What does "Created At" mean?

[Traffic_Agency]

I am trying to figure out when the leads in my database were created by using the "Created At" attribute but it doesn't seem to be accurate.

For example, I know I had over 40K records this time last year, but when I look at how many were created before this time last year, I'm only seeing 18K. Is it possible that the "Created At" attribute is updated? For example, we do a lot of importing of lists into the database. So, if a contact was already in the database and we import them from a list, is it possible the "Created At" attribute is overwritten with the most current date?

It doesn't really make sense to me that that would be the case but I'm not sure how else Created At would be updated.

[Karan_Hari3]

Hi Traffic Agency​,

Here is an article that might be of help - "Created At" and "Lead Was Created" are Different for the Same Record

- No if the lead already exists in Marketo, importing a list with the same email will not change the created at details. It would just update the details of the fields of that lead except for the ones for which field updates are blocked.

Best Always,

Karan Hari

[Traffic_Agency]

Thanks Karan. I also noticed in this doc that there is a note under #5 about impacting an existing person through a list import (Import a List of People - Marketo Docs - Product Documentation​). Is it possible that if I didn't choose "Skip new people and updates" that their creation date would be changed? And possibly their data is overwritten?

[Karan_Hari3]

Hi Traffic Agency ,

As per this documentation also, what it says is if you do choose "Skip new people and updates", Then it will - Skip new person creation.

So if you do not choose it, it will create a new person. It will still not alter the created date of an existing record.

Best Always,

Karan Hari