Re-batch leads with no Acq. Program?

[Chalo]

Hi all,

We'd like to create an escalable process to stamp the acquisition program to our database. What would be the best way to do this?

For the moment we used to do it on a program level, but there's a big chunk of our database that does not have it because we did not have it implemented in the past.

Tried to rebatch them using tokens for the acquisition program value but Marketo won't let me do it. 

Looking forward for the community best practices.

Thanks!

[SanfordWhiteman]

You say you were trying to use tokens. What kind of tokens? Were you trying to set a lead field to the Acquisition Program Name, and then use the corresponding {{lead.token}} (which indeed won’t work)?

Please detail how you would populate the field for a given lead — do you have a separate list of AP Names/AP IDs?

[Chalo]

Hi Sanford,

So we do have a field called Acquisition Campaign refering to a SFDC Custom Field. We've been populating that field till now that we're now going to switch to Acquisition Program.

Ideally I'd like to do a flow that Acq. Program = Acquisition Campaign lead token

Tho, last thing I remember it would blank Acq. Campaign after refreshing the flow...

Is this a known thing that it won't let me to tokenize Acq. Program value?

Thanks

[SanfordWhiteman]

Yeah, you can’t do it that way.

What you can do (and we’ve done this kind of backfill job several times) is store the Acquisition Program ID* in a field and then use a webhook-compatible service to loop back and use the REST API to set the value. This updates both the AP ID and Name.

* or theoretically the Acquisition Program Name, though that creates more overhead since the API has to look up the ID

[Chalo]

Hi Sandford,

Ok I get it. My last question is: how could I use that approach to batch the remaining database that don't have the Acq. Program?

To my understanding, I could use that custom field or the default Acq. Program Name in the flowstep of the program and then have it completed there. I could later reference that Program ID and search it within Marketo and attribute the name of that Program ID, but that would be for new leads right?

[SanfordWhiteman]

---

My last question is: how could I use that approach to batch the remaining database that don't have the Acq. Program?

---

Not exactly sure what you’re asking here? If you have the intended AP ID temporarily stored in a lead field and a webhook that can change the real Acquisition Program ID field accordingly, you can run old or new people through the ‘hook.

Alternately you could do that update from outside (i.e. Postman or the language of your choosing) using the API. The key is updating the Acquisition Program ID field, which Marketo maps to the AP Name automatically.