Engagement Program Smart Campaign logic not working as intended.

[Anonymous]

Hello folks,

I'm trying to make sense of some campaign logic which has gone awry, and I can't figure out what went wrong. Let me give you a description of the setup.

• I have an engagement program with 4 streams setup. The one I'm concerned with here is the second stream: MQL.
• In a nutshell, the MQL stream contains "autoresponder" emails for free trials and demos. Essentially if someone from the stream 1 (Known/Lead) clicks on an email link to the Free Trial page and fills out a form (non-marketo form), then they receive a free trial email.
• Within the MQL campaign folder I have setup a trigger with a "Request Campaign" smart campaign. Inside, the smart list has a filter to ensure they are a member of the program and they are in the MQL stream. The flow step is a single Request Campaign step with 2 choices which controls which email they receive (demo or free trial) based on the form they filled out (free trial forms or demo forms).
• Within the program for the Free Trial email, I have setup programs which are the progression steps. The very first one is a Send Email campaign. It includes a "Campaign is Requested" trigger with the source set to Marketo Flow Action (referring to the flow outlined in the Request Campaign flow). It also has a filter which, once again, checks they are a member of the engagement program and MQL stream. The Flow is simply a bunch of Send Email actions based on the geographic region (we have emails for different regions).

So everything was checked and launched. What ended up happening was that 867 customers received the Free Trial email without taking the actions we outlined. The autoresponder emails are only supposed to go out if someone requests a free trial by filling out a form. I've gone through the setup a number of times and it all make sense to me.

The only thing I can think of is to add a Fills out Form trigger or filter to the Send Email and/or Request Campaign smart lists.

Would be great if I could work this issue out with someone.

Thank you!

[Roxann_McGlump1]

Hi Danish,

I would suggest that you contact support with the details of the issue so they can troubleshoot with you.  In order to determine what is happening, the we would have to take a look at the engagement program to see the details of how it is put together.

[Josh_Hill13]

I would  need to see some screenshots. It sounds like your transition is not correct somewhere.

If Fills Out Form is Free Trial, Change Stream to MQL

What may be causing issues is this Campaign Is Requested. Where is the original trigger to call these flows? When does it occur?

If the form is non Marketo, what is it then? API?

[Anonymous]

Hi Josh,

I've attached some screenshots here that might help visualize what I mentioned in my original post.

[Josh_Hill13]

I think your trigger needs to be the exact action like Fills Out Form. What you are doing now is that if the lead becomes MQL, you are routing based on Filled out Form (past event) so this could have happened at any time before MQL stage, so there's no guarantee they are moving because they actually filled out the form today.

Possible Solutions:

• create a smart list in the choice that uses the In Past 1 hour constraint + other criteria
• use the actual triggers in separate campaigns to call the first email and then push the MQL to the MQL Stream. I assume you are sending a first immediately email, otherwise, why have all of these separate campaigns?

[Dan_Stevens_]

Josh brings up a key point that many fail to recognize: when using choices in your flow steps, this is evaluating all historic activity - not just the activity that triggered this campaign.  So it's wise to move that choice to a filter (within a specified timeframe) or trigger in the smart campaign.

And just so we're all clear, is the form submit happening via the API?

[Anonymous]

Thanks Dan. I had no idea that's how choices worked in the flow step.

[Anonymous]

Hi Josh,

Ok that makes sense.

For the Request Campaign (3rd screenshot) smart list, should I add the Filled out Form filter of Fills out Form trigger with the form names and the past 1 hour constraint?

Also, should this trigger /filter also be present in the smart list for the email (screenshot 4)?

I'm just trying to get this piece of the engagement campaign to function correctly without making any other changes to the structure.

[Dory_Viscoglio]

In addition to what Josh has suggested, I'd take a look at what could possibly make someone's Marketo Lifecycle Stage trigger to MQL. That change is what triggered all of the following actions to occur. If you could restrict them from becoming MQL, the other actions should be prevented as well.