Creating Custom Reports with HubSpot API Integrations: A Complete Guide

 

HubSpot’s CRM and marketing automation platform provides powerful out-of-the-box reporting capabilities. However, as your business scales and your reporting needs become more sophisticated, you may need to create custom reports that go beyond the standard tools HubSpot offers. This is where HubSpot’s API comes into play, allowing you to pull data from multiple sources and build tailored reports that meet your specific needs.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to create custom reports using HubSpot API integrations, from setting up API connections to pulling data, visualizing it, and automating the report creation process. We’ll also provide examples of real-world use cases and share best practices to help you maximize the value of your custom reporting system.

1). Why Create Custom Reports with HubSpot’s API?

Custom reports give you a deeper insight into business performance by allowing you to combine data from different sources. While HubSpot provides robust reporting, some businesses require highly specific reports that span beyond what’s available in the HubSpot dashboard. Here’s why using HubSpot’s API to create custom reports can be beneficial:

  1. Data Consolidation: Pull data from multiple systems such as Google Analytics, e-commerce platforms, or sales tools to create unified reports.
  2. Tailored Metrics: Track KPIs that are unique to your business by blending HubSpot data with other data sources.
  3. Automation: Once set up, you can automate data collection and reporting, reducing manual effort and ensuring real-time insights.

2). Getting Started with HubSpot’s API

To build custom reports using HubSpot’s API, you need to set up your API connections and ensure that you have access to the necessary endpoints. Here’s a step-by-step process to get started:

Step 1: Obtain HubSpot API Keys

  1. Go to your HubSpot account and navigate to Settings > Integrations > API Key. If you don’t have an API key, you can generate one here.
  2. Be sure to keep your API key secure, as it provides access to sensitive data.

Step 2: Choose Your API Endpoints

HubSpot offers a range of API endpoints for different objects, including Contacts, Deals, Companies, and Marketing data. Some of the most useful APIs for reporting include:

  1. CRM API: For pulling data on contacts, companies, and deals.
  2. Marketing API: To extract data on email campaigns, workflows, and web analytics.
  3. Custom Object API: For creating and pulling data from custom objects in your HubSpot CRM.

Step 3: Set Up Your Integration

You can integrate HubSpot’s API with various platforms such as:

  1. Google Sheets: Use tools like Zapier or custom scripts to automatically send API data to Google Sheets for reporting.
  2. Data Warehousing: Send your HubSpot data to a cloud database like Amazon Redshift or Google BigQuery, where you can consolidate and analyze it.
  3. Business Intelligence Tools: Use BI tools like Tableau or Power BI to visualize your HubSpot data after pulling it through the API.

3). Creating Your Custom Report: Pulling Data

Once your API connection is set up, you can start pulling data from HubSpot. Let’s take an example where we want to create a custom report that tracks the lifetime value (LTV) of customers segmented by different marketing campaigns.

Step 1: Pull Data from HubSpot

  1. Use the Deals API to pull deal revenue data and associate it with specific customers.
  2. Use the Contacts API to fetch information about the customers and segment them based on attributes such as lead source, lifecycle stage, or marketing campaign.

Step 2: Combine Data with Other Sources

For a complete LTV report, you might also need data from other systems. For example:

  1. Google Analytics: To track the traffic source that generated the lead.
  2. E-commerce Platform: To get a holistic view of revenue generated from each customer.

Use HubSpot’s integration capabilities or other APIs to pull this additional data, then combine it using a cloud database or Google Sheets for analysis.

4). Visualizing Data with Custom Dashboards

Now that you’ve pulled the data, the next step is to visualize it. HubSpot’s built-in dashboards are great for basic reporting, but if you’re working with more complex data, consider using external tools for visualization.

Option 1: Google Sheets with Data Studio

  1. Once your data is in Google Sheets, you can use Google Data Studio to create interactive, shareable reports.
  2. Build custom charts, tables, and metrics based on the data pulled from HubSpot’s API.

Option 2: Business Intelligence Tools

  1. For larger datasets or more complex analyses, use tools like Tableau, Power BI, or Looker.
  2. These tools allow for advanced visualizations such as cohort analysis, sales pipelines, and multi-channel attribution models.

5). Automating Report Generation

One of the most powerful aspects of API integrations is automation. By automating the report generation process, you can ensure that you always have the most up-to-date data without manual effort.

Step 1: Use Zapier for Basic Automation

Zapier allows you to automate tasks between HubSpot and other platforms. For example, you can set up a Zap to automatically pull data from HubSpot into Google Sheets every day or every week.

Step 2: Set Up Scheduled Scripts

If you’re using a more advanced setup, like pulling data into a cloud database, you can set up scheduled scripts (e.g., Python scripts) to query the HubSpot API and send the latest data to your database or reporting tool.

6). Real-World Example: Custom Marketing Attribution Report

Let’s say you want to create a marketing attribution report to understand which campaigns generate the highest revenue. Using HubSpot’s API, you can:

  1. Pull customer data from the Contacts API, filtering by the campaign that generated the lead.
  2. Use the Deals API to fetch associated revenue data for each customer.
  3. Combine this data in Google Sheets or a BI tool to visualize which marketing campaigns are the most effective at driving revenue.

By automating this process, you’ll have a continuously updated report that provides real-time insights into your marketing performance.

Best Practices for Custom Reports with HubSpot API

  1. Data Quality: Ensure that your data is clean and consistent. HubSpot’s API will reflect the data quality in your CRM, so it’s essential to maintain accurate records.
  2. Optimize API Calls: Avoid excessive API calls by batch processing data or using pagination to pull large datasets.
  3. Security: Keep your API keys and integrations secure. Only provide access to users who need it, and monitor API activity to prevent unauthorized access.

Conclusion: Unlock the Power of Custom Reporting

Creating custom reports with HubSpot’s API enables you to gain deeper insights into your business performance, track more specific KPIs, and optimize decision-making. Whether you’re pulling data from HubSpot’s CRM, integrating it with other tools, or using advanced BI tools for visualization, custom reporting will allow you to scale smarter.

Need Help with Custom Reports and API Integrations?

At Hubmation, we specialize in creating tailored HubSpot API integrations and custom reporting solutions to help businesses gain actionable insights. If you’re looking to unlock the full potential of HubSpot’s data, book a consultation today, and let’s discuss how we can automate your reporting process!