Does Marketo Track UTM's out of the box?

[Parth_Thakkar]

Hello, This is something that I haven't been able to find an answer to? Maybe I'm just missing it.

Let's assume that I've already made custom fields for UTMs, does Marketo track these out of the box? Or do my developers needs to write custom code to capture the param and associate it with the lead (on a form submit for example).

The thing to note here is that I will not be using Marketo forms, but my own forms and sending the lead to Marketo via the REST API.

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Another scenario, anonymous users who come in via marketing, does Munchkin track the UTMs on these?

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Any insight here is much appreciated!

[SanfordWhiteman]

The thing to note here is that I will not be using Marketo forms, but my own forms and sending the lead to Marketo via the REST API.

Why? Are you not capable of using the Forms JS API (which is vastly more usable, trackable, reliable, and high-performance)?

Let's assume that I've already made custom fields for UTMs, does Marketo track these out of the box?

"Track" is too vague, but a Marketo form can (and should) have hidden fields that auto-fill from URL parameters. Those fields do not exist automatically (they couldn't, because you have have to choose which fields in the database you want to use). They're added in the Form Editor UI.

If you circumvent the standard Filled Out Form process for some reason then certainly you would need to update the values, otherwise Marketo would have no way of knowing them.

Another scenario, anonymous users who come in via marketing, does Munchkin track the UTMs on these?

Again, what exactly do you mean by "track"?

Yes, the query string including UTM params is logged by the Munchkin analytics module; No, query params are not saved to lead fields from a Visit Web Page activity.

[Parth_Thakkar]

Hey Sanford, Thanks for the insightful reply!

Why? Are you not capable of using the Forms JS API (which is vastly more usable, trackable, reliable, and high-performance)?

Truly, I hadn't done enough research here. Our main concern is styling the forms, we have specific brand guidelines and I didn't see any good documentation on best practices for very custom styling of forms. 

-For example, build the form, embed it, but then hide it and use the .val() function to populate relevant values on send

vs

-Create style templates for forms from the get-go to be used in marketo and just straight embed those on the page that will have the form on it

"Track" is too vague, but a Marketo form can (and should) have hidden fields that auto-fill from URL parameters. Those fields do not exist automatically (they couldn't, because you have have to choose which fields in the database you want to use). They're added in the Form Editor UI.

If you circumvent the standard Filled Out Form process for some reason then certainly you would need to update the values, otherwise Marketo would have no way of knowing them.

For "Track", I was referring to storing these on the fields of the lead upon submission of a form and being entered into are persons database.

Yes, the query string including UTM params is logged by the Munchkin analytics module; No, query params are not saved to lead fields from a Visit Web Page activity.

Got it, are these ever saved in a different activity? Or do we have to define explicit flows here?

Once again, thank you for your insight!

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

Simply /blogs/marketowhisperer/2015/09/30/make-a-marketo-form-submission-in-the-background. Package your fields as a JSON object, stop the default action on the visible form. If the Marketo form has those hidden fields for UTMs, they will also be attached to the post.

[Parth_Thakkar]

OMG Thank you! I was looking for this. I found a blog post from a year ago that did something similar, but their approach was not anywhere near as elegant! Thanks Sanford! 

[SanfordWhiteman]

The fields from an anonymous Visit Web Page aren't merged onto the lead, but if you persist them into cookies (using a JS-based persistence library) and then have the hidden fields fill from cookies, those will appear on the lead.

This is part of the larger discussion of attribution history, which has many facets.

[Parth_Thakkar]

True, there have been far too many attribution debates already and I'd rather avoid another haha