Marketing Contact vs Non-Marketing Contact in HubSpot
Below is everything you need to know about how they work, how they count towards your contact tier and whem updates refresh.
What are Marketing Contacts?
Marketing Contacts are contacts you actively market to using HubSpot’s email marketing, ads, or automated marketing workflows. These contacts count towards your HubSpot contact tier, meaning you will be billed for them.
Key Features of Marketing Contacts:
- They receive marketing emails, automated campaigns, and ads in HubSpot.
- You pay for these contacts based on your HubSpot contact tier.
- You can change a contact’s status from Non-Marketing to Marketing at any time.
- Marketing contacts can be managed at scale using HubSpot’s bulk actions.
What are Non-Marketing Contacts?
Non-Marketing Contacts do not count towards your contact tier and cannot be targeted with marketing emails, ads, or automation in HubSpot.
Key Features of Non-Marketing Contacts:
- They can still be managed in the CRM and used for sales and service interactions.
- They do not receive marketing emails from HubSpot.
- Switching a contact to Non-Marketing status prevents them from counting towards your tier and saves you money.
How Marketing Contacts Are Counted
- Only Marketing Contacts count towards your HubSpot contact limit.
- You can track the number of Marketing Contacts in your billing settings.
- Contacts set as Marketing before the update date will remain marketing contacts for the next billing cycle.
When do Marketing contacts count refresh?
- The update date is always the 1st of each month.
- Example: If you switch a contact to Non-Marketing on May 15, it won’t take effect until June 1.
Important notes:
- If you exceed your marketing contact limit, HubSpot will automatically upgrade you to the next tier.
- You cannot downgrade your contact tier until renewal, even if you reduce your Marketing Contacts.
Best Practices for Managing Marketing Contacts
✅ Monitor your usage – Use HubSpot’s Contact Dashboard to track marketing contacts in real-time.
✅ Plan updates carefully – Ensure you set contacts to Non-Marketing before the update date if you don’t plan to market to them the next month.
✅ Limit automatic marketing contacts – Some tools in HubSpot automatically mark contacts as Marketing (e.g., certain forms, workflows). Adjust these settings.
✅ Use permissions – Restrict team members from unintentionally marking contacts as Marketing.