Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync - Overview

Document created by Mike Reynolds

on Aug 5, 2016•Last modified by Mike Reynolds

on Jan 31, 2017

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Overview
What’s Happening?
Fields Affected
Where to Go for More Information

Overview

Due to changes to the SFDC integration architecture, action is required soon to continue syncing a small number of fields to your Salesforce instance.

Unlike the hundreds of fields that sync between your Marketo and Salesforce instance every day, these fields are set up by deploying a separate “package” on force.com. Now, we can directly sync these fields just like the others.

Most customers are only using a couple of these fields in their Salesforce instance – Lead Score and Acquisition Program. However, if your SFDC users rely on any of the 16 fields affected, you’ll need to make some quick modifications to the integration setup.

What’s Happening?

Marketo's MLM AppExchange package is being retired. The core Marketo > SFDC sync functionality will remain unchanged.
The MLM package itself doesn’t do much, but was responsible for taking 16 fields from Marketo and creating 32 corresponding SFDC fields to sync data into (16 on the Lead object, 16 on the Contact object).
The configuration update will shut off the sync of data to the MLM package and these fields, so the data in those fields in SFDC will become stale and won’t update.
You can keep syncing the same data to SFDC but it requires creating new custom fields.
Once the fields are created, a drip process will be initiated to backfill existing data from Marketo into the new fields in SFDC.
The MLM package will be officially deprecated as of January 31st, 2017. The data will stop syncing to the fields created by the MLM package after this date.

Fields Affected

When the configuration change happens, data will stop syncing from these 16 Marketo fields to their 32 corresponding SFDC fields.

Lead Score

Acquisition Program

Acquisition Program Id

Acquisition Date

Original Search Phrase

Original Source Info

Original Source Type

Original Referrer

Original Search Engine

Inferred Company

Inferred Metropolitan Area

Inferred Phone Area Code

Inferred State Region

Inferred City

Inferred Postal Code

Inferred Country

Where to Go for More Information

Recap Summary

Now that the changes have been completed, and the deprecation date has passed, this doc will give you the overview of what has happened: Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync - Recap Summary

Frequently Asked Questions

Check out our FAQ for the answers to the most commonly asked questions. Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Frequently Asked Questions

Discussion thread

We've created this discussion thread in the community to address any questions you may have. This discussion thread will be monitored by the Marketo team to ensure you get answers to your questions. Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Questions and Discussion

Release Schedule

The release is being staggered over the course of 6 months. This doc will give you exact details so you can know precisely when your Marketo instance will be updated. Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Release Schedule

Under the Hood Documentation

This doc will give you all of the nitty gritty details of exactly what is happening. If you're looking for in depth technical details, this is the go-to doc to check out!

Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Under The Hood

Recreating Affected Fields

There are different versions of Salesforce, but don't worry, all of the details on how to recreate the affected fields as well as a video tutorial can all be found in the documentation here: Adding Marketo Fields to Salesforce

Preventing Problems In Salesforce

Recreating the new fields in Salesforce can cause your Workflows, Apex Triggers, Reports and AppExchange apps behave differently. They'll need to be updated and this doc will show you what to watch out for: Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Preventative Troubleshooting

Contact Marketo Support

If you would prefer to talk to someone live, please contact Marketo Support over any of the channel listed here: Contact Marketo Support

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33 Comments

030fdfbbc9f3c2711e8e6a84ddbb9eb0afd6eda4 Aug 11, 2016 5:35 PM
In Admin | Sales Insight, the MSI version is not displayed - what does that mean?
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- Mike Reynolds @ 030fdfbbc9f3c2711e8e6a84ddbb9eb0afd6eda4 on Aug 12, 2016 6:40 AM
  Hi Elliott,
  
  Good question. Odd that it isn't displaying. hena wells may have some insight on that detail but it may have been one of the MSI installations that couldn't be updated by the MSI patch that went out.
  
  You may need to manually update your MSI package but Support may also need to take a closer look. I'd try upgrading it manually, but feel free to open a Support case before/during/after. We'll be happy to help
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  - Carrie Thomas @ Mike Reynolds on Oct 4, 2016 1:11 PM
    we just finished the migration and sales insight no longer works for us either.
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    - Mike Reynolds @ Carrie Thomas on Oct 5, 2016 7:44 AM
      Carrie,
      
      I think that's a different issue there. Sales Insight goes through a slightly different line of communication and shouldn't be affected by this. There used to be a dependency between the MSI package and the MLM package being deprecated, but that dependency has already been patched and wouldn't cause this.
      
      I see you have a case open with Support on this already. I spoke with the Support Engineer about it and they're continuing to investigate it currently. I'll keep an eye on that one. If it does turn out to be related somehow, that's something we'll need to jump on. As of right now though, it does seem to be a separate thing.
      
      Thanks,
      Mike
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      - Carrie Thomas @ Mike Reynolds on Oct 5, 2016 9:48 AM
        I guarantee we didn't change the integration and it was working until we
        added the new fields marketo requested.
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        Mike Reynolds @ Carrie Thomas on Oct 5, 2016 9:50 AM
        Ok. we'll certainly get to the bottom of it. Let's follow up through the case we have open. I've already been coordinating with the Support Engineer working one of the cases you have open plus also your Named Support Engineer and our Product team to nail down what's going on. So let's just follow up through the case and I'm sure we can get it squared away.
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        07852dea1a282b9026e87ad04a9758801e6c071b @ Carrie Thomas on Oct 26, 2016 2:25 PM
        Hi Carrie,
        
        Were you able to get your issues resolved? We are getting ready to do this now.
        
        Thanks,
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        Mike Reynolds @ 07852dea1a282b9026e87ad04a9758801e6c071b on Oct 26, 2016 2:38 PM
        I'll certainly let Carrie confirm, but when we had the call to work on this one, we found the sales insight issue was separate from this and caused by a security token/login credential issue that the sales insight package was using.
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Chris Saporito Nov 3, 2016 8:18 AM
Mike Reynolds Once we add the Salesforce field will this create a backlog in our sync? Trying to determine if we should do this over the weekend or ASAP.
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- Mike Reynolds @ Chris Saporito on Nov 3, 2016 8:47 AM
  Hi Chris,
  
  The short answer is maybe. And yes, if you can, do it over the weekend.
  
  Here's the long answer:
  Recreating the fields is what initiates the backfill process. The backfill process itself goes through a separate "pipeline" outside of the regular sync cycle. However, the data being entered into the field in SFDC is still recorded as a change to the lead/contact record, which creates a SysModStamp. That SysModStamp is what the normal sync cycle listens for to indicate that there has been a change to the record that needs to be re-synced back over to Marketo. So, as the records are updated by the backfill process, they then get triggered to re-sync back to Marketo through the normal sync cycle. All leads/contacts get backfilled, so all leads/contacts globally get re-synced through the normal sync cycle.
  
  Here's the thing. This doesn't mean it will automatically result in a sync backlog. There are a lot of factors that play into a sync backlog. One of the biggest is that we've analyzed all customer's lead databases in order to predict sync volume and that's how the release schedule was determined. Also, consider your existing sync volume. If you've just made updates to a million Account records, then those all have to be re-synced to Marketo, along with all associated Contact records as well. Avoid that. Clear the road. Coordinate with the others on your team to make sure you're not overlapping big updates.
  
  Both the backfill process and the normal sync cycle process 10k records per hour. Take your lead database size and divide by 10,000 and you'll get the total number of hours it'll take for the backfill and the re-sync. Keep in mind, as records get backfilled, they'll be immediately re-syncing back to Marketo through the regular sync cycle, so the majority the backfill and re-sync will happen simultaneously through different 'pipelines'. It's not like you'll have X number of days and then have X more number of days. The majority of it will overlap.
  
  Along the way, if you think you're stuck in a backlog, Contact Marketo Support and we can check it out in detail. We've got tools to look at existing sync cycle volume as well as the backfill volume.
  
  Like I said.... the long answer
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Mike Reynolds Nov 10, 2016 8:27 AM
If anyone is interested, Jenn DiMaria over at RevEngine will be holding a webinar on these configuration changes on Thursday, November 17th, from 1 - 1:45pm Eastern time. I'll be there along with a couple other key contributors to this project from Marketo to answer as many questions as we can. If you'd like to join in, please check out their webinar registration page right here.

Cheers!
Mike
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Erica Harris Nov 14, 2016 8:37 AM
Hi Mike,
I've started to create the new fields, only to find that we've run out of custom fields in SFDC on Leads. I now need other people to review and let me know which fields I can delete in order to create these new sync fields. I have created 2 of the fields but we want to retain 5 more fields. I managed to create them on both Lead and Contact and map them.
How will a delay between adding the first 2 fields and the remaining fields affect the backfill process? There may be a week in between.
Thanks -
Erica
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- Mike Reynolds @ Erica Harris on Nov 14, 2016 10:04 AM
  Hi Erica,
  
  You can definitely create some fields now and then some later on. No problems there. The backfill process would run again, but only for the fields that were created each time. Shouldn't be too big of an effect overall.
  
  As for the field types, the big thing to keep in mind is whether the field types are compatible with one another. The Text field and Text area are the same thing, and both versions of the term are compatible with the long text area field on the SFDC side -- text is text after all. The difference is the number of characters allowed in the fields. In Marketo, the text field has a max of 255 characters, and Marketo owns the data in those fields. So all data would be coming from Marketo (in under 255 charcters) pushing up to SFDC to a field that allows many more characters. The SFDC field can take more characters, but Marketo will never be pushing any more than 255 to it, so it doesn't really matter. The data only ever goes from Marketo up to SFDC, never the other way back down from SFDC to Marketo.
  
  Hope that helps!
  
  Mike
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Erica Harris Nov 14, 2016 9:00 AM
In addition, we want to keep Original Source Info. In MLM this is a Long Text Area (2000) field, but the table says data type Text, not Text Area, which has a max length of 255. Can we create this as a long text area instead? Otherwise I assume we will lose data?
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Cathryn Smalley Nov 22, 2016 7:50 AM
Does anyone have a sample note they've shared with their SFDC users about the migration?
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- Valerie Whiting @ Cathryn Smalley on Nov 29, 2016 1:33 PM
  Hi Cathryn,
  
  We did this migration back in September and below is the note I sent to our SalesForce Admin team to start the project/conversation. I attached the initial notification from Marketo and a PDF version of this post as well as the "Under the Hood" documentation. Hope this helps!
  
  "Due to some recent changes between the Marketo/SFDC integration we will need to create a new custom field in Salesforce with specific API names to match the original Marketo fields. This change is set to impact 16 fields, but we have decided to only re-create one of the fields impacted, “Lead Score”. The remaining fields do not to live in SFDC and would only be for marketing use and only need to reside in Marketo.
  
  Further detail on this change is outlined in the attached email and the attached PDFs. More information can also be found on the Marketo community here: https://nation.marketo.com/docs/DOC-3840
  
  We will have access to start doing this on September 1^st and we have until September 30^th to complete this. Please let me know if you have any questions. "
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c6cba571319170c6866c63f17cec4cbce6323620 Dec 1, 2016 7:21 PM
So basically while the backfill is happening, we might miss some of the incoming data going into fields, like Lead Score changes for example - is that right?

And the backfill will basically act as a new value in the new field, so leads could be triggered again based on a change in Lead Score - how ca we prevent this from happening? I'd rather not have to retroactively un-do everything that gets triggered by this. I suppose I could just turn off all triggered campaigns that run off Lead Score while the backfill is happening, though that would mean no leads coming in. Do you have any tips here?

After the backfill is complete, how do we track down every single place that is firing off of the old fields? I know in my case that we have a ton of stuff firing off of Lead Score, and it's going to be hard to track it all down.

Is there any way that I could actually get someone on the phone to discuss these questions? I want to make sure I actually understand what I need to do here. Our marketing model relies heavily on the Lead Score field, so this change will have huge potential consequences.
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- Mike Reynolds @ c6cba571319170c6866c63f17cec4cbce6323620 on Dec 2, 2016 9:00 AM
  Hi Anna,
  
  While the backfill is happening, all data currently in the fields will be pushed to the new fields on the SFDC side. This goes outside of the regular sync cycle, but there's a process in place such that, if a lead gets updated by the sync, it pulls it out of the backfill queue. So let's say you have a lead that's in line waiting for the backfill but hasn't gone through yet. While it's waiting for the backfill to push the data over to the new fields in SFDC, a change to the Lead Score is logged on the Marketo side. This automatically puts the lead into the queue to be updated by the regular sync cycle. The lead could then go through the regular sync cycle right away and since the new fields in SFDC have already remapped to the existing ones in Marketo, it would push the existing value into the new field in SFDC, essentially doing the job of the backfill, but just going through the standard sync cycle to do it. Now, if that happens, if the lead goes through the normal sync cycle while it's in line waiting for the backfill, it will be pulled out of the queue for the backfill process. Two reasons - first, the data values are already up to date because of the update through the regular sync cycle, and second, because it'll save overall time for the backfill process to complete.
  
  In terms of the new values coming in and things being triggered off of the value changes, there are a few things to note. First, check out the documentation here that was written specifically for this type of thing: Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync – Preventative Troubleshooting. The important thing to note is that nothing changes on the Marketo side at all. You mentioned trigger campaigns, which would be in Marketo, but the fields in Marketo will be unchanged and nothing will react differently on the Marketo side. Salesforce, however, needs to be looked at ahead of time to avoid problems, which is where the doc above comes in.
  
  Inside of Salesforce, if you have any processes like Workflows, Apex Triggers, AppExchange packages, formula fields, reports, etc. that are based off of the original fields, you'll need to evaluate each one (again, check out the doc above). The existing values from Marketo coming into the newly recreated fields in Salesforce will be seen as brand new values to those fields.
  
  In terms of identifying which leads were affected, it's a pretty safe assumption that it'll be all of them that are synced to SFDC. Check out the fields affected. Some of them like Acquisition Program will have values for many leads. The safe assumption is to consider it a global resync of all leads synced to SFDC.
  
  If you'd like to talk with someone, please feel free to Contact Marketo Support and we'll be happy to help.
  
  Thanks,
  Mike
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72576c8236e646feccb6e60660fd51740ecf701d Dec 5, 2016 7:46 AM
I have few doubts to clarify, Could you please help me on the below questions.
1. Marketo changes on January 31st, 2017, Does it only impact on MLM package(field changes)? (or) Is there any impact on MSI Package also?
2. When the release date arrives, Do we must need to uninstall the package? (Or) Instead, Can we just upgrade the package? How does your changes will arrive in my Salesforce instance?
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bb35f67129e8246127d03e43f8d6e86993333957 Dec 7, 2016 12:08 PM
In preparation for the Salesforce/Marketo data sync update, I created a new Lead Score field. However, when I went to Map Lead Fields, I could not use "Contact.LeadScore" for both of my Lead Score fields. Do I just need to map the new Lead Score field to the "Contact.LeadScore"? Is there anything else I need to do to make sure my data is synced / backfilled correctly?
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- Mike Reynolds @ bb35f67129e8246127d03e43f8d6e86993333957 on Dec 8, 2016 7:33 AM
  Hi Kelly,
  
  To backfill the data and map the existing Marketo fields to the new ones, the only option that will work is to create brand new custom fields as directed in the instructions here: Adding Custom Marketo Fields to Salesforce
  
  Nothing else except for the directions in that doc will work at all.
  
  Thanks,
  Mike
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b695cdb88cde733589f68db0104313976bd4c56d Jan 3, 2017 9:01 AM
Will the original 32 fields created in Salesforce be automatically deleted or do we need to manually delete them?
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- Mike Reynolds @ b695cdb88cde733589f68db0104313976bd4c56d on Jan 3, 2017 9:30 AM
  Hi Tim,
  
  The original 32 fields don't automatically get deleted, it's a manual removal you'll need to make on your side. Some customers may still want the data in those old fields (even though they won't be updated any more), so we didn't want to just wipe them out for everyone. Removing them is really pretty easy though. As long as they aren't being referenced elsewhere in SFDC (in reports for example), then you can remove them by uninstalling the MLM package with Salesforce's documentation right here. There are a lot more details in our documentation right here as well, so be sure to check that out as well.
  
  Hope that helps!
  -Mike
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82cdd7fcac97945c9fe7a1459cedabe23ca78ecb Feb 2, 2017 4:05 PM
I am running into an issue where these fields aren't syncing because of the field name not being possible in Salesforce for Marketo's examples. So added these fields for our org with the exception that the field examples have two underscores in the field name and that is literally not possible in Salesforce or I get the error below. I created all of them with only one underscore and of course they aren't syncing. Any ideas on how to fix would be great as this has broken our assignment rules for inbound leads off of inferred country. Thanks!

Error: The custom field name you provided mkto2__Inferred_Country on object Lead can only contain alphanumeric characters, must begin with a letter, cannot end with an underscore or contain two consecutive underscore characters, and must be unique across all Lead fields
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- Mike Reynolds @ 82cdd7fcac97945c9fe7a1459cedabe23ca78ecb on Feb 3, 2017 6:40 AM
  Megan,
  
  The error message indicates that the API names you're creating the field with start with the prefix of mkto2__, which isn't the correct API name to use. The fields must be created with the exactly correct API names as specified in the documentation here: Adding Custom Marketo Fields to Salesforce.
  
  If the fields don't get created with the exactly correct API names, it won't work. All of the new fields start with the prefix of mkto71__.
  
  Hope that helps!
  -Mike
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  - 82cdd7fcac97945c9fe7a1459cedabe23ca78ecb @ Mike Reynolds on Feb 3, 2017 10:53 AM
    Thanks, Mike! I should have just assumed that the number needed to be what all our other custom fields had. Once we update, is there anything we need to do in order for the backfill of data to start flowing? I assume once Marketo picks up the proper fields, it will just start to batch sync?
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    - Mike Reynolds @ 82cdd7fcac97945c9fe7a1459cedabe23ca78ecb on Feb 3, 2017 12:42 PM
      If the API names are right, then it'll automatically remap the fields to the correct Marketo fields on the next sync cycle. That kicks off the backfill process, but the backfill actually runs through a separate pipeline outside of the usual sync cycle. When the records get updated in SFDC by the backfill, they then in turn resync back through the standard sync cycle (just a part of how the SysModStamp works for the integration).
      
      If you want to check whether it's done right, go to Admin > Field Management. Click to highlight one of the fields and see what the CRM Mapping is in the middle. If it still shows the old mkto2__ prefix like below, then it didn't remap and there's something that didn't match correctly with the API name
      
      Also, just make sure you're in the right section within Field management
      
      Hope that helps!
      Mike
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5abbcad537865a99ad45b8eac17eb641770f6534 Jul 17, 2017 10:39 AM
Hi,
I have not yet uninstalled the MLM version in Salesforce. We did do the upgrade & I see both the MLM and the MSI in our "Installed Packages" in Salesforce. Can someone please confirm that I should uninstall the MLM? I just need that warm fuzzy before I proceed.
Thanks
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- Mike Reynolds @ 5abbcad537865a99ad45b8eac17eb641770f6534 on Jul 18, 2017 5:58 AM
  Hi Corrine,
  
  As long as you've created the new fields in SFDC and removed dependencies on the old ones (no reports referencing them, campaigns, etc) then you should be good to uninstall the MLM app. If you do have anything in your salesforce that references the fields, you should get an error message to remove those dependencies first.
  
  Hope that helps!
  Mike
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Denise Greenberg Sep 18, 2018 3:18 PM
Hi Mike Reynolds - I just discovered that my client never created the new SFDC fields back in 2016. This was probably because they weren't using them (they are very SFDC-centric). However, they now need the Lead Score field as we are just implementing scoring! Is it still the case after all this time that if I create the new Lead Score fields (Lead & Contact) using the "new" api names the backfill process will run and the new fields will be connected to the existing Marketo Person field?

Regarding the backfill process, I just zeroed out Person Score for everyone in Marketo in preparation for turning on the new scoring campaigns. This was before I discovered they had never made the change. Assuming the backfill process runs, will Marketo simply transfer NULL to the new SFDC Lead Score field(s)?

Thank you,
Denise
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- Mike Reynolds @ Denise Greenberg on Sep 19, 2018 6:41 AM
  Hi Denise,
  Yes, the backfill should still run as expected! The Person Score field is "owned" by Marketo, meaning that whatever value is there on the Marketo side, even NULL, will be sent to SFDC and overwrite whatever value is on that side.
  
  Thanks
  Mike
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  - Denise Greenberg @ Mike Reynolds on Sep 19, 2018 3:49 PM
    Hi Mike Reynolds - Thank you! You didn't explicitly say so but I assume the new field(s) will automatically be connected to the Marketo Person Score field rather than sync down as a new field. Hope that's the case because I'm going to move forward!
    
    Denise
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    - Mike Reynolds @ Denise Greenberg on Sep 20, 2018 7:36 AM
      Yup! They should automatically connect. If you see any evidence otherwise, get ahold of Support to fix it. But it should still automatically hook up.
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Changes to Marketo Salesforce Sync - Overview

Overview

What’s Happening?

Fields Affected

Where to Go for More Information

Recap Summary

Frequently Asked Questions

Discussion thread

Release Schedule

Under the Hood Documentation

Recreating Affected Fields

Preventing Problems In Salesforce

Contact Marketo Support

Attachments

Outcomes

Related Content

Recommended Content

Incoming Links