Tracking with .pdf links hosted in Mkto?

[Balkar_Singh]

I send a test email to myself, clicked the email CTA, which took me to a Thank You page with a link to a PDF. I clicked the link to PDF. This was logged as Clicked Link on Web Page. However this doesn't always work. I am sending a test email again to a different test lead, have that different test lead click the email CTA which takes the lead to Thank You page with the link to PDF.The lead clicks the PDF, but the only activity logged it "Clicked link in Email" - Any insights?

[Dan_Stevens_ · Accepted solution]

We too see inconsistency here.  In some instances, this could be a result of the user right-clicking the link and saving/downloading the file to their computer (I personally do this, since I usually don't have time to read the PDF right then and there).  Are you sure they are clicking on the PDF link?  Like I said, we have done several tests around this and have found Marketo doesn't always track the click activity, even though we specifically click on the link in our tests.

[Balkar_Singh]

Hi Dan Stevens​,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, we're clicking on the PDF link. We may need to consider the click link in emails instead of clicks link on webpage.

[SanfordWhiteman]

For some pretty clear browser-behavioral reasons, clicks on download links may not have a chance to register. You definitely want to have target="_blank" on your links​ and a redirector page​ adds extra reliability.

[Anonymous]

For every PDF asset we have, I create a Landing Page with a neat descriptive name that hosts the asset.

That page's template is simply a full-screen iframe, into which the PDF is loaded. This means anyone who's accessing your PDF ends up on a Marketo page (like Sanford Whiteman​'s rediretor page​) but the user stays on the page. Most browsers simply show the PDF inside the iframe and it functions as you'd expect. Some mobile browsers will tend to just download the PDF file to display in their native app.

This also means that the branding of the URL, and usage within Marketo and elsewhere is a little more straight forward, the URL is something like;
"assets.marketo.com/interesting-article-title"
Whereas the file that's loaded in the frame is:

"assets.marketo.com/rs/xxx-xxx-xxx/images/articlename2017v3final.pdf"

Any time the PDF is updated, we simply upload a new version and edit the url (Guided Template variable) on the page that's meant to load that asset.

This also gives you the chance to do more with the asset, e.g. add a button to the bottom to load a form lightbox if the lead would like to 'request contact' etc

For tracking, we then just have to rely on "Visited Web Page" is "Name of your landing page in Marketo", not having to worry about variations in file name, or using either 'clicks link' trigger.

[Alex_Firtl]

Hey Alex, do you happen to have that template code? I'm struggling to get my iframe to fill the page properly...

Thanks!