How to use smart forms in HubSpot
Last updated on May 4, 2026 by Lusine Sargsyan
Goal
In this guide, we'll show you how to display the right HubSpot form to the right person at the right time based on specific visitor criteria to reduce friction and personalize the user experience.
In this video
- 00:00What are smart forms?
- 00:28How to create a smart form?
- 03:05Publish your smart form
Step-by-step guide
Requirements
A HubSpot Professional or Enterprise subscription.
Configure Smart Rules
Smart Rules
Locate the
Smart rulessection in the left panel.Click the dropdown menu labeled
Select a categoryunder theShow different content based onsection.Choose a category for your rule:
- Ad source: UTM parameters in the page URL
- Contact list (segment) membership: cookie-based contact matching
- Contact lifecycle stage: cookie-based contact matching
- Country: visitor's IP address
- Device type: browser user agent
- Referral source: where the visitor came from
- Preferred language: browser language settings
- Query parameter: values in the page URL
Click
Add a rule.Select the specific criteria you want to target (e.g., specific lifecycle stages like leads, marketing qualified leads, or customers).
Click
Save.
Customize the Form for the Smart Rule
Form Customization
Look at the
Editing forfield at the top of the left panel.Click the dropdown to switch from the
Defaultversion to the smart rule audience you just created.Select the specific form you want this audience to see.
Click
Apply changes.
Publish the Changes
Publishing Smart Forms
Review both the Default and Smart versions of the form.
Click the
Publishbutton (for new pages) or theUpdatebutton (for live pages) in the upper right corner of the editor.
Common problems and solutions
What happens if a visitor matches more than one Smart Rule?
HubSpot applies rules in the order they are listed. The first matching rule takes priority, so arrange your rules from most specific to most general.
Why is my device type rule not targeting visitors accurately?
Device type is determined by the user agent of the visitor's browser, which can sometimes be manually changed on a device. HubSpot notes that accurate segmentation for device type cannot always be guaranteed for this reason.