Outlook not accepting Tokens in replacement of URLs

[Tiffany_Phan1]

I have just started to notice last week that Outlook has been rendering extra source text when using a token in replacement of a URL in an email. I used a module for a button and one of the variables is button link where I usually would just input my URL token (i.e. {{my.Reg URL}} ).

For some reason, since the end of last week, if I just used the token in that variable section, outlook pulls out the domain of the URL in the email sample sent to myself.

I also noticed it happened within a body of text where your text is a link.

Does anyone know what update Outlook recently did to cause this? or what we can do in Marketo to resolve this issue?

What I know:

1. I know, I could use the actual URL instead of the token and it renders fine in Outlook, but I love tokens so I don't want this to be the only solution

2. I also know I could use part URL and part token (i.e. https://{{my.reg url}} ) and this method also renders fine in outlook, but I also don't want this to be best solution

Real question, why does using the the token on its own no longer work in Outlook?

[SanfordWhiteman]

2. I also know I could use part URL and part token (i.e. https://{{my.reg url}} ) and this method also renders fine in outlook, but I also don't want this to be best solution

Do you not want clicks on this link to be tracked, then?

There hasn't been a general update to all Outlook versions related to this. More to the point, Outlook (like any mail client) has no idea whether you used the token or not. By the time it's received in the inbox the token has been replaced by its value. Something else is surely going on here.

[Tiffany_Phan1]

Hey Sanford,

Thanks for replying. Are you saying if I were to do this " https://{{my.reg url}} " then I loose my tracking of my link?

My colleague and I are both seeing this issue occur. I just got an email today from Adobe and their buttons and links are doing the same thing, pulling out the link's domain when the email is viewed in Outlook.

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

Thanks for replying. Are you saying if I were to do this " https://{{my.reg url}} " then I loose my tracking of my link?

No, I'm saying if you​ don't ​do that you lose tracking of your link. You can see quite easily if your link is being rewritten to bounce of your branding domain: it either keeps the original target URL or gets rewritten to click.example.com/123abc789….

What you're looking at here has nothing to do with Marketo and likely nothing to do with Outlook itself, either. Rather, your IT team and/or security software probably introduced this as a security measure; they're exposing the underlying link domain to combat phishing.

As I said, by the time your mail scanner or mail server sees the link, it cannot be known whether the link came from a token originally. Marketo has long since replaced the token with the token value and potentially rewritten the entire link to be tracked.