Nurture Streams - what are the rules for clicks?

[Trisha_Sparks1]

Hi there,

I am a newer user to Marketo and working on a Nurture campaign. I am researching in the product documentation but I cannot seem to locate what I need.

The campaign manager is supplying an asset with multiple links. If a customer clicks a link they will move to an appropriate stream based on that click. However, what is the rule regarding multiple clicks? I see a notation (below) that seems to indicate the first click override but I would like to verify.

As in if a customer clicks link A which sends him to stream A, then what happens if they also, in the same email, click link B which should move them to stream B? Do they stay in the stream of the first click?

Do I have a way to apply a different set of rules to this?

Does this notation (red arrow) indicate only the first click counts?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

T Sparks

[Denise_Greenb12]

Hi Trisha,

My first question is what do you want the rule to be? Then we can help you make it happen.

It would help to see the Smart List in the campaign you showed us the flow for. However, for any campaign with Flow Step choices, the first choice that applies is executed and the rest are ignored. Based on what you've shown us, if the campaign's smart list is a trigger for "Clicks Link in Email" (where link can be any link or the set of links related to the web site visits in your flow) and the qualification rules for the campaign are each person can run through the flow every time, then if they click a second link they will run through the flow again and be moved to the other stream.

Also note that "Visits web site" doesn't necessarily mean the person visited the web pages as a result of having clicked on the email. A person could click on the email and have visited one of the web pages in the past and get put into the stream as a result.

Before I go into more detail with suggestions, please explain what you want to happen.

Denise

[Trisha_Sparks1]

Thank you, Denise.

1. So here is the smartlist I was proposing. (Note that this is a test I am building in order to work out the issues)

Which is just "Clicks Link in Email" and I will define the links based on the criteria from the campaign.

2. My apologies also for this ask but I am still unclear.

I see you said the first choice (click) applies however you also said if they click a second link they will run through the flow again if it is set to run through every time. In this instance, it would be that they are set to run through the flow once. (They can run through multiple streams - but only once for each)

I am curious to know what happens if that customer opens the email and clicks two different links before ever receiving any assets from the first stream. Will they run through the first stream or will they be moved to the second stream based on that second click?

3. Thanks for the VIsited Web Page heads up. I was using that as a test to solve for the fact that I can't define the links in that flow step. If I choose "Clicked Link in Email" the only thing I define is the email itself - which has multiple links and those links should lead to different streams.

I am probably just missing obvious things here or completely overthinking it.

I do truly appreciate that you took the time to provide such a detailed answer.

You rock!

[SanfordWhiteman]

I am curious to know what happens if that customer opens the email and clicks two different links before ever receiving any assets from the first stream. Will they run through the first stream or will they be moved to the second stream based on that second click?

If they requalify for the Smart List (again, for this to happen you must have every time selected in the Smart Campaign setup) and are not filtered out by any choices in the Flow, they will move to the 2nd stream. The flow as shown doesn't care what stream they're currently in.

3. Thanks for the VIsited Web Page heads up. I was using that as a test to solve for the fact that I can't define the links in that flow step. If I choose "Clicked Link in Email" the only thing I define is the email itself - which has multiple links and those links should lead to different streams.

The Add Choice options that look back at the person's Activity Log should be avoided at all (or perhaps most) costs. They cause massive confusion because they jump out of the context of the Smart Campaign, and they also refer to items that may have aged out of the ActLog.

[Trisha_Sparks1]

Thank you Sanford. I always find your knowledge shares helpful. I did not realize that about the Add Choice option and will make sure to work to avoid them.

[Denise_Greenb12]

Hi Trisha,

Thank you for posting the smart list and for the further information. It looks like Sanford answered most of your questions. I hope you aren't having to build a smart campaign like this for every email. That would be quite a cumbersome way to set up an Engagement Program.

To add more in response to "If I choose "Clicked Link in Email" the only thing I define is the email itself - which has multiple links and those links should lead to different streams." Yes, that's true. One solution for this would be to create a set static lists that contain clickers on the various links and then use "Member of Smart List" for your choices. E.g.:

Smart List A:

Clicked Link in Email, Link is abc

Smart List B:

Clicked Link in Email, Link is def

Then Change Engagement Stream flow choices would be:

If member of smart list is abc

New Stream is abc topic

If member of smart list i def

New Stream is def topic

There could be issues with this methodology, too, depending upon the rest of your planned Engagement Program logic but from what you've shared I think this would solve your problem.

Denise

P.S. In case it wasn't 100% clear, to amplify what Sanford said in response to "I am curious to know what happens if that customer opens the email and clicks two different links before ever receiving any assets from the first stream. Will they run through the first stream or will they be moved to the second stream based on that second click?" - The smart campaign has no knowledge about a person's progress through any of the streams or whether or not they've received assets. All it knows about is what you've included in the smart list and the flow.

[Trisha_Sparks1]

Ahh - a Smart List may be just the thing. Thank you again. This gives me something to work through. Have a great day!

[Milly_Tsui]

Hi Trisha Sparks‌,

I've run into the same problem that you described in the original post. Was wondering if you were able to find a solution to accurately capture 'first click' as a means to move leads to another stream? If so, would you be able to share your methodology? I tried to implement the suggestion of static lists and smart lists as above, as well as a number of different alternatives, but I find myself running into the same challenges (visited page before or after email first click, getting people in the right lists, etc.) Any insight you could share on your experience with this situation would be very helpful.

Kind regards,

Milly