Combining Multiple Forms with Marketo’s Visibility Rules

[Risako]

Hi, I'm planning to consolidate several separate forms (e.g. contact, document download, video download) into a single unified form using visibility rules. Below is the intended setup.

I'd like to ask:

• Are there any concerns or risks with this kind of setup?

• If so, what are the possible solutions?

• Also, if a lead submits the form multiple times, will the data be overwritten?

Form setup idea:
I plan to use visibility rules to show/hide specific fields (other than name and email address) based on the selected category in a "Form Category" dropdown (options: Contact, Document Download, Video Download).

Form field structure (example):
Fields always shown:

• Full Name (required)

• Email Address (required)

• Form Category (required)

Fields shown only when "Contact" is selected as the Form Category:

• Industry (required)

• Job Title / Department (required)

• Requested Materials (optional)

• Inquiry Details (required)
  
  

Thank you.

[reetusharmaGrz1 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Risako 

This is a solid plan — consolidating forms with visibility rules is a great way to simplify user experience But there are some concerns and risks

- By default Marketo, when a lead submits a form multiple times with the same email, new values overwrite previous ones (except for non-overwriting custom logic).

- Combining multiple use cases into one form can complicate form performance analytics, especially if you want to track submissions for "Document Download" vs. "Contact Us" separately.

Thanks

- 

[Risako]

Hi, @reetusharmaGrz1 

By default Marketo, when a lead submits a form multiple times with the same email, new values overwrite previous ones (except for non-overwriting custom logic).
⇒Would using Program Member Custom Fields (PMCF) solve this issue?
I understand that even with PMCF, if the same lead submits the form again to the same program, the previous values would still be overwritten. In such cases, would the recommended approach be to use Custom Objects, which are available in the Marketo Engage Enterprise plan?

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Combining multiple use cases into one form can complicate form performance analytics, especially if you want to track submissions for "Document Download" vs. "Contact Us" separately.
⇒Do you have any suggestions or best practices to handle this challenge effectively?

Thank you.

[reetusharmaGrz1]

Hi @Risako 

- Yes — Program Member Custom Fields (PMCFs) can help solve this issue, depending on your goal but PMCFs are tied to the program membership rather than the lead record

and again we have limitation with PMCF, A lead can only be a member of a program once — you can’t have multiple PMCF values per lead per program. But you could create separate programs per campaign/form variation/date to retain distinct PMCF values.

- If you're on Marketo Engage Enterprise, Custom Objects are definitely the way to go for:

• Tracking multiple form submissions per lead

• Storing multiple values per person without overwriting

- Combining multiple use cases into one form can complicate form performance analytics, especially if you want to track submissions for "Document Download" vs. "Contact Us" separately.
⇒Do you have any suggestions or best practices to handle this challenge effectively?  - We can use the hidden fields for form purpose , and also need to create the separate program for every use case.

Thanks

-

[SanfordWhiteman]

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- If you're on Marketo Engage Enterprise, Custom Objects are definitely the way to go for:

What Marketo Engage package and specific feature are you referring to here?

[SanfordWhiteman]

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I understand that even with PMCF, if the same lead submits the form again to the same program, the previous values would still be overwritten

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Yes, your understanding is correct. There is one set of PMCF values per program member.

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In such cases, would the recommended approach be to use Custom Objects,

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We often use Custom Objects to persist form submissions as encapsulated, non-overwritable objects. We even have a whole UTM attribution setup that stores each conversion as a distinct CO record.

However, merely having Custom Objects on your subscription won’t get you there. You also need to build the integration to move Filled Out Form activities to COs.

I don’t know why you’re referring to “Enterprise” here. What specific package do you have (Growth, Select, Prime, Ultimate)?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Seems like a fine plan.

As Reetu mentions, Marketo forms always overwrite flat values on leads unless you’ve blocked updates in Field Management. This is true whether you have multiple forms or one form. Note previously posted values are saved in each Filled Out Form activity detail, even if they’re overwritten at the lead level.

You don’t actually need to present Form Category as a visible field, by the way. You can have it be a hidden field, then set it from a query param or using JS. That way you save the end user a step and pre-set the form variant yourself.