What this is
The Warmth Reason explains the primary engagement signal that caused a contact’s status (Cold, Warm, or Hot) to change. Custom scoring rules can also show the activity details behind the classification.
It is visible in areas such as:
- Contact Engagement reports
- Campaign views
- CRM systems (such as Salesforce, when synced)
Warmth Reason helps you understand what type of interaction drove engagement, without needing to review the full activity history.
How Warmth Reason works
A contact may have multiple interactions with your campaigns, such as:
- Ad impressions
- Ad clicks
- Website visits
With default scoring, Warmth Reason summarizes one primary signal.
For default scoring, this means:
- Multiple engagement events can occur
- The main contributing signal is summarized; custom rules can include additional supporting details
To see all engagement activity, you must review the contact’s activity history.
Propensity Display Network engagement
Under the default contact-scoring behavior, Propensity Display Network engagement is represented as Website Visit in Warmth Reason when the resulting website visit is the qualifying signal. Custom scoring rules can produce different reasons and supporting activity details.
In that default-scoring case, even if engagement started with an ad click, the platform attributes the Warmth Reason to the resulting website visit.
Example:
- A contact clicks on an ad
- The contact visits your website
- Warmth Reason = Website Visit
Both events are still tracked, but Website Visit is displayed as the primary signal in this default-scoring example.
Default Scoring vs. Custom Contact Scoring
Under the default scoring model, Warmth Reason summarizes the primary engagement signal associated with a contact's warmth classification. It does not list every interaction that contributed to the contact's activity.
When Custom Contact Scoring is configured, the reason can reflect the custom rule that determined the contact's warmth. In addition to the reason defined in the rule, Propensity can display supporting activity details, such as:
Website visit counts and matching page paths
Ad clicks and impressions
Email engagement
Relevant CRM activities
Associated campaign information, when available
To review these details, open a campaign's Leads tab and select the date in the contact's Warmth Change column.
The details shown depend on the rule that matched the contact. Not every reason includes every activity type.
For more information, see What is Custom Contact Scoring and how to use it.
Social and other advertising channels
For social and similar ad channels, Warmth Reason is shown differently.
Examples include:
- TikTok
Under default scoring, social and other supported advertising channels can display reasons such as Ad Click or Ad Impression, depending on the qualifying activity. Custom scoring rules can change the reason displayed.
Unlike Propensity Display Network display, these channels do not default to Website Visit as the primary signal.
Viewing full engagement history
Warmth Reason summarizes engagement; it is not the complete activity history. When a custom rule determines warmth, its configured reason appears first, followed by relevant details such as visit counts, matching page paths, ad or email activity, CRM activity, and campaign context when available. To view these details, open a campaign’s Leads tab and select the contact’s date in the Warmth Change column. See “What is Custom Contact Scoring and how to use it,” under “Activity details in warmth reasons.”
To view all activity for a contact:
- Open the contact record
- Navigate to Contact Activity History
Here you can see all recorded interactions, including:
- Website visits
- Ad clicks
- Other engagement signals
This provides a complete view of how the contact interacted with your campaigns.
Important notes
- Default scoring summarizes the primary engagement signal; custom scoring rules can include supporting activity details
- Multiple engagement events may exist for the same contact
- In the default-scoring example above, Propensity Display Network engagement appears as Website Visit
- Social channels display Ad Click or Ad Impression instead