Where to place utm's in form embed code?

[James_Zolinski]

We are using Marketo contact forms embedded on our website with hidden utm parameters. When people fill out the contact forms we receive an alert email for sales to follow up with them. The problem is, the Lead Source and Source Detail fields are blank on our alert emails. I noticed the embedded form code does not have the utm's in it, in order for embedded forms to track Lead Source and Source data, do the utm's need to be placed in the embedded code? If so, where in the embedded code would it go?

[SanfordWhiteman]

You don't have to do anything special to track UTMs with the embed code vs. the same form on a Marketo LP.

If the hidden fields are set to AutoFill from the URL, this works equally well for both the embed and a named mktoForm element. Of course just filling from the current URL isn't a full-circle solution, but it works the same way in both cases.

[James_Zolinski]

Thanks Sanford, well, the page it is embedded is not a Marketo LP, it is a Wordpress page. Since this is hosted on a Wordpress page, would the autofill still work. I do see autofill is enabled on the form.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Yes, like I said, AutoFill works the same for both cases.

[James_Zolinski]

If it works the same for both cases then why are the utm's not transferring to the Lead Source and Source Detail fields on our alert emails? This might be a dumb question, but could it be because there is no SC set up for these embedded forms? In order to track utm's on embedded forms, do SC's need to be set up in order to catch and track that data?

[SanfordWhiteman]

This might be a dumb question, but could it be because there is no SC set up for these embedded forms? In order to track utm's on embedded forms, do SC's need to be set up in order to catch and track that data?

Smart Campaigns don't need to be set up to capture field values that are submitted along with the form.  As long as you do not have updates blocked in Field Management, a form post that contains a non-empty value will overwrite the current value.

As Jason suggests, the way you're describing your setup and expectations isn't clear.  Even "where to place UTMs" as a summary doesn't make a lot of sense.

[Jason_Keller3]

James it sounds like you are trying to reference a UTM field on the lead record instead of capturing the UTM from the URL. If this is the case then yes you won't have those fields on the form populate on a WP page (if this is indeed the case, then I know a guy that may have a solution for you.... https://blog.teknkl.com/pre-fill-any-site-any-form/  Thanks Sanford!)

If that isn't the case, then the hidden UTM fields should capture your UTMs regardless of where they are embedded.

Third scenario - you are assigning a unique lead source/detail value for each embedded form on your WP pages. If that is the case then you could have a hidden field with an assigned default value that could be populated to a lead source/detail field.

Hopefully one of those is useful!

[James_Zolinski]

Thanks Jason,

I tried replying to the post on the community, but don’t see the option to do so.

I think the problem is, as you can see in the pic below, when I hover over the “contact me” button on our website, the url associated to the button does not contain any of the utm’s to reference to the hidden utm’s that are on the form. Could this be the problem. If so, then the solution would be to update the url for the “contact me” button to include the utm’s for Lead Source and Source Detail, correct? And then these fields on our alert emails should populate?

James Zolinski

Marketing Operations Manager

Direct: 602-601-5833

Email: james@helpinc.us<mailto:james@helpinc.us>

Web: www.helpinc.us<http://www.helpinc.us/>

[Jason_Keller3]

So because the form is on an iframe, this conversation thread might be relevant: Passing UTM values to iframe embedded forms

One thing that could help clarify things is that utms are typically being populated into hidden fields from URL. But, things like lead source and lead source detail can also be populated in different ways. It might be worth backing up a step and to ask what is an example value that you would expect to see in the lead source field? If you just want to see "Website" in the lead source field, you may want to bypass any URL augmentations and just use a unique form on that page that has "website" pre-filled in a hidden lead source field.

Or, you could also populate that as part of the smart campaign where trigger = fills out form (to this specific form and then part of the flow step include "if lead source is empty -> populate lead source with "website"). 

Hopefully that helps - but yeah it is still hard to answer because there are a couple layers to address (the iframe situation, where the utms are coming from, etc.)

[James_Zolinski]

Thanks Jason. Sorry for all the questions regarding utm’s and embedded forms. I’ve inherited this Marketo instance and am coming across things like this that need to be fixed.

Basically, this form is not in any programs or SC, but according to Sanford that should not be a problem. The form was basically created just to be embedded on our site. An example of a value I would expect to see for Lead Source would be “Website” and Source Detail would be “Organic”. Since this form, I believe, was created specifically to be used as a contact form on our website, I think entering a default value for these fields would solve our problem, that is as long as this form is only being used on our website.

Although your other option of a SC with “Fills out form” would be just as useful. I’m trying to better understand the best ways for embedded forms to be tracked in the future to avoid these types of issues.

My initial question of where to place utm’s, comes from the idea that if the utm’s are not part of the form embed code on the website, the fields would not populate, example

My thought process is that by including the utm’s in the form embed code, when the form is submitted, it would caputre the lead source and source detail. But now I am thinking that is wrong based on what I have read.

Thanks for all the help and advice!