Confusion around PURLs and tracking capabilities in Marketo

[Dan_Stevens_]

Based on this help article, it states "Visitors who use that URL will be recognized and tokens will work properly."  But from what I understand, visitors who use PURLs are not trackable until they've been cookied.  So I'm trying to understand how PURLs are useful and can be used as an effective tactic in our direct mail campaigns.  Someone, please shed some light here.

[Anonymous]

i'm curious too.

I **think** it works because you're pre-loading their info into your database (or it's already there), and you're sending them a unique url - so as they visit their PURL, the info in the database is loaded as the cookie is downloaded.

It's the same way an email to a new lead with a "first name" token will work, even if that lead has not been cookied yet. you're just asking Marketo to pull that info from the database.

[Anonymous]

Dan,

Based on this other discussion post: https://community.marketo.com/MarketoDiscussionDetail?id=90650000000PjJiAAK

I am thinking it's not useful for direct mail at all. It would appear that the only time a PURL will work AND track is if it is already a link and the link click can be tracked. 

Not very useful at all really.