This post is geared towards Marketo Measure (fka Bizible) customers who have mapped their Channels and now need to audit the output of their Channel mapping decisions. What does that mean exactly you might be asking? Well, when we set up our Channel mapping logic in the Marketo Measure account, we take our best stab at it but it’s very likely that we’ll need to make adjustments. For example, maybe now that we’re looking at the Channel data, we realize we want the Channels to be more granular or maybe we realize we forgot about certain UTM parameters that need to be added to our logic.
Pretty much all Marketo Measure customers go through this Channel mapping fine-tuning exercise so let’s break down the most efficient process for this.
Please note that these guidelines are based on having the SFDC Package version 6.15 or higher installed. That said, if you are on an older version or a Dynamics CRM user — let me know in the comments and I’ll help adapt these instructions if needed 🙂
Step 1:
It’s easiest to start with a pre-existing report. In the report folder titled "Bizible Touchpoint Reports" (or "Marketo Measure Touchpoint Reports" if you've recently updated your package), let’s select the Bizible 101 | Leads by Channel report.
Why? Because this report groups all Touchpoints related to Leads by the Marketing Channel they are associated to. It effectively allows us to see all of your channels in one place.
Step 2:
We now need to customize this report a bit! Let’s do the following:
- Click to customize/edit the report
- Expand the date range (this will depend on how long you’ve been a customer, but I recommend at least a few months for a good sample size)
- Filter to Marketing Channel = Other
- Add in a column for 'Landing Page RAW’ because this will allow you to see the full query string (all UTMs present)
- Let’s first group the rows by Medium and then by Touchpoint Type
- Hide the detail rows and run the report!
It should look something like this:
Step 3:
Now we need to analyze our results. Note that it’s helpful to have the detail rows hidden so that you can see the overall numbers to quickly see where the majority of your data is sitting.
You might be wondering why we grouped the report by Medium and then Touchpoint Type, here’s why
- Medium is great because if it’s a JavaScript Touchpoint it will either be populated by the Medium value from the ad platform or from the UTM_Medium value and if it’s a CRM Campaign Touchpoint, it will be the CRM Campaign Type Value.
- Now building on this, Touchpoint Type is helpful because it details if it was a JavaScript or CRM Touchpoint. The value in these groupings is that you can easily see when Medium values look like they don’t belong in the ‘Other’ Channel and then based on Touchpoint Type, you know where to go to fix the channel mapping.
Step 4:
Your final step is to update the Channel mapping logic in the Marketo Measure Account based on your findings.
Using the screenshot above, we have one CRM Campaign Touchpoint and one (JavaScript) Web Form Touchpoint, which you can easily identify with the Touchpoint Type column. This tells us we will need to update the Channel mapping logic in two different places since the process is different for CRM Campaign Touchpoints vs JavaScript Touchpoints.
Let’s tackle the CRM Campaign Touchpoint first. We’ll navigate to the Offline Channels section of the Marketo Measure app to update the mapping logic. Remember that for CRM Campaign Touchpoints (also referred to as Offline Channels commonly), the CRM Campaign Type dictates the Channel Mapping.
In the screenshot below you can see the CRM Campaign Type “Event” is mapped to the ‘Other’ Channel. This is why it’s showing up in the Other Channel in the CRM Report and not in a more expected channel like Events.
To resolve this, you just need to select the appropriate Channel value from the drop-down picklist. Note that you may need to first create a new Channel in the Create Channels section before it will appear in the picklist.
Now, for fixing the Channel mapping for the JavaScript Touchpoint, we need to navigate to the Online Channels section to edit the Online Rule Sheet.
As noted in the below screenshot, there isn’t a rule looking for the UTMs in use. Therefore the “Other” Channel captures it because the standalone asterisk is looking for any value at all; it’s kind of a catch-all bucket.
To fix this, add in a new rule with the appropriate UTMs as pictured below. If you’re adding a new Channel or Subchannel, don’t forget to add it in the Create Channels section before uploading your rules!
Step 5:
Make sure you Save and Process any Channel mapping logic that you updated! Once you do this, Marketo Measure will begin reprocessing your data (all of your data, not just data from this point forward) and bucketing Touchpoints according to the new Channel mapping logic. Depending on your volume of data this could take multiple days.
Summary:
That’s it! I’ll admit it’s not the most fun process in the world, but data hygiene is very, very important for your data so I recommend performing this audit as a new customer and then periodically for maintenance purposes (at least twice a year). Once you’ve initially cleaned up the data and ensured your Channel Mapping rules are robust, you shouldn’t need to alter much in the future. But again, it’s good to assess periodically in case you introduce new channels/platforms/tools or in case someone makes a mistake with a UTM.
Pro Tip: These instructions are specifically for the Other Channel as it’s usually the biggest culprit for “mis-bucketed” Touchpoints but if you want to take your audit a step further, repeat this process for each Channel!
Last Updated 5/13/2024
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