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SailorDD
August 13, 2026
Question

Inconsistent Email Click Behaviour causes DOI failure

  • August 13, 2026
  • 5 replies
  • 82 views

Dear Community,

As a part of our DOI process, one of the triggers for ‘DOI Confirmation’ Smart campaign is ‘Email Click’ behaviour.
Configured business flow is;

  1. customers fills a form on the website,
  2. receives a DOI confirmation Email,
  3. clicks the confirmation button,
  4. redirected to the Confirmation Landing Page,
  5. receives the target Email content based on the form fulfilment.

In Marketo, either of the following triggers the execution of the DOI confirmation;

  • Email Click ()
  • Fills out Form (on the DOI Confirmation LP)
  • Web Page Visit (DOI Confirmation LP with PURL)

This process works as expected for most of our customers, which means that Marketo can track and receive the Email Click behaviour. Whenever the required trigger is recorded, the corresponding smart campaign starts correctly, the DOI confirmation is documented, and the Marketing Suspended flag is removed. This process is up and running for about many years now.
 

We have tested

  • by deleting all the cookies in the test users’ browser and also deactivating the ‘Do Not Track’ features of the browsers.

The affected recipient doesn’t have any common behaviour which might help to identify the issue. it happens;

  • in different browsers / devices
  • personal and company domains

Important Notes:

It is important to note that the problem does not appear to be related to the email itself. We were able to forward one of the affected emails and successfully generate an Email Link Click activity record when the same email was opened and clicked from a different device. This suggests that the email and its tracking configuration are functioning correctly.

 

Another observation supports this assumption: while the Email Link Click activity is missing, the subsequent Web Visit activity is often logged successfully. This indicates that the user actually reached the target page, even though the click event itself was not recorded.

 

Another thing to point out one specific aspect of our DOI implementation. The DOI email links direct users to a PURL-based landing page. These landing pages contain custom JavaScript that manages and restores personalization cookies. The script ensures that the correct personalized page is displayed based on the unique code contained in the URL. (for more information read: blog.teknkl.com/fixing-marketo-purls/

 

Also, it’s not about the security reasons such as Proxy, bot activity etc. Because some from the same company domains completes the process through a successful link tracking, but some of them not.

To sum up - based on our tests and investigation - , the configurations/setup in Marketo are not the issue, there is something wrong with the Email link tracking, but we’re unable to identify it what it is yet.

 

Anyone else faced/is facing this issue before or?

Thanks in advance.

5 replies

sandy_logitech
User Group Leader
sandy_logitechUser Group Leader
User Group Leader
August 13, 2026

There’s a lot of useful background here, but you seem to have buried something: What is the exact unexpected behavior you’re seeing?

 

Is it people logging a Visit Web Page for the destination URL but not a Click Email for that same URL?

 

If so, is the tracked CTA (rewritten to bounce off the tracking server) truly clickable in all clients? For example, you need specific VML for Outlook-compatible buttons to be tracked. Otherwise, Outlook users get untracked links, while other clients get tracked ones?

 

If not, what is the exact (mis)behavior you want to address?

SailorDDAuthor
August 21, 2026

Thanks for replying this ​@sandy_logitech !
 

Is it people logging a Visit Web Page for the destination URL but not a Click Email for that same URL?
Yes. Also sometimes both is missing.

The main issue is for Click Email activity. It is important to note that the problem does not appear to be related to the email itself. We were able to forward one of the affected emails and successfully generate an Email Link Click activity record when the same email was opened and clicked from a different device. This suggests that the email and its tracking configuration are functioning correctly.

For your Hypothesis about VML; it works as expected including also the Outlook users, so it doesn’t seem like the issue.

If not, what is the exact (mis)behavior you want to address?

To be able to set DOI as True, Marketo Engage needs to identify either one of the triggers in the Smart List, which are ‘Clicks Link in Email’, ‘Fills out Form’ and ‘Visit Web Page’.
But in some cases, even one of the triggers happen and we see them in the failed Leads’ activity logs, Marketo doesn’t recognize them and doesn’t execute the DOI.

Michael_Florin-2
Michael_Florin-2
Level 10
August 21, 2026

Is it people logging a Visit Web Page for the destination URL but not a Click Email for that same URL?
Yes. Also sometimes both is missing.

How do you know that they are “missing”? You mean, the person has clicked the confirmation link and subsequently visited the confirmation page, but you don’t see either in their activity? How can you tell whether that happened or they just didn’t click?

I don’t want to make light of this situation. It is a problem. Double Opt-In works through an email click, and it might be the only situation where you really have to trigger something off of that email click. You could think about adding a second trigger alongside “Clicks link in email” and that is “Visits web page”, but that doesn’t solve the scenario when you have neither. That person needs to stay unsubscribed and a potential process failure will never be known.

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