Short answer: a Marketo to HubSpot migration checklist starts with what the tools move and what they don’t. HubSpot’s Smart Transfer maps Marketo contacts, email templates and users, and can copy lists once. Programs, smart campaigns, forms, landing pages, scoring and most activity history are not on that list, so you export, document and rebuild them yourself.
For marketing ops and RevOps teams planning a move from Marketo Engage to HubSpot, or cleaning up after one. Last reviewed November 2026 against HubSpot’s knowledge base and Adobe’s Marketo developer documentation.
1. Start with what the migration tool actually moves
HubSpot’s Smart Transfer is its built-in tool for moving data in from other apps, and Marketo is on its supported list. It is available on all HubSpot products and plans, and only Super Admins can use it. It starts with an audit of the source app: how each object maps to HubSpot, record counts per record type, and configuration details such as pipelines, stages and fields.
For Marketo, HubSpot’s supported-apps page lists a short set of mappings:
| Marketo data | How Smart Transfer handles it | What you still do |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts (leads) | Data sync to HubSpot contacts | Clean before the transfer, check field mappings |
| Email templates | Data sync to HubSpot email templates | Rebuild the emails that use them, retest rendering |
| Users | Data sync to HubSpot users | Set permissions and teams in HubSpot |
| Lists | One-time post-sync transfer | Decide which lists become active lists, which are archive |
| Programs, smart campaigns | Not listed | Document and rebuild as workflows and campaigns |
| Forms, landing pages | Not listed | Rebuild and repoint embeds and URLs |
| Scoring | Not listed | Redesign in HubSpot, do not copy the old model blindly |
| Activity history | Not listed | Export from Marketo before access ends |
| Custom objects | Not supported by Smart Transfer | Plan a separate import or integration |
Three rules from HubSpot’s documentation shape the rest of the plan. The transfer is one-way, from the other app into HubSpot. It is designed for a one-time migration, not an ongoing sync. And anything moved in a one-time post-sync transfer, such as Marketo lists, will not stay up to date afterwards. Transferring custom field mappings needs a Data Hub subscription.
So the tool handles the database. Everything that made Marketo run (the logic) is a rebuild, and that is what the rest of this checklist covers.
2. Freeze and document the logic before anyone exports anything
The most expensive thing to lose in a Marketo migration is not a record. It is the reason a smart campaign exists. Before the export starts, we build an inventory of every active program and smart campaign:
- Name, trigger and filters. What starts it and who qualifies.
- Flow steps. Every change-data-value, wait, add-to-list, sync-to-CRM and alert step.
- Owner and purpose. Who asked for it and what breaks if it stops.
- Status. Active, inactive but referenced, or safe to retire.
Then freeze changes. A campaign edited after it was documented will be rebuilt from the wrong spec. The inventory is also where you cut scope: if nobody can explain what a campaign does, it does not get rebuilt until someone can.
3. Export activity history while you still have access
Smart Transfer’s Marketo mappings do not include activity history: email sends, opens and clicks, web visits, form fills and data-value changes. If you want any of it for reporting or audit later, export it from Marketo before the contract ends.
Adobe’s Bulk Extract API is the usual route, and its limits decide how long this takes:
- 31 days per job. Every activity export needs a
createdAtfilter, and the range must be 31 days or fewer. Several years of history means dozens of jobs. - A shared daily quota. Adobe documents a daily quota of 500MB, shared between leads, activities, program members and custom objects. It resets daily.
- Two jobs at a time. Up to two export jobs run concurrently, with up to ten queued.
- Files expire. Adobe’s limits section lists a file retention period of seven days, so download each file as soon as its job completes.
Put this in the plan as calendar time, not a task line. Decide early what you actually need: often it is a few activity types for the last couple of years, stored in a warehouse or a file, not loaded into HubSpot.
4. Carry over opt-outs before the first send
Email permissions are the line item that turns a migration into a compliance problem. Treat it as a gate: no marketing email goes out of HubSpot until unsubscribes from Marketo are in.
HubSpot has a dedicated import for this: in Contacts, Import, choose List of contacts to opt out of emails. The file needs an Email column and must be a CSV. Every address in it gets Unsubscribed from all email set to true and is blocked from future marketing emails and sequences emails. HubSpot notes that addresses in an opt-out import are not created as contacts and do not add to your billable contacts, unless they already exist as contacts.
Our check after the import is simple: pick a sample of addresses that were unsubscribed in Marketo and confirm each one shows as unsubscribed in HubSpot. Do it again after the final delta import at cutover, because people keep unsubscribing in Marketo until the day it is switched off.
5. Rebuild forms, landing pages and scoring on purpose
None of these are on Smart Transfer’s Marketo list, which is a chance as much as a chore.
Forms. List every Marketo form, every page that embeds it, and every hidden field it sets (lead source, campaign, UTM values). The hidden fields are what silently break attribution if they are missed. Rebuild in HubSpot, swap the embeds, and submit a test on every page.
Landing pages. Decide which pages still earn traffic. Retire the rest, and redirect their URLs rather than leaving them to 404.
Scoring. Do not copy the Marketo model rule for rule. The old model reflects old assumptions, and your definition of an MQL has probably drifted since the model was built. Agree the qualifying behaviours with sales first, then build. Our lifecycle stage vs lead status note covers how HubSpot stages move once the score fires.
6. Sort out the CRM sync before marketing goes live
If Marketo was synced to Salesforce, HubSpot will be too, and that sync decides more about the migration than any email template. HubSpot’s documentation is explicit: if you plan to keep using Salesforce after transferring data to HubSpot, use the HubSpot–Salesforce integration rather than Smart Transfer, because using both creates duplicate records in HubSpot and Salesforce.
That means the order matters. Connect and test the integration, set the inclusion segment and the field sync rules, then switch on marketing. Our nine integration settings are the checklist we use for that step.
7. Cut over in a fixed order
| Step | Check before moving on |
|---|---|
| 1. Final contact delta | Record counts in HubSpot match the Marketo export, minus planned exclusions |
| 2. Final opt-out import | Sample of recent Marketo unsubscribes shows as unsubscribed in HubSpot |
| 3. Forms swapped | One test submission per page lands in HubSpot with hidden fields set |
| 4. Workflows switched on | Each rebuilt workflow enrolls a test contact correctly |
| 5. Marketo campaigns paused | Paused, not deleted, so logic can still be read |
| 6. Activity export finished | Files downloaded and stored outside both tools |
| 7. Contract end | Only after the monitoring period, with nothing still reading from Marketo |
The migration guide lays this out week by week. This checklist is the part the week-by-week plan tends to underestimate.
Questions we get asked
Does HubSpot migrate Marketo smart campaigns automatically? No. HubSpot’s Smart Transfer lists contacts, email templates and users for Marketo, plus lists as a one-time transfer. Smart campaigns and programs are not on that list, so they are documented in Marketo and rebuilt as HubSpot workflows.
How long does it take to export Marketo activity history? It depends on volume. Each Bulk Extract activity job covers 31 days or fewer, the 500MB daily quota is shared across export types, and only two jobs run at once. Several years of history is a multi-day job, so start it early.
Should we keep Marketo running after go-live? Keep it readable for a short monitoring period with campaigns paused. You will find something that was missed, and you need access to export it. Cancel once nothing reads from it and every export is stored elsewhere.
Related reading
- Marketo vs HubSpot for B2B SaaS: how we decide
- HubSpot Salesforce integration best practices: 9 settings
- HubSpot lifecycle stage vs lead status
- Marketo to HubSpot migration and reconcile
Planning a move off Marketo? Talk to us before the export starts.
Source: HubSpot Knowledge Base, “Transfer data from other apps using HubSpot Smart Transfer” and “Supported apps for HubSpot Smart Transfer” (both updated 2 Oct 2026), “Import opted-out contacts” (updated 22 Sep 2026); Adobe Marketo Engage developer documentation, “Bulk Extract” and “Bulk Activity Extract” (checked 10 Nov 2026).