Any Automated way to merge duplicates using API?

[Anand_Raj_S1]

Hello,

One of my client is looking to merge duplicate leads in Marketo. There are 7k records, so totally 14k records (with duplicates). We estimate 200 hours of work if we do manually.

Is there any way to do this automatically, probably using any API?

Thanks

Anand

[Jessica_Seeger]

Contact your Marketo Support engineer. They can tell you about their Easy Merge process.

[Jamye_Breidenba]

There's another service called Auto Merge which is the automated way of addressing duplicates ongoing versus the one-time merge with Easy Merge. We are in the process of working with our CSM and Professional Services team to get Auto Merge launched. So far it has been really simple and quick to get setup.

[Steven_Vanderb3]

That would be your Engagement Manager or Customer Success Manager.  Customer Support doesn't support or initiate that process, it is a Professional Services engagement.

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

There sure is.

[Chris_Morris1]

Thanks for this, Sanford Whiteman! My rudimentary understanding of this would allow the API to dedupe/merge leads as they were added to Marketo. Is there a way to use the API on established, identified duplicates in a static list, by chance?

[SanfordWhiteman]

My rudimentary understanding of this would allow the API to dedupe/merge leads as they were added to Marketo.

Well, once you're using the Merge API, the implication is that all leads (the "winner" or target lead and the "losers" or contributing duplicate leads) are all in the database already.

If you want to pre-check a brand-new lead, you might first do a get using the Get Leads API, but you wouldn't need to merge leads per se (except in the theoretical sense of merging new external data values into an existing lead). You would just choose a lead to update.

If you had a list of identified duplicates, you could pull the list members out via the API, assemble the winning values, then merge them back in using the API.

[Anand_Raj_S1]

Thanks. I could see we can achieve using API POST method. Any instructions available?

[SanfordWhiteman]

The Swagger definition I linked to is simple, but it should be clear... what other kinds of instructions are you looking for beyond the Developer Docs (of course, you need to authenticate, get an access_token, everything you need to do with all Marketo REST API endpoints).

[Anand_Raj_S1]

Completed the setup in Marketo. to test, instructions below in docs is indistinct.

Thanks

[SanfordWhiteman]

I don't know what your HTTP request was, so I can't tell you why you were having a problem with the response.  You'd have to provide a full trace of your JSON request and the HTTP/JSON response received.

Also can't recommend strongly enough that you use Postman, not your web browser, to develop against APIs. IMO the browser should only be used, if at all, for later debugging when you already know what to expect -- and only if you're using a GET.

What language do you plan to use to develop your app?

[Anand_Raj_S1]

Thanks. Before that, I'd would like to confirm if API can be used when we look to merge duplicates leads with some rules?

Example rules to merge leads:

Rule 1: Email Suspended: Select the checkbox when Email Suspended equals “1”

Rule 2: SEAddedDate: Select the checkbox for the earlier SEAddedDate

Rule 3: First Source: Select the checkbox for the First Lead Source and First Source Detail with the earlier Created At date.

Rule 4: DoE: Select the checkbox when the DoE equals “1” (field name starts with “Send_”)

[SanfordWhiteman]

You can build this logic but not with the Merge Lead API alone.

You would have to examine the multiple leads, propagate the winning field values to the winning lead, then merge the leads.

[Anand_Raj_S1]

Ok, thanks