How do I set up a personalized url / purl?

[Chelsea_Stinnet]

I have enabled personalized urls in my Admin > Landing Page settings and on the langing page I am trying to set up with personalized urls. When I'm testing the landing page, there is no personalized url. What is the trick to setting up the url so it will appear as "info.smg.com/C-store/john-smith"??

I tried to edit my url settings on the landing page and add a token in the url builder, but it wouldn't let me save with the {{ }}characters. What am I missing?

[SanfordWhiteman]

pURLs don't need to be set up manually. 

When you enable pURLs for an LP, that means that you automatically can append a lead's Marketo Unique Code or Marketo Unique Name to it.

       http://​example.com/lpname/x8fj3j

       http://​example.com/lpname/ChelseaStinnett1

[Chelsea_Stinnet]

Is there a way to choose between the unique code or unique name? Do you know why when we send a test email that links to the landing page, the landing page does not have a unique url? It seems like I'm missing a step because it's not working.

[SanfordWhiteman]

You can choose either one. It's basically a matter of whether you want something obscure like the Code, or something that kind-of looks like the person's name, like the Name.

But I think maybe you're confused about why you'd use pURLs?  If you're sending emails, links are already automatically mkt_tok-enized specifically for the recipient.  pURLs are primarily for out-of-band communication like direct mail (you can use them in Marketo emails but you're just making more work).

[Chelsea_Stinnet]

Yes, it's very possible that I'm confused

We are sending an email to a targeted list, who are already cookied, and the email will link to a landing page that will have a personalized url. I have enabled the personalized url, but it didn't give me the option to choose between name or code, and when I'm testing the landing page, the personalized url is not present.

[SanfordWhiteman]

But why personalize the URL? If they're already cookied (which technically you can't know, since they might be on a new device, but let's assume it's largely accurate) or if they receive a standard Marketo tracked link, your page will know who they are.

Again, confusingly, a Personalized URL™ in Marketo isn't the only kind of "personalized URL" you can send (though it is the only kind you can manually create and use in print media, for example). I wish the name were different.  When I first started using Marketo the naming threw me for a loop.

[Chelsea_Stinnet]

We want to personalize the URL because we want to create a personalized experience for an ABM campaign. We also want to use the personalized url in print media later on in the campaign. It would be great if it would populate in the search bar when they opened the landing page AND it worked when they typed it in from their print mail. Is there a way to do both? I'm guessing the marketo personalized url means when they type in their personalized landing page, the main landing page opens up?

[BP_chloecurtis]

Can I ask - would  PURL only work for that user? Reading a later response on this thread, would a personalised URL protect the URL by only being accessed by that user? 

Does it work as a form of 'protection' or are PURLs more of a additional prettiness to elevate the unique user experience? 

I am trying to direct specific users to a landing page, but don't want this to be able to be shared with anyone else - I only want specific people to be able to access. Would PURLs do this? Thank you

@SanfordWhiteman 

[SanfordWhiteman]

There’s a limited degree of protection. A person would have to know the Marketo Unique Code or Marketo Unique Name of someone in the db.

However, it’s quite easily to guess the latter if you know someone’s full name. The former doesn’t offer that much entropy (meaning you could rattle through 6- or 7-letter alphanumeric sequences and eventually find one that exists). Of course this is also true if you have a similarly short password!

In both cases, a degree of malice is required. You won’t accidentally happen upon somebody else’s pURL. But they’re not designed to supply protection in the way that, say, an “unguessable” Google Sheets URL is.

[BP_chloecurtis]

Thank you for this - very useful. Am I right in thinking a lead could forward on a personalised link and it would work for another user too? @SanfordWhiteman