How a Team of Marketing Specialists used Zapier + LinkedIn Ads to fix their CRM
At our client, a team of marketing specialists was determined to improve the way their LinkedIn Ads generated leads and synced with their CRM, HubSpot. Like many fast-growing digital teams, they were investing in ad campaigns but struggling to connect the dots between platforms.
If you’ve ever run a lead generation campaign on LinkedIn and expected your CRM to just “know” what to do with the data… you’re not alone. That’s exactly where the group of specialists found themselves. Every attempt to connect LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms to HubSpot via Zapier hit a wall — the forms were constantly being flagged as “unverified,” leaving their conversion tracking in the dark.
But here’s the turning point.
On a support call with Connex Digital, a team of Zapier Experts, everything started to make sense. One simple insight changed the game: LinkedIn’s Conversion API only works if the data is coming from a static list in HubSpot, not an active one. This was a small technical distinction that had a massive impact.
“Maybe that’s where the problem was — we had an active list rather than a static list,” said one of the specialists, the Marketing Ops Lead, as the realization clicked.
The team also discovered a second roadblock: misalignment in category naming. LinkedIn Campaign Manager wasn’t showing the expected conversions because the category selected didn’t match the one linked in Zapier. A quick fix—switching from “Lead” to “Qualified Lead”—got the reporting back on track.
Beyond the fixes, Connex set up a proactive safeguard: a Zapier filter step that checks whether a lead has an email address before pushing it to LinkedIn. This prevents silent errors and ensures data consistency across systems.
The results?
✅ LinkedIn forms now sync directly into HubSpot.
✅ Conversion events appear clearly in Campaign Manager.
✅ No more “unverified” messages.
✅ Time saved from manual troubleshooting.
✅ Better attribution and clarity on lead quality.
If your marketing team is pushing for results but keeps hitting technical snags between tools, this story should feel familiar. The good news? With the right workflow design and expert help, smooth automation is not just possible — it’s inevitable.
Cora’s journey is a great reminder that small misalignments can create big obstacles — but also that the right fixes can unlock real clarity and performance. 🚀
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