Setting up the Wistia - HubSpot Integration

Connect Wistia & HubSpot to supercharge your multimedia marketing. With our powers combined... well, you won't be Captain Planet, but you'll be ready to get those sweet, sweet leads and engagement data into HubSpot for automation.

Haven’t signed up for the integration yet?

HubSpot is a marketing platform designed to help increase leads and drive better engagement. They are the masters of inbound marketing … heck, they invented it!

This article is all about configuring the Wistia - HubSpot integration for collecting leads and sending viewing and listening data into contact records. If you’re generally curious about what this integration can do, here’s an overview of the HubSpot integration’s features.

Now let’s get to setting up the integration!

Set up the Hubspot Integration

Tip
Before you get started, you’ll need to be an Account Owner or Manager in Wistia, on a plan with the HubSpot integration enabled.

Let’s start with a brief overview. There are 3 key steps to getting fully integrated:

  1. Connect the integration in your Wistia account. This allows us to request your lists and forms, and send leads and engagement data into HubSpot.
  2. If you’re tracking a video, set up a Turnstile or add a HubSpot form directly to a video. If you’re tracking an audio episode, set up a HubSpot form to take a user to a page with that audio episode embedded on submission, or set up a form on the same page as the episode. Turnstiles and HubSpot forms are how we identify users for proper tracking.
  3. Embed your media on a page with a HubSpot tracking script. The Wistia player and HubSpot script work together to identify users and track their activity for display on HubSpot contact records.

The first step is usually a one-time thing, and thereafter you’ll only need to repeat steps 2 and 3 for each media you want to track.

Connect the HubSpot Integration in Wistia

Head on over to the integrations page within your Wistia account settings: Account > Settings > Integrations

Scroll down to the Marketing Automation Integrations section, and click on HubSpot v2 (with custom forms).

When you click Connect, you’ll be prompted to log into HubSpot. Once you log in and authorize the integration, it will show as ✔ Connected and ✔ Primary. Only one integration can be set as Primary, indicating HubSpot as the active integration on your account.

It’s that easy! This will authorize Wistia to request your HubSpot lists and forms for display within videos. Wistia will also be able to create and update contact records to send leads and engagement data into your HubSpot account. Note that HubSpot does not send leads into Wistia, so the next step will help us identify users.

Add a Turnstile to your video

With the HubSpot integration connected, we’re one step closer to enriching our leads with video viewing data for advanced automation. Now we need a method of identifying new and known leads.

The first option is the Wistia Turnstile, which will collect lead information in your Wistia stats and send those leads directly to HubSpot.

  • From the Customize panel, enable Turnstile and set it to the desired time in your video.
  • Select a HubSpot list for the Turnstile to send collected leads. A list must be selected for Turnstile entries to display within HubSpot. Only Static Lists are available for Turnstile submissions.
  • Click the Save button!

With a Turnstile added to the video and connected to a HubSpot list, you can move on to the final step: embed the video on a page with your HubSpot tracking code to start collecting leads!

Tip
Wistia and HubSpot rely on browser cookies 🍪 for tracking data and identifying leads. HubSpot does not send lead data to Wistia, so the cookie in a viewer’s browser is how known leads are recognized. Using a Turnstile or HubSpot form is not always required for tracking known leads, however cookies do not carry over between browsers or devices. Turnstiles and forms help to bridge the gap.

If you’d prefer to use a HubSpot form instead of a Turnstile, the following section has everything you need to know.

Add a HubSpot Form to your Video

Looking for more flexibility around form fields? Our HubSpot v2 integration has the option to embed HubSpot forms within your Wistia videos. Just like Turnstile, form submissions within a video will serve to identify your viewers so they can be tracked properly by the integration.

Using a HubSpot form in a Wistia video provides more control over the form fields and appearance, just like a normal HubSpot form. You can even employ custom styling from within the HubSpot forms editor! The only drawback to a HubSpot form compared to Turnstile is that the data will only be sent to HubSpot, and the leads will not show up within Wistia stats.

Alert
When customizing your form in HubSpot, be sure to disable the Set as raw HTML form option under the Style & preview tab to avoid any formatting issues in Wistia.

Once the integration is enabled, a HubSpot Forms section will appear in the Customize panel. From there, you can choose which form to display in your video, when to display it, and add helpful prompt text to encourage viewers to complete your form. Here’s what that looks like:

Tip
HubSpot forms don’t always have to be in the video for tracking to work. A viewer can still be identified by a HubSpot form on the webpage, or even on a different page of your website — as long as the viewer submits to a form within the same device & browser they use to watch your video. It’s all about setting that HubSpot cookie 🍪 in the browser, which happens on form submission. Having the form inside the video just makes this process a little more reliable, especially if the form is used to gate the video content.

Whether you’ve chosen to use HubSpot forms or Turnstile to identify your audience, you’re now ready for the final step — embedding your video for tracking!

Note
Turnstiles and HubSpot forms cannot be added to audio episodes. If you’ve added a Subscribe button to your Channel, new subscribers will still populate in Wistia and in a HubSpot list if you’ve selected one for your Subscribe form. If you’re embedding an audio episode individually, you’ll want to make sure that a HubSpot form takes a visitor to a page with an audio episode upon submission, or that there is a HubSpot form on the same page as your audio episode. You’ll also occasionally see some terminology in your HubSpot account that doesn’t match up with audio episodes. For example, you may see the word “video” where you’re expecting “audio,” or the word “watched” instead of “played.” Rest assured that HubSpot handles audio tracking the same as video tracking, and this terminology is inclusive of that.

Connect Live Event Registration

Using a HubSpot Form

If you’re using Wistia Live with registration enabled, you can send registrants to your connected HubSpot instance. On your event overview page, scroll down to the registration section and click “Select a HubSpot form.”

Using a Wistia Form

On the event overview page, click “Use a Wistia form,” then navigate to the Registrants tab and click “Connect to HubSpot.” You can choose a HubSpot list from the dropdown menu to which collected leads will be sent.

Note
If HubSpot is connected as your primary integration and you haven’t selected a HubSpot form or list, leads collected with a Wistia form will still be sent to the “Marketing Events” section of your contact list. If you connect your registration to a list, this data will not be added to that list retroactively.

Refer to our Live documentation for more information on connecting your Live event to HubSpot.

Embedding with a HubSpot Tracking Script

The real magic of this integration involves the Wistia player and the HubSpot tracking script working together. First you’ll need a webpage set up with your HubSpot tracking script. Embed your media on that page and you are good to go.

Our friends at HubSpot have some great documentation on finding your HubSpot tracking script and then installing it on your website.

If you’re embedding on a HubSpot landing page or a HubSpot COS page, that script should be installed for you automatically. Wistia media pages (in your account) don’t have the HubSpot tracking code on them. This is why you need to embed your medias out in the wild in order to start pulling data into HubSpot.

Once the page is set up with your HubSpot script, you can embed your media. We recommend going with the inline, Standard embed, and for videos, the Popover embed is another great option.

Audio Files, Channels, and HubSpot

Tracking listening data for podcast episodes or other audio files works somewhat differently from tracking videos since you can’t add a Turnstile or a HubSpot form directly to an audio embed. That said, a Turnstile or form submission is always necessary to successfully identify listeners as known leads, so they’re still a part of the equation here. There are two methods for tracking listening data.

The most reliable way is to embed a HubSpot form on a landing page. On submission, the form should take your user to a page where your individual audio episode or audio-only Channel is embedded. You’ll want to ensure that both the page with the form and the page with the embed has a HubSpot tracking code on it.

The other option is to embed the HubSpot form itself on the same page as the episode or Channel. This is less reliable since a user may listen to your content without submitting the form, in which case they wouldn’t be identified or tracked. Again, this page should have a HubSpot tracking code on it.

Channel Subscribers

When visitors subscribe to a Channel, they’re prompted to fill out their name and email address similar to how they would for a Turnstile. However subscribing to a Channel won’t identify a user as a known lead for the purposes of tracking listening data. You can sync your subscriber list with a HubSpot list, but this will only send contact data to HubSpot, not tracking data. Users still have to be identified by a Turnstile or HubSpot form in order for listening data to be tracked.

Viewing Data in Contact Timelines

The real heart of this integration is getting engagement data to show up in contact timelines. The Wistia - HubSpot integration uses HubSpot’s powerful Timeline API to pass over data collected from your embedded medias. Once you have this integration set up and the medias embedded for tracking, we’ll send the following events for every identified user who plays the media on your page:

  • Engagement milestones: Played 1% (clicked play), 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%.
  • Links clicked in videos (videos only)
  • Turnstile or HubSpot forms submitted (videos only)

The “Played X%” events are milestones, so they only update at the intervals listed above. This means that if you see someone with a “Played 1%” event, they played between 1% and 24% of the media (at 25%, it would update to the next milestone). For a more detailed look at their engagement data, you can actually access the Heatmap of their session within the HubSpot timeline.

Heatmaps in the timeline

One of the coolest things about this integration is that you’ll see video heatmaps in your contacts' timelines. Click View Video and Heatmap to display them:

This adds some extra detail to your available metrics, showing the exact percentage of the video that was watched, which portions may have been re-watched, and even a preview of the video itself. While the Heatmaps are not directly used for automation, they provide an in-depth look at the viewing behavior of individual contacts.

Note
This feature is not yet available for audio tracking, so clicking View Video and Heatmap next to any listening events on a contact’s timeline will display a blank window.

Segmenting lists, Automation, and Wistia Hubspot v2 Filters

The Wistia events sent to HubSpot can be used for segmenting lists and building automations. For example, you could set up an “Active list” to only show contacts who have watched 75% of a media, indicating their interest in your content. Or you could include a Call-to-Action on your video, and target viewers who convert on that link.

HubSpot refers to these events as filters for your Active lists, and they are applied at multiple levels.

Alert
The events sent to HubSpot from Wistia contain more categories of data than are typically used for automation. HubSpot displays all of these categories in their list of filters or properties. Some filters are more useful than others, which we will clarify below.

Top-Level Wistia Hubspot v2 Filters

First we’ll select a broad, event-based filter around which to build the automation. They are each labelled within Wistia Hubspot V2:

  • Annotation Click
  • Call to Action Click
  • Play
  • Turnstile
  • Viewer identified

Annotation, Call to Action, and Turnstile filters are all based around fairly specific actions unique to videos; clicking an Annotation Link, converting on a CTA, or submitting to a Turnstile. The Play filter is the most versatile, as it opens up choices for segmentation based on how much engagement has happened, utilizing the “Played X%” events.

Secondary Wistia Hubspot v2 Filters

Once you’ve chosen the top-level event to focus on, you can configure your automation with more specific filters. There are a wide array of secondary filters to use because HubSpot displays all available Wistia properties. However some are more practical than others:

  • Media ID - The ten-character, alphanumeric ID of the media within Wistia. For example, the Media ID of https://happiness.wistia.com/medias/4kmqltm95j would be 4kmqltm95j. This is the best way to target activity around specific medias.
  • Media Name - The name of the media within Wistia. Keep in mind this is a less reliable option since media names can be changed at any time, and in many cases using Media ID would be preferable.
  • Media URL - The URL where the video is embedded alongside your Hubspot tracking code. Useful for separating activity from specific landing pages or posts.
  • Occurred - Simply put, “this event happened." It is then further constrained by a date or date range, for example “is before” or “is after” 11/5/2020. Use this for segmenting contacts based on a specific time period.
  • Percent Watched - Used for segmenting based on the “Played X%” events. For example, Percent Watched → is greater than or equal to → 50% would segment contacts who have played at least 50% of your medias.
Pro-Tip
It’s possible to use multiple filters in tandem for very specific segmentation. For example, you can use Media ID to focus on a specific media, and then also filter by Percent Watched to get all contacts who have Played X% of a specific media.

Some cool things you can do with this:

  • Find everyone who loaded a particular media but didn’t play it and send that media out to them in an email.
  • Nudge users who’ve only played 25% of a media.
  • Know who your most engaged users are.
  • Follow up with users who clicked on annotation links and Calls to Action.

Unused filters

These filters are included with the data we send to Hubspot, however they are largely irrelevant for automation as they are specific to data on the Wistia side:

  • Viewing Session ID
  • Hook ID
  • Event UUID

HubSpot Media Bridge

With Media Bridge enabled for your HubSpot integration, you’ll see two Wistia modules in HubSpot to select media — one for email and one for a landing page.

Instead of searching in Wistia for the media you want to add to a Hubspot email or landing page, you can search your entire Wistia library and embed medias without needing to leave HubSpot.

Enabling HubSpot Media Bridge

If you have your HubSpot integration connected and would like to turn Media Bridge on, you’ll need to reauthenticate your integration and make sure you check off the Media Bridge check box on the Integrations page within your Wistia account. After you’ve enabled the check box, be sure to hit the “Disconnect” button, then the “Connect” button again to complete the reauthentication process.

If you don’t have the HubSpot integration, you can find more information on your Integrations page, or reach out to our Sales Team here.

Alert
Permissions within Wistia won’t copy over into HubSpot Media Bridge. All of your medias will be synced and available for anyone using the Wistia module in HubSpot. If you have set up private projects in Wistia, those will be available in the Wistia modules within HubSpot.

How does it work?

Once you reauthenticate your integration, or set up your integration with Media Bridge capabilities checked off, you’re just about there! Within HubSpot, you’ll either need to create an email or landing page to see this in action.

Medias In Email

Head into HubSpot and create a new email. From here, search for the Wistia module by clicking “More” under “Content.”

Drag the Wistia module anywhere into your email and use “Select from Wistia” to browse all synced medias to embed into your email.

Within HubSpot, your medias will reflect the same organizational structure from your Wistia account.

Note
Right now, the “Created” dates are the day that these medias were synced to HubSpot, not when they were uploaded to Wistia.

You can also search for a specific title, and filter the media type to see video or audio.

Note
You can only search for one media type at a time, so be sure to filter for the type that you’re looking for.

Once selected, you can change the play button color, add padding around the media, and even use a custom link to link to a landing page where the media is embedded.

Now, you’re good to go!

Medias in Landing Pages

This process is very similar to adding medias to emails, but let’s go over the details!

First, you’ll want to search for the Wistia module by cliking “More” under “Content.”

Drag the Wistia module anywhere on your page and click “Select from Wistia” to browse all synced medias. This includes both audio and video. You can only browse one media type at a time though, so make sure you have the correct media type selected in the Media Bridge browser.

When you’ve selected your media and you’re done customizing it, make sure to hit “Apply changes” to see the media in your landing page preview.

You’re all set!

Adding Media to a HubSpot Website or Landing Page

To embed a Wistia video on a HubSpot website or landing page in HubSpot, you’ll need to add a rich text module to the page. Then, click Insert > Embed and paste your Wistia media URL or embed code into the editor.

When you add a Wistia embed code directly to a rich text module, HubSpot will parse it and will often strip out and modify some of our code. Keep this in mind when trying to modify the embed code in any way. Additionally, embed options may not work unless you’re using our fallback iframe embed.

Migrating from HubSpot v1

If you’re looking for help with the first version of the Wistia - HubSpot integration, head on over to the HubSpot v1 page. We also have a section all about migrating from Hubspot v1 to Hubspot v2 when you’re ready to make the switch.

HubSpot FAQ & Troubleshooting

Do I need a Turnstile or Form on every video?

The short answer is no, you don’t need a Turnstile or form on every video, but it does make the integration a lot more reliable.

As explained in the Turnstile section “tip”, this tracking relies heavily on cookies being set in a viewer’s browser, and those cookies being present any time someone watches your video. These cookies are set upon form submission, so having forms in and around your videos is the best way to ensure that leads are being tracked as expected.

Since cookies don’t carry over between browsers/devices, this creates the possibility for tracking loopholes. For example:

Alyssa, using her work computer, submits to a HubSpot form on one of your landing pages. She then watches a video on a different page set up for integration tracking. By the time she leaves your site, Alyssa has a contact record in HubSpot with her lead data, and you can see her viewing data within the activity feed.

Later that evening, Alyssa is home from work and decides to watch more of your video content. She uses her smart tablet which is her preferred device for personal use. Alyssa, on this different device, goes straight to the video content without completing a form, and watches several videos. This data does not show up in the contact record because this new device does not have a tracking cookie to identify Alyssa as a known lead.

Think of it this way: a Turnstile or Form isn’t always required, but any opportunity for someone to skip or ignore your Turnstile/Form is a possibility that their data may not be passed into HubSpot.

How do I track listening data if I can’t overlay a Turnstile or HubSpot form right on an audio episode?

Even though you can’t put a Turnstile or a HubSpot form on an audio episode, it’s still necessary that your listeners submit one for tracking to work. This sounds counterintuitive, but the good news is that HubSpot tracking can cast a wide net.

As long as the Turnstile or form is submitted on a page with a HubSpot tracking code, and as long as your audio episode is embedded on a page with a HubSpot tracking code, then we can capture listening data from your audience and send it to the correct contact record in HubSpot. They can be the same page or different pages - tracking will work either way.

The trick here is to ensure that the Turnstile or form is filled out before the user listens to your audio episode. The best way to ensure that is to embed a HubSpot form on one page and on submission, have it take the user to another page where the audio episode is embedded.

Engagement Data not Showing Up in Contact Records?

The HubSpot integration has a few moving pieces that have to come together for tracking to work as expected. Here is a checklist of things to look out for when the data isn’t showing up:

Double-check all 3 Setup Steps

To be on the safe side, make sure you’ve followed all 3 key setup steps. Each of these steps has an important function for integration tracking. In particular having some kind of Turnstile/form involved for identification, and embedding your media on a page with the HubSpot script are the steps most often overlooked.

Verify that HubSpot is set as the Primary integration

Under Account -> Settings -> Integrations, make sure HubSpot is set to Primary. Only the Primary integration will receive data from Wistia. To fix this, click on the integration to expand its options, and select Make Primary.

Check the filters in your contact’s Activity Feed

In order to see Wistia events/data, you need to enable the “Wistia” filter, under Integrations.

Make sure E-v1.js is on the page

E-v1.js is the Wistia javascript library — it essentially is the player, and it controls all the Wistia functionality on your page. Certain embeds, such as the Fallback/iframe embed, can still function for media playback without E-v1.js on the page. However E-v1.js must live on the webpage, just like your HubSpot tracking code, for this integration to work.

If you are using an iframe embed on your page, it’s possible that your CMS has removed the E-v1 script from the embed. The E-v1 script should be after the <iframe> element of the embed and looks like this:

<script src="//fast.wistia.net/assets/external/E-v1.js" async></script>

If there isn’t an instance of E-v1 outside of the iframe, the Wistia and HubSpot scripts will not be able to get the correct information from each other.

The good news is that this is easy to fix by adding the E-v1 script to your page. We recommend adding it to the <head> element of your page. Feel free to copy the example above and paste that right into your page.

Check to see what container your video is embedded in

As long as you’ve followed the steps on this page, HubSpot tracking will work with just about any embedded instance. That said, if you’ve followed everything here and you’re still not seeing engagement data, it’s time to check what container you’ve embedded your video in.

If you’ve embedded a Wistia iFrame within another iFrame container, tracking will not work. It will break any on-page tracking, because it obscures the ability for E-v1.js to determine which actual page the video is embedded on.

An extra iFrame will prevent the external E-v1.js script from seeing that there is a wistia_embed element on the page (on the Wistia iFrame embed). E-v1.js needs to be able to interact with the Wistia player, and the additional iFrame essentially acts as a barrier between the E-v1.js script and the wistia_embed container. The best way to solve this is to remove the additional iFrame completely.

HubSpot Styling Troubleshooting tip

Styling issues can happen when “Set as a raw HTML form” is selected. If you uncheck this box the Wistia styles will be applied.

Reach Out to Support

Still stuck? We’re here to help! Send an email to support@wistia.com or use the contact form to reach out. We’re happy to work with you on ironing out the wrinkles.