Using Munchkin on Multiple Domains

John_Clark1
Level 10
Level 10

You can use Munchkin on any page you like, but the thing to remember if you have multiple products or divisions in your company is that Munchkin cannot automatically track a lead across domains.  This only applies to top level domains though, not sub-domains.  So, a lead could be tracked through

www.MyProduct.com

http://www.myproduct.com/and

pages.MyProduct.com

but couldn't automatically be tracked through

www.MyProduct.com

and

www.MyOtherProduct.com

So how does munchkin keep track of your leads?

When a lead visits any munchkin tracked page on a domain they've never visited, the system will cookie their browser and create an anonymous lead record in your database.  This allows Marketo to begin gathering and saving information about the lead and their activities even before you know who they are.  It also allows you to begin scoring the lead record, or running them through any other campaigns you might be using to evaluate leads.  Keep in mind that anonymous leads cannot go through all flow steps though(Send Email for instance), and they cannot be made members or a program.  You can see messages about this in the results of any campaign where anonymous leads have qualified for the smart list but couldn't be processed through some steps.

Tracking anonymous leads is a bit like having someone come into your store and look around without really saying or buying anything.  For this reason, it's a good idea to give them a way to tell you who they are.  The main way of course, is by giving them a form they can fill out, which will then convert their anonymous lead record into a known lead record.  Now you can really start to market to them, and you have all of their past activities to see what they've been up to!

Next we'll look at how a lead is tracked if they go to one of your other munchkin tracked pages on another domain.

If our lead from above visits another domain that is being tracked with your munchkin code, the munchkin there will track the lead as anonymous to begin with.  The same process applies to this new anonymous record.  All activity will be recorded, and it can still be scored and acted upon by some flow steps.

If the lead identifies themselves on the new domain by filling out a form using the same email address they previously used on the original domain, then munchkin is able to merge the anonymous record with the original record.  But wait!  There's another way!

Leads can also identify themselves on a new domain by clicking links to that domain in emails that you've sent from Marketo. Each link in your email is wrapped with tracking information specific to the lead the email is sent to, so you can use Marketo to send out invites for known leads to your new store(domain).  By doing this you're saying, "Hey, we know you from our first store, now come visit our new store and let us get to know you there too."  As with the form fill-out, once they click the tracked link Marketo can merge the known and anonymous records and begin tracking the lead's activities in both domains under a single record in Marketo. 

This same process would need to happen for every domain you're using your Munchkin on, in order to track each lead in all domains under a single record.  What we usually recommend is a tagging campaign for each of your domains where you send email(s) from Marketo with a link for each domain. You'd also want to have a form on each domain that leads could fill out.

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33 Comments
Anonymous
Not applicable

Regarding the process where you send an email with a link to a second domain:

Assuming the user clicks the link in the email and visits the second domain,

does the system automatically "merge the known and anonymous records and begin tracking the lead's activities in both domains under a single record in Marketo" or do you need to implement custom code?

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

If the user self-associates by clicking a tracked link, you don't need any custom anything.

Aslihan_Ayan_Ha
Level 7

Can you expand on the "What we usually recommend is a tagging campaign for each of your domains where you send email(s) from Marketo with a link for each domain. You'd also want to have a form on each domain that leads could fill out."? Thank you

John_Clark1
Level 10

Hi Ashlee,

Leads can identify themselves on a domain by either filling out a form or clicking a tracked email link that leads to that domain.  So you can use this to your advantage.  If you send an email to leads you already now, and that email has a link to your second domain(or whatever domain you're trying to tag them on), then when they click it, the system will be able to recognize that the record you sent the email too, is the same as the record on the other domain.  You'll then be able to track leads on both.

Does that make more sense?

John

Aslihan_Ayan_Ha
Level 7

Thanks John. This makes perfect sense...

Robert_Kelen3
Level 4

John Clark​, is this known/anonymous lead unification across two domains also accomplished if a cookied lead on myproduct.com clicks on a link (not necessarily a Marketo landing page) directly from myproduct.com to myotherproduct.com?

John_Clark1
Level 10

No, that would not be enough to identify the lead on the new domain.

Robert_Kelen3
Level 4

Thanks John. That's what I was afraid of : - (

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

If you control all the exit links from Domain A to Domain B, and there are no other means by which a lead can access Domain B for the first time, then unifying the cookie is not difficult. 

An example would be when a user signs up for an account on Domain A and then is redirected to an application on Domain B. You have control over that exit navigation.

However, if there is any direct navigation to Domain B, with or without visiting Domain A first, then the development effort is far more complex.

Robert_Kelen3
Level 4

In our current situation it's not really a 'control all exit links'

situation, but it is expected to be a straightforward two hop situation:

email to domain A user; click link in mail to content on domain A; direct

link from that content to munchkin'd destination domain B. Does that make

it any more possible?