Building a Solid Foundation for Actionable Analytics_May11 - 051116

Editor's Notes

• #2: Update with new cover from visual brand deck.
• #3: Elliott has a long and successful history of building solid demand gen and operations foundations for rapidly growing startups and public companies like Canon, Computer Associates, and Conductor.   Presently, Elliott is B2B demand gen at JW Player. He is a 2013 Marketo Revenue Performance Excellence Award Finalist, Marketo-Certified Expert, a multi-year Marketo Champion and a recent co-leader of the Marketo New York User Group.
• #4: This cartoon is from a Marketo facebook post on March 4, 2016. I think it pretty well sums up why we’re in this room. If your marketing isn’t data driven, then you’re shooting in the dark. Most CEOs understand this and are demanding solid metrics from Marketing. I’m sure everyone in this room have some type of metrics they’re providing, but are you taking full advantage of all the insights that Marketo can provide and perhaps even more importantly – are they reliable? Accurate, actionable analytics only result from thoughtful design and implementation of your website, programs, integrations and more. Choosing the most robust and scalable method for capturing metrics around source attribution, revenue cycle model performance, and even page visits can be elusive for many Marketo users.   So in this presentation, I’ll share a few things that I’ve discovered over the years and perhaps you’ll be able to share a few with the rest of us as well.
• #6: Today we’ll be focusing on ways to capture more data and do more with it, but before you start, you need to make sure the data you have and are capturing is clean. At last year’s Summit, Inga Romanoff and I conducted a Data Quality Bootcamp session and I encourage you to view the replay to be sure you’re following our 6 step program to clean data and implementing our tips for Capturing data via forms, data import, and your sales organization Ensuring your Marketo to CRM sync is fast and reliable Eliminating duplicates Normalizing your data Perform Data Audit 2. Perform Systems Audit – current version of munchkin on your web pages, SFDC sync is working properly 3. Revise data capture processes including training – be sure you are capturing appropriate source metrics in hidden form fields via query parameters (e.g. utm) on your links and better yet, capture the values from cookies that preserve the data if the visitor doesn’t fill out the form on the landing page and visits other pages before submitting a form. 4. Correct data errors 5. Implement email alerts and reports (tips on that later) 6. Manage data quality across the organization
• #7: Also, be sure you have clear business requirements and definitions for your metrics before you start. I strongly recommend reading Marketo’s ‘The Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics’ for ideas on establishing these. Model your business(es) Identify KPIs / Metrics that are actionable Establish Benchmarks Develop ROI Formulas Build Reports and Dashboards
• #9: There are numerous useful attribution metric capabilities in Marketo using fields such as Original Referrer, Lead Source, and even custom fields. There are also programs and related touch attribution analysis in Advanced Analytics. However, if you don’t have a well thought out plan about how to use them, they can be less than useful. The data captured into attribution fields throughout the buyers journey can be key for accurately triggering the addition of a lead into appropriate programs, so let’s discuss those attribution fields and then we’ll cover the programs.
• #10: The Original Referrer field can be very useful if you’ve missed locking the source of that first visit into a field with a standard value. You can create a series of smart lists that use the Original Referrer field value to select just those leads whose values indicate a channel category like Paid Search and then set a value in a field like Initial Online Source. More on how to do that later.
• #11: The Original Referrer field value is automatically set by Marketo on the first page visit, but can be less than useful or misleading in several scenarios. It can have a wide variety of values, which can make analysis difficult. It is blank when a lead is created from SFDC, list import, event partner such as GTW and then is later populated by a web page visit, which can be misleading unless you specifically set it to a placeholder value like ‘Non-Web’. If there is no page visit logged (e.g. in incognito mode or browser times out waiting for a response from the munchkin server after 350 miliseconds), the original referrer won’t be captured. Similarly if the lead is referred by an https:// site and your site is not an https:// site, the referrer will not be captured. Then if the lead visits another page on your site or submits a form, the Original Referrer field value is set to a page on your website (e.g. the page from which the form was submitted). If the referring URL and query parameters are quite long as with an Adwords referral, the Original Referrer field as a string type field can only hold 255 characters and the full URL and its query parameters will be truncated.
• #12: If the referring URL and query parameters are quite long as with an Adwords referral, the Original Referrer field as a string type field can only hold 255 characters and the full URL and its query parameters will be truncated.
• #13: Sometimes the Original Referrer is missing the query parameters
• #14: Unfortunately, the original Referrer doesn’t always display the query string parameters.
• #15: The Lead Source field has a unique characteristic in that its value, if set at the time the lead is created, is forever persevered in the New Lead activity in the lead Activity Log and is a constraint in the Lead is/was Created trigger/filter. This can be useful for directing new leads into the correct channel program, but not so much for directing existing leads into those programs or leads into the correct content channel. The Lead Source field values are up to you to set, but again if you don’t have a plan and process to set actionable values, the data will either be missing or so varied and inconsistent that it will be useless for making informed decisions.
• #16: For example, these are a little over 80 of almost 700 unique Lead Source field values in an instance with fewer than 100K records. They are a mix of channels, content, and campaigns, which may have been captured at different points in the lead’s history. This makes it virtually impossible to identify the performance of major acquisition channels and make sound decisions. If you have a similar situation, don’t despair. I’ve got a few tips for transforming this into measurable and actionable values that I’ll share in a moment.
• #17: This quote* by Herbert Simon, a Nobel Prize laureate, sociologist and computer scientist whose research included cognitive psychology and science, highlights how too much information can be distracting as those of you out there tweeting and chatting on your smart phones may be experiencing. It’s hard to use information to make a decision when there is so much or it and if its not insightful. * Herbert. A. Simon (1971) "Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World" in: Martin Greenberger, Computers, Communication, and the Public Interest, Baltimore. MD: The Johns Hopkins Press. pp. 40–41.
• #18: By definition, the Lead Source field should represent the channel from which a lead became know. This is easy to set at the point of lead creation by reps in SFDC or when importing lists,. However, it can be difficult to set accurately for form submissions. Frequently marketers hard code a value if they think a lead is only going to get to that page from a specific source like an online ad or social media post, but leads from other sources can find their way to that page. Pages that do not have a ‘noindex’ value in its HTML Robots meta tag can be found via search engines and anyone can visit those pages Page links are shared with others who then visit our pages Many of our forms are on pages that can be accessed by anyone via the navigation links on their website and/or are available through the index.html page Unfortunately, without some serious java script on your website or the help of a third party app, setting accurate Lead Source field values can be difficult if not impossible especially when referring URLs have no query parameters such as those from organic search, earned social, and other web / email sources. [In one instance, we took a different approach to the value in the Lead Source field. We hard coded the form field with the page name and content on that page something like “Blog Page – How to Solve the Acquisition Metric Dilemma”. We were able to do this because we were using a custom field and smart campaigns to capture the Opt-in Source, which I’ll explain in a moment.]
• #19: In order to analyze your source data, it’s critical you establish a robust attribution taxonomy. Robust doesn’t necessarily mean dozens of values. For example, with around 20 channel values, you can produce reports with enough granularity to be significant and actionable. These values can also be used for your program channels, and for custom field values such as Recent Source, Initial Online Source, and Opt-in Source – more on those in a minute. For leads from online sources, these values can be specified in a ‘utm_medium’ query parameter in your paid and owned links. If you also include utm_source and utm_campaign query parameters in your links, they will be tracked by Google Analytics. When the lead is added as a member of the corresponding program, the Acquisition Program Name and Acquisition Program Date field values will be set automatically if the form submitted is on a Marketo landing page. If the form is embedded on a website page, you’ll need to create a smart campaign using a Lead is Created trigger with appropriate constraints like Lead Source and a Change Data Value flow step to set the Acquisition Program Name.
• #20: For leads from offline channels, these values can be specified in source field columns of the CSV file that you will use to import the leads into a program with the same channel. If the lead you import is new, the program automatically sets the Acquisition Program Name and Acquisition Program Date field values accordingly.
• #21: For Sales, you may need only a few values and it’s possible that these could be set automatically by an ACD or a lead capture app like RingLead’s Capture. You’ll also need to need to create a smart campaign using a Lead is Created trigger with appropriate constraints like Lead Source and a Change Data Value flow step to set the Acquisition Program Name.
• #22: It can take months to get an organization to change its legacy processes that aren’t setting appropriate Lead Source field values. You’ve got to win the support of your CEO or CMO and convince the rest of the marketing and web teams to agree to channel values, sett up the web infrastructure to capture query parameters into cookies (ideally) that can be read into hidden form fields, and you have to train the marketing team and vendors to always add query parameters to your owned and paid links. Even once you can get your standard Lead Source values identified, accurate and reliable, the Lead Source is only a single metric at lead creation from middle-of-the-funnel marketing activities. You can get top of funnel touch attribution from the Original Referrer, but as we discussed, its not an ideal metric. And there isn’t a standard Marketo field that captures bottom of the funnel attribution. In several instances, I’ve set up custom fields and smart campaigns that capture multi-touch attribution metrics in many cases without any other changes. These W shaped touch attribution metrics are captured in the following points and are each given 1/3 of the pipeline or revenue credit. Initial Online Source - the initial touch (e.g. visit to your website) when a lead is anonymous Opt in Source – the lead creation touch (e.g. when they submit their first form) Recent Source – The last touch channel is updated on every touch and stops updating after conversion to an opportunity or a won opportunity. This method isn’t perfect, but is free and works amazingly well. It can be further refined by creating cookies for query parameters on paid and owned links. I’ll explain how to implement it shortly.
• #23: In several instances, I’ve set up custom fields and smart campaigns that capture multi-touch attribution metrics in many cases without any other changes. These W shaped touch attribution metrics are captured in the following points and are each given 1/3 of the pipeline or revenue credit. Initial Online Source - the initial touch (e.g. visit to your website) when a lead is anonymous Opt in Source – the lead creation touch (e.g. when they submit their first form) Recent Source – The last touch channel is updated on every touch and stops updating after conversion to an opportunity or a won opportunity. This method isn’t perfect, but is free and works amazingly well. It can be further refined by creating cookies for query parameters on paid and owned links. I’ll explain how to implement it shortly.
• #24: Once you’ve added
• #34: Marketo programs are a great way of keeping track of different types of interactions by a lead. However, they can only track one dimension of an interaction, so be sure to have appropriate channels for each type and don’t mix them up. Channel Programs are for tracking the sources from which leads come to you. You would use the recommended channel values we discussed earlier for these. These channel programs can be analyzed for first touch and multi-touch attribution using Marketo Advanced Analytics (aka Revenue Cycle Explorer). Content Programs track the consumption of content by your leads. Channels for this would be Content and Webinar. A self-produced webinar is not a source channel. The webinar will likely be an event program and under that can be default or email programs for sending out nurture emails to your leads promoting the webinar just as you would send nurture emails promoting white papers, ebooks and videos. Nurture Programs are for tracking communications you send to your existing leads to move them along the buyers journey. Channels for this would be Email – Nurture, Email - Promo and SDR / BDR Outreach.
• #35: There is a hybrid approach that I’ve used, which can provide insight into not only which content is being consumed, but also the channels bringing the leads to the content. Basically you create a new content or webinar channel that adds to the single ‘engaged’ or ‘filled out form’ program status with an ‘engaged’ status for each online channel.
• #37: Then you create a program using that channel and create a .
• #40: The middle of your funnel is a critical point where you can recover those leads that looked good enough to move to the MQL stage and even the SAL stage, but they were just not ready to move forward and you moved them into your nurture program. But including an MQL that moves back onto the success path from nurturing activies along with an MQL that comes from TOFU activities can overstate its ROI and understate the value contributed by nurturing. The following is a method that we used to better measure that activity, but be sure that your revenue model’s transition rule from Nurture to MQL has a time delay and/or more stringent criteria, so that leads can’t immediately requalify as MQLs.
• #41: Create the desired tracking fields first in SFDC Lead and Contacts as number fields that are visible to the Marketo Sync profile. If they are visible to any other profile they should be read-only. After the fields have synced to Marketo, change their field type from ‘Integer’ to ‘Score’.
• #47: As a result of adding these metrics, you can get a much better picture pf the contribution that your nurture activities are making to each stage of the Marketing funnel
• #54: For the example, I included only MQLs, but you an include as many revenue stages as you’d like using the revenue stage counter fields.
• #56: Update with new cover from visual brand deck.