Lead Source - Tracking traffic sources

[Emmanuelle_Biss]

Hi Everyone,

I've been looking at many discussions to answer my question; unfortunately, I do not seem to have come across one that answers it all.

I'm trying to track the source of our traffic similarly to the way we can track it on Google Analytics: Direct, Organic, Display, PPC, Social, etc. so I can track the original source of the lead.

Is there any way this can be tracked easily in Marketo? I have read that the tracking could be done through the utm tracking, but for leads coming from Direct or Organic, the source cannot be defined, as there is no URL parameters. How can this be solved?

Thanks for your help!

[Elliott_Lowe1]

This can be done via a series of smart campaigns for each source type.  You would create a set of triggers / filters that would be specific for the channel and if the lead qualifies, you would set your custom source field to the desired value and/or add them as a member of the appropriate channel program.  We do this at three different times (initial page viist, visit at opt-in and last visit before the Opportunity is closed).

[Emmanuelle_Biss]

Hi Elliott,

Thanks a lot for your reply! OK, I see how you would need to create a series of smart campaigns for each source type. But how can Marketo differentiate the source of the visit? Especially one from Organic vs. one from Direct? Will I need to add a specific Javascript code on all pages of my website?

Also, that is a great idea to do it at three different stages! Do you keep this value unmodified to see the customer's journey (therefore the initial source will never change, no matter how many times the user comes to our website)? I would also need to create 3 new fields: Initial Source, Opt-In Source, Last Visit Source. Is that how you did it?

Thank you again for your feedback

[Elliott_Lowe1 · Accepted solution]

Below is the smart list of the smart campaign that sets the value of the Recent Source field to 'Organic Search' when a page visit comes from that source.  If the lead has just been created as anonymous, then I copy the value in the Recent Source field to the Initial Online Source field.  If the lead has just become known (e.g. submitted first form), then I copy  the value in the Recent Source field to the Opt-in Source field.  Once the lead has a won Opportunity,. I stop updating the Recent Source field and that becomes the source of the last touch.  The smart list of the smart campaign that sets the value of the Recent Soruce field to 'Direct Website' has similar triggers and filters, but the Querystring and Referrer constraints are 'is empty' and I do not include page visits where the Referrer starts with our website's home page URL.

Advanced filters	(1 or 2) and (3 or 4) and 5
Trigger - Fills Out Form	Form Name is any
	Querystring not contains 'utm_medium=SEM'
	Referrer contains in (3) 'search.yahoo.com'; 'bing.com/search'; 'studyshack.com/search'
Trigger - Fills Out Form	Form Name is any
	Querystring not contains in (8) 'gclid'; 'utm_medium=SocialAds'; 'utm_medium=Display'; ...
	Referrer contains in (2) 'google.'; 'duckduckgo.com'
Trigger - Visits Web Page	Web Page is any
	Querystring not contains 'utm_medium=SEM'
	Referrer contains in (3) 'search.yahoo.com'; 'bing.com/search'; 'studyshack.com/search'
Trigger - Visits Web Page	Web Page is any
	Querystring not contains in (8) 'gclid'; 'utm_medium=SocialAds'; 'utm_medium=Display'; ...
	Referrer contains in (2) 'google.'; 'duckduckgo.com'
Filter 1 - Is Anonymous	Is Anonymous is true
Filter 2 - Is Anonymous	Is Anonymous is false
Filter 3 - Has Opportunity	Has Opportunity is any
	Stage is not 'Closed Won'
Filter 4 - Has Opportunity	Has Opportunity is empty
Filter 5 - Visited Web Page	Web Page is any
	Querystring not contains in (9) 'gclid'; 'utm_medium=SocialAds'; 'utm_medium=Display'; …
	Referrer not contains in (9) 'gclid'; 'utm_medium=SocialAds'; 'utm_medium=Display'; ...
	Date of Activity in past '1 minutes'

[Emmanuelle_Biss]

Hi Elliott!

Wow, thanks a lot for this detailed explanation. I will try to implement it and hopefully this will solve my problem!

Thanks again for your help!

[Anonymous]

Emmanuelle Allibert​  Hey, just wanted to let you know that if you like Elliott Lowe​ 's answer, you should mark it Correct Answer (or Helpful). This will alert others...and also give some points to Elliott.

- Updated at 8:20 this am: Emmanuelle, you also get points if you mark an answer correct : ).

[Emmanuelle_Biss]

Hi Elliott,

Thanks again for the detailed explanation you provided me. I'm currently implementing this smart list for each different type of sources we have, and so far so good

Quick question though, I just realized on your filters at the end, it says:

Querystring not contains utm_medium=xyz

Referrer not contains utm_medium=xyz

Should it be in this case, for Referrer not contains google.; duduckgo.com;search.yahoo.com; etc.?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Emmanuelle Allibert​ - If you like Elliott Lowe​ response hit Correct Answer above. You will both get points : )

[Emmanuelle_Biss]

Hi Scott K. Wilder,

Thanks for the recommendations. No worries, I'll make sure points are attributed when needed.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

does this querystring value come through automatically when the form is submitted or does it need to be captured in the form in a hidden field?