Fields for a Custom Object

[Steve_Schimmel2]

Hi,

I am working on building a custom object -- this is the first one I have built. We will be passing data about rebates from a third-party database into Marketo via API. Some of the data fields getting passed in (e.g., first name, last name, email, etc.) already exist. Others do not yet exist.

The question I have is, for fields that do already exist, do I need to re-create the those fields in the custom object? Would I need to create a field called "Rebate Object First Name", "Rebate Object Last Name", and "Rebate Object Email" in the custom object?

I am assuming that I need to create new fields for data fields that don't yet exist in Marketo, but I am unsure about the fields that already do exist. I don't want to create duplicate fields for no reason, so if I can, I would just send the data into Marketo using existing fields when possible. But I am not sure if that will work.

Thanks!

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Steve,

I am not sure I am following you here: the fiest name and last name are rather standard fields of the person object, not of acustom object.

When you create a new CO in Marketo, it comes with no field.

I would not encourage you to have a second set of first and last name fields in the CO, unless you really need them (for instance because you to manage multiple persons attached to the primary person object)

Also keep in mind that CO have some limitation In the way they can used, especially with triggers And in velocity scripts.

-Greg

[SanfordWhiteman]

Fields on Custom Objects aren't duplicate fields, Steve.  They're fields that are associated with an individual Custom Object, thus are many-to-one with Leads. If you want to only store one First Name, so all connected COs always use the Lead's First Name, this field should not be on the CO.

[Steve_Schimmel2]

Thanks Greg and Sanford.

The confusion I am having is that I am passing in information that is one to many (such as product purchased name), but I also want to pass in email address, so I can match the product purchased name against the email address (which may or may not already be in Marketo).

So my confusion is, how can i pass data for fields that already exist (such as email address) in through the custom object? It sounds like I don't  need to (and shouldn't) create a custom object email address field.

I still have a lot to learn about custom objects. Thanks both for your input.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

You can and should link the custom object to the person object using the key you want here. It might be the email address, but pay attention if you have duplicates in your person database.

If you are gathering the last and first names and want to update the last and first names in Marketo, then just do that through the API for the lead (person) object, and not in the custom object.

Greg