Program Smart Lists - best practice?

[James_Glavin]

Hi there,

Marketo newbie here! I'm just starting to build programs, specifically email campaigns. It seems to me that you can create a Smart List in one of two ways, either creating a Smart List as a new local asset and then using the 'Member of Smart List' criteria to add this list to a program. Or I could just build the Smart List directly into the program, so it exists within the program, and not as an asset.

Are there any advantages to doing it in one way over another? What is considered best practice for this.

Thanks in advance,

James

[Anonymous]

Be careful when you start to "nest" smart lists within each other, if only because it substantially increases the time that it takes to run the programs since Marketo is basically having to look inside multiple different "rooms" for the instructions on how to qualify leads for the program.

[Josh_Hill13 · Accepted solution]

I do the following:

• Lead Database: lists everyone will use, building blocks
• Program Smart Lists - lists I will use here only (usually)
• Email Send - you can build a list here, but I prefer child lists.

I agree with Rob that you should be careful nesting too many smart lists.

[James_Glavin]

Great, thank you Rob and Josh - very helpful!