Clarifying Campaign Start and End Dates in HubSpot Marketing Campaigns
HubSpot's campaign dates (Start and End dates) serve specific reporting and organizational purposes but don't technically limit your campaign activities or visibility. Below is guidance for teams to understand and use them effectively
How HubSpot Defines Start and End Dates:
-
Start Date:
- Indicates when you officially launch your campaign.
- Primarily used for reporting and organizing campaigns chronologically.
- Does NOT automatically start or activate assets (emails, landing pages, social posts).
-
End Date:
- Marks when you consider your campaign completed.
- Serves to bookend reporting periods, helping you analyze performance clearly.
- Does NOT deactivate campaign assets, stop tracking, or remove campaign data once this date passes.
Common Sources of Confusion:
-
Misconception: Teams often believe setting an end date stops data collection or disables campaign elements automatically.
- Clarification: End dates are purely organizational. Campaign assets (emails, landing pages, forms) remain active and continue tracking performance even after the campaign’s official end date.
-
Misconception: Teams believe they can only report campaign results within the start and end date window.
- Clarification: Reporting can extend beyond these dates. Dates simply help categorize and filter campaigns for easier historical reference.
Recommended Best Practices:
Use Dates for Consistency in Reporting
- Align start and end dates with actual campaign timelines or budget periods.
- Enables clearer performance comparisons across similar campaign periods.
Example:
- Campaign: Q2 Product Launch Campaign
Start Date: April 1
End Date: June 30 - Reports easily segmented and compared by quarter.
Use End Dates to Define Analysis Windows Clearly
- End dates help teams clearly define "active" vs. "inactive" campaigns for attribution reporting.
- Prevents confusion when running month-to-month, quarterly, or annual analyses.
Example:
- Analyzing conversions or ROI specifically within campaign start-end periods.
What Start and End Dates DO and DON'T Impact:
| Functionality | Impacts Campaign Dates? |
|---|---|
| Data Collection | No – continues indefinitely |
| Asset Accessibility (forms, emails, landing pages) | No – remains accessible and usable indefinitely |
| Reporting / Dashboard Filtering | Yes – used to organize and filter data |
| Attribution Reporting | Yes – attribution reports can filter by campaign dates |
| Buyer Intent and Lead Scoring | No direct impact; intent continues to track independent of dates |
| Campaign Organization & Visibility | Yes – helps organize campaigns chronologically |
Recommendations for Marketing Teams:
- Clearly Document Internal Definitions:
- Communicate to the team that campaign dates are for reporting and reference only.
- Define Standard Operating Procedure:
- Create an internal policy outlining how dates should be set (e.g., campaign duration, budget periods, fiscal quarters).
- Regularly Archive and Close Out Campaigns:
- Archive completed campaigns in HubSpot periodically to keep reporting clean, although this isn't mandatory, it helps organizationally.