Acquisition Program as a token?

[Anonymous]

I was wondering if there was a way to attribute Acquisition Program to a token that you made a "hidden parameter" on your form. That way, in the flow, if someone fills out a form, and you can identify them as a new lead, you can change data value - attribute: acquisition program to new value: {{token}}.

Right now, it only chooses a specific program from the search.

The reason I want to be able to do this, is because I track my website process in its own program with a global form. I also made a global form for campaigns with its own program so I could separate my website conversions from my campaign conversions. If I could have a token that fills in the program I specify on my form in a hidden field, I can make sure that the right campaigns get the program attribution, and they are not all lumped together as "campaign-trials" as my acquistion program.

Basically what I am getting at, is I want to attribute my Acquisition Program to my Lead Source Detail, but it won't let me attribute to a/that token. If I can change data value to attribute programs outside of the specified programs you have to choose,  I should be able to use a token to attribute my program to whatever I define as my hidden parameter in my form as the Lead Source Detail.

This would give me better granularity into how I am aquiring people and make it easier within one program with a token.

Does this make sense? Can we already do something like this and I am over tired or would other people think this would be good to have??

-Jesse

[Josh_Hill13]

So you want to use a URL parameter to populate the Program Name in the Acquisition Program?

You can only set the Acquisition Program to a Program that exists and is formatted properly. So it could be a token, but I don't see why you couldn't run this in the usual ways:

• Automatic when someone becomes Acquired by
• Change Data Value

[Dan_Stevens_]

Actually, this is one attribute that you cannot use tokens to populate the value.  Kind of annoying since we use tokens in almost every flow step.  However, this specific one will not work with tokens.  Here you can see we have to hard-code it in every program (instead of using {{my.Program Name}}😞

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Dan.

I think I'm referring to something slightly different, although perhaps it still applies. I am wanting to use a token in an internal alert email we send to ourselves when someone fills out a key form. We'd like to quickly be able to see some key info about the lead, including their acquisition program - without having to click through to their full lead record.

Here's what it looks like from my "edit email" screen:

You can see I'm trying to use the Acq Program Name token, but it is always generating my default value (nothing, in this case) instead of the actual name of the acq program.

I've also tried the other very similar token called just "Acquisition Program" but that generates a strange 4-digit number which I don't understand.

Is this an appropriate use of the acq token and if so, what am I doing wrong to cause this problem?

Thanks!

[Dan_Stevens_]

You've defined the token properly (as "APN" and not "AP").  It sounds like the issue is the APN value doesn't exist in the lead record when the alert gets sent out.  Try adding a wait step so Marketo has time to properly populate the APN field.

[Anonymous]

Ok that is good to know that the token I should be using is APN and not AP - I have yet to understand the difference in those two fields or why there are two of them! Thank you!

I will add a wait step for those leads acquired by the form they are filling out. That is a good, necessary idea.

However, in some of the tests I am running, I am using my own lead record and I have an acquisition program set already in my lead record from years ago. I don't see why it doesn't include that information in the email.

[Dan_Stevens_]

That is definitely very odd - if you're testing a lead record where you know that the APN is properly populated.

As for the two AP/APN fields: here's your answer - Re: What is the difference between the Acquisition Program and Acquisition Program Name?  Since the main field is locked - and can't be used as conditional arguments in things like flow steps, it was necessary to duplicate it an "Acquisition Program" field to allow that to happen.  Look at my flow step above - and you'll see how I'm using both.

[Anonymous]

Yes, super odd!

Thanks for the AP vs. APN info. So is the sync between those two fields automatic or are you saying that I need to manually tell Marketo to put the lead's APN info into the AP field? Currently we let Marketo automatically generate the lead's acquisition program name. I've never done anything manual to also set the AP - perhaps that needs to be done?

Then again - since I'm using APN for my internal email, I'm thinking that even if my lead doesn't have proper info in their AP field, the email should still be working - showing us the automatically generated APN.

[Dan_Stevens_]

The sync is automatic and happens behind the scenes.

[Anonymous]

Oh good! That is excellent news and less work for me. 😃

[Anonymous]

Josh,

What do you mean by "formatted properly?" I am having trouble getting my lead's acquisition program name to appear in our internal alert emails we send ourselves when someone fills out certain forms. I use tokens in these emails to populate key stats about the lead.

I have tried both "Acquisition Program Name" which is not populating anything (even when the lead does, indeed, have an acquisition program) as well as "Acquisition Program" (I hate that there are two choices that seem so alike - but that's a complaint for another day - and this populates a random 4-digit number that has no meaning to me.

I'm trying to figure out why this token isn't working - and I'm wondering if some of my programs aren't formatted correctly, as you say. What does this mean, specifically?

[Dan_Stevens_]

Allison, you could try this approach: as soon as someone converts on your form, create a "change data value" flow step that populate a custom field with the name of the program:

Then you can use this token in your alert.  Here's a snippet of one of our alerts where we use this value to identify program attribution:

[Anonymous]

Ok, that could work, but it is looking at a different value. The lead's acquisition program may have been from months or years ago - not necessarily the program for which they just filled out a form. We are trying to find a way to populate the name of that very most original acquisition program into the internal alert email.

Is there a reason that the token I'm attempting to use isn't working? I can't quite see what's different about it than some of the other tokens I'm using with success in that same email, though it's very possible that the acquisition program token could be unique. I guess if I knew it is never going to work as I need it to, I'd find a workaround but so far I haven't found reason to believe it shouldn't be working.

[Dan_Stevens_]

I think the culprit is that you're trying to dynamically populate the APN.  You can't do that.  You need to hard-code it in (like I showed in my example below).

[Anonymous]

Dan - I SO appreciate your help. I hope you don't give up on me even though I'm so full of questions! 😃

I'm afraid I'm confused. My problem situation is not that I'm trying to assign any lead an acquisition program - that happens elsewhere (and I believe automatically when using Marketo forms).

The situation at hand, rather, is just getting my email to tell me what information happens to be in that lead record field. So I cannot hardcode it in b/c even for the exact same form fillout, the lead could have any number of acquisition programs (since some of the leads filling out this particular form will not be brand new leads, but rather ones acquired by other past programs.)

Even in my case of wanting to generate this data, I cannot use a token? I don't see the difference in asking the email to generate the lead's phone number or company name - for which the tokens are currently working.

I do apologize if I am not explaining well or if this info just isn't sinking in through my thick head! Thanks again for your patience and help!

[Dan_Stevens_]

I'll try my best, Allison!  BTW, don't assume that APN will always populate with the name of the program where the form/smart campaign exists.  If the lead is already in Marketo - let's say, via a list upload (and APN was set to NONE - which is usually a good idea when it wasn't the lead's choice to enter Marketo and instead was uploaded so that you can market to them) - then if that lead ends up filling out a form, APN will remain blank.  Only new leads get assigned APN automatically upon form fill out.  Which is why we include this flow step in virtually EVERY smart campaign where conversion may take place (filling out a form, downloading a PDF, clicking on a link, etc.):

[Anonymous]

Yes, that is a good reminder. Thank you.

The way we do things is that it is assumed that every lead currently in Marketo has an acquisition program - which is the name of the program through which they entered our database. We want that original "entry point" to be tracked and maintained in the acquisition field. At the time of entering the database, their acquisition program gets set - through different means - and we don't touch it again.

After that original entry, all we want to do is view that info - which is what I'm having trouble doing in my internal email. I can see it by going to the lead's record, but I'm trying to use a token to view this info without clicking through to the lead record - like we do successfully with things like company name and phone number.

[Dan_Stevens_]

If APN is indeed populated with a value, there is no reason why it won't populate a token used in a real-time alert.  Here, you can see where I tested both AP and APN tokens - and the values stored in each:

[Anonymous]

When I attempt to do that exact same thing, here is what I get:

My default value for the APN is (blank), and that is what has been appearing even when leads have an APN.

Here is what my lead record looks like (same one as above), showing an acquisition program name:

Perhaps I have just a technical problem on my hands and I should create a ticket? I just assumed I was doing something wrong.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Is that the EXACT name of a program in your instance?  Is this an example of where Marketo auto-populated the value with the APN - or did you force it?

[Anonymous]

In this case, I forced the value of the APN. It is my lead record so it often gets used for testing things out, which means my true acquisition program has long since been overridden. So in this case I "changed data value" for myself and set the acquisition program. Could that be causing the problem?

As for the name of the program, yes that is exact. I chose it from a dropdown of all our programs. Here it is in my program Marketing Activities list: