Certain Signal Connector: Marketo Native Integration Guide

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Keywords: Certain Signal Connector, Marketo, OAuth2

Document ID: https://platform-support.certain.com/hc/en-us/articles/42105553613847#split1

This document is a guide to using Certain Signal Connector to integrate with Marketo.

Signal Connector also integrates with other products, including Eloqua and Salesforce via native integrations and others via Webhooks or Advanced Webhooks – see separate guides. This product is not included with Certain Platform by default, but if you’re interested in it after reading this document, please email features@certain.com, including your account name.

Contents

What is Signal Connector? How does it work?

Certain Signal Connector processes data from your events in real time, passing it from Certain Platform to your instance of Marketo.

This real-time integration empowers sales and marketing teams to take intelligent, prompt action on the right event data.

Almost everything is set up at the account level.

Signal Connector processes information from the events in your account.

For event-level information this is based on the custom tags you attach to data such as Registration Statuses, as explained in this guide.

Important: Signal Connector processes outbound information, processing information from Certain and sending it to Marketo.

Prerequisites

Data-Flow Considerations

Marketo Credentials

For you to set up a Connection in Signal Connector (see page 5) you’ll need to know the URL you use to log in to Marketo.

Your Marketo administrator will need to create an OAuth2 app in Marketo.

They then need to provide you with the following details.

They need to create the OAuth2 app in Marketo by going to:

Overview of Setup Steps

Step See Page On Certain Platform

1. Add tags in the account 3

2. Apply those tags 3 & 4

In Certain Signal Connector

1. Add a Connection 6

2. Configure a Flow 7

Setting up Tags

What Are Tags?

Tags are a way of identifying event-level data using labels you set at the account level.

You can then apply those tags to generic items in events, especially custom registration statuses and custom registration properties for use in Certain Signal Connector.

Tags can be used for other purposes as well, but this guide doesn’t cover that.

For example, your events may have several custom registration statuses in addition to the standard ones.

You can apply the same Tags to more than one status.

You might choose to give each status its own Tag.

When you set up a Flow in Certain Signal Connector to send data to Marketo when an attendee’s Registration Status changes, you specify the tags applicable to those statuses, not the statuses themselves.

That means the flow can apply to any event in your account.

Setting Tags Up for an Account

1. As an Administrator, go to Account Settings > Management >Tags.

2. Enter a Name and a Label for the tag.

3. Select the Object(s) to which the tag can apply; for example, ‘Registration Statuses” and/or “Custom Registration Properties’.

4. Click Add.

5. Repeat as required for as many tags as you need.

6. Important: Add enough tags to apply to all of the following that you will use in flows (see page 9):

1. Registration Statuses

2. Custom Registration Properties

7. Also add enough tags to apply to all of the following that you will use in filters for flows (see page 9):

1. Attendee Types

2. Events

Applying Tags in an Account

In each event from which you want information to flow through Certain Signal Connector, apply tags to the relevant information.

The relevant information includes Registration Statuses and Registration Custom Properties.

You can also tag Attendee Types and Events, so that you can filter registration records by attendee type or event: see Filters on page 9.

Default Registration Statuses apply to all events, so an Administrator applies the tags at the account level.

1. Go to Account Settings > Management > Registration Statuses. 2. or more Tags for each status.

Important: Even if you don’t use any standard registration statuses, best practice is to set up tags for all of them.

It’s essential to tag at least the ‘ New ’ status.

Certain uses “behind the scenes” when first processing each registration.

Applying Tags in an Event

Custom Registration Statuses (Essential)

1. In each event, go to Plan > Event Setup > Custom Statuses

2. Select at least one tag for each status.

Custom Registration Properties (Optional)

If any of the Flows you configure in Signal Connector (see page 7) will activate for Custom Reg Properties:

1. In each event, go to Plan > Configure.

2. Under Custom Registration Properties, select at least one tag for each custom reg property in the event.

Standard Registration Properties (Automatic)

These tags are set up for you automatically, with names identical to the properties themselves.

You only see them in Signal Connector, where, just like Custom Reg Properties, you can activate Flows for them (see page 9).

There’s nothing to edit on Certain Platform.

Attendee Types (Optional– for use with filters – see page 9.)

1. In each event, go to Plan > Event Setup > Attendee Types.

2. or more Tags for each attendee type on which you may wish to filter registrations.

Events (Optional– for use with filters – see page 9.)

1. In each event you may wish to include in a filter (for example to ensure that only registrations for that event are passed to Marketo):

2. Go to Plan > Event Setup > Details.

3. or more Tags for the event.

Registration Questions (Optional– for use with mapping Certain fields to Marketo fields – see page 11.)

1. In each event in which you use registration question to capture data from attendees, and wish to pass those answers and/or questions to Marketo:

2. Go to Plan > Event Setup > Questions.

3. Select just one Tag for each question.

Selecting more could result in duplicate data in Marketo.

Opening Certain Signal Connector

When Signal Connector is activated for your account, the Account Settings > Implementation menu—available to Administrators—includes an extra option:

Click that link to open Certain Signal Connector in a separate window.

Signal Connector runs separately from Certain Platform.

Note: To return from Signal Connector to Certain Platform at any time, click

Setting up a Connection

What are Connections?

A Connection in Certain Signal Connector specifies how to connect to your instance of Marketo – your Target application.

You can have multiple connections, perhaps to Marketo and another application.

Other target applications are covered in separate guides.

Each Flow (see page 7) requires a Connection.

Multiple flows may use the same Connection.

You can set up a Connection before configuring your first Flow.

You also have the option to do so while configuring a Flow.

This guide assumes you’re setting up the Connection first.

Adding a Connection

As an Administrator you may set up one or more Connections for your account.

You need only do so once.

You can then use them in the Flows you set up (see page 7, below).

1. Go to Account Settings > Implementation > Signal Connector Real-Time Data Integration.

2. As noted above, Certain Signal Connector opens in a separate window.

3. Click Connections in the left navigation panel.

4. Click Add A Connection in the Connection List page that opens.

5. Enter the details in the Connection Setup screen that opens.

6. Click Save & Test.

7. If the test is successful, click Close.

If it’s not, check that the values in step 5 are all correct.

Setting Up Flows

What is a “Flow”?

A flow is a configuration to manage the flow of data from Certain to Marketo.

You create Flows from the landing page in Signal Connector: see Configuring a Flow, below.

You may configure several flows for an account.

Those flows might all use the same Connection.

You only need to configure a flow once at the account level.

When a flow is complete, it will start picking up data for each event in that account within about a minute.

The minute’s delay is because Signal Connector runs independently from Certain Platform.

So if you edit a flow then the same slight delay occurs before that change takes effect in the processing of the registrations.

The Flow List

As an Administrator in Certain Platform, go to:

Certain Signal Connector opens in a separate browser window.

The main screen in Signal Connector is the Flow List.

The Status column shows whether a flow is completely set up.

The Active column shows whether the flow is running.

Click the toggle button to change a flow from Active to Inactive, or vice versa.

Configuring a Flow

Click ADD A FLOW to start setting up a new flow.

The configuration consists of:

‘Live’ or ‘Test’

The Live toggle switch determines whether your Flow is Live or Test.

A Live Flow will pick up all live registrations in live events.

It will ignore test registrations, even in live events.

A Test Flow picks up all test registrations.

That includes all registrations in test events.

That includes any registrations marked as ‘Test’ in live events.

Best Practice: Set a new flow up as Test—and test it—before setting it to Live.

Flow Data Source

Next, specify the Source of data for the flow.

Optionally apply Filters.

The Source of a Flow is what the Flow will watch for in your data in Certain.

The Flow will activate based on that data.

For example, it might watch for any change to a Registration Status.

It might activate if an attendee’s status has changed to a status tagged as ‘Registered’.

Available sources

You set a flow to watch for any one of the following:

Note: You can always save an incomplete Flow and complete it at a later date.

As soon as a Flow is complete, it will start picking up data after the usual minute’s delay.

Activate for …

Choose what the flow should activate for by selecting one or more tags in each appropriate object’s drop-down list.

You can activate for tags applied to Registration Statuses and/or Registration Properties.

The latter includes both Standard Reg Properties and Custom Reg Properties.

Other options may be added depending on what the Flow is watching for:

The tags available for selection are those set up for that object; see page 3.

For example, the tags for Registration Statuses include Registration Status tags, which you can apply to:

Flow Filters

You can filter the data going into a flow by selecting fields in these filter types:

The flow will only include a registration if it meets the rule(s) specified in the filter.

Note: For custom fields you can only select “enumerated” questions.

Those questions are those that have pre-configured answers.

Those question types are:

Flow Destination

Select Marketo from the integrations set up by Certain for your account.

Setting up a Destination

1. Give the Destination a name of your choice.

2. Select the Connection to use.

3. Select the action for this connection from those listed as available:

Your choice of action determines the other configuration options.

Mappings

The Available Mappings option is available for most actions, including ‘Trigger Campaign’, ‘Create/Update Lead’, and ‘Form Post’.

A mapping specifies how each target field in Marketo matches a source field in Certain.

Select a mapping from the drop-down list.

If nobody has set any mappings up yet, or you need something other than one of the existing mappings, click New Mapping to add one.

1. Give the mapping a name of your choice.

2. The left column lists Marketo fields: the “target” fields.

3. By default, only the First Name, Last Name and Email fields are mandatory.

4. Click the x after a source field label to delete that field.

For example, for target field ‘Title’ you could choose source fields ‘Position’ and ‘Organization’, separated by two spaces and “@”:

The Certain fields you can choose from as the source of the data going into the target fields in Marketo include:

1. In the second column you can select a transformation option for each field.

2. The transformation options are:

3. You can select more than one transformation for a field.

4. At the end of the list you can Add Target Fields and select source fields for them.

To delete a field from the mapping, click DELETE at the end of that row.

If you’ve selected a mapping then two other buttons are enabled:

A third button is also enabled:

Refresh Target Fields Use this if you don’t find a target field you were expecting in an existing mapping. Technical note: This is likely for new fields added since a connection was created.

A refresh updates the cached mappings.

Campaign ID

The Campaign ID is required if your action is ‘Trigger Campaign’ or ‘Create/Update Lead’.

There are two options:

Note: If you specify both an event question and an account-level campaign ID, then the event question-based campaign will take precedence.

Form

If the selected action is Form Post, then complete the following:

Metrics Dashboard

To see the statistics available in Signal Connector, click Metrics in the left navigation panel when looking at flows.

The choices in the new navigation panel you then see for Metrics depend on the flows and their targets.

The first one will be Insights.

Other links will be, for example:

Those each work in the same way as Account Insights.

Account Insights

Select whether you want to see Live Flows or Test Flows.

Select the period for which you want to see the data.

For example:

There are three tabs:

Summary tab

This is the default tab on the Insights page.

You can click the number to drill down further.

For example, click Unique Registrations to see the registrations processed by any flows in your selected time frame.

You can filter or for records when you’ve drilled down.

For example, filter on an Event Code to see only the registrations in that event.

The figures listed below are shown for the whole account: all events and registrations.

For each of these you can click the number to drill down to details.

Troubleshooting tab

The second tab on the Insights page shows information you may find useful for troubleshooting.

For example, if some registrations are not processed because a Registration Status isn’t tagged, this gives you the chance to rectify that so that the registrations can be processed on the next retry.

The numbers shown are:

Activity Feed tab

The third tab on the Insights page lists the registrations processed, noting success or failure, Registration Code, Event, Flow, etc.

This is a rolling history, by date.

This is another way to access lower-level data you could see by drilling down in the Summary or Troubleshooting tabs.

The Retry Queue

When an action fails it usually joins the “ Retry Queue ”.

It takes its turn to run again.

Failures that can’t be resolved, such as missing mandatory fields, are exceptions and they don’t join the queue.

An action can be retried up to three times, after which it does not rejoin the queue.

To see the Retry Queue, click Retry in the left navigation panel on the Flows page.

Causes of failure include ones under your control as a planner:

Technical ones include:

Where you can resolve the cause of a failure, that includes:

The action should succeed when retried.

For other failures that don’t resolve themselves, you probably need to contact your administrator or ask Certain for help.

The interval between retries depends on the severity of the reason.

Filtering the Queue

You can filter the records shown in the Retry Queue using three filters:

Submitting to the Queue

When you click an item in the Retry Queue, you see its full details.

If that knowledge is enough for you to solve the problem, you can click Submit to Retry Queue.

That adds the item straight to the front of the queue.

Replaying a Flow

If you change an aspect of a flow while it has been running for some time, such as changing its filters, you may want to replay that flow.

Replay a flow for the same registrations as before.

That is as if the changes had been made earlier.

This is not something that you can do directly.

You can ask Certain to arrange it for you.

You may be able to specify a date range.

You may be able to specify an event.

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