How do you calculate the number of times a form was filled out?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone come up with a clever workaround to calculate the number of times a form was filled out when the form is not on a Marketo landing page?

Currently, the only way to see the number of times a form was filled out (not the number of leads that filled out the form) is by looking at the number of conversions on the Landing Page report.

This means that it is impossible to get the number of form fillouts for forms that are not on a Marketo landing page (for example, embedded forms, or forms that have data posted to them via the Forms 2.0 API).

This is such a fundamental Marketing metric, I'm surprised that there isn't a built-in report for this in Marketo, but a call to Support has confirmed that this is the case.

Just wondering if anyone else has come up with an interesting workaround.  

Cheers!
Natalie

PS - Here's a link to an Idea I posted about creating a built-in report on form fillouts:

https://community.marketo.com/MarketoIdeaDetail?id=08750000000KE7IAAW

[Jennifer_Borell]

I added a score that counts the number of form submits, it's  just a total field adding one each time.

[SanfordWhiteman]

I added a score that counts the number of form submits, it's  just a total field adding one each time.

But then you would have to sum over the scores for all leads.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Natalie Lambert,

I would do it in Google Analytics. I would add a short code to the forms 2.0 embedded javascript to trigger a GA event each time the form is filled out and then go to GA and count the events.

If you use UA, the script will look like this one :

<script src="//app-e.marketo.com/js/forms2/js/forms2.min.js"></script>

<form id="mktoForm_YYYY"></form>

<script>MktoForms2.loadForm("//app-e.marketo.com", "XXX-NNN-XXX", YYYY, function(form) {

  var ga_label = document.location.pathname + '#formId=' + form.getId();

  form.onSuccess(function(){

    ga('send','event','Mkto Form','submit',ga_label);        

  });

});

</script>

As you also could do it on Marketo LPs, you would have all the reporting you need in GA. The GA reporting will much more complete, as you can cross the info with traffic sources, or restrict to certain period of time.

-Greg

[SanfordWhiteman]

Greg, you must not do it this way or you'll lose GA hits!  You have to use the hitCallback parameter:

form.onSuccess(function(vals, thankYouURL) {
     ga('send', 'event', {
          eventCategory: 'Mkto Form',
          eventAction: 'submit',
          eventLabel: ga_label,
          hitCallback: function() { document.location.href=thankYouURL; }
     });
     return false;
});

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Sanford,

What do you put in thankYouURL ? Is it supposed to automatically contain the URL of the follow-up for the form in the LP?

-Greg

[SanfordWhiteman]

Yes, the second argument passed to the onSuccess listener is the follow-up/thank you URL.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Sanford,

Thx ! I learnt something today

for those interested, here is the doc : Sending Data to Google Analytics  |  Analytics for Web (analytics.js)  |  Google Developers

-Greg

[Anonymous]

Thanks Kirsten. Maybe I'm missing something obvious - how would I get the total number of form fillouts from this (including duplicates)? The static list will only show me the number of leads, no? If I create a Smart List with the filter "Added to List," that will also only give me the number of leads.  I think maybe I don't understand what you mean about adding to a static list with duplicates. 
 

[Kristen_Malkov1]

You could have a lead added to a static list each time they fill out the form, and as long as the logic is "each lead can run through the flow every time" they should be readded to the list (with duplicates). That would give you a number but you'd have to manipulate the list further for reporting using smartlists.

[Anonymous]

Correct!  Though to be more specific, we want to be able to check at any given time the number of fillouts a form has received (i.e. not just for a specific lead), and the total number of form fillouts across all of our forms.

[Kristen_Malkov1]

So, in this particular case, a lead could fill out a form multiple times if I'm understanding you correctly? And you are just wondering the number of times a lead has filled out a form not the number of leads per form? Is that right?

[Anonymous]

Hi Kristen.

I too am eager to find out if we are able to view what the dates were when leads filled out (each) form.

My scenario would be that leads have filled out a particular (or multiple) forms several times throughout the years - and I'd like to know when (dates) was the first time they filled in the form.

I don't want to manually go into my 300++ Activity Logs and filter 'filled out form'.

Best wishes,

Jane

[Kristen_Malkov1]

For backlogging, adding to static lists won't really work. But add the 'add to list' function for leads going forward, and let "each lead run through the flow every time" and that should show you the raw numbers each time.

[SanfordWhiteman]

It's best to plan ahead for this reporting and populate a custom field like FormFilloutHistory using a trigger campaign.

To backfill this field, though, you'd need to use the Activity API, and it would be painful.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Kristen.  We are doing a server-side form post as described here: https://community.marketo.com/MarketoResource?id=kA650000000GsXXCA0)

This creates a "Filled Out Form" event in Marketo.  However, in order to calculate the number of times a form was filled out (not the number of leads that filled out the form), I have to export activity logs from leads or from Smart Campaigns and then use Excel to count the number of events.  This is extremely time consuming for even just one form, and we have 15+ forms on our website!

I'm trying to think of a more efficient way of doing this.  Since this is such a basic KPI (number of form fillouts), I feel like there must be a simpler/easier way!

[Kristen_Malkov1]

I think if you use the Muchkin API you could track the number of times someone hit submit on the form which would be a pretty accurate.  The Muchkin API basically allows you to see 'more' of what a users activity is on your website vs. normal muchkin. It does require a bit of coding. More information is here: http://developers.marketo.com/documentation/websites/lead-tracking-munchkin-js/