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How to Run Landing Page AB Tests in Marketo

March 18, 2014 By Josh Hill

Landing Page AB Test Model

Marketers are now expected to test web pages as a matter of course. Testing pages, however, often requires special configuration of websites to properly handle rotation and tracking of options. One of the reasons you selected Marketo is the system natively handles landing page testing using a feature called Testing Group.

AB testing is native to the landing page system. You can create Test Groups in Design Studio or in a Program.

What I talk about when I talk about AB testing

Landing Page AB Test ModelIn case you are unfamiliar with AB testing, here’s an overview. Feel free to skip this section and move on to the juicy core of getting it done in Marketo.

While I hear much talk about performing AB testing by marketers, not as many of us are doing these tests back at the office. Let’s change that right now, with this chapter. First, let’s review what AB testing is.

AB Testing of Landing Pages:

  1. The comparison of two or more pages that are randomly shown to visitors with the goal of discovering which page has more conversions (form fill outs or purchases).
  2. The system designed to build, attract, and report on emails and pages.

In a complete testing system, you can AB test the email, the page, and the thank you page. Some marketers recommend an additional offer on the final page. The best follow up offers tend to be a demo or additional content sign ups, but could also be upsells for other products.

If you need further ideas, I recommend visiting KISSmetrics or WhichTestWon.com.

Key Components to Setting Up a Test

Let’s get started!

  • Programs must have local assets to have a Test Group.
  • Page needs to be unapproved to be listed as an option to add to the Test Group
  • Clone design studio pages to a Program first, then add to Test Group.
  • Watch Your SEO!
  • Know what you plan to test before you begin.
  • Keep a log or a local report that reports on just these pages.

Step 1: Create a Page

Remember to set the URL slug properly so your Test Group URL makes sense for SEO.

Initial Landing Page A

Step 2: Place an Offer on the Page

I trust you can come up with page copy.

Marketo Page text of page A

Step 3: Convert the Page to a Test Group

Right click on the page icon, choose Convert to Test Group. This step also creates the Test Group URL based on the original URL, so make sure you got this part right in Step 1.

Marketo Page Convert to Test Group Dialog

Step 4: Clone Page A to Create Page B

Right click and press “Clone.” This is what you get:

Clone Marketo Page A to Page B

Step 5: Modify Page B

Modify the page in whatever way makes sense for your test. Remember – only change one thing about this page to have a true AB test.

Step 6: Add Page B to Test Group

You need to do this from the Test Group: click on Edit Test Group Members and this dialog appears. If nothing appears here, try unapproving the B page.

Add Marketo Page B to Test Group

Step 7: Approve the Pages in the Test Group

Approve Marketo AB Landing Page Test

Step 8: Approve the Test Group

The Test Group URL will not work until you approve the entire Test Group as a separate option. The individual page URLs will be active, if you happen to know their URLs.

Approve Marketo AB Landing Page Test Group

Step 9: Test the Test Group URL

Now copy the URL listed on the Test Group level to use in emails or on other pages. Remember to test this in a couple of browsers to see how it functions and ensure it displays the intended page variations.

Step 10: Declare a Winner and Create Test Page C

Depending on your setup, it make take several days to a couple of months to have enough visits to statistically validate a winner. Marketo only displays Visits and Conversions (Form Fill Outs), so you will have to use Excel or a rule of thumb to determine this. I would allow at least two weeks before deciding a winner, assuming you have enough web traffic.

More from the Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo

Stay tuned – the Marketo Guide is going to be available soon!

There are more details available in the full chapter below:

How to AB Test Landing Pages in Marketo from Josh Hill

Filed Under: Marketo User Guide

Marketo Glossary of Filters, Flows, and Triggers

March 6, 2014 By Josh Hill

When I was writing the Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo, I wanted to offer new material to other Marketo users. One common refrain was “Where is a complete list of all the triggers, flows, and filter?”

So I put that into the Guide. As we approach the first anniversary of the Guide on March 21, I wanted to give back to the community. Here is the complete chapter on filters and flows. I have not updated it since March 2013, so use some caution as Marketo has changed a number of Flow and Trigger options. New options include Member of Engagement and Add/Remove from Engagement.

Also, keep in mind that each instance of Marketo is slightly different. This is because your CRM will be different and offer filters and data values relevant only to your business. In many ways, this guide is only a starting point. Take a look and enjoy!

Marketo Glossary of Flows, Filters, and Triggers

Marketo Filters, Flows, and Triggers Glossary from Josh Hill

Filed Under: Marketo User Guide

Joining Perkuto

March 3, 2014 By Josh Hill

PerkutoI am excited to announce that today I join marketing automation consultancy Perkuto, as their Marketo Practice Lead. Many of you may know Perkuto’s co-founders: Alexandre Pelletier and Youcef Bouayad who have been long time members of the Marketo and Salesforce Communities.

Over the past few years, you have come to know me through my contributions to the Marketo Community or through this website. A few of you are my clients and friends. I am very grateful to you for your continued support and interest in my work. Believe me when I say that I learn at least as much from you as I share here.

I will continue to write for this site as well as for Perkuto’s blog. On my blog, I will always share my latest tips and tricks for Marketo as well as more on demand generation. At Perkuto, expect to see very exciting announcements about RSS feeds and more Marketo help.

Why did I decide to join Perkuto?

Alex and I have been friends for the past couple of years and I was flattered when he approached me about joining his team. I have great respect for Alex’s skills with Marketo (he was customer 163 and I was 800 or so). Alex’s deep Salesforce and Revenue Cycle Analytics knowledge means I can offer clients the full range of Marketo features. With co-founder Youcef, we add deep process implementation knowledge. And with Perkuto’s team, ranging from analytics to developers, we can create new services as well as build unique systems just for your business.

In essence, joining Perkuto allows me to offer a complete package of marketing automation and demand generation services – much more than I could do as a one-man band. I am looking forward to learning from the team and working with our clients. And if you are one of my current clients, you will be able to draw on much deeper resources.

If I haven’t convinced you Perkuto is the right consultancy for you, then let me offer a few key points:

  • Perkuto’s focus is to simplify the way you generate revenue. It’s not about generating more leads, it’s about efficiently managing leads to revenue.

  • Perkuto is the only marketing automation agency to also offer Launchpoint products.

  • Perkuto’s team is bilingual in English and French, so we can easily work with your teams in Canada, US, and Europe.

  • Perkuto now offers an end-to-end Marketo implementation service from planning through managed services. This is not just about marketing operations, it’s about revenue.

  • Perkuto is also qualified to implement, customize, and manage Salesforce.com.

That’s it for my announcement and the big pitch. I’ve got some great Marketo content coming up this month, so stay subscribed.

Filed Under: Marketing Automation

How to Administer a Marketing Automation System

February 21, 2014 By Josh Hill

Marketo Admin View

As an administrator of Marketo, or any marketing automation system, you have power to do many things. The wise use this power carefully, delegating some of it to trusted marketers.

Marketo Admin ViewSecurity and Users of Marketing Automation

Administrators must decide on the Roles and Users to be allowed access. If you have ever administered a CRM or another critical system, you should treat Marketo the same. Marketo contains confidential data on your customers and prospects, including their email addresses – a valuable commodity on the black market. I recommend the following roles and users. The table is particular to Marketo, but the idea is applicable to other systems as well.

Role Name

Access Level

Assign to This Kind of Person

Admin Admin, default CRM Administrator, Power Marketer or lead marketing automation person.
Marketing User – Limited Do not use the default Marketing User-Restrict certain things like list uploads, Forms, Templates Associates, Interns
Designer Design StudioProgram Emails Web designer, graphic designer, external vendor. Consider restricting approvals
Marketing Super User Run campaigns, approve assets Marketing Managers, Marketing OperationsLimit list uploads, Forms, Templates
List Uploader Limited to importing lists and running campaign flow actions. If you have a database manager who does this for everyone, use this.

Be sure to keep a list of current and past users so you know the internal staff and contractors who have or had access. When someone leaves your firm, you should deactivate their account immediately. In Marketo, deactivating a user means deleting the user, however, you can simply remove their Roles as well.

Marketo Role Setup

Sometimes I recommend adding a “Null” Role that has no permissions. If you move a user to this Role, then you can still see their login and change history. If you remove the user, their creation history is lost and you will no longer know who edited various assets.

Field Security

To protect your data, I recommend using field blocking to ensure existing data is not overwritten inadvertently. Marketo permits this field level security on any field. Simply go to Admin > Field Management, then choose the field you want to secure. It is a one at a time feature, so it can take a while if you have a lot of fields to secure.

Integration with CRM/Salesforce

The Administrator is also responsible for connecting the marketing automation system to the CRM. Often this is Salesforce. Be sure to keep track of the sync’s health on both sides of the CRM-MA system. Marketo provides Notifications to warn of issues related to data and the sync. Maintaining a good sync also means representing the system during project meetings. If another group makes a CRM change, it could impact the sync and data flow.

Administering Marketo

If you are a Marketo admin, or studying for the Marketo Certified Expert exam, you can use this helpful guide. This chapter is a part of the Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo. It’s now free for you to use and share. It’s licensed under the Creative Commons 4.0 License, so remember to Share and give me proper attribution.

There’s more to running a marketing automation system than I’ve described here. Be sure to download the Administering Marketo guide. Enjoy!

Marketo Administration Instructions from Josh Hill

Filed Under: Marketo User Guide

How to Use Marketo Analytics Effectively

February 19, 2014 By Josh Hill

Marketo Report Feature Table

program-membership-chartWhen people begin using Marketo, they very often ignore the Analytics section for awhile. This makes sense because there isn’t much data there the first month or two. But then the Director or the CMO comes by and asks, “How are our leads doing this month?” So what do you do when the reporting system hasn’t been setup yet?

Here are my best tips on how to get it done.

Naming Reports Well

I’ve worked with several companies that have never setup a naming scheme for Reports. Here are a few names I’ve seen that lack clear descriptions. What would you think these reports are really about?
Nurture Leads 1
Capterra
PDF Downloads May 2013
You will reuse reports, so make sure the names make sense. Here’s what I recommend for good names for reports:
Description – Region – Date Range
Web leads by Webinar Campaign – US – Past 6 Months
Email Performance by Webinars – Global – Past 90 days

Fast Ways to Get at Marketo Data

There are several ways to find data fast for the inevitable spot request.

  • Campaign Overview Tabs

These are great for understanding cumulative or weekly membership – who qualified for this campaign? The overview also provides an Email Performance tab displaying data for any and all emails sent from this campaign. Keep in mind this is restricted to email data from members who qualified for this campaign. If you are using the emails elsewhere, you’ll need an Email Performance Report.

  • Program Overview Tabs

Similar to the Campaign Overview, Program tabs summarize membership and success for the Program. At a glance, you’ll know total members, who is a net new lead because of this campaign, and more. You can also click on Members to take actions on the leads.

  • Engagement Overviews

There are several options here. You can use the View > Dashboard menu to switch between the regular Overview, Engagement, and Membership tabs. The Engagement panel displays the best performing content and current status of members through the Streams.

  • Email Send Program Overviews

You also can use the Dashboard menu to switch between data panels. Remember that the Email Send program allows you to do AB testing, so this is an important view if you are running tests.

  • Smart Lists (Best for cross tabs)

People think of Analytics and then ignore the Smart Lists. Smart Lists may be your best friend for data reporting when you need accurate lead counts. Because of the limitations of the Analytics package, Smart Lists are usually the fastest way to develop counts or even time series if you are patient.

  • Static Lists and Segmentations

Again, a quick summary of leads in this list.

  • Landing Page Summaries

If you are running any AB tests, use the Landing Page Group summary. Each page has a default conversion report for the past 30 days (adjustable). If you need overall data or multiple pages, see the Landing Page Report.

Table of Report Features

I noticed Marketo didn’t have a nice table describing the options on each report. Here is one I created to make selecting a report faster:

Marketo Report Feature Table

Constraining Reports to Achieve the Cross Tab

A lot of new users ask about creating cross-tabs or pivot tables. The Short Answer is you don’t without RCA or Excel.

A better answer is to use Drill Down, except that this only works in “Leads by” reports

  • Lead Performance
  • Leads by Month
  • Leads by Revenue Stage
  • Leads by Source

When you create a Lead Report and then select a row to Drill Down on, you are asking Marketo to create a new Report with a specific Time Range and then Smart List. A new report is created and you can then save it.

Marketo Drill Down Report

It follows that you can use Smart Lists on the reports that offer this option to achieve the same result as Drill Down. Smart Lists constrain and cross tab the report without using a pivot table.

You can also achieve a similar result with Custom Columns. The column is simply based on a Smart List that previously exists outside of the report. It says “Of the leads who qualified for this report, how many of them are also in this smart list?”

First, go to the Setup tab of your Lead Report.

Marketo Custom Column Dialog

Marketo Custom Column Examples

Wow. That’s powerful.

A Word About Program Costs, Tags, and Revenue Cycle Analytics

If you aren’t filling in your Program Costs or using Program Tags, then you might be setting yourself up for a big RCA failure. Even if you don’t have RCA now, you could in the future. If you aren’t using Program Costs now, then when you turn on RCA, a lot of the tools will tell you nothing useful until you start putting in those Program Costs.

Program Tags are setup in Admin > Channels. These aren’t required, but you can make use of them to segment your Programs by Region, Marketer, etc. Worth a look.

MRG is now on Facebook – follow me for more tips and special offers.

The Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Analytics Chapter

Need more tips? This is now free for everyone:

How to Use Marketo Analytics from Josh Hill

Presentation to the Netherlands Marketo User Group (Jan 21, 2014):

Marketo Reporting with Marketo User Group Netherlands – Jan 21 2014 from Josh Hill

Filed Under: Marketo User Guide

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