Pass page data to marketo

[Anonymous]

Hi,

We have a requirement in our website, where we have to pass on some page data(digital data available on the page js) to marketo. Please provide a  solution for achieving this.

Is setting the value in Munchkin object from our website, a  feasible solution. If so, then what are the configurations we need to do at marketo end for accessing the munchkin value set from the website.

If not the above method, do we have any available REST APIs in marketo through which we can pass on the page data.

Thanks

Maya Paul

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Maya,

There are a few possibilities, but in all of the, the key point will be to identify the person in Marketo to which you want to attach that data. You will need the email address.

Once this is OK, the recommended solution is to use the forms 2.0 JS API and post a marketo form in the background with the data and the email address. Your data will automatically be sent to the fields you will have prepared in Marketo for this usage. This method also has the advantage to attach the Marketo cookie to the person and improve the collection of web navigation data. Search the community for "forms in background", tehre is alot to read on this. Start here  Make a Marketo Form Submission in the background , including comments. The API doc is here http://developers.marketo.com/javascript-api/forms/

The rest API is the backup solution and can only be used with some precautions:

1. Only from server to server. Using the REST API on the client side is a wide opening for hacker who might use the keys to post wrong data to your instance, saturate you API calls and create a DOS attack, and even extract data from your instance.
2. Only in batch mode. The REST API is not designed for (quasi) real time work. You will have to group information and send it to Marketo in bulk.

-Greg

[Anonymous]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for your reply. But in the case of forms 2.0 js api or rest api, it would be one api per page, which would be a huge number. Ours is a very large website. This can impact our performance. We have Maarketo Munchkin  object embedded in each page. Is there any possible method of utilizing this object and update our page data to marketo.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Maya,

if you use the forms API, it can handle 45000 post / hour and per form. should be sufficient

If you use the REST API, you will have to collect the data and group it and send it to Marketo in batches, for instance once every 5 minutes, or once every 10 minutes, passing all the data collected since the previous call. Your Marketo instance is limited to 100 calls per 20 seconds for the whole instance and (usually) 50000 cals per day. The Create and Update end point (http://developers.marketo.com/rest-api/lead-database/leads/#create_and_update ) can handle 300 records per call. You can even use the bulk import API (http://developers.marketo.com/rest-api/bulk-import/bulk-lead-import/ ) that can handle an unlimited number of records per import, but is asynchronous and might take some time.

All in all, the volume should not be a problem. It all depends on whether you need real time (forms), how you want to architecture it and the skills and preferences of your developers. Just pick the right mode (Real time, one record per call and front-end execution for the forms API, regular call, multiple records per call and back end for the REST API)

-Greg

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

As Greg has noted there is no REST API that is acceptable for this case, if it uses one call in response to each end-user activity.  Building a batch-and-release capability is going to be extremely complex.

But that's not the only problem: you haven't noted whether you need to do this only for leads whose identity is known, or for anonymous web sessions as well.  You can't use the REST API for anonymous lead records. The same goes for the Forms JS API. You must convert the lead to known in order to use either method, and that means the lead will be billed as part of our subscription limit.

The only way to do what you describe (although it could use a lot more detail -- there's no reason not to be detailed here!) without counting against your subscription, and with the capacity to scale, is to send synthetic Munchkin Visit Web Page activities that correspond to your extra data. You do this using Munchkin.munchkinFunction("visitWebPage"...).  This is, for example, how we log video play/pause/stop events using Munchkin, which of course can happen in either anonymous or associated sessions.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Maya,

On top of Sanford's suggestion, the secondary advantage of using the munchkin API is that you can start logging visit web pages on anonymous and later reconcile the data when the person becomes known and get the history automatically.

-Greg

[Anonymous]

Thanks Sanford and Greg. We were able to pass on the page data as query parameters in Munchkin.munchkinFunction("visitWebPage"...).

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Cool