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J
Julz_James
Level 8
June 2, 2016
Solved

Query string Tracking for Forms on Drupal Landing Page

  • June 2, 2016
  • 6 replies
  • 7433 views

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to set up some query string tracking for form fills on Drupal Landing pages.  I'm using Marketo forms and I want to track different sources using a query string.

I've tried lots of different options but nothing seems to be pulling the form fill into the Smart Campaigns I've set up for tracking.  The options I've tried are:

  • Putting hidden fields into the form and then having the form look for the URL parameter
  • Using 'Fills in form' trigger with the query string as a constraint
  • Using 'Fills in form' trigger with a filter of 'visited webpage in last 5 mins with query string' filter

But if I do a smart list of 'Fills in form' or just a basic smart campaign for 'fills in form' trigger all the names appear there but none have gone through the other tracking smart campaigns.

Normally for Marketo Forms and Marketo landing pages I would just do the second option and it works every time.  But it's not working with the Drupal LPs.

Can anyone help figure out what the problem is?

Thanks

Juli

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Best answer by SanfordWhiteman

I just gave the web developers the code that they wanted.  I've been told they only want to use the Form ID as they code the form within the landing page itself. I always thought it had to be the full embed code, but I was trusting our developers.  

I understand how it all works together but when I'm being told by my developers that they've done everything right and I only know basic HTML (hence me being able to see the correct Form ID, Hidden fields etc) then you have to trust the experts right?

How would the developers make the form look like they need whilst also using the embed code?

Thanks

Juli


Well, they are definitely wrong.  What they're doing is using a one-time snapshot of the way form's HTML is it rendered way back when.

Marketo will, conveniently, still process this frozen-in-time version of the form (since the Form ID still exists in your Marketo instance) but of course it will not honor any fields added or removed since they last copied-and-pasted the HTML.  And hidden fields you set up in the Marketo Form Editor will not only not appear on the form, they could not be autofilled on the form because they're not using the Forms 2.0 JS which is responsible for parsing cookie/query/referrer info into hidden fields. This same relatively simple functionality can be emulated with your own JS.  But if you don't do anything, the hidden fields are just going to be empty.

@Elliott Lowe​they're using the /save endpoint with what amounts to a custom form.  That's relatively good in that it creates a Filled Out Form activity.  It's terrible in that it appears to be linked to Marketo but is disconnected from the form as it currently is maintained by @Juli James.

6 replies

Joe_Reitz
Joe_Reitz
Level 8
June 2, 2016

Hey Juli – I miss your face

Sorry, can't help with Drupal, but step 2 as you outlined it works for us on Wordpress. What are you putting in as the constraint?

Do you mean smart campaign or smart list? We've been able to do tracking via Smart Lists exactly like you outline in option 2 (fills out form with query string constraint). If you're using a smart campaign, I'm also curious to know what you've set your flow to be

If it doesn't look cool, you're probably doing it wrong.
keithnyberg
keithnyberg
Level 7
June 2, 2016

Hey Juli,

The questions Joe asked would give us some more clarity around an appropriate answer. I use option 1 as you outlined in your question. Here is my take and how my campaigns function, I would try using the "Fills Out Form" trigger with a Webpage Constraint instead of an additional "Visits Webpage in last 5 minutes" filter. Then you can build your flow step to request multiple referrer campaigns based on a URL parameter that you've identified.

Example:

Trigger: Fills Out Form (constraint Webpage = example webpage)

Flow: Request campaign:

  1. IF UTM Medium = search, display, remarketing -> REQUEST: Online Advertising referral campaign
  2. IF UTM Medium = social -> REQUEST: Social referral campaign
  3. IF UTM Medium = sales -> REQUEST: Sales referral

Let me know if what I wrote helped you at all or if I'm wayyy off.

Cheers!

Keith Nyberg

SanfordWhiteman
SanfordWhiteman
Level 10
June 2, 2016

I would try using the "Fills Out Form" trigger with a Webpage Constraint

With embedded Forms 2.0 forms, you use the ​Referrer ​constraint, not ​Web Page, ​to identify the page hosting the form.

This is frequently misunderstood and people think there's no way to constrain by web page with embeds.​

    keithnyberg
    keithnyberg
    Level 7
    June 2, 2016

    Dohh!!!! Thanks for the correction Sanford. Forgot these weren't MKTO pages.

    Justin_Norris1
    Justin_Norris1
    Level 10
    June 3, 2016

    @Juli James​

    I would grab the value into a hidden field -- your option #1. I find it to be the most flexible method.

    Are you using an embedded form or is it iframed? If it is an iframe you would need to use some extra code to transfer the parameters to the iframe from the parent page. An embedded 2.0 should work out of the box though.

    Ignoring the smart campaign for a second, I'd be curious to confirm if your data is being captured. When you fill out the form configured to populate the hidden field with the URL param, does the field update on the lead record in Marketo?

    If yes, then it's just an error in the smart list to troubleshoot. If no then we can troubleshoot the data capture piece. But the answer to that question will narrow it down.

    J
    Julz_JamesAuthor
    Level 8
    June 3, 2016

    Wow!  Thanks for all the responses...I'll try to answer everything here.

    @Joe Reitz (miss your face too ) - I use Option 2 on all our Marketo LPs, but it doesn't work on Drupal LPs.  I'm trying to use a Smart Campaign with the 'Fills out form' trigger and the constraint of 'Querystring contains'.  The leads are pulling into a smart list weirdly but not through the smart campaign.

    @Keith Nyberg  - I'll try that set up now - I didn't know you had to use 'referrer' instead of 'webpage' for external pages.  But will the query string option still work as a constraint?

    @Geoffrey Krajeski - I never out http or https at the beginning of my web URLs.

    @Sanford Whiteman and @Elliott Lowe - thanks of the additional information.

    @Justin Norris - I've tried using option 1 but it doesn't work either. The form is an embedded form with additional Drupal code around it.  I've just checked again with the hidden field and thats not being pulled through from the URL.  In fact when I set up the Smart Campaign of 'Fills out form' with the constraint of 'Querystring NOT contains' it pulls in the lead WITH the query string!

    Thanks

    Juli

    J
    Julz_JamesAuthor
    Level 8
    June 6, 2016

    Is anyone able to help?  I've had to revert to Marketo LP's for now, but need to figure this out so that we can continue to use Drupal pages where needed.

    Thanks

    Julz

    SanfordWhiteman
    SanfordWhiteman
    Level 10
    June 6, 2016

    Need an example URL.  Query param --> AutoFill hidden field is standard stuff for embedded forms.

    J
    Julz_JamesAuthor
    Level 8
    June 6, 2016

    Here is the URL I've been using:

    Future People – Deutschland im Blickpunkt 

    This one has the query string of LS and I set up a hidden field on the Marketo form to look for the URL parameter of 'ls' and this feeds into the Lead Source field.  Marketo is just not recognising the Query string no matter how many different variations I used to try and get it working.

    I've also used 'utm_source' as the query string and set that as a hidden field in the Marketo form as well.  If you look at the form in Drupal I can't see these hidden fields showing, but that is how all of the pages are coded, so if I have to add in a hidden field into the Drupal code that will be an issue.

    Thanks

    Juli

    Ulf_Deeg
    Ulf_Deeg
    Level 3
    June 6, 2016

    I'd consider using a cookie to store those params and then autofill form fields from the cookie. this way you can also keep the source if they browse to a different page and then submit a form.

    EDIT: got sidetracked. this is for Marketo embedded forms, too

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