Is User Data in Marketo Programs Static or Dynamic?

[Daniel_Tien]

New Marketo user here, and I'm trying to understand how Marketo works.

When a user enters a Marketo program, does Marketo take a snapshot of that user's data at the point of entry and use that to power the program?

Or does Marketo use the user's most recent data to power the program?

Ex: I have an onboarding program targeted to free users, but I'd like to remove them from the program if they become paid users. Would having a Remove from Flow step of "Paid = True" work to remove a user from the flow? Or would that not work since all users who enter the program are "Paid = False", and Marketo only has access to that data for the program?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Fields on the Marketo lead/person object (such as your presumably custom Boolean field Paid -- please be specific about your data model, btw) only have one current value. They do not have different values in different Programs.

But Remove from Flow is off-topic anyway, because it pertains to a person who's currently waiting in a Smart Campaign flow, not a person who's in a Program. Program status is managed via Change Program Status.

I think you'd need to be a lot more detailed about what you're trying to achieve in order to get the right pointers.

[Daniel_Tien]

Apologies, I meant a Smart Campaign as opposed to a Program. (Still getting used to all the different types of Marketo entities.)

I'm trying to create a Smart Campaign to house the onboarding emails/flow that a free user goes through after creating an account. I'd like to remove them from this Smart Campaign once they are marked as a paid user (which, as you correctly assumed, is a custom field.)

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

If the SC has Wait steps, that's the only way someone stays "in" a Smart Campaign.

A Remove from Flow step after a Wait step can be conditioned on a field value using Add Choice, and will check their value as of when they exit the Wait, not the value when they entered the SC.

[Daniel_Tien]

Awesome, thanks Sanford!

[SanfordWhiteman]

Sure, could you mark one my above answers as Correct?