How Marketo identify and merge the database with page visit behavior

[Renee]

Re: How Marketo identify and merge the database with page visit behavior

Sorry I don’t know this. If a visitor fills out a form, there is a value cookie generated and Marketo can associate that value cookie with the mkto_trk generated by anonymous session. However, when a person visits the website, how Marketo know which email address does he use, is he source a person’s email address by other platform he logged in before ?

Marketo won't know anything about a person's identity unless they (1) click a tracked Marketo link, (2) submit a Marketo form, or (3) use one of those alternative API-based methods I mentioned above (but you shouldn't consider the API methods to be relevant if you aren't developing code).

If you send a link using some 3rd-party service and include the email address in the URL (say the query string has ?email=sandy@example.com) then you can use that data to in turn fill out a form, and even submit a hidden, filled-out form without showing anything to the user. But it's still the form submission that gives Marketo the 2 pieces of data they need to associate. The email address may have originally come in via the URL, but that doesn't mean anything natively to Marketo. It's the form that tells Marketo "this value should be posted to the system Email Address field."

But it's still the form submission that gives Marketo the 2 pieces of data they need to associate. → Are 2 pieces of data is email address and Munchkin code ? 

If what I thought above is correct, it's same like...the visitor enters the site, accept the cookie and a unique lead ID is generated. When he filled out the form, the lead ID is associated with the email address so that we can know who is this lead. 

You can also, to some extent, use Marketo pURLs to associate leads with Munchkin sessions. But that's a whole other complex area and I think it would be a distraction if you're just starting out.

[Renee]

Sorry I don’t know this. If a visitor fills out a form, there is a value cookie generated and Marketo can associate that value cookie with the mkto_trk generated by anonymous session. However, when a person visits the website, how Marketo know which email address does he use, is he source a person’s email address by other platform he logged in before ?

Marketo won't know anything about a person's identity unless they (1) click a tracked Marketo link, (2) submit a Marketo form, or (3) use one of those alternative API-based methods I mentioned above (but you shouldn't consider the API methods to be relevant if you aren't developing code).

If you send a link using some 3rd-party service and include the email address in the URL (say the query string has ?email=sandy@example.com) then you can use that data to in turn fill out a form, and even submit a hidden, filled-out form without showing anything to the user. But it's still the form submission that gives Marketo the 2 pieces of data they need to associate. The email address may have originally come in via the URL, but that doesn't mean anything natively to Marketo. It's the form that tells Marketo "this value should be posted to the system Email Address field."

But it's still the form submission that gives Marketo the 2 pieces of data they need to associate. → Are 2 pieces of data is email address and Munchkin code ? 

If what I thought above is correct, it's same like...the visitor enters the site, accept the cookie and a unique lead ID is generated. When he filled out the form, the lead ID is associated with the email address so that we can know who is this lead. 

You can also, to some extent, use Marketo pURLs to associate leads with Munchkin sessions. But that's a whole other complex area and I think it would be a distraction if you're just starting out.

[SanfordWhiteman]

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If what I thought above is correct, it's same like...the visitor enters the site, accept the cookie and a unique lead ID is generated. When he filled out the form, the lead ID is associated with the email address so that we can know who is this lead.

When a form is posted containing a currently anonymous (unassociated) _mkto_trk session cookie and an Email Address, Marketo either

• attaches the anonymous activities to an existing known lead having that Email Address
• attaches the anonymous activities to a new known lead having that Email Address

I wouldn't dwell on the fact that anonymous activities are initially logged with an anonymous Lead ID (though it is true).  The Lead ID of the final known lead can't be expected to be the same as the anonymous Lead ID.

[SanfordWhiteman]

If what I thought above is correct, it's same like...the visitor enters the site, accept the cookie and a unique lead ID is generated. When he filled out the form, the lead ID is associated with the email address so that we can know who is this lead.

[Renee]

If what I thought above is correct, it's same like...the visitor enters the site, accept the cookie and a unique lead ID is generated. When he filled out the form, the lead ID is associated with the email address so that we can know who is this lead.

When a form is posted containing a currently anonymous (unassociated) _mkto_trk session cookie and an Email Address, Marketo either

• attaches the anonymous activities to an existing known lead having that Email Address
• attaches the anonymous activities to a new known lead having that Email Address

My confusion is how Marketo use the data , mkto_trk session cookie and an Email Address to associate the previous anonymous web visit behavior if the lead didn't click the tracked email link to the website. We will not know the email address associated with these anonymous web activites. 

For example, If I didn't click any email tracked link , instead I come to the website via google search. I visited the website for a couple of times, one day I filled out the form and if Marketo can associate my email address with my previous anonymous web activities. 

[Renee]

If what I thought above is correct, it's same like...the visitor enters the site, accept the cookie and a unique lead ID is generated. When he filled out the form, the lead ID is associated with the email address so that we can know who is this lead.

[SanfordWhiteman]

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For example, If I didn't click any email tracked link , instead I come to the website via google search. I visited the website for a couple of times, one day I filled out the form and if Marketo can associate my email address with my previous anonymous web activities. 

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When you performed all of your earlier web activities (in that same browser + device) Marketo was recording them on the the anonymous side of the database.

Later, when you fill out a form, the cookie — which, in the anonymous database, is linked to all of your past activities — is submitted to Marketo along with yuor Email Address. Those 2 pieces of info, together, allow Marketo to transfer your web activities (including past and future ones) so they appear in your Activity Log.