Running Smart List Counts

[Nina_Valtcheva5]

I often have to run counts to see how many leads will be in the target audience for our email lists, or for reporting purposes. However, it's very time consuming because I find myself having to wait it out on the Leads tab / Qualified Leads while the counts are calculating. But sometimes it takes over an hour and it's still calculating... If I click away from this tab and go do something else in Marketo, it never finishes calculating on its own. So it seems the only way to get the counts is to wait it out on the Leads tab, but then I can't do anything else in the meantime!

I am pretty new to Marketo so maybe I am missing something since it seems there should be an easier way to get list counts without it being so time consuming on my end. Any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

You can cache lists which may help for extremely large lists. Refereash to get more accurate numbers. For campaigns, you can look at qualified members.

Also, its pretty standard for Marketo users to have multiple browser tabs open on your instance so that you jump from tab to tab complete things. This would allow you to load your list while doing other activites elsewhere.

[Nina_Valtcheva5]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your help!

How can we cache lists in Marketo?

As for having multiple browser tabs open, I have tried that many times but I always get a 'Refresh your browser" type of error.

[Bruce_Jeffers]

That seems like an extremely long amount of time to me.

Just curious -- how large is your database?  Because in my instance, it only takes a few seconds for my Smart Lists to calculate the total numbers when I add or modify criteria. Even with very complex smart list queries, it still never takes longer than 20-30 seconds.

Our database size is only 40K, so that could be much smaller than yours. Just wondering.

Btw, the way to cache a smart list is to Export it.
 

[Nina_Valtcheva5]

Our database is over 375K. I guess that makes a huge difference in how long it takes to run queries! Actually I think I figured out how to have multiple browsers open. Just opening a new tab instead of a new instance. I think I'm ok now. Thanks for the tips!

[Anonymous]

I run into the same problem (I'm waiting on a a list of qualified campaign members as I type) and it is very frustrating. There are ways to reduce the complexity of your smart list, such as putting the inclusionary fields/segments/membership early on, and the exclusionary fields after that, and then any inclusionary log activity, then exclusionary log activity. If possible, don't call on smart lists within smart lists, because you're then waiting on the other smart list to run completely before advancing to the next filter.

Marketo runs through the smart list steps in order, so you should do something like...

1. Has X attribute (it's searching through db 375K leads to identify 100K leads)
2. And has Y attribute (it's searching through 100K leads to identify 70K leads)
3. And Not has Z attribute (it's searching through 70K leads to identify 40K leads)
4. And was Delivered Email (it's searching through 40K leads' activity log to identify 20K leads)
5. And NOT Sent Email ABC (it's searching through 20K leads' activity logs to identify 10K leads)

Hope that helps a little bit.

-Ray

[Nina_Valtcheva5]

This is great advice - thanks Ray!

[Kristen_Malkov1]

I recommend ironing out your segmentations for larger database sizes. The most helpful one is "valid email addresses" which will always give you the number of people included vs. blocked. Also it will make your lists run a lot quicker. Do you use segmentations?

[Nina_Valtcheva5]

Thanks Kirsten! I have just started using segmentations this past month so it's still a new concept. I love the idea of having a segmentation for Valid Email Addresses - I'll implement it right now! Are there any other segmentations that you would recommend?

[Kristen_Malkov1]

I'd just try to iron out different groups that you email consistently; a lot of them will depend on your modeler. Some that we use are company size, customer vs. net-new lead vs. trial.

From a high level breakdown:

-Segmentations assist with filtering out behavior or demographics within your database

-The modeler dictates the buying stage

The combination of the two of them is what makes Marketo/you successful.