GTM Solutions Architect for B2B SaaS

Defined by adaptability, integrity, and curiosity, I approach problems with a strategic mindset that drives meaningful results.As a seasoned marketing leader, I transform go-to-market strategies by fostering collaboration, leveraging AI-powered solutions, and equipping teams with actionable data insights. My ability to simplify complex processes and technology has consistently enabled double-digit revenue growth and competitive advantages at private equity and VC-backed B2B SaaS organizations.

Ian Shields

🧡 I help implement, integrate, optimize, and extend your GTM operations with HubSpot & AI

Marketing budgets are getting tighter. Headcounts are frozen. And yet the pressure to drive revenue has never been higher. That’s why I teach marketers how to master HubSpot and scale their marketing efforts efficiently. 

HubSpot has become more than just a marketing automation tool. It’s now the system that connects marketing activity to revenue. When you understand how to model data, automate workflows, and measure results inside HubSpot, you become the person who can prove impact, move faster than the competition, and earn trust across the org.

I’ve spent over a decade leading strategy for high-growth companies and elite HubSpot partners. I help marketers build the skills they need to protect their budgets, grow their influence, and future-proof their careers — all using HubSpot.

Ryan Gunn

🚨 I am officially looking for a new full-time role! 🚨 

You can’t be a true HubSpot expert if you aren’t in the weeds every single day.

That is the realization I’ve come to after spending the last 9 months heads-down building Attribution Academy and #Hubsessed.

While I love the education space, the HubSpot platform moves incredibly fast. There are constantly new updates, betas, and schema changes. To remain a top-tier resource, I need to be using the tool daily to solve real business problems, not just creating content about them.

So, I’ve decided to jump back into the job search to ensure my skills stay sharp.

Here's what I am looking for:

📍 Full-time, Remote 
💼 HubSpot Admin, RevOps, Marketing Ops, or GTM Engineering 
⚙️ Companies using HubSpot Pro or Enterprise Tier
🚫 No consulting, services, success, or sales roles

Here's what I bring to the table:

I led Demand Gen and Marketing Ops at one of the top HubSpot solutions partners, Aptitude 8, helping them scale from $3m to $10 in 2 years. I've worked with some of HubSpot's largest customers, including Uber. 

I work closely with teams within HubSpot as well. I am an instructor for HubSpot Academy's AI Bootcamp and I collaborate with their Community team to co-moderate the r/hubspot subreddit.

In total, I have over a decade of experience leading marketing and GTM operations strategy and solving some of the most common and complex problems in HubSpot, including: 

- Marketing attribution & funnel architecture
- Integrations & AI implementation
- Platform audits & data cleanup

I also have experience with a wide range of systems that connect to HubSpot, like Salesforce, Zapier, and Clay. 

If you are looking for someone with deep, enterprise-level HubSpot experience, or you know of an open role that I would be a fit for, drop a comment or DM me.

What does this mean for Attribution Academy? 

It's not going anywhere! In fact, this move will make it better. Attribution Academy, the Attribution Mastery Certification course, and my newsletter, #Hubsessed, will remain supported, and I have some major updates planned for 2026. 

My future content will hopefully be more practical and up-to-date as a result of my full-time work.

Learn marketing attribution in HubSpot 🎓 Attribution Academy

I’ve mapped out the framework I use to build a custom multi-touch attribution system in HubSpot. 

1. The Data Layer (Custom Objects)

HubSpot's native Campaigns tool isn't robust enough to support the level of granularity most companies need from multi-touch. 

By using 3 Custom Objects for Marketing Campaigns, Channel Campaigns, and individual Touchpoints, you create a structured hierarchy. This allows you to track spend and ROI at both the macro and granular levels.

2. The Operational Layer (Workflows)

Automation handles the heavy lifting so you can focus on launching campaigns.

Campaign Initialization: Select your channels and have a workflow generate Channel Campaign records and unique UTM tracking links automatically.

Touchpoint Capture: Real-time triggers (like form fills) that create Touchpoint records and pull in UTM data (or anything else you might want to capture).

Association: Automate the essential link between those Touchpoints and the Deals they influenced.

3. The Results Layer (Reporting)

By associating touchpoints with deals, you can calculate:

Influenced Revenue: Total deal value touched by a campaign.

Attributed Revenue: A slice of the pie based on the number of touchpoints associated.

ROI: How campaign spend compares to attributed revenue

Stop guessing which channels are driving growth and start measuring the actual influence of every touchpoint.

Want to master this framework? I cover it and several others in Attribution Academy's Mastery Certification Course. 

Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/erY2QhA3

HubSpot is great at telling you what happened first and what happened most recently. The problem is, the real customer journey lives in the middle.

Multi-touch attribution helps surface the interactions that actually influence decisions, but only if it’s implemented with intention. Otherwise, you end up with reports that look impressive, but spark more debate than clarity.

A week from tomorrow, I'll be joining HubSpot Admin HUG with Kyle Jepson and D'Ana Guiloff 🫶🏻 to walk through practical, real-world approaches to setting up multi-touch attribution inside HubSpot. 

Register here: https://lnkd.in/ewAq2iuX

You’ll learn:
- How to think about multi-touch attribution in HubSpot, beyond default reports
- Practical steps for tracking meaningful marketing touchpoints
- When and how to use custom properties to support attribution
- How workflows can help standardize and enrich attribution data
- Where custom objects fit into more advanced attribution setups

This session is designed for HubSpot admins, RevOps professionals, and operators who want clearer insight into what’s actually driving engagement and revenue across the full lifecycle.

If you’ve ever looked at attribution data and thought, “This feels incomplete,” this session is for you.

Your demo form fill rates will be fine if you add "how did you hear about us?"

Adding a single open text field does not significantly impact fill rates for forms.

I A/B tested this at Aptitude 8 and saw no discernable difference. 

And if it does impact your fill rates, you probably have too many total fields on your form. 

If that's the case, I would argue there are less important properties you could remove and then use enrichment to capture the same data. 

Self-reported attribution cannot be enriched, so it's maybe the second most important field on your form behind a work email address.

Look at Hublead's form, for example: 2 questions. Everything else can be enriched.

Don't lose this critical attribution data because you are afraid to spend Breeze credits.

P.S. if you are getting a lot of bot spam that eats up enrichment credits, add a hidden checkbox field labeled "check this box." Bots will see it, humans will not. Then filter them out before enrichment.

Your deal volume is lying to you. 

We’ve all been there. You look at your monthly attribution report, see a huge spike in deals created from a specific channel, and think, "We crushed it."

But is that deal activity turning into revenue?

This is where looking at conversion rates broken down by channel is infinitely more important than just looking at deal quantity.

If you only looked at volume, you might have a ton of deals come from "Email." But once you look at the conversion rate from Created to Closed Won, things change.

Email: converting at roughly 10%. 
Partner: converting at nearly 29%.

You have to work three times as many deals to get a closed-won customer from Email than you do from your Partner channel.

If you allocate your budget based on volume, you’re going to pour money into Email. If you allocate based on quality, you’re going to double down on Partnerships.

Your boss doesn't care how many deals you created. They care how much revenue you captured.

Next time you build an attribution report in HubSpot, think about quality, not just quantity.

Anybody else's Gemini chats history look like the rantings of an insane person?

- Washer Door Won't Open
- HubSpot Subreddit Success Post Analysis
- NAS for Plex and Media Automation
- Recreate the Face/Off Poster But for Avengers and Dune
- Evolving Cat Weapon in Vampire Survivors
- Turn This Dog Into A Human Woman
- Bohemian Oil Can Ukulele Sounds

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Ian Shields

Ryan Gunn

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The Battle

Ian Shields

Ryan Gunn

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ryan Gunn's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreRyan Gunn's LinkedIn Performance