Creating Smart List with Custom Object Data

[Travis_Schwartz]

The instance of Marketo I use has Custom Object data (We call it the account) and I'm trying to create a list. 

We have a field for the overall balance on the account, and we have a field for the amount due. What I'm trying to accomplish is have it look at both fields and if the amount due (this amount doesn't change), is greater than the overall budget amount, add them to a campaign because they are going to pay off their balance next pay period.

When I create my smart lists, I select the "has account" field, and it gives me the constraints that are available, but I can't say "look at the field 'balance' and if that field is less than the field 'amount due' add to the list. all I can figure out how to do is say "look at the field 'balance' and let me know if it is higher/lower/equal to a specific value. I can't compare it to another field. Is this doable? can I have Marketo look at two different fields and say "if A is greater than B" add to the list?

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

There's no way to make this comparison within Marketo and use the result to sort people into Programs/Lists.

You can do such a comparison within Velocity and throw a deliberate error so unwanted recipients don't get an email (it'll Soft Bounce). But in the other cases, the person will simply get an email (as opposed to being sorted into other Progs/Lists). So it's a pretty brutal tactic, albeit one I use sometimes.

Other than that, you can use a Send Alert-to-webhook setup. Complex, but again not without its real-world uses.

Or you can simply precalculate the difference before inserting/updating the CO.

[Travis_Schwartz]

Thanks for the response.

I didn't think it would work but wanted to reach out to the community to see if maybe there was something I was overlooking. It doesn't feel like it should be that complex, and if there was a potential way of making it happen, I figured someone here would know. alas... 

Thanks.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Yep. You're really 2 levels deep into "classic Marketo feature gap" with this one. You can't natively compare two Dates even if they're flat fields on the Lead object, although at least that's very easy to accomplish with a simple webhook. Fields on COs, aside from being queryable in Velocity (meaning you're already sending an email and can only continue or abort the send) aren't even accessible in webhooks.