Understand why duplicates occur in Marketo Engage Database

Transcript

So, it might sound weird, but the best way to handle or avoid duplicates in your system is to prevent them in the first place. Data enters MarketoEngage in many ways, from list uploads, form fills, your CRM sync, API, etc. Each way will interact with the person record in a different way. For example, the list upload will update the most recently updated person record, and with the CRM sync it will update the first person ever created in Marketo. So it just depends. With non-intentional duplicates, they may enter your system in multiple ways. One of them, and the most common, is human error, unfortunately. Whenever people enter data into your workflow, there’s the option for that. For example, if you have a native connection with your Salesforce CRM or Microsoft Dynamics, those connectors will automatically sync data into MarketoEngage, period. If you have a manual system of adding those data into the CRM, then you’ll have the possibility of someone adding a duplicate record because that person didn’t know how or didn’t realize that that lead already was added under a different piece of information or a different email, for example. This can also happen if someone added a record directly into MarketoEngage. In any case, that duplicate will be created into MarketoEngage and will not be checked because Marketo treats the CRM as the source of truth and will allow a duplicate to just be created. If you say so, you got it, boss. Another way a duplicate could be added to your system is when the instance was first synchronized with the CRM. For example, if your data was not cleaned before you initialized, then that unclean data will be brought straight into MarketoEngage and Marketo will again say you’re the boss. Another way is that you already have data into your system. For example, you might be transitioning from a different MAP HubSpot and you want to bring that historical data into MarketoEngage. Marketo will just say whatever data is coming in from the CRM is going to happen. It’s not going to check for possible duplicates that already exist because, again, the source of truth is the source of truth. So when you’re looking at trying to do that, make sure that you put all of the data from the CRM in first and then Marketo will understand that is the data that I need to check against. There are other possible ways for duplicates to enter your system, like a bot spamming attack. One client I had, they had an attack against all of the forms trying to bring down their system and they were able to figure out a way to script so many form fills so quickly that even though they were able to bring data in through the API, the REST API on a form fill, they were still able to create bogus records with Humphrey Bogard and Batman inside of their system. Clearly not necessary, clearly junk information, but there are other ways that it can come into your system. Or an instanced setup error can cause additional duplicates. For example, when you bring in historical data from another map and you try to bring in your CRM data, those pieces will not dedupe against each other. Another reason could be when you are trying to have a custom integration and you are wanting to update your record that signifies the deduplication ID. If you change that, you need to do that everywhere inside of Marketo. So if you haven’t gone through and found every single piece where that information needs to be updated, you run the risk of bringing duplicates into your system. Simplifying that further, anytime you touch your intake in any way, you run the risk of possibly corrupting your data.