Merging anonymous activity with a lead created via List Import or API

[Anonymous]

Hi, I am wondering if anonymous activity that occurred before a lead was created will be merged with a known lead when that lead is added to Marketo via a list import or an API call? What are the requirements for the merge to happen? Does the known lead have to click a link an email to a page with a Munchkin code and access that page from the same IP address?

Thanks

[Dan_Stevens_]

The only way to merge anonymous with known is to associate the anonymous cookie with a known cookie.  List import and the API will not make that connection.

[Anonymous]

Hi Dan, how can the anonymous cookie be associated with a known cookie?

[Dan_Stevens_]

It's the same cookie - but the anonymous one is now known (after a form submit or a click within a tracked email that sent the user to a munchkin-enabled landing page).

[SanfordWhiteman]

Olga, to expand on what Dan is saying, a "dumb" API import (say, a data feed only consisting of known names and email addresses) can't merge anything with anonymous leads, since there's nothing to tie together the anonymous web sessions with the new leads!

(The fact that you know there are humans now in your db who've also visited your site isn't enough, you have to know which web sessions pertain to those leads.)

However, if the API import also includes the Munchkin cookie(s) that represents their session, then the API can bind together the named lead with their (previously) anonymous activity and show it in their Activity Log.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Sanford!
How can that Munchkin cookie be added to an API import? Our plan  was to collect the anonymous activity from a website and pass it into an external CRM database. In the CRM the anonymous activity would be added to a known record and that record would sent back to Marketo via API.

Also, we are creating a lot of leads via list import. How can we track the activity of these leads before they became known?

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

How can that Munchkin cookie be added to an API import?

You use the REST Associate Lead endpoint. (The Push Lead ep can also be used but with limited functionality.) The Munchkin cookie (_mkto_trk) is always available in the browser.

But if your CRM is also online and can name the anonymous activity as it happens (i.e. there are some characteristics, like an authenticated portal login, that identify the lead) then it's 1000x more efficient to use the Munchkin API to promote the web session from anonymous to known right in the browser. The Munchkin API is a client-side API that is separate from the server-side REST interfaces and is designed for this situation.

Also, we are creating a lot of leads via list import. How can we track the activity of these leads before they became known?

That's not really answerable... like I said above, even if a human can be reasonably expected to have visited your site (as in: most paying customers will have visited your site at some point) if you don't have anything to identify those visits as theirs, what can you do?

Imagine I've browsed for, say, flashlights on flashlights.com but never purchased or filled out a form. Later, I go to a flashlight convention and via the tablet app, you pick me up as a lead.  Now, the sales rep might've said, "Have you heard of us before" and I might've said, "Sure, was just on your site yesterday" -- but absent additional data my anonymous visits have nothing to do with me. Of course when I check out, or if I click on an email, etc. you'll be able to identify my previously anonymous activity (long as I use the same device/browser when I click the email).

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Sanford! This is very helpful.