Company ID in Company Object

[Juhui_Cho]

I understand that each Person's Company Object has a Company ID value.

What standard is this company ID? Is it a Company Name or is it have a unique number?
I wonder if there is a way to check the Company ID value by Person or to modify it myself.
(This is the case if CRM or API is not linked.)

And if there are People from the same Company(Company Name field value), I wonder if their company ID is the same.

Thank you in advance!

[Michael_Florin · Accepted solution]

If I'm not mistaken, any company in Marketo has two IDs. One is available through the token {{company.Id}} while the second is the so-called "External Company ID". External Company ID is a hidden system field that you can't unhide, so AFAIK you can't see it. External Company ID is used in non-native company object integrations, whereas Company ID is used by Marketo to organized the link between companies and people.

As the token exists can do this:

No, I don't think you can manipulate either field from the UI. Only the API can do this.

[Juhui_Cho]

@Michael_Florin , Thank you very much for your response! I now understand the two types of company IDs.

I have one additional question.
We are trying to update the information of the Company Object via the API.
If multiple people(leads) belong to 'Company A', is it possible to update the Company Object information for all people(leads) whose Company Name field is 'Company A'?
I understand that the key for the Company Object is the company ID, but when I checked the company ID using the token as you mentioned, it seems that each person(lead) has a unique numerical value.
Could you clarify which field should be used as the basis for updating Company Object?

[Michael_Florin · Accepted solution]

@Juhui_Cho That would be External Company ID.

Here's an example:

Create a company with some company data first

{{base_url}}/rest/v1/companies.json

{  
    "action":"createOrUpdate",
    "lookupField":"externalCompanyId",
    "input": [
    {
  "externalCompanyId": "9000220869",
  "company": "Dream Company",
  "BillingStreet": "Fantasy Street",
  "BillingCity":"Funny City",
  "BillingPostalCode": "24576"
    }
  ]
}

Then create a person:
{{base_url}}/rest/v1/leads.json

{  
   "action":"createOrUpdate",
   "lookupField":"email",
  "input": [
    {
      "email": "m.florin@reply.de",
      "firstname": "Michael",
      "lastname" : "Florin",
      "externalCompanyId": "9000220869"

    }
  ]
}

Now your person looks like this in Marketo:

Billing City, Address and Postal Code are no longer editable from the UI, as they belong to the Company Object. And any person you will now create or update with that External Company ID will inherit the values from the Company Object.

In order to create fields on the Company Object in Marketo you will need to reach out to Marketo Support. Create the fields on the person first and then ask Support to convert them to company fields.

@Katja_Keesom Thanks for the adjustments, Katja! 🙂

[Juhui_Cho]

@Michael_Florin ,

Sorry for the delayed response, and thank you for the detailed guidance!
Based on the information you provided, we will test the API integration using the external company ID. : )

[Katja_Keesom]

Well on your way there @Michael_Florin ! A few refinements:

1. The Company Id field is the unique id Marketo assigns to the company record, pretty much the same as the lead id / person id. This is a sequential number.
2. The External Company Id is a field that is used by integrations (also native) and would be the unique id assigned to the account by CRM. So in case of SFDC / MSD it would be a GUID.
3. In custom integrations you often see a custom field on the Company which is a mirror of the External Company Id, so it is also visible to the Marketo user what the CRM id of the Company is. If you do not have such a mirror field, the only way to find the CRM id is via the API interface.