Create an interesting moment off of Custom Object

[Michael_Oslin]

Hello,

I have a question around Custom Objects in Marketo.

At a high-level I am trying to create an interesting moment off of a custom object field so I can pass it to SFDC in the Marketo Sales Insight (MSI)

We capture which asset ID someone downloads every time someone clicks on them, and I want to be able to pass that information to CRM.

So the CO captures the Asset ID | Asset Name | time/date | Person/email | Type of Asset (white paper, etc) |

I would like to create an interesting moment off of it so I can score it and also pass to CRM.

I've heard munctions, but reading a few threads I'm not sure that is what I need.

Anyone have any ideas?

thank you-

Michael

[Jim_Thao3]

I'm reading the product docs at the moment and it looks like you can trigger off of custom objects (with some caveats).   From this, I gather that if you can trigger off of the custom object, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to then create an interesting moment in the flow. 

You can read about it here: Trigger Off Custom Object Changes - Marketo Docs - Product Docs

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Michael,

This is not possible out of the box as there is no way you would use a CO field as a token to populate your IM.

Of course, you could create one smart campaigns for each possible values for the CO field. Would work and would be OK only if this field have a finite number of possible values.

Otherwise, you will have to go through some API. (Sanford Whiteman​, would that work with flowboost?)

-Greg

[Michael_Oslin]

Thank you Michel and Jim-

Michel,

Are you saying that the Trigger Off Custom Object Changes is not going to work for what I'm trying to do?

The field values are definitely a finite set.

For instance we have 250 assets roughly, and each one has a discreet name.

Doc ID 121; Asset Name "Understanding Marketo is Super Easy"; RetURL "www.someSite.com"

Doc ID 122; Asset Name "xyz"; RetURL "www...com"

And so forth

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Michael,

The trigger will work (provided you convince the support to enable it for you ), but you will not be able to use the value of the field to populate your IM text.

So, as I wrote, you will have to create one smart campaign with this trigger for each new value that the field can take if you want to use this value in the text of the interesting moment.

-Greg

PS: Michel is my last name, which is why I sign my posts "Greg"

[Michael_Oslin]

Ha, sorry, thank you Gregoire! I always find it funny when someone calls me by my last name.

Getting used to the Marketo Community

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi again Michael

Although the field values ave a finite set, 250 possible values for the asset name is a little to call it a good idea to create as many smart campaigns.

But how are the CO's populated? Where to they comme from? And what do you intend to write down in the Interesting Moment?

-Greg

[Michael_Oslin]

Greg,

Yes, I'm starting to get that while possible, 250 values might be a bit much for smart campaigns, particularly as I would expect that list to continue to grow over time.

We will be populating a CO via an API from our web forms (we do not use the Marketo Forms on our websites)

We are also playing around with sending the data straight to the lead as new values, in addition to the CO. Obviously understanding that its not gathering historical data and that the information would be overwritten anytime new values are submitted.

The CO would be used to gather historical data for future analytics.

The way we are planning on using the IM would be to send it over to SFDC with the following information "Web Form: downloaded 'XYZ' asset; URL:www.asset.com".

That way when sales sees the IM they can know exactly what the person downloaded.

I should add that we intend on using the return URL (retURL) for email scripting. So in our transactional reply to the person that submitted his/her information, we can include a link to the asset they just downloaded.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Michael,

1/ quick question: are you accessing the Marketo API from the client side or the server side of your website? Please be very careful that doing it from the client side is very dangerous: it publishes to the open world your API key, meaning that anyone can use it to post data to you Marketo instance or to simply saturate your daily API quota and create a DOS attack.

2/ if you are publishing the data to lead fields, then you can immediately use these values to populate an Interesting Moment. As you point out, this will not create any history, but at least it makes the creation of the IM very simple.

3/ in email scripting, you can use Custom objects as well as lead fields, so this should not be much of an issue.

If I may suggest another architecture for the whole thing:

1. Post the data to lead fields only using the forms 2.0 client side API. This will not create any security issue and will not eat you daily API quota
2. In a "fills out form" smart campaign, create the IM with the content values and also call a webhook, passing to it the content title and URL
3. Have the webhook to post the CO in Marketo in an asynchronous/batch way using the REST API, not lead by lead, but in batch mode, so that you significantly reduce the number of API calls and save ion your daily quota.

-Greg

[SanfordWhiteman]

I wholly agree (as Greg knows). Using single API calls in response to untrusted user action is the epitome of a DoS vulnerability!

Also: yep, FlowBoost w/Floxy can stamp the CO data back on the lead, which can then be used in the IM.

But I don't think that's called for here... a rethinking of how COs are populated is more in order. Greg's approach (one immediate post to lead, later batch to CO) is good. I wouldn't use COs at all, though, if starting over. Use a JSON array to hold the history: flexible, accessible from Velocity, no API calls.