HubSpot's Original Traffic Source property shows the first known web source through which a contact interacted with your business, and Latest Traffic Source shows the most recent known web source. HubSpot sets both automatically from interactions such as website visits, marketing email clicks and AI referrals, and you can also change them manually on a contact record.
Checked against the HubSpot Knowledge Base on October 20, 2026.
Older guides call these properties Original Source and Latest Source. HubSpot's knowledge base now uses the names Original Traffic Source and Latest Traffic Source, and that is what you will search for in the property panel, in filters and in reports.
Original vs Latest Traffic Source at a glance
| Original Traffic Source | Latest Traffic Source | |
|---|---|---|
| What it records | The first known web source for the contact | The most recent known web source |
| When it is set | From the contact's earliest tracked visit, including anonymous visits HubSpot can match to the contact | Each time a new session is created for the contact |
| Typical question it answers | Which channel brought this person to us? | Which channel brought this person back? |
| Drill-down properties | Original Traffic Source Drill-Down 1 and 2 | Latest Traffic Source Drill-Down 1 and 2 |
| Can you edit it? | Yes, with edit contacts permission | Yes, with edit contacts permission |
According to HubSpot, companies and deals associated with contacts mirror these properties, so the same source logic flows into company and deal reporting.
All 10 traffic source values in HubSpot
Every contact gets one of these values in each property. The drill-down columns show what HubSpot stores in Drill-Down 1 and Drill-Down 2 for that value.
| Source value | What it means | Drill-Down 1 | Drill-Down 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organic search | Unpaid results from search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo | Search term, if available | Search engine site |
| Paid search | Traffic from paid search campaigns | Campaign name from utm_campaign | Search term, if available |
| Email marketing | HubSpot marketing emails, or links with "email" in a UTM or source parameter | Campaign name from utm_campaign | HubSpot email name from utm_content |
| Organic social | Unpaid clicks from social media sites or apps | Social media site | Campaign name from utm_campaign |
| Paid social | Traffic from paid social campaigns | Social media site | Campaign name from utm_campaign |
| Referrals | Links from external websites (your own listed domains do not count) | Referring website domain | Referring website URL |
| AI Referrals | Clicks from AI assistants and chatbots, including links in AI answers | AI platform domain, such as chatgpt.com or claude.ai | Campaign name from utm_campaign, if present |
| Other campaigns | Tagged links that do not match another rule, often tracking URLs created in HubSpot | Campaign name from utm_campaign | Source / Medium |
| Direct traffic | Visits with no source information, such as typed URLs or links whose parameters were stripped | Entrance URL | Not used |
| Offline sources | A catch-all for contacts HubSpot cannot tie to a tracked session or online interaction | See the Offline sources section below | See below |
HubSpot lists ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Meta AI, Mistral, Poe and Grok as recognized AI platforms. Regular Google and Bing search results still count as Organic search, not AI Referrals.
Two examples from HubSpot's documentation show how the pieces fit:
- A contact clicks a Facebook ad. Latest Traffic Source becomes Paid social, Drill-Down 1 is Facebook, and Drill-Down 2 is the ad campaign name.
- A contact clicks a link in a ChatGPT answer. Latest Traffic Source becomes AI Referrals, Drill-Down 1 is chatgpt.com, and Drill-Down 2 is the campaign name if the link carried a utm_campaign parameter.
How HubSpot sets the values
Original Traffic Source
HubSpot can track a visitor before they become a contact. When someone submits a form, their tracking cookies pass through the submission and HubSpot links the new contact to their earlier anonymous activity. If it finds a match, Original Traffic Source reflects the source of the contact's earliest visit to your site, not the visit where they converted.
That is why a contact who converts from an email can still show Organic search as the original source. They found you through search weeks earlier, and HubSpot connected that visit once they filled in a form.
Latest Traffic Source
Latest Traffic Source changes only when HubSpot creates a new session for the contact. Per the knowledge base, that happens when the contact:
- Views or submits one of your marketing forms.
- Submits a form on a meetings scheduling page.
- Visits your website from one of the traffic sources in the table above.
A contact import does not create a session, so importing a list does not change Latest Traffic Source.
How HubSpot decides which bucket a visit belongs in
HubSpot checks the first page URL and the referring domain against an ordered list of rules, and the first rule that matches wins. The order matters most when you build UTM links. A condensed version of the published rules:
- utm_medium is "social" with a recognized social network as the source or referrer: Organic social.
- The source parameter contains "adword", "ppc" or "cpc", or a valid gclid is present: Paid search.
- utm_medium contains "paid", "ppc" or "cpc" with a social network source, or a UTM contains "paidsocial": Paid social.
- A UTM parameter is present and the referrer is google.com, or a UTM contains "adword", "ppc" or "cpc": Paid search.
- A UTM or source parameter contains "email": Email marketing.
- A UTM parameter contains a recognized AI platform domain, or the referrer is an AI platform: AI Referrals.
- Any other UTM or source parameter is present: Other campaigns.
- With no tracking parameters, the referrer decides: social site (Organic social), mail domain or RSS reader (Direct traffic), search engine (Organic search), your own listed domains (not counted), any other site (Referrals), and no referrer at all (Direct traffic).
The practical lesson: a link tagged utm_medium=email lands in Email marketing even if it was posted on social, and an untagged link clicked in an email app can land in Direct traffic, because a mail domain referrer or no referrer at all counts as Direct traffic.
What the drill-down properties hold
Each main property has two drill-down properties. Drill-Down 1 gives context, such as the social network or campaign name. Drill-Down 2 gives the most specific detail, such as a URL, content name or marketing email name.
HubSpot sets the drill-downs automatically and you cannot edit them by hand. If you change a contact's traffic source, HubSpot clears the drill-down values.
What is Offline sources in HubSpot?
Offline sources is the catch-all value for contacts that HubSpot cannot tie to a tracked session or online interaction. HubSpot's traffic analytics documentation says it covers records from imports, integrations, the API, manual entry in the CRM, phone calls, in-person events, print campaigns, and untagged links or referrals. Offline sources have no session metrics.
Many teams have used Offline sources to work out how a contact was created. HubSpot now recommends a different property for that job.
Use Record Source to see how a record was created
If you have been using the Offline sources value to track other ways contacts were created or updated, HubSpot recommends using the Record Source property instead. Record Source shows which tool or process created a record, and it exists on all objects, not only contacts. Three Record Source Detail properties add specifics, such as the form, import or workflow name.
| Record Source value | What created the record |
|---|---|
| Import | An import (Record Source Detail 1 shows the import name) |
| Forms | A form submission (Detail 1 shows the form name) |
| Workflow | A workflow (Detail 1 shows the workflow name) |
| CRM UI | A manual action in HubSpot |
| CRM Bulk Action | A bulk action in HubSpot |
| Integration | A connected app |
| Salesforce | The HubSpot-Salesforce integration |
| Meetings | A meeting scheduling page |
| Bot Chatflow | A chatbot |
| Mobile iOS / Mobile Android | The HubSpot mobile apps |
This is a selection. HubSpot publishes the full list of change source values, and the same values apply to every object.
A few rules to know:
- HubSpot sets Record Source automatically and you cannot edit it. Integrations can set Record Source Detail 2 and 3 when they create records.
- Record Source was created in February 2024 and backfilled for the previous four years. The detail properties were created in March 2024. Older records may have no value.
- You can use Record Source in saved views, segments, workflow triggers and actions, and custom reports.
To find it, open a record and look in the left sidebar. If it is not shown, click Actions, select View all properties, and search for Record Source. Hover over the property and click Details to see when it was set.
Put simply: traffic source properties answer "which channel brought this person here," and Record Source answers "which tool put this record in the CRM."
How to find a contact's traffic source
- Go to CRM > Contacts (in some accounts, click More first).
- Click the contact's name.
- At the top of the About this contact section, click Actions, then View all properties.
- Search for "Original Traffic Source" or "Latest Traffic Source."
- Hover over the info icon to see the internal value. Use that internal value when you filter saved views, segments, workflows and custom reports.
Can you change Original Traffic Source in HubSpot?
Yes. You cannot edit the list of source options, but you can set a contact to any existing value. You need edit contacts permission. You can change it:
- On a single contact record.
- For many contacts at once with bulk edit.
- In a workflow with the Edit record action, which requires a Professional or Enterprise subscription.
Editing either property clears its drill-down values and the First Referring Site value. Before a bulk correction, export the current values if you might need them later.
The HubSpot Sources report
The Sources report uses the same categories as the contact properties. To open it, go to Reporting > Reports (click More first if you see it), then choose Marketing > Web traffic analysis in the left sidebar.
What you can do there:
- Chart sessions, session to contact rate, new contacts, contact to customer rate, customers, bounce rate, new visitors, new session percentage, page views per session and average session length.
- Set the date range and frequency, and add filters from the right sidebar.
- Compare sources by checking them in the summarized data table.
- Select the Offline sources checkbox to include contacts that arrived without a tracked session.
New contacts and customers in this report count contacts from every source, not only form submissions. The tool is available with Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise, Content Hub Professional or Enterprise, and Legacy Marketing Hub Basic.
Why your source data looks wrong
- Pages without the tracking code. HubSpot adds it automatically to its own blog, landing and website pages. For pages hosted elsewhere, find the code under the settings icon, then Tracking & Analytics > Tracking code (Marketing Starter and free accounts see Tracking Code in the sidebar).
- Ad blockers. HubSpot notes that an ad blocker may block its tracking cookies and affect traffic source values.
- Untagged links. Visits with no referrer, or with a mail domain as the referrer, are counted as Direct traffic. Add UTM parameters to links you control.
- Inconsistent UTM values. Because the rules match on words like "email", "cpc" and "social", a stray tag can move traffic into the wrong bucket.
- Expecting raw UTMs in these fields. Traffic source properties store categories plus drill-downs. If you need exact utm_source or utm_content values for every conversion, capture them with hidden form fields in custom contact properties. Expect those to differ from Original Traffic Source, since HubSpot can credit an earlier anonymous visit.
A worked example (hypothetical)
Imagine a software company with this contact:
- In January, the person reads a blog post found on Google but does not convert. HubSpot tracks the anonymous visit.
- In February, they click a LinkedIn ad and download a guide. They become a contact. Original Traffic Source is Organic search (the earliest matched visit), and Latest Traffic Source is Paid social, with LinkedIn in Drill-Down 1.
- In April, they click a nurture email and book a demo. Original Traffic Source stays Organic search. Latest Traffic Source becomes Email marketing, with the campaign and email name in the drill-downs.
- Their Record Source is Forms, with the guide form's name in Record Source Detail 1.
Reporting on Original Traffic Source credits search for finding the lead. Reporting on Latest Traffic Source credits email for bringing them back. Record Source tells operations which form created the record. Decide which property each dashboard uses, write it down, and keep it consistent.
Getting help with HubSpot attribution
INSIDEA is an Elite HubSpot Partner and the growth operating system for modern businesses. If your source data and reports do not line up, our HubSpot team can review your tracking, UTM rules and reporting setup with you.
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