If you’re comparing ThoughtMetric and HubSpot, you’re likely deciding between a dedicated attribution platform and a full CRM/marketing automation suite. Both can help marketers understand performance, but they take very different approaches to attribution, usability, and pricing.
What Is ThoughtMetric?
- 5 Different Attribution Models: ThoughtMetric provides a variety of multi-touch attribution models, including first touch, last touch, linear paid, position-based, and a recommended multi-touch model. This flexibility allows businesses to align attribution with their marketing goals, offering a complete customer journey view.
- Campaign Performance Analysis: ThoughtMetric provides in-depth tools to analyze campaign performance across channels, pinpointing which campaigns effectively drive traffic, engagement, and sales. You can view key metrics at the campaign, ad set, and ad level, offering granular performance insights.
- Product Analytics: Track performance at the SKU level to see which products drive the most revenue, attract new vs. returning customers, and perform best across each channel.
- Creative Performance Analysis: ThoughtMetric helps you analyze the effectiveness of your ad creatives, ensuring you're investing in visuals and messaging that resonate with your audience and drive conversions.
- Customer Analytics: ThoughtMetric provides insights into customer behavior, journey paths, and purchase drivers. This information supports the development of targeted marketing strategies and contributes to improved customer lifetime value.
- Server-Side Tagging: ThoughtMetric uses server-side tagging to bypass issues caused by iOS 14 updates and ad blockers, ensuring more accurate and dependable data collection.
- Customer Surveys: ThoughtMetric's customizable post-purchase surveys collect data directly from customers. This provides direct insights into their motivations and how they discovered the brand.
- Simple Pricing Based on Pageviews: Unlike many platforms that tie pricing to advanced features, ThoughtMetric's pricing is straightforward and based solely on the number of pageviews your site receives. This transparent model ensures all paying customers have access to every feature, regardless of their specific plan. Plans start at $99/month for 50,000 pageviews.
What Is HubSpot?
- CRM & Marketing Automation: Built-in CRM with contact management, email marketing, forms, and workflows.
- Attribution Reporting (Enterprise Plans): Multi-touch attribution models such as first-touch, last-touch, and linear attribution.
- Content Tools: Landing pages, blog hosting, and SEO optimization.
- Sales & Customer Success Features: Pipeline management, ticketing, and customer portals.
- Integrations: Wide ecosystem of third-party integrations via HubSpot App Marketplace.
- Attribution models are only included on higher-tier Marketing Hub Enterprise plans.
- The platform can be overwhelming for teams that only need attribution and analytics.
- Pricing scales quickly as you add contacts and features.
Key Differences
- Focus: ThoughtMetric is a specialized attribution tool; HubSpot is a broad CRM and marketing suite.
- Accessibility of Attribution: ThoughtMetric includes all attribution models from day one; HubSpot limits them to high-tier plans.
- Usability: ThoughtMetric’s UI is designed for e-commerce marketers who need quick, actionable insights. HubSpot offers depth but can feel complex.
- Pricing: ThoughtMetric uses transparent pageview-based pricing with no feature gating. HubSpot’s costs increase with contact volume and features.
Which Should You Choose?
- Choose ThoughtMetric if you want a dedicated, easy-to-use attribution solution that gives you full access to every feature right away, with transparent pricing tailored for e-commerce.
- Choose HubSpot if you need an all-in-one CRM, marketing automation, and content platform, and attribution is just one part of your toolkit.
FAQ
ThoughtMetric is a dedicated attribution platform for e-commerce brands, while HubSpot is a full CRM and marketing automation suite with attribution as one of many features.
E-commerce brands that want a simple, dedicated attribution tool with full feature access and no CRM overhead.
ThoughtMetric includes first touch, last touch, linear paid, position based, and a recommended multi-touch model