During 2020, Marketo deployed infrastructure updates to improve batch campaign performance as described here. As a result, there was a slight change in behavior when using Head Start for Email Programs.
Legacy Behavior
The “Send Email” activity was generated when a campaign started executing at its scheduled time followed shortly thereafter by generation of the “Delivered Email” activity.
New Behavior
The “Send Email” activity is now generated when head start starts executing 12 hours ahead of scheduled time. As a result, the “Send Email” activity is logged 12 hours earlier than it had been. There is no change to the timing of the “Delivered Email” activity.
Example
Before Email Delivery
- Email program scheduled time on Nov 6, 2020 at 1:30am EST with head start enabled
- Initial status is “Waiting to run”
- Status changes to “Processing started, waiting to run” at Nov 5th, 2020 at 1:30pm EST
- Activity log “Send Email” at Nov 5th, 2020 at 1:29pm EST
- Email Performance Report shows Sent and Pending count
After Email Delivery
- Email Performance Report shows Delivered count and no emails in Pending
- Activity log “Email Delivered” is as expected at scheduled time
Customer Impact
- Smart List Filters - If using “Was sent email” filter, this should be changed to “Was delivered email” filter
- Communication Limits - Communication limits are calculated using "Send Email" activities so scheduling can be impacted
- Email Performance Report - Emails remain in “Sent/Pending” state for 12 hours
- Activity Log - "Send Email" and "Delivered Email" entries are now 12 hours apart
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