Quick post today to provide reference on the Touchpoint Position “Pending” that you might see in Buyer Attribution Touchpoint (BAT) reports.
Marketo Measure (fka Bizible) has 4 milestone Touchpoint Positions: First Touch, Lead Creation, Opportunity Creation, and Closed. If you have access to the Custom Attribution Model though, you might have added other Touchpoint Positions such as MQL or Demo Scheduled.
Here comes the curveball… when you’re looking at a Buyer Attribution Touchpoint report, you might also see a Touchpoint position of Pending. Here is what it would look like:
Pending is stamped as the TP Position when the Opportunity is still open because Attribution credit must always add up to 100%. To elaborate further, if you’re using the Full Path Model (22.5% to FT, LC, OC, Closed and the remaining 10% to any middle touches) and the Opportunity is still Open, the 22.5% credit that is allocated to Closed must go somewhere. So Marketo Measure has the temporary Touchpoint Position of Pending to hold this credit.
What happens from here you might be asking? Well, if no more BATs occur and the Opp is then marked as Closed in the CRM, then 'Pending' will be swapped out with Closed.
On the other hand, if the Opp is still Open and another BAT is recorded, then the TP Position of 'Pending' will be rolled out/down to the most recent Touchpoint.
Key takeaways:
- Only applicable with Buyer Attribution Touchpoints (BATs); you will not see this with Buyer Touchpoints (BTs)
- Think of it as a temporary or “placeholder” Touchpoint Position
- You will only see it if the Opportunity is still Open (cannot be Closed Won or Lost)
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