How to Add HubSpot Lists to Salesforce Campaigns

Integrating HubSpot and Salesforce bridges the sales and marketing gap, ensuring both teams have access to the same, up-to-date information. By syncing HubSpot Lists with Salesforce Campaigns, you can help sales reps focus on leads that are ready to talk, while giving marketing the feedback they need to refine campaigns based on real outcomes.

And better-performing campaigns mean better ROI.

At MarCloud, while we specialise in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, we also assist HubSpot users in achieving seamless CRM integration. 

This quick guide focuses on syncing HubSpot Lists with Salesforce Campaigns, a crucial step in aligning your sales and marketing efforts and making sure nothing (and no one) falls through the cracks.

Before diving into the step-by-step process, it’s worth making sure we’re clear on how these two tools are used in the first place.

HubSpot Lists

In HubSpot, Lists are used to segment your contacts based on specific criteria, such as lifecycle stage, email engagement, page views, form submissions, or any custom property you’ve defined in the system. There are two main types:

• Static Lists: A snapshot of contacts at a particular time. These don’t update automatically, they’re ideal for one-off sends or temporary audiences.

• Active Lists: Dynamic groups that update in real-time as contacts meet (or no longer meet) the criteria. These are often used for ongoing nurture programs or behaviour-based targeting.

In short, HubSpot Lists allow marketers to speak to the right people at the right time, but on their own, they’re not visible to the sales team using Salesforce.

Salesforce Campaigns

Salesforce Campaigns track and manage sales and marketing efforts. You can associate both Leads and Contacts with a campaign, assign them a ‘member status’ (e.g. Invited, Responded, Attended - these can be customised), and then see how they interact over time.

Salesforce Campaigns allow you to:

• Connect marketing efforts directly to pipeline

• Track engagement across multiple touchpoints

• Give sales visibility into who has engaged and how

Used properly, Salesforce Campaigns help both teams identify which activities generate the best outcomes and which leads are most likely to convert and deliver ROI.

Syncing HubSpot Lists with Salesforce Campaigns removes any guesswork or risk of miscommunication. Instead of hoping that your sales team is following up on the right qualified leads, you’re giving them precisely the contacts who’ve already shown buying intent and, crucially, the marketing context to back it up.

Here are a few key benefits:

Unified data

When HubSpot and Salesforce are synced correctly, everyone works from the same contact records. That means fewer duplicate records, fewer reporting headaches, and a smoother process for both teams.

Improved lead management

By automatically adding engaged contacts to Salesforce Campaigns, your sales reps can see not only who to contact, but why they’re a priority. This improves response times, reduces manual filtering, and helps reps follow up with the right message, at the right moment.

Enhanced reporting

It’s hard to measure ROI when your data is fragmented. Syncing Lists into Campaigns gives you better visibility across the funnel. Marketing can see which campaigns are generating opportunities; sales can see where leads came from. Everybody wins.

Before you jump into integrating HubSpot and Salesforce, it’s important to lay the groundwork. A smooth sync relies on a few key setup steps:

1. Install the HubSpot-Salesforce integration

HubSpot has a native integration for Salesforce. You can find it in the HubSpot App Marketplace and follow the guided setup process. It’s relatively straightforward, but it’s worth checking:

• API access is enabled in Salesforce

• You have the right user permissions

• You’ve mapped HubSpot fields to Salesforce fields correctly (there are field-type limitations i.e., multi-select picklists in Salesforce can cause issues if not configured correctly).

Refer to HubSpot’s official integration guide for detailed steps.

2. Define field mappings and sync behaviour

When a contact is synced from HubSpot to Salesforce, which data should come with them? You’ll want to align key properties like email, name, lifecycle stage, lead source, and custom fields that matter to your team. Also define whether HubSpot or Salesforce should win whenever the field is updated.

A tidy mapping setup helps avoid data loss, duplication, or overwriting important values. Be sure to document your plan outside of the system so you can sense-check and refer back to it when needed.

3. Clean your data

Integration doesn’t magically fix messy data. If your HubSpot Lists include outdated contacts or incomplete records, they’ll carry over to Salesforce as-is. Before syncing, it’s worth reviewing your segmentation logic and removing any dead weight.

Method 1: Using HubSpot Workflows

This method is ideal when you want to automate the process based on contact actions.

1. Create or select a HubSpot List: Go to CRM > Lists in HubSpot and select your target list. This can be either static or active.

2. Set up a Workflow: Navigate to Automation > Workflows. Create a new contact-based workflow and use your List as the enrolment trigger.

3. Add the Salesforce Campaign Action: Within the workflow editor, add the “Set Salesforce Campaign” action. Choose the specific campaign and assign the appropriate member status (e.g. Sent, Responded, Registered). Important: the Salesforce Campaign must already exist and have the desired Member Statuses created in Salesforce before contacts can be added via HubSpot workflows. Otherwise, sync errors may occur, or default statuses will be incorrectly applied.

4. Review and activate: Test the workflow on sample contacts to make sure it works as expected. Once you’re happy, activate it to start syncing contacts automatically.

This method is ideal for always-on lead nurture, events, gated content, and any scenario where you want to keep your Salesforce Campaigns fresh and up to date.

Method 2: Associating forms with Salesforce Campaigns

If your goal is to track form submissions (e.g. webinar registrations, resource downloads) in Salesforce, this approach works well.

1. Edit the form: Go to Marketing > Forms in HubSpot and select your form.

2. Associate with a Salesforce Campaign: Under the form options, there’s a section to associate the form with a Salesforce Campaign. Simply search for the right Campaign and choose a default member status.

3. Publish changes: Save and publish the form. From this point on, any contact who submits it will be added to your chosen Salesforce Campaign.

Refer to HubSpot’s guide on this method for more details.

To make sure your sync works well (and continues to work over time), here are a few tips:

• Monitor sync logs regularly: HubSpot provides logs for the Salesforce integration. Check these often to catch any sync errors or permission issues before they cause problems.

• Use consistent naming conventions: Align the naming of Lists and Campaigns across systems. This avoids confusion and makes it easier to identify which assets belong together.

• Train your team: Sales should know how to use the synced data. Marketing should understand what sales need. A quick internal playbook can go a long way in keeping everyone aligned.

Even with a good setup, integration can hit the occasional speed bump.

• Data discrepancies: Run regular audits to identify mismatched field values or outdated segmentation logic.

• Delayed syncing: Remember that the sync isn’t always instant. HubSpot’s sync generally runs every 15 minutes, so plan for minor lags between HubSpot actions and Salesforce updates.

• Permission issues: Check that the connected user in Salesforce has access to all the necessary fields, Leads, Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities, tasks, and campaigns.

If in doubt, a sandbox or test contact can help you validate the workflow before rolling it out at scale.

Over the years, we’ve helped plenty of HubSpot users integrate with Salesforce to ensure their sales and marketing data is flowing correctly, even if they’re not using Marketing Cloud itself.

Integrating HubSpot Lists with Salesforce Campaigns is more than a technical task; it’s a strategic move to unify your marketing and sales efforts. By ensuring both teams have access to the same, up-to-date information, you pave the way for improved collaboration, better lead management, and enhanced campaign performance.

If you’re looking to optimise your HubSpot and Salesforce integration, MarCloud is here to help. Our experts can guide you through the process, ensuring a seamless and effective integration tailored to your business needs. Simply send us a message.