How to track Paid Media & Content in Programs

[Lauren_Aquilino]

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out the best way to track Paid Media in regards to Programs and SFDC Campaigns. (Our programs almost always correlate with an SFDC campaign.) I am not sure if we should create programs for each piece of content that we are promoting (eBook, White Paper, Case Study - just examples) or create Programs for each publication or even create a Program for each tactic with each piece of content for each publication.

Phew. 

I'd rather not create an SFDC campaign for each tactic - it could get cumbersome and difficult to manage. I also have a feeling tags might be able to help up out here. We want to report on which content is performing the best, but also need the best way to evaluate costs spend on Paid Media. 

Any thoughts? How do you report on this?

[Anonymous]

Lauren, you could create campaigns for each, or you could create fields that capture content type for each lead. You could bring values into this field using hidden fields on a Marketo form in conjunction with UTM parameters.

[Anonymous]

Lauren, what paid media are you trying to track and at what level of granularity? (i.e. Google, Bing, etc. and Campaign, Ad Group, Keyword) Knowing the end goal will help dictate how you set it up.

[Josh_Hill13]

This is complex. What I recommend is starting with:

First Touch
Last Touch

using url parameters mapped back to things like

Lead Source
Last Lead Source
First Offer
Last Offer

where the Offer is the Why/What - the content
where the Source is the How - the channel

You can add fields that more clearly line up with each tactic and platform (Adwords, etc).

Then you would organize child campaigns associated with each tactic. You could use multiple programs or just one Program and have a system tagging the tactical sfdc campaigns.

[Lauren_Aquilino]

Thanks all. My fear with the use of fields is that if people take part in multiple assets/publications that it wont get tracked. Or maybe that's overkill and never really happens. 

Here is a real life example I am struggling with. We have 4 publications (P1, P2, P3, P4) that are promoting 3 different assets (Case study, white paper, ebook) via different tactics (eblast, banner ad, landing page on site.)

Do you suggest the parent campaign/program to be the publication or the asset? My gut is that its unneccessary to track each tactic in SFDC because it could get so messy, but that may be the only way to report on success of these tactics based on revenue.

My campaign hierarchy could look like either of these in  that case...

-P1
--Case Study
---Eblast
---Banner Ad
---Landing Page
--White Paper
---Eblast
---Banner Ad
---Landing Page
--eBook
---Eblast
---Banner Ad
---Landing Page

or

-Case Study
--P1
---eblast
---banner ad
---landingpage
--P2
---eblast
---banner ad
---landingpage
--P3
---eblast
---banner ad
---landingpage
--P4
---eblast
---banner ad
---landingpage

[Lauren_Aquilino]

I should add that we are capturing URL parameters to populate lead source/detail if they are new to the system already, so that is an option for other fields as well.

[Anonymous]

This is a great discussion! I am trying to wrap my head around your campaign layout, this is intense for a Thursday night.

I think that option 2 makes sense if you want to easily track the performance of content. Option 2 makes sense if you are trying to tightly track the performance of the publication.

Which is the most important to you? You can still track either, but what is your primary goal for this initiative, measuring content performance or measuring publication performance?

Are the publications other websites? I may be over my head on this, but I would go for 2. In my mind, the publications are referral partners/sources.

I am curious what the Champions Josh and Charlie think here. Jeff Shearer led a talk on using centralized content programs. Check out item #8 here: http://www.jeffrshearer.com/15-marketo-protips-advice-you-can-implement-today/ and his talk from summit.