Marketo-Dynamics CRM GUIDs

[OleksandrKos]

Hi all,

This may be a silly question but I'm just getting into learning Marketo, so please don't judge too strict.

We are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and team has passed me the list of GUIDs for leads and contacts (that are used in CRM as record identifier) that can be deleted from Marketo. I was sure that this GUIDs are used for linking records in both systems. But latter I discovered that there are a lot of records in Marketo that have both contact and lead GUIDs empty. As well as there are records that both have contact and lead GUIDs.

I spent hours to search what is the role of GUIDs in Marketo-CRM connection, but I found nothing.

I made an experiment and created person in Marketo, there was successful sync to CRM, I cleaned GUID manually in Marketo, and updated company field - the synchronization worked without GUID...

So could anyone please explain me role of GUIDs for contact and lead, and are they involved in synchronization process? Or there is(are) another filed(s) that are used to establish contact between records in both systems?
Thanks!

[solson2]

Hi @OleksandrKos 

Here is some info about why GUIDs are used in data syncing: 

• Record Matching: When synchronizing data between Marketo and a CRM, GUIDs are used to match records between the two systems. This ensures that updates made in one system (like a lead's email address change in CRM) accurately reflect in the other system (Marketo) without creating duplicates.
• Maintaining Data Integrity: By using GUIDs to identify records, the integration ensures that data integrity is maintained across systems. This means that any change to a record in one system will be correctly applied to the corresponding record in the other system, based on the matching GUID.

[OleksandrKos]

Hi @solson2

Thanks for clarification! But I still don't get how records without GUID are synced? Or records with both Lead and Contact GUID? As my experiment shows that records are synced even if GUID in Marketo is empty...

[akshat_goyal]

Marketo Guid are the value which comes from the CRM. These are the unique value in CRM. so once you delete record in marketo it does not delete the GUID in CRM, so if you delete synced record in crm it get deleted in Marketo.