Marketo Terms: acquisition date versus created at versus updated at?

[Lalida_Sriyords]

Hi everybuddy,

Our organization is still in the early stages of using Marketo and we came across this question yesterday when we were checking out leads in the database.

There are columns listed for each lead for acquisition date, created at, and updated at. What are the differences? I understand that 'created at' (http://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000L3iJCAS) contains the timestamp when the record is first created in the Marketo database (either known or anonymous), but I have no idea how the others are determined.

I'd like to be able to pull a monthly lead source list that allows us to see within a certain date range where leads are coming from, but I'm not sure which of these is the best to use the pull the list, or if they will give the most accurate sources.

Also - is there a Marketo terminology page anywhere?

Thanks so much! 🙂

[Kenneth_Elking1]

Hey Lalida,

Acquisition date refers to do day that the lead was acquired in the broadest context.  This could correspond to a face to face conversation, or when someone signed up for a mailing list at a tradeshow, which is why it is editable.  This is normally assigned when a lead is added to their Acquisition Program, but can be altered later.  Updated At is a system managed field which shows the timestamp for the most recent activity that ocurred on the lead record.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Lalida - You understand Creation Date, the first time the lead's email address is entered into the system. AS Kenneth said Updated (modified) date is merely the last time changed. The one I think you're getting confused on is Acquisition date. If a lead is created by a specific program, it will have the same data for acquisition and creation. If a lead is imported into lead database (or "new lead" manually created in Marketo), it is created, but no program is claiming ownership so it wasn't acquired by a program. So that date is empty. Capiche?