HubSpot Traffic Fell 80% While Revenue Kept Growing

HubSpot lost 80% of its traffic even as its revenue continued to grow, according to a Search Engine Journal report featuring chief marketing officer Kipp Bodnar. The contrast underscores a measurement issue for marketers: a change in the number of visits does not, on its own, show how revenue is performing.

The report points marketers toward revenue per visit as a way to assess traffic alongside business results. Rather than treating every visit as equally valuable, teams can compare revenue with the volume of visits over the same period. That comparison can add context when traffic falls or rises, although it should be considered alongside the underlying revenue and visit figures.

A focus on revenue per visit also changes the questions teams ask about performance. A traffic report can show how many people reached a site, while a revenue measure helps establish what the visits contributed to the business. Looking at both gives marketers more information than either figure would provide in isolation.

Search Engine Journal also highlights the need to track conversions from AI referrals. Marketers can examine whether visitors arriving through AI services complete actions that matter to the business, rather than reporting referral visits alone. The relevant conversion will depend on the business and its objectives; the point is to connect the referral source with an outcome, not just a session count.

The report’s third recommendation is to build audiences beyond Google. For marketing teams, that means evaluating how they reach and retain an audience across channels instead of relying on a single source of discovery. Measuring those channels consistently can help teams understand their contribution alongside search and AI referrals.

What this means for marketers

Review traffic and revenue together, and calculate revenue per visit using comparable periods. Track the conversions associated with AI referrals, then assess how audiences are being built beyond Google. These measures will not make visit counts irrelevant, but they can help teams interpret traffic changes in the context of business results.