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(Article Updated - August 2024) Overview A blocklist is a database of IP addresses or domains that have been associated with the sending of unsolicited commercial email or spam. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and business email networks use information from blocklists to filter out unwanted email. As a result there can be a drop to inbox delivery rates if the IPs or domains involved with sending email are listed on a blocklist. Marketo’s Email Delivery and Compliance team monitors blocklist activity on our IPs and domains daily. When an impactful listing occurs, we reach out to the blocklist, attempt to identify the sender that triggered it, and work with the blocklist organization to get the listing resolved. There are thousands of blocklists, most will not have a significant impact on your delivery rates. Below, we have compiled a list of the blocklists that commonly appear across our sender ecosystem. Each blocklist has been grouped into a top tier (Tier I) by most impactful, to the bottom least impactful tier (Tier III). These may have little to no impact across our sender network. Tier I Blocklist Spamhaus (SBL) Impact: Spamhaus is the only blocklist that we categorize as a Tier I for a reason: it has by far the greatest impact on delivery. It is the most well-respected and widely used blocklist in the world. A listing at Spamhaus will have a negative effect on your ability to deliver emails to your customer’s inbox and can cause bounce rates of over 50%. Evidence suggests that most of the top North American ISPs use Spamhaus to inform blocking decisions. How it works: Unlike many blocklists, Spamhaus lists senders manually. This means they are proactively watching sender activity, collecting data, and base listings on a number of variables. Most commonly senders are listed for mailing to spam trap addresses that Spamhaus owns. Sometimes Spamhaus will list senders based on recipient feedback as well. Next Steps: Please note that every Spamhaus email can be quite different depending on the information provided and the nature of the listing . Because Spamhaus has multiple types of listings, the remediation steps are based on which type of blocklisting has occurred. We have listed the most common types to affect Marketo customers, from most to least impactful. Impact can range from a full block of top severity, to a partial block that is less severe (CSS Data, DBL). If remediation isn’t performed and the problem not addressed, these listings can increase in severity and turn into a full blocklisting. Spamhaus Blocklistings Types SBL (full blocklisting) Considered the most impactful. Remediation steps: Our team monitors closely for Spamhaus listings. Once alerted to the listing, we send an email notifying the customer, and reach out to the Spamhaus contact to start the remediation process. Only a Marketo delivery team member should be in direct correspondence with the Spamhaus contact, to speak on behalf of the customer, and to relay their questions and instructions, ensuring quick resolution and reduced impact. Senders that trigger this listing on a shared IP range will be moved to a more isolated, penalty range (IPB), so as not to impact the other shared senders. Those affected on a Dedicated IP, only impact their own sending and will not be moved. However, depending on the severity of the issue, our team may need to revoke a customer’s ability to send any emails until full resolution. The listing will last until Spamhaus is satisfied that the offending sender has taken the appropriate steps to mitigate the problem. SBL CSS Customers are alerted of the listing with an email containing all the information needed to immediately begin the remediation process. This is part of an automated trigger listing, that allows for a customer to delist directly on the Spamhaus website, after they’ve completed remediation. Remediation steps: Customers will go to the Spamhaus IP lookup website, at https://check.spamhaus.org, where they can check on the status of their IP and continue to monitor it in real time, until it is no longer listed there. Follow the remediation and delisting instructions provided, and check for specific details in the blocklist notification email. DBL (Domain blocklisting) Customers will receive an email notification alerting of the company domain being listed. The email will contain specific information to help narrow down and identify which email source likely triggered it within Marketo. It’s important to note that any email sent from outside of Marketo, that contained the company domain, is suspect. This means, if the sender uses multiple IPs and/multiple email platforms, then any of those could be the source. Remediation steps: Follow the detailed instructions in the email, which will also provide a link to the Spamhaus Domain reputation checker webpage, to check the real time listing status of the affected domain. Once the email source is identified and cause addressed, this customer will follow the online instructions to request to be delisted. Tier II Blocklist SpamCop Impact: SpamCop is not used by any of the major North American ISPs to inform blocking decisions, but it makes it to the Tier II list because it can have a significant impact on B2B email campaigns. SpamCop is considered a Tier I one blocklist for B2B marketers but a Tier II for B2C marketers. SpamCop is a dynamic IP blocklist, that can affect a single IP or a subset of IPs Typically, the block will automatically lift within one business day, but can take longer for relisted IPs. To have triggered a SpamCop listing likely means the sender has a list management problem that should be addressed. How it works: SpamCop lists IPs for one of two reasons: Either the email hit SpamCop spam trap addresses OR A SpamCop user has reported the email unwanted. Most of SpamCop’s spam traps are previously valid addresses that have not been active for 12 months or longer. Remediation steps: If you are seeing a significant number of bouncing emails caused by a SpamCop blocked IP but aren’t sure if your email activity triggered the listing, first identify whether you are sending on a shared sender network or not. If sending from a shared IP range when this occurs, you or any other customer sending from the same network may have contributed to the IP block. This IP block will automatically get dropped within a business day. For those on a Dedicated IP that trigger a listing, refer to the above remediation steps and resources, to address the list management issue. Tier III Blocklist (Low/ No impact ) These are considered the lowest tier and therefore cause the least impact across the Marketo sender ecosystem. Some of these blocklists were more impactful at one time, while others are only impactful based on the sender region (Manitu). Others still can suddenly flare up (Lashback). There are also many blocklists that are ignored (0spam), and are not taken seriously because they do not provide any means to delist once on the list (NoSolicitado) or that they charge money to have the listing removed ( UCEPROTECT ). The pay-to-delist model is not well respected in the email industry. When using blocklist tool checkers, such as MXToolBox, many blocklists will appear, but very few are relevant. Here is our selection of Blocklists you may come across that are least impactful: Project Honey Pot SpamAssassin URIBL/SURBL DrMX PSBL 0spam HostKarma Ascams ZapBL Barracuda Trendmicro Inc. Cloudmark Proofpoint Invaluement ISP Blocklists Some ISPs use internal blocklists to make blocking decisions. Examples include AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook and Hotmail. If your IP is being blocked by one of these networks, and those networks have a large presence in your lists, a block of this kind could have a noticeable negative impact on delivery. Marketo monitors for significant ISP blocks. Those experiencing deliverability issues with emails not making it to the Inbox and bulking in the spam folder may benefit from additional services with our Email Delivery Consultants. Remediation Steps: Email Delivery Compliance Team works to resolve any ISP blocks. ISP blocks are are usually resolved or lifted within less than 24 hours of a delisting request. Customers experiencing significant blocks for Microsoft domains (outlook.com, live.com, microsoft.com), can submit a request to the delivery team to seek mitigation on their behalf. Additional Resources: Blocklist Deep Dive Abuse Report Deep Dive What is a spamtrap, or spam trap, and why does it matter? Blocklist remediation Blocklist resolution flowchart Successful lead reconfirmation What is a blocklist?

Issue How to use tokens to personalize some of the information displayed in a Marketo form. Solution It is possible to use Marketo tokens in the following form elements: Field Labels - Edit a Field Label in a Form Hint Text - Add Hint Text to a Form Field Tooltip Instructions - Add Tooltip Instructions to a Form Field Fieldset Text - Add a FieldSet to a Form Rich Text boxes - Add Rich Text to a Form

Issue You want to reduce scores of records in Marketo (for example, based on inactivity of the record), but do not want the score to go below zero. Solution There is nothing out-of-the-box prohibiting a score from dropping below zero, so what you will have to do is create a trigger or recurring batch campaign to address this. Trigger Campaign Smart List If you wanted to set up a trigger campaign, the trigger could be: Score is Changed: [specify score field] (add constraint) New Score is Less Than 0 - or - Data Value Changes: [specify attribute name] (add constraint) New Value is Less Than 0 Batch Campaign Smart List For a batch campaign, the filter could be: Score was Changed: [specify score field] (add constraint) New Score is Less Than 0 - or - [specific field] Score: is Less Than 0 Flow Steps The flow for both the trigger and batch campaigns would be the same: Change Data Value: Attribute: [specify score field] New Value = 0 Setting up your campaign like this will cause any score changes below 0 to either trigger, or be addressed by a batch campaign, and the score field to be reset to zero.

Issue You have integrated Marketo and Facebook Lead Ads in Marketo Admin > Launchpoint, and your test form-fills are not appearing in the Marketo Lead Database. Solution Occasionally the integration between Marketo and Facebook needs to be re-authorized. This is one of the primary troubleshooting steps we start with in these situations. The instructions for re-authorizing are as follows: Navigate to Marketo Admin > Launchpoint, and take note of the Facebook User that is used in the Lanchpoint integration, Log into the Facebook Business Account, and navigate to the settings where the Admins are added/removed Remove the User, and save changes Re-add the User back to the Business Account as an Admin, save changes Navigate back to Marketo Admin > Launchpoint, and edit the Facebook Lead Ads integration, Proceed with 'Next' to view the Facebook Account, and click 'Re-Authorize' The final step after this would be to attempt another form-fill on a Facebook form to see if the activities are appearing in Marketo.

Issue You try to send a sample of an email and receive a notice that the send sample failed. Solution There are two token-related reasons that Send Sample may fail: You may have an invalid value for a token in your email. If there is an incorrect token value, the send sample will not work. Example: If you have the token for first name written like this {{lead.FirstName:default=Hello}}, when you try to approve the email Marketo will let you know that the token value is incorrect. The correct token value is {{lead.First Name:default=Hello}}. For this example if you change the token value to {{lead.First Name:default=Hello}}, Marketo will allow you to approve the email and it will allow you to do a send sample. You may have a token in the From or Reply-To line that is not populating with an email address Example: If you have a token in the Reply-To like this one, {{lead.Email Address:default=edit me}}, then the Send Sample using the default will have "edit me" in the Reply-To, which is not an email address. Marketo cannot send an email without a Reply-To email address, so the Send Sample will fail. If any of the above does not apply, run the following tests and provide the information to Marketo Support Clone the email in question and test to send as a sample Create a new email and test to send as a sample Send the email via a live campaign or a single flow step to a test lead

Overview For added security, we have added functionality to validate that email tracking URL hash codes originate from the same domain in the subscription. A unique email tracking URL hash code is what is used to identify which Marketo instance the link is coming from, enabling the tracking functionality in your emails. Example Here’s an example of how an email tracking URL is constructed: Enhancement being made: This enhancement will add extra validation to the tracking URLs used in your emails. When our tracking server receives the link, it will use the URL hash code to identify the Marketo instance. It then looks up the branding domains associated with the subscription. If the domain presented in the URL matches a branding domain we have listed for you, the link will connect just as it should. If the domain in the URL does not match a domain in our database, it will be considered suspicious and will be stopped and a "404 error" will be displayed.

Issue You made an A/B Test within an Email Program, and now when you are in a Smart List or Smart Campaign and are attempting to set up a filter (such as Opened Email), you are unable to locate the A/B test email asset in order to select it. Solution When an A/B test is made in an Email Program, the Program must be approved in order for the email to be located by other assets (Smart Lists/Smart Campaigns.) When the Program is approved, the email asset name will be changed to whatever kind of A/B test is used, and will be available for reference in other assets. For example: [program name].Subject Line Test; or [program name].Whole Email Test

Issue You want to know what the duration should be for an Email Batch Program's A/B Test. Solution When setting up an A/B Test in an Email Batch Program, the default, minimum duration of the test is 4 hours long. However, A/B tests should not usually be this short, for a couple reasons: Depending on the size of the membership, and the background processes the Marketo System is engaged in, the Email Program may or may not even be able to send the complete test during the 4 hours. 4 hours is a very short amount of time. Winner Criteria is only determined from the data gathered during the period of the test - that would be 4 hours. 4 hours may not be enough time. Ideally, A/B Tests should be "days" long, so that the test may complete and all appropriate information may be captured.

Issue You are trying to add a hyperlink for your calendar event token to text in an email, but when you click on the link in a sent email, you are not getting an ICS file. Solution When you add the calendar token to an email, it displays as a "My token." Once the email is generated, that token will then appear as a link in your email. However, if you try to hyperlink the token, the token cannot resolve. To get the calendar file token to work properly, you need to add the token to the email by following the steps in this document: Include a Calendar Event in an Email. Note that you should add the token using the Insert Token button, rather than the Insert/Edit link button.

Issue You receive a message that the partition cannot be deleted because it is not empty, even though there are 0 leads in the partition. Solution Marketo will give you this error message when you have a partition with anonymous leads in it. Even if you move all known leads from a partition, there will still be hidden anonymous leads. This will prevent you from deleting the partition. Contact Marketo Support to have the anonymous leads removed from the partition so that you can delete it.

Issue Description In the Landing Page Performance reports, what do conversion and new name column in landing page performance report refer to? Issue Resolution Conversions and Conversion % in the Landing Page Performance report reflect the number of times someone filled out a form. This conversion rate counts one per form fill-out. New names are leads that were converted by that landing page and who were previously either anonymous or did not exist in your lead database before filling out the form on a give landing page. Is this article helpful ? YesNo

Included in this article Note: This post will be updated to reflect changes made to activity records returned by the API due to migration to new infrastructure. Overview With the rollout of Marketo’s next-generation Activity Service beginning in May 2017, we will be unable to enforce the uniqueness or presence of the integer “id” field in activities, data value changes, or lead deletion records returned by Marketo’s APIs. This change will begin rolling out to all subscriptions over the remaining first half of 2017. To avoid service disruptions for integrations which retrieve activity records, the id field should be treated as optional. Cutover of this change will begin to affect subscriptions with the September (Q3) 2017 release. This change will affect the following endpoints: REST API Get Lead Activities Get Lead Changes Get Deleted Leads Add Custom Activities SOAP API getLeadActivity getLeadChanges The affected SOAP types are ActivityRecord and LeadChangeRecord. Examples The following examples show record types which will be affected. In both examples, the effected field is called “id.” Example REST Field: id Example SOAP Field: id FAQs Do I need to update my WSDL version if I'm using SOAP integration? Yes. The marketoGUID field will only be returned in activities when using the WSDL version 3.1 or later. The new URI will follow this pattern: https://{munchkinId}.mktoapi.com/soap/mktows/3_1 It may also be obtained through the Admin->Web Services menu in your subscription When can I expect to see each change? Beginning with our Q1 Minor Release on April 7th, activity records retrieved via Marketo’s SOAP or REST APIs will include a new field called “marketoGUID”. The value of this field will match the value of the “id” field, but will be a string type field. Some time after the Q2 release beginning May 17th 2017, the “id” field will stop being returned as part of these records, and the value of marketoGUID will become a 128-bit string. What do I need to do? If you are responsible for code that deals with Marketo activities, you should determine whether your code relies on the presence or uniqueness of “id” field for Marketo activities, and then remove that requirement. In an upcoming release, an additional string field called “marketoGUID” will be added. “marketoGUID” should be considered the unique ID for retrieved activities when it becomes available. If you are not, you should consult with your team and relay this message to the appropriate stakeholders. Who will this change affect? This change should only affect client and partner integrations which retrieve activity records from Marketo, and only if the integrations rely on either the presence and/or type of the “id” field in the response, or rely on the uniqueness of the field. After the rollout of Orion AS, and the disabling of activity writes to MySQL, the “id” field will no longer be available and will be supplanted by a unique string id field. Check out our documentation on the Marketo Developers Site here: https://developers.marketo.com/blog/important-change-activity-records-marketo-apis/

Issue Depending on the marketing strategy, Google AdWords can be a significant portion of the marketing mix. With any significant expense, your marketing team will be asked to display a return on investment. Additionally, to help manage the spend, marketers want to compare keyword and ad display with success metrics and revenue results. Solution Keyword Capture Program - Setup Process The Marketo - Google AdWords integration provides deep insights into revenue generated by keyword and can help marketing teams get a much more granular view of revenue results than they would otherwise have without Marketo. Google AdWords spend can be tracked as its own Program Channel and leveraged within the Program Analyzer to make detailed assessments of performance. It provides very granular insight into performance through multiple dimensions and unique reports. Initial setup of Keyword tracking programs is straight-forward and simple to duplicate for each new Keyword. In addition, Marketo automatically connects to Google AdWords to report Customer-specific funnel conversion information by keyword and display ad. Template Program Setup: Add a field named PPC Source to the Lead Database – set field to write only if empty. Setup a Default AdWords Program in Marketo that contains a Keyword Token – this program will be cloned for future AdWords so that the steps below do not have to be repeated. Create a Program Token for Keyword. Configure the Smart List to Look for PPC Source containing the Keyword Token. Set the default flow to Update the Program Stages based on Activity Clicked AdWord (Default) Visited Site Filled Out Form Has Opportunity Set up a Smart Campaign within the Program to look for Closed/Won Opportunities and Activate the Campaign Cloning Process: Once the Default AdWords Program is setup it will only take a few minutes to add new PPC AdWords to Marketo. Clone the default AdWords Program. Update the Token to include the new PPC Keyword. Activate the Closed/Won Opportunity Smart Campaign. Capture Monthly Spend by Keyword Program within Marketo. Example Reports Once setup, reporting on Keywords within Marketo is now simple, easy, and more robust than other platforms. Here are five reports that will help you manage AdWords: A. Basic Keyword – Program Results Report B. Basic Keyword - Opportunity Results Report Fields include: Total Leads Count w/ No Opportunity Days No Opportunity Has Opportunity Has Opportunity % Days Until Opportunity Total Opportunity Amount Avg. Opportunity Amount Total Opportunity Won % Won Total Won Amount Days to Close Days in Sales Stage C. Program Analyzer Program Cost Cost per New Name Cost per Success First-touch Revenue Expected Multi-touch Revenue Expected Members New Names First-touch Pipeline Created Multi-touch Pipeline Created Success (New Names) Success (Total) % New Names D. RCE - Advanced Reporting on Keywords E. Funnel Conversion Data in Google AdWords - By Keyword & Display Ad The information displayed below is passed directly from Marketo into Google AdWords baed on the pre-configured Marketo-to-AdWords connector. Marketo does not currently pass along any information through the connector beyond what is shown in the screen below (Funnel Conversion Information).

Issue How to confirm ZoomInfo integration is working with Marketo. Solution First, follow the installation guide: http://help.zoominfo.com/18441-formcomplete/installation-guide#product-overview To check if its working: Go to Marketing Activities. Navigate to the folder and then click on the Smart Campaign that runs your Form Complete. From the Smart Campaign, click the top navigation menu item, “Results”. Find the most recent “Call Webhook” activity type and double click it. The Activity Details window will pop-up (check your pop-up blocker if it does not). Inside this window will be what you need to diagnose most problems. The easiest way to know if it worked or did not is that the Response Code should read: 200. This means it was successful in terms of sending and receiving the response in a way that the API accepted it. Anything other than 200 you should lookup with a Google search and investigate. Finally, go to the Lead Database, and in the quick find search for the unique contact record that submitted the form to find the record that went through the Form Complete Webhook. Double click the right record from the view and that person record will load up. From the top navigation click, “Info” and scroll down till you see the custom fields you created in Step 1 (above). You should see the fields populated if all of the steps were completed successfully. Who This Solution Applies To Customers using the ZoomInfo Integration

Issue What is the difference between mktNoTrack and mktNoTok? Solution Adding the mktNoTrack class to an email link tells Marketo not to add a tracking link to the URL. Without the tracking link, the recipient is not redirected through the tracking server before going to the target URL. Use this when you specifically don't want to track Clicked Link in Email events in the Marketo database. Adding the mktNoTok class to an email link tells Marketo not to add the _mkt_tok parameter to the target link. Used when the target link does not behave properly, for example, a mailto: link that should not have extraneous URL info or a static file that won't download when there are query parameters. The click activity will still be tracked, but the associated lead info will not be carried onto the page for use in functions such as form prefill.

Upcoming Change to Chrome Browser In October 2017, the Google Chrome browser will change the notifications it displays for unsecured HTTP web pages. Secured HTTPS web pages will not be affected. In January 2017, Chrome started marking HTTP pages as “Not secure” if they contained forms that included password or credit card fields. With the release of Chrome 62, the browser will show the “Not secure” warning for all HTTP pages containing forms, and all HTTP pages visited in Incognito mode. Because form submittals can contain sensitive information beyond passwords and credit card numbers, Chrome will now warn users that a page is not secure whenever data can be entered/submitted. Eventually, Chrome plans to display the “Not secure” warning for all HTTP pages, regardless of whether they contain forms or are viewed in Incognito mode. Effect on Marketo Landing Pages It is important to note that this affects all HTTP web pages viewed in Chrome, not just Marketo landing pages. However, all Marketo landing pages will be affected if SSL has not been set up for the instance. This will not prevent people from viewing your landing pages or submitting your forms. The only change will be the “Not secure” warning displayed in the address bar. If you already have SSL set up for your Marketo instance, you will not be affected by the change in Chrome’s behavior. Steps to Take There are two options for responding to this change. The first is to do nothing. Your landing pages and forms will continue to work as before. The only difference will be the “Not secure” notification in the browser’s address bar. The second option would be to purchase SSL for your Marketo instance. There are advantages to having SSL set up on your Marketo instance. Not only does it provide increased security for your customer base, but Google has announced that it will give preferential search ranking to HTTPS pages. If you would like add SSL to your Marketo subscription, please contact your Marketo account manager. Here is some documentation on how to Add SSL to Your Landing Pages

Issue Description A lead fails to sync to Salesforce with the following error: Failed: FIELD_INTEGRITY_EXCEPTION: There's a problem with this country, even though it may appear correct. Please select a country/territory from the list of valid countries. This error may also occur for state as well as country fields. Issue Resolution Country/State pick-list is enabled on your SFDC instance. As a consequence, SFDC will reject any record with country/state value does not belong to the list and therefore, you will have to make sure that countries are set correctly everywhere in Marketo, and especially: in forms in data management campaigns in imports For example, if you try to feed "New York", it will not be accepted. It will only accept "NY". The error messages you're seeing are coming from Salesforce because the State fields have been standardized to only accept certain pick-list values. In order to get these records to sync with Salesforce you'll need to update them to have valid values. Contact your SFDC Admin to get the list of accepted values for that field and update the record in Marketo with the appropriate value that is accepted by SFDC. If you feel like pick list is not necessary on SFDC, you could just disable the state or country pick lists in SFDC by following the below document https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=admin_state_country_picklist_enable.htm&type=5 Who This Solution Applies To Customers who use SFDC as their CRM

Issue Description The activity log is not recording the number of opens for an email send. Issue Resolution Email opens are linked to an individual asset. If a record is sent the same email more than once, only the first open activity will be recorded. If you are not seeing opens record for a record, search the activity history to confirm whether or not the asset has been opened previously. Who This Solution Applies To All customers Is this article helpful ? YesNo

Knowledgebase

Maintaining a Directory of Leads Bouncing Emails

Top Blocklists - What You Need to Know

Using Tokens in a Form

How to Prevent Score Fields From Dipping Below Zero

How to Re-Authorize Facebook Lead Ads

Send Sample Fails

Email Tracking URL Security Enhancement

Unable to Select A/B Test in Smart List/Smart Campaign

Email Program A/B Test Duration

Calendar Token Not Working in Email

Unable to Delete an Empty Lead Partition

Passing Marketo Activities into Microsoft Dynamics

Conversion and New Name columns in Landing Page Performance Report

Important Change to Activity Records in Marketo APIs

Google AdWords and Revenue Tracking through Marketo

How Acquisition Date is Populated

How to Create a Custom Interesting Moment Type

ZoomInfo Form Complete Integration with Marketo

The Difference Between mktNoTrack and mktNoTok

Upcoming Changes to the Chrome Browser

SFDC Sync - Failed: FIELD_INTEGRITY_EXCEPTION

Email Opens not recording