Integrating HubSpot with Zapier is a powerful way to streamline your business processes. At SpotDev, we often receive requests from our UK-based SMB clients to optimize their Zapier-based HubSpot integrations. The goal is to reduce errors and cut down on costs while ensuring that their HubSpot integration runs seamlessly. In this blog post, we'll share valuable insights and repeatable processes for optimizing your Zapier-based HubSpot integration effectively.

Adding Filters to Your Integration

Adding filters is a crucial step when optimizing a Zapier-based HubSpot integration. The good news is that filter steps are not charged in Zapier, allowing you to reduce the cost of your integration. Filters help eliminate unnecessary zap runs and reduce the likelihood of errors.

Why use filters?

  • To prevent a zap run when essential data is missing in the trigger payload.
  • To eliminate unnecessary zap actions, reducing costs.
  • To avoid unnecessary error notifications by ensuring the zap only acts on relevant data.
  • To maintain the health of your zap and prevent deactivation due to routine errors.

Scheduled Zaps for Batch Processing

Consider turning triggered zaps into scheduled zaps for batch processing in your HubSpot integration. Zapier charges for every action, and triggered zaps can be more expensive than scheduled ones. Identify non-time-critical functions in your HubSpot integration that involve handling large data volumes, such as database backups.

For instance:

  • Alerting a salesperson to a new demo request is time-critical.
  • Backing up a database is not time-critical.

Set the trigger of your zap to a specific frequency (e.g., weekly) and use a search function to gather substantial data. Then, employ the Code by Zapier action to process this data in a single step, significantly reducing your zap action usage.

Streamlining with Code Steps

While Zapier offers powerful built-in formatting functions, they are most efficient for single-step formatting tasks. If your HubSpot integration requires multiple formatting steps, consider creating a custom-coded step to perform all actions in a single zap action, making your integration more efficient and cost-effective.

For instance, changing a comma-separated list to a semicolon-separated list, removing speech marks, changing case, and adding braces can be accomplished in a single custom-coded step, saving zap actions.

Replacing Loops with Code Steps

Looping by Zapier is a useful way to handle line items in your HubSpot integration, but it can increase zap action usage significantly. If your loop involves multiple actions and runs multiple times, consider replacing it with a custom code step. This change reduces the number of zap actions and optimizes efficiency.

To achieve this, change the input of the loop from being the line item to the entire list of data. Then, write custom code to create a loop and perform all necessary actions in a single zap action.

Streamlining Complex Zaps with Code Steps

If your HubSpot integration includes multiple actions, it may be more efficient to consolidate those steps into a single code step. This can significantly reduce zap action usage and, consequently, costs.

For example, if your zap searches HubSpot for contact information, updates a record in Salesforce, and copies data between systems, combining these actions into a single code step can make your integration more efficient and cost-effective.

Optimising your Zapier integrations

Optimizing your Zapier-based HubSpot integration can lead to cost savings, reduced errors, and improved efficiency for your SMB in the UK. By implementing these best practices, you can ensure that your automation processes run smoothly and effectively, benefiting your business's bottom line.

If you need help optimising your Zapier integrations, then reach out to SpotDev for support.