What is the lead scoring tool in HubSpot?

When you set up a lead score, it evaluates records using specified criteria and assigns values to a corresponding score property. These score properties can then be utilized across other HubSpot tools, including lists, workflows, and reports.

Types of scores

• Engagement Scores

  Evaluate records based on their actions and interactions, such as visiting your website, subscribing to a newsletter, clicking a CTA, or opening a marketing email. For contacts, engagement scores assess individual actions. For companies, engagement scores consider actions taken by associated contacts.

• Fit Scores

  Assess records based on demographic information, such as age, job title, company size, or annual revenue.

• Combined Scores (Enterprise only)

  Combine engagement and fit criteria to generate a single score that reflects both actions and demographic data. These scores provide a combined value and also display individual engagement and fit scores if needed.

How scores are calculated

Scores are determined by the criteria you define for event and property rules within score groups. Each score must have at least one group, but you can create multiple groups to contribute to the total score. You can set limits for the maximum total score or for specific groups to prioritize certain criteria differently.

For example:

• Limit points for awareness events (e.g., page visits).
• Allow more points for conversion events (e.g., form submissions or booked meetings).

Understanding Score Limits and Values

• Score Limit: The maximum number of points a record can earn overall. Once the limit is reached, no additional points are added. The score limit represents the total value shown in the score property.
• Group Limit: The maximum points a record can earn within a specific group. Points within the group stop accumulating after reaching the group limit. Group scores contribute to the overall score.
• Criteria Points: The points assigned to individual property or event rules. These can either add to or subtract from the score. Each group’s total criteria points contribute to its group score, which then contributes to the overall score.

Example: Contact Engagement Score

• Overall Score Limit: 100 points.
• Engagement with Sales Group Limit: 60 points.
  • 15 points for starting a call.
  • 10 points for booking a meeting.
  • 20 points for completing a meeting.
• Engagement with Marketing Group Limit: 40 points.
  • 6 points for clicking a CTA.
  • 2 points for opening a marketing email.
  • 5 points for clicking a link in a marketing email.

Scenario:
A contact books a meeting, opens two marketing emails, and clicks three links in the emails.

Sales Group Score: 10 points (for booking a meeting).

Marketing Group Score: 19 points (2 points for opening two emails + 15 points for clicking three links).

Overall Score: 29 points (sum of the group scores).

Positive and Negative Points

When creating score rules, you can assign points to either add or subtract from a score. Examples include:

Positive and Negative Actions:

• A contact engages heavily with your marketing content but unsubscribes from your newsletter. You could add points for engagement and subtract points for the unsubscribe.
• A company has a strong fit score based on its size and industry but is located in a region where your business doesn’t operate. You could add points for size and industry and subtract points for the non-operating region.

Score Decay

Score decay allows points to decrease over time for engagement or combined score events. This ensures scores reflect the recency of an event. Decay applies independently to each event and follows a linear logic, with decayed scores aggregated into the overall score.

Example:

• A form submission adds 10 points to a score.
• If decay is set to 50% per month, after one month, the event contributes 5 points. After two months, the contribution drops to 0 points.

Decay is also applied to historical data. For instance:

• A CTA click adds 2 points with a 100% decay in 3 months. If the click occurred 4 months ago, it contributes 0 points.

Score Inclusion and Exclusion Lists

You can control which records are evaluated for a score using inclusion or exclusion lists:

• Score all records: Add exclusion lists to exclude specific records from scoring.
• Score specific records: Add inclusion lists to evaluate only those on selected lists.

Score Properties

When you create a score, a corresponding property is automatically generated to store the score values for contacts or companies. This property updates retroactively and continuously as records meet score criteria.

Customization:

• You can customize the property’s name and its organization in your contact or company property groups.
• For combined scores (Enterprise only), three properties are created:
  • A total score combining engagement and fit values.
  • An engagement score storing only engagement points.
  • A fit score storing only fit points.

Example Use Case:

• Your business offers two services, each requiring different engagement criteria to evaluate leads. You could create separate engagement scores for each service, resulting in two distinct properties. These properties can then be used in lists, workflows, views, or reports.

Score Thresholds

You can set score thresholds to categorize records based on score ranges. This creates an additional property with color-coded labels for easy identification.

• Engagement and Fit Scores:

  • Labels: High, Medium, Low.
  • Example:
    • High: 70–100.
    • Medium: 40–69.
    • Low: 0–39.

• Combined Scores:

  • Labels: A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3.
  • The letter indicates fit score:
    • A: High fit.
    • C: Low fit.
  • The number indicates engagement score:
    • 1: High engagement.
    • 3: Low engagement.

Example:

• A C1 score represents a contact with low fit but high engagement.

What Happens When a Score is Turned On or Updated

Turning on a Score

When you activate a score:

• Contacts and companies are evaluated retroactively using their current and historical property values or actions.
• A value is then assigned to the score property for each record.
• Moving forward, the score property updates continuously as property values or actions change.

Updating a Score

When you update a score:

• Current and historical property values and actions are re-evaluated based on the updated criteria.
• The score property values for contacts and companies are adjusted accordingly.

Impact on Other Tools

If the updated score affects criteria used in other tools (e.g., views, lists, workflows, reports), these tools may also be impacted. To review and update how the score property is used:

1. Navigate to Marketing > Lead Scoring in your HubSpot account.
2. Find the score in the list and click the number in the Properties column.
3. Select the name of the score or threshold property to view its usage.
4. In the property editor, go to the Used In tab.
5. If necessary, click on a tool to edit or remove the property’s usage.

Using Lead Scores in Other Tools

Once a score is activated, you can leverage score properties to analyze and manage your leads effectively:

• Saved Views and Lists: Create a saved view or list of contacts with a high score based on your thresholds.
• Workflows:
  • Automatically assign an owner to unworked contacts with a score above a specific value (e.g., 50).
  • Send notifications to the record owner when a company's score exceeds a certain threshold (e.g., 75).

Score History and Performance

After activating scores, you can access detailed insights and performance metrics:

• Score History: View score history and trends using cards on individual records.
• Score Performance Reports (Marketing Hub Enterprise only): Analyze how scores are performing and track how records are categorized within your score thresholds.