"Change Data Value" event not logged when lead is created via form fillout

[Elena_S]

Hi all,

When a net new person is created via Marketo form fillout, are their field value changes supposed to appear in the person's activity log as "Change Data Value" events?

Like in

3 -- Change Data Value: "First Name" from [null] to 'John'

2 -- Change Data Value: "Email Address" from [null] to 'abc@def.com'

1 -- Filled out form {FormName}

0 -- Person is created (via form fillout)

Right now this is not happening for us, and triggered campaigns listening to field value changes don't get triggered in this case either;

I guess these people will be also missing in search by "Data Value Changed" filter, because from Marketo's point of view there was no data value change, right?

I'm wondering whether this is due to some wrong settings on our side, or just a normal Marketo thing.

[Gerard_Donnell4]

Hi Elena,​

This caught me out a while back as well.  If the field did not have a previous value then the change data value event is not logged (Null is not a value).  I thought it was because my leads were coming from an API. I fixed it by also adding a trigger to my smart campaign of "Lead is created".  This means you will capture new leads as well as leads being updated.

Something like this:

[Dan_Stevens_]

Hey Gerard - CDV will log a change if the prior value was null. The key is the lead record has to already exist. In other words, CDV will only trigger for existing leads and not when a lead is created.

[Gerard_Donnell4]

Cheers Dan Stevens​

I didn't know that.

[Elena_S]

Gerard Donnelly​ thank you! Yeah, I was blaming API too at first but apparently it's like that at native Marketo landing pages too. Thanks a lot for the workaround suggestion!

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

This is expected. The initial set is not a change.