Tag type vs Channels

[Anonymous]

I'm new to Marketo (in the setup process) and still confused about the difference between a tag type and a channel and when to use them? I know what a Tag value does, but still confused about the other two

Can anyone help me out? Thanks!

[Kenny_Elkington]

Hey Christopher,

Channels are a type of Program tag that is mandatory for all programs like Webinar, Email Nurture...etc.  Tags are a field that you can optionally add to your programs and customize them completely.  They can be thought of just like custom fields for leads or contacts.  You can customize them in any way that you wish, and add as many or as few as you like.

For example, I can create two programs with the webinar channel, and then I have a mandatory Presenter tag.  The two separate programs can each have different presenters.

[Josh_Hill13]

One of the ways you can use Tags is to segment Channels by Region or anything else. Mostly useful for RCA though.

So you'd create a Region Tag and have EMEA, Americas, Asia, etc...

[Dan_Stevens_ · Accepted solution]

Every Marketo program must have a channel defined so that you can properly track the progression status/steps (and measure success) as leads engage with your campaigns (e.g., "Email w/Landing Page" channel could include the following progression steps: opened, clicked, bounced, unsubscribed, filled out form, engaged/downloaded [success]).

Tags are useful for reporting (primarily within Revenue Cycle Explorer).  We use tags extensively to define the program, campaign, area (NA, Europe, APAC), region (country), content type (whitepaper, ebook, research, etc.), Major Event (Sapphire, Oracle OpenWorld, Convergence, etc.), industry, service line, etc.  Each time we setup a new program in Marketo, we need to specifiy the values for each of these tags.  A bit tedious, but well worth it when it comes time to slice and dice our program effectiveness/attribution.