Purl tracking program

[Anonymous]

I am looking to use Marketo purls however marketo does not track users therefore i can not see who clicked on the purl and who landed on our landing page.  Can anyone provide suggestions on platforms that integrate with marketo and are effective with great usability?

[SanfordWhiteman]

(10K pageviews... isn't a lot of pageviews. It may be a lot of new customers, but it's barely a blip digitally.)

[Anonymous]

Sanford - is there a way i can DM you regarding the work around you mentioned?

[Dan_Stevens_]

I would actually like to see the details posted here since Marketo implementation of PURLs has caused issues for us as well.  Although back in April, the product manager (Christina Fuentealba​) said enhancements were being made to fix this in the coming months.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Yeah, I've been waiting for a change in the official functionality because that'll make my workaround immediately obsolete (and inadvisable). Guess I shouldn't bother waiting... ?

[Anonymous]

Sanford - Trying to build out the following suggestions you had mentioned but i am stuck on how to build this out. How would you perform the following?

• when the pURL is visited, immediately erase the existing _mkto_trk cookie* and reload the page
  • Is this done through custom programming or is it done through a smart campaign?
• auto-submit a hidden form using a prefilled Email field so the session is associated
  • Can you please clarify how an auto-submit for the hidden form would be done?

[Dan_Stevens_]

And what exactly do you mean by "Marketo does not track users"?  Marketo absolutely tracks users - especially when those users are clicking on a link in an email or on a landing page.

[Anonymous]

After speaking with marketo support they do not track who clicks purls unless they have been previously cookied. The consider everyone else anonymous and they would not share that information. 

We are looking to send a direct mail piece with a PURL link for end users to visit. But we'd like to make sure that everyone who visits the PURL is tracked and visible on our side. However from previous experience not everyone is tracked hence the cookie.

[SanfordWhiteman]

After speaking with marketo support they do not track who clicks purls unless they have been previously cookied. The consider everyone else anonymous and they would not share that information.

It's actually even more insidious than that (by default). If someone has an anonymous cookie (as opposed to no cookie) pURLs don't use the pURL identifier.

But this is pretty easy to work around

• when the pURL is visited, immediately erase the existing _mkto_trk cookie* and reload the page
• auto-submit a hidden form using a prefilled Email field so the session is associated
• now, even if the lead doesn't fill out a visible form, you know they hit the page (and all subsequent pages)

* you can use optional advanced programming to catch other cases

[Anonymous]

Sanford - thanks for the work around.  If we are sending a direct mail piece to over 10k people this sounds like it would be difficult to scale with this type of volume. 

Do you have any recommendations on software platforms outside of marketo that will track users and identify who these people are?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Sanford - thanks for the work around. If we are sending a direct mail piece to over 10k people this sounds like it would be difficult to scale with this type of volume.

Um, no?

Why would you think there would be any scaling issue?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Saying "clicked" on a pURL is a clue that you don't need to use pURLs. pURLs are principally for non-digital publication (i.e. direct mail). If you're using Marketo to send, just use a standard tracked URL. Can you please describe your project in detail?

[Anonymous]

'Visited' for clarification. Yes it is for a direct mail piece.