Customer journeys today are complex, fragmented, and constantly changing. Businesses no longer operate in a single digital space — they engage users across websites, apps, chat platforms, and automation workflows. But when these systems don’t talk to each other, opportunities slip through the cracks. Enter custom events: the bridge that connects your app, CRM, and automation into one intelligent, real-time journey.
1. Why Fragmented Journeys Hurt Conversions
2. What Are Custom Events?
3. How HubSpot’s Custom Events Connect Apps and CRMs
4. The Integration Layer: Where Data Meets Strategy
5. Turning Behaviour Into Action: Example Workflow
6. Real-World Benefits of Event-Driven Marketing
7. The Multi-Hub Advantage
8. Velocity’s Role: Building Smarter Journeys
FAQs
Every brand wants a smooth customer journey — one that moves from curiosity to conversion effortlessly. Yet in most organisations, the reality looks different. Customer data sits in silos: your app tracks activity, your CRM records deals, and your automation platform sends messages. None of them fully understand what the other is doing.
This disconnect leads to:
When marketing, sales, and service teams work with different data sources, engagement feels mechanical instead of meaningful. Custom events change that. They allow your CRM and automation tools to “see” what’s happening across every digital touchpoint — and react instantly.
Custom events are specific user actions that your business decides to track. Unlike form submissions or email clicks, they capture real behavioural signals inside your app or platform. Examples include:
Each of these actions can trigger an automated response in your CRM. For example, a renewal reminder, an upsell email, or a customer success notification. The power lies in the context — you’re responding to what your customer is doing right now, not what they did months ago.
In other words, custom events turn static data into live engagement triggers. They connect your digital ecosystem so your CRM becomes proactive, not reactive.
HubSpot’s Custom Event Framework (available in Marketing Hub Enterprise and beyond) allows you to collect, store, and act on behavioural data in real time. It connects seamlessly with your web apps, mobile apps, or external systems using APIs and webhooks.
This means your teams can build automation around actual user intent instead of waiting for manual data entry. It’s a major leap for companies that depend on quick reactions — from SaaS platforms and online learning portals to e-commerce and subscription businesses.
What makes HubSpot stand out is its flexibility. You can integrate data from virtually anywhere using:
The result? A connected CRM that becomes your organisation’s central nervous system — automatically recording every meaningful customer action and keeping all teams aligned.
Custom events are only as powerful as the infrastructure supporting them. At Velocity, that foundation is strengthened through our custom middleware layer — purpose-built to connect, clean, and orchestrate data between your app, CRM, and automation tools.
The integration layer acts as the traffic controller of your customer journey, ensuring every event moves efficiently and meaningfully between systems.
Receives events from your app via API or webhook.
Validates, enriches, and formats data to match CRM and analytics structures.
Manages retries and ensures sync stability, even when systems go offline.
Routes clean, structured data into analytics dashboards or automation workflows for real-time activation.
Our middleware can be hosted on AWS, Azure, or any preferred cloud platform, giving you flexibility and security without compromising performance.
The real value lies not only in moving data but in making data matter — knowing which events signal intent, which metrics drive growth, and when engagement should happen.
That’s where Velocity comes in. We design and deploy integration layers that unify your ecosystem — every field mapped with purpose, every trigger refined for precision, and every insight translated into measurable business impact.
Let’s look at a practical example of how custom events can transform your automation journey.
1. A new user signs up through the mobile app.
→ Custom event: “Account Created”.
→ HubSpot triggers a welcome workflow that sends onboarding content and a first-login checklist.
2. The user completes 70% of setup but doesn’t add a payment method.
→ Custom event: “Setup Incomplete”.
→ HubSpot triggers a targeted email encouraging them to finish onboarding, plus a message to sales for follow-up.
3. The user finally upgrades to a paid plan.
→ Custom event: “Subscription Started”.
→ CRM updates lifecycle stage to “Customer” and triggers a thank-you campaign with referral offers.
4. 60 days later, usage drops sharply.
→ Custom event: “Usage Decline”.
→ Automated survey and service ticket created to re-engage or resolve potential issues.
Each of these events feeds the CRM with accurate behavioural data. No manual input. No delay. Just smart, connected automation that reacts to the customer in real time.
Event-driven automation isn’t just a technical upgrade — it’s a strategic advantage. Businesses that implement custom event frameworks see measurable improvements in engagement, conversion, and retention.
In an era of tightening budgets and rising competition, the ability to act on data faster than your competitors can define your growth trajectory. Event-driven systems give you that edge.
HubSpot’s ecosystem is designed for scale — and when combined with custom events, it becomes a complete growth engine. Each Hub plays a role in orchestrating the customer journey:
| Hub | Role in the Journey |
|---|---|
| Marketing Hub | Listens for custom events, launches workflows, and delivers tailored campaigns. |
| Sales Hub | Notifies sales teams when key actions happen, helping them reach out at the perfect time. |
| Service Hub | Uses events to create tickets, automate feedback requests, and measure satisfaction. |
| Operations Hub | Syncs data across systems and ensures integrity between platforms. |
| Data Hub | Visualises insights, enabling leadership to measure ROI and forecast revenue with confidence. |
When all these Hubs work together, your CRM transforms into a living ecosystem — one that understands every click, view, and conversion as it happens.
At Velocity, we believe that technology should serve strategy — not the other way around. That’s why our approach to RevOps focuses on connecting people, processes, and platforms through data-driven design.
We don’t just implement HubSpot. We extend it — building custom middleware, API connections, and event-based workflows that transform your CRM into a powerful engagement platform.
Ready to build smarter journeys? Let’s connect your app, CRM, and automation to create experiences that feel personal, timely, and effortless.
Custom events are redefining how businesses engage with customers. They turn simple data points into powerful automation signals, helping teams anticipate needs rather than react to them. Combined with HubSpot’s flexible CRM architecture and Velocity’s integration expertise, your business can finally deliver the one thing customers want most — a seamless, personalised experience from first click to lasting relationship.
Velocity connects strategy, systems, and storytelling to build RevOps frameworks that accelerate growth — one event at a time.
A custom event is a user action you define and track—such as “Plan Upgraded”, “Feature Activated”, or “Payment Failed”. Your app (or website) sends this event to HubSpot via API or tracking code, and HubSpot can use it to trigger workflows, update properties, create tasks, or personalise communications in real time.
Standard analytics show generic engagement; custom events capture business-specific behaviour inside your product or service. That means you automate on true intent (e.g., “hit usage limit” or “invited a teammate”) rather than generic interactions, improving timing, relevance, and conversion.
Yes, you’ll typically need a developer to instrument events in your app and send them to HubSpot via API or tracking code. Once events are flowing, marketers and RevOps teams can build workflows, lists, segments, and reports in HubSpot without further engineering effort.
Custom behavioural events and advanced event-based automation are available on higher-tier Hubs (e.g., Marketing Hub Enterprise). You can still use many event-style triggers with standard objects and integrations at lower tiers, but advanced event frameworks require the appropriate licences.
Almost anything: web and mobile apps, payment gateways, learning platforms, IoT devices, and back-office tools. You can connect via native integrations, webhooks, iPaaS tools, or direct API calls. Velocity helps you choose the most reliable approach for your stack and scale.
They provide context that fuels timely, relevant messaging. For example, if a user completes onboarding but hasn’t added a payment method, trigger a guidance sequence and a sales task. If usage drops, start a re-engagement journey and alert Customer Success. Messages feel helpful because they are tied to live behaviour.
Define a clear event taxonomy (name, description, when it fires) and a minimal set of properties you’ll need for routing and reporting (e.g., plan, MRR, feature flag, device, workspace ID). Map events to HubSpot objects and properties, and agree naming conventions to keep reporting clean.
Use server-side calls where possible, validate payloads, add retries/queues, and log failures. Respect consent and data-minimisation: only send what you need. Document retention and deletion processes, and align with GDPR/POPIA/CCPA requirements. Velocity can design this governance into your integration layer.
Build funnels (onboard → activate → convert), cohort retention, feature adoption, time-to-value, and campaign attribution that keys off actual product usage. You can also score accounts based on event patterns (e.g., “expansion-ready” or “churn-risk”) and route alerts accordingly.
Start small with a 3×3 plan: three events that matter most (e.g., Activate Feature, Payment Failed, Usage Decline), three automations (nurture, alert, CS ticket), and three reports (activation rate, conversion lift, churn-risk trend). Prove value fast, then expand coverage. Velocity can help you prioritise, implement, and scale.