Form prefill upgrade - only works when click tracked links in email

[Renee]

Sorry I would like to implement form prefill function to my work. However, when I read this article and feel confused about the last condition. Can someone help explain, thank you. 

https://nation.marketo.com/t5/knowledgebase/form-pre-fill-feature-upgrade/ta-p/251652

It's strange to me if we just copy the Marketo tracked link externally, for example, to facebook posts, in that case, the link is not the unique one, it's like everyone see the link will be directed to the same Marketo LP, how Marketo know who clicks the URL....

I feel like the situation is just like an email with a mkt_tok tracked link is forwarded to another person that may already be cookied as a known person in your database. The tracked email shared with everyone will not match the people who already cookied as known person

[Christiane_Rode]

If you copy that tracked link, it will pre-fill with the info of the person who was sent the email. So, if you sent yourself the email, then copied the link and pasted it to Twitter, everyone who clicks that link will see your information. It will not prefill with the info of the person clicking the link. 

So, technically, the prefill works, just not the way you probably want it to.

[Renee]

Hi Christiane,

Thank you for your explanation. So it seems, as long as I clicked the tracked link in any Marketo email and redirected to Marketo landing page with pre-fill form function enabled. The form will display my info. And when I shared this tracked link , it's necessary I have to click it before sharing with others right ? After my click, I copied the link to twitter, then other people click that link to the Marketo LP will see my info, am I correct ? 

Another questions to be clarified is 

Every email sent through Marketo will automatically attach the tracked link right ? 

[Christiane_Rode]

I guess I am a little confused on exactly what you want your experience to be, so I'll describe what the experience normally is with an out-of-the-box setup.

After the April 2019 upgrade, form prefill has a pretty narrow scope of when it will work and will display the clicker's information. And, as @SanfordWhiteman mentioned below, it doesn't work on third-party pages. 

I think the key part of the prefill update page is actually not in the chart, but in the opening paragraph:

"... What that means is, any time a person is viewing a Marketo landing page with a form, the URL being used must contain the mkt_tok token in the query string, otherwise the form on that landing page will not be pre-filled. If the URL in the browser window does have a valid mkt_tok tracking token, then the form within the page will pre-fill as expected with data corresponding to the person record associated with that mkt_tok."

If you are directing a user to a Marketo landing page (a landing page stored in Marketo with a Marketo form attached to it where prefill is enabled, and the fields are not marked sensitive), the URL needs to have the mkt_tok tracking token in the URL in order to prefill, so the user needs to have clicked on a tracked link in order for it to work. In order for prefill to display the clicker's information, that tracked link needs to originate from a Marketo email that was sent directly to the clicker, as the mkt_tok tracking token is generated when the email is sent to the user. If you have a link to the page on your website, even if the user has a cookie stored on their system, the form will not prefill with their information, as there's no mkt_tok tracking token in the URL.

Here's some additional information on how to disable link tracking which will give you a sense of when you'll know if it's turned on. 

You don't have to click on it before sharing it with others, as the token is generated for your user record when the email is sent not on when you click on it, but I guess I'm confused as to why you would want your prefill information to be shared with other people. 

[Renee]

I totally understand and thank you so much for your detailed and clear explanation. 

I am so happy to get it finally. Many thanks for your help. 

[SanfordWhiteman]

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It's strange to me if we just copy the Marketo tracked link externally, for example, to facebook posts, in that case, the link is not the unique one, it's like everyone see the link will be directed to the same Marketo LP, how Marketo know who clicks the URL....

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The phrase “the tracked link” in this case means the rewritten link at the branding domain, i.e. the unique link. (It is somewhat confusing because it might sound like “the link before tracking” but it means “after tracking.”)

[Renee]

One more question, sorry I don't know the technical part that well. 

I would like to know the definition of Marketo landing page ? For example, our company's website is not hosted on Marketo, however, we do have Munchin code embedded, thus we can track web browing behavior, under the situation, will the Markto form with pre-fill function works on our website ?

[SanfordWhiteman]

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I would like to know the definition of Marketo landing page

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Marketo Landing Page = a Marketo-hosted Landing Page (based on a Guided or Free-Form template) with a named Marketo form element on the page.

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For example, our company's website is not hosted on Marketo, however, we do have Munchin code embedded, thus we can track web browing behavior, under the situation, will the Markto form with pre-fill function works on our website ?

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Native Pre-Fill does not work when the form embed is used on a 3rd-party site.

It also doesn’t work if you accidentally use the form embed on a Marketo-hosted page instead of using a named form element.

[Renee]

For the "named Marketo form element",  does it mean the form is generated from the Marketo ? What does named here mean ?

[SanfordWhiteman]

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What does named here mean ?

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On a Marketo Guided Landing Page Template, you add a specific mktoForm element that later lets you choose a named form in the LP Editor.

On a Marketo Free-Form LP, you can drag the “Form” element onto the canvas and choose a named form.

Both of the above are “named form elements.“

You can also paste the embed code into a Marketo LP of either type. That‘s not a named form element and Marketo won’t treat in any special way. It will operate as if it were on a 3rd-party page, thus no Pre-Fill.