when a lead fills out a form on your website, or build a drip campaign to re-engage your cold leads.
You can also use Zapier to connect HubSpot to thousands of other apps, feeding data into HubSpot from all the other apps you use for sales and marketing. For example, you could set up a system that automatically updates HubSpot with new leads and data from other sources, such as website forms or ad campaigns. This means your team doesn't have to import new leads manually—it's already in your system before you even know you have a new lead.
Learn more about how to automate HubSpot, or dive into a template to get started.
Create or update HubSpot contacts from new Mailchimp subscribers
Update HubSpot contacts from updated Mailchimp subscribers
Add or update HubSpot CRM contacts when they are changed or added to ActiveCampaign
Copy new contacts from Constant Contacts to HubSpot CRM
Align your sales and marketing teams
Your sales and marketing teams are like Germany and Austria. Sure, they speak the same language, but they're two very different countries.
What marketing thinks is an SQL may not actually be an SQL to the sales team. And certain prospect behavior may be overvalued in the marketing team, and vice versa. Make sure both teams are on the same page, so the shift from MQL to SQL to paying customers is as satisfying as schnitzel.Â
Closely monitor lead quality
HubSpot lead scoring is complex—what I've given you here is really just the tip of the iceberg. What you set up for your first campaign shouldn't look the same as the 10th. Always monitor performance, tweak your lead scoring criteria, and, most importantly, end results.Â
Automate HubSpot lead scoring with Zapier
HubSpot is an outstanding lead scoring tool, and, frankly, it's one of the best on the market. It can improve your sales funnel and help you target even your most obscure ideal customer. That said, you can do even more with the tool by connecting it with Zapier.
Zapier is an AI orchestration platform that connects HubSpot to your entire tech stack, making HubSpot the source of truth for all your company data—no matter the source.
HubSpot lead scoring FAQs
I just wrote about 2,000 words on HubSpot lead scoring, and you still have questions? No worries, here's some extra guidance.
What are the benefits of HubSpot lead scoring?
HubSpot allows you to create custom scoring models that can highlight your best-fit prospects, based on your unique criteria—whether that's email opens, CTA clicks, or sales calls. This means your sales team can experience shorter sales cycles and close more effectively.
What is predictive lead scoring in HubSpot?
Predictive lead scoring in HubSpot uses AI to analyze historical CRM data to identify which of your current leads are most likely to convert. It's still kind of guesswork, but it's AI-powered guesswork, which is unfortunately more accurate than human-powered guesswork.
What is a good lead scoring threshold?
A good lead scoring threshold to start with is around 50-100 points. This is often the default value, from which you can tinker to find what works best for your business.
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