Tag Manager Snippets to Collect User IDs and Add to Marketo Forms
In a world where personalization and data-driven marketing reign supreme, businesses must find innovative ways to bridge the gap between anonymous website visitors and actionable insights. A key component of this strategy involves capturing unique user identifiers and integrating them into marketing tools like Marketo.
Marketo forms are a powerful tool for lead generation, and enhancing them with user identifiers like Bizible Visitor ID, Google Analytics User ID, Google Analytics Session ID, and Mixpanel Device ID can significantly improve your marketing automation and analytics capabilities. This guide will explore the benefits of implementing such solutions, the technical steps to achieve this, and best practices for ensuring success.
Why Collect User IDs for Marketo Forms
User IDs play a pivotal role in modern marketing by serving as unique keys to connect user activities across devices, sessions, and touchpoints. When integrated with Marketo forms, these identifiers unlock significant advantages that directly enhance marketing effectiveness and ROI. Here’s why collecting user IDs is essential and how it benefits your marketing strategy:
1. Accurate Lead Attribution Across Multiple Touchpoints
Proper user ID tracking allows marketers to piece together the entire journey a prospect takes before converting. For instance, imagine a prospect who first visits your website via a LinkedIn ad on their mobile device, returns later via an organic search on their desktop, and finally converts through a retargeting ad. Without robust user ID tracking, these touchpoints would appear as separate, unrelated visits. By capturing identifiers such as Google Analytics User ID or Mixpanel Device ID, you can attribute conversions to the right channels, improving campaign performance analysis and budget allocation.
2. Connecting Pre-Form Submission Behaviour to Leads
Marketo forms often mark the first identifiable interaction with a prospect. However, prospects engage with your website long before submitting a form. Advanced user tracking bridges this gap by associating pre-form behaviours, like viewing pricing pages or downloading technical documentation, with the lead record. This context empowers sales teams to tailor their approach based on a prospect’s interests and intent, increasing the likelihood of conversion. For example, a lead who spends significant time on your FAQ and technical resources pages may require a different follow-up strategy compared to someone who downloads a case study and browses your pricing.
3. Improved Lead Scoring Accuracy
Lead scoring is most effective when it accounts for a complete picture of user interactions. By integrating data from user IDs, such as Google Analytics Session ID or Bizible Visitor ID, organisations can build more sophisticated lead scoring models. These models consider interactions across various touchpoints, allowing marketing and sales teams to prioritise leads more effectively. For instance, a prospect who views several high-value pages and returns multiple times might score higher than someone who submits a form after a single visit.
4. Enhanced Understanding of the Customer Journey
Having a comprehensive view of the customer journey allows marketers to optimize content and channels for maximum impact. With user IDs, you can identify how different segments interact with your digital properties before converting. This insight helps in making data-driven decisions about:
- Which channels to prioritise (e.g., organic, paid, or referral traffic).
- Which content types (e.g., blogs, videos, or whitepapers) resonate most with your audience.
- How to refine the user experience to drive conversions.
For example, you might discover that high-value leads tend to engage with webinars early in their journey, prompting you to invest more in this format.
5. Personalisation Opportunities
With user IDs, you can offer a more personalised experience across touchpoints. Imagine dynamically adjusting your forms based on the user’s previous behaviour, such as pre-filling fields or showing tailored questions. Additionally, user behaviour insights can feed into personalised nurture streams, ensuring prospects receive content relevant to their interests and stage in the buying cycle.
Personalisation can also extend to other marketing efforts, such as:
- Targeted email campaigns.
- Dynamic website content recommendations.
- Tailored product offers based on browsing behaviour.
6. Data Consistency Across Platforms
User IDs provide a unified way to track individuals across various tools, such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Bizible. This consistency ensures that all platforms reflect accurate data, reducing discrepancies and simplifying reporting.
7. Better Retargeting Opportunities
Captured user IDs can be synced with CRM or advertising platforms for precise retargeting. This allows you to re-engage leads who didn’t convert by showing them highly relevant ads based on their behaviour. For instance, a prospect who abandoned a contact form after visiting your pricing page can be retargeted with an ad highlighting a free consultation offer.
How It Works
Marketo forms allow hidden fields to be populated dynamically. These fields are perfect for capturing user IDs, which can then flow into your marketing automation workflows for segmentation, reporting, and retargeting. Google Tag Manager (GTM) serves as the intermediary, extracting these IDs from cookies or other sources and pushing them into the Marketo form fields.
In the given case study, the cookie IDs to be captured include Bizible Visitor ID, Google Analytics User ID (_ga), Google Analytics Session ID (_ga_SESSION), and Mixpanel Device ID.
Step-by-Step Implementation Guide
1. Identify the User IDs to Capture
To get started, determine which user identifiers are relevant for your marketing goals. Here’s a breakdown:
- Bizible Visitor ID: Used for multi-touch attribution. This ID is stored in a browser cookie and helps track user interactions across touchpoints.
- Google Analytics User ID (_ga): A unique ID that links a user across sessions and devices, useful for long-term tracking.
- Google Analytics Session ID (_ga_SESSION): Represents a single session, helping attribute user actions to a specific visit.
- Mixpanel Device ID: Tracks individual devices, ideal for user behaviour analysis.
Each of these identifiers provides unique value in terms of analytics, tracking, and personalisation.
2. Add Hidden Fields to Marketo Forms
In Marketo, create hidden fields for each user ID. These fields will be dynamically populated with the values extracted via GTM.
To add a hidden field:
- Navigate to the form editor in Marketo.
- Add a new field and set its type to “Hidden.”
- Name the field appropriately (e.g., bizible_visitor, ga_user, ga_session, mixpanel_device).
These fields will store the IDs, ensuring they are captured during form submission.
Alternative Option: Dynamic Hidden Field Creation
This step is optional and may not be feasible if you manage a large number of forms. Manually adding hidden fields to every form can become time-consuming and inefficient. However, with the help of custom JavaScript, it is possible to dynamically add hidden fields to Marketo forms at runtime. This method automates the process, reducing manual effort while still ensuring the necessary fields are in place to capture user IDs. This approach is particularly useful for organisations with many forms or frequently updated form requirements.
Below is the example script that has been used in the case study to dynamically add hidden fields to Marketo forms:
3. Configure GTM Variables
To capture user IDs, you’ll need to extract them from browser cookies or other data sources. GTM variables are perfect for this task. Here’s how you can create them:
JavaScript Variable for Bizible Visitor ID(bizible_Visitor):
JavaScript Variable for Google Analytics User Id (ga_User):
JavaScript Variable for Google Analytics Session (ga_SESSION):
JavaScript Variable for Mixpanel device ID (mixpanel_device):
4. Create GTM Tags
Once the variables are set up, create a Custom HTML Tag to push the extracted IDs to the Marketo form. Here’s an example:
This tag ensures that the extracted IDs are available for Marketo forms during submission.
5. Trigger Tag on Form Submission
To ensure that user identifiers are captured and pushed to the Marketo form fields only after user consent has been verified, we implemented a custom approach. This involves creating a tag in GTM called “HTML – Read Analytics Cookies with Consent” that generates the cookieDataUpdated event. The tag ensures compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA by dynamically reading analytics cookies only after consent is granted.
Creating the “HTML – Read Analytics Cookies with Consent” Tag
- Navigate to GTM Tags: Open your GTM container and click on Tags > New.
- Select Tag Type: Choose Custom HTML.
Enter HTML Code: Add a script that reads analytics cookies only after verifying user consent. Here’s an example:
6. Debug and Test
Before publishing your changes:
- Use GTM’s Preview mode to ensure the data layer is updated with the correct values.
- Verify that the hidden fields in Marketo forms are populated with the expected IDs.
- Submit test forms to confirm that the data flows into Marketo without issues.
Best Practices for Implementation
1. Prioritize Compliance
Always respect user privacy and comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Use consent management tools like OneTrust to ensure users agree to the collection of data.
2. Monitor Cookie Updates
Certain cookies, such as those set by Google Analytics or Mixpanel, may update dynamically. Use GTM events like cookieDataUpdated or OneTrustGroupsUpdated to capture changes.
3. Test Across Devices and Browsers
Ensure compatibility across different browsers and devices. Pay special attention to cookie handling in environments like Safari, where restrictions may apply.
4. Maintain Documentation
Document your GTM setup, including variable names, tag configurations, and triggers. This will make troubleshooting and updates easier.
Benefits of Using GTM for Marketo Forms
- Streamlined Workflow: Automating the process of populating form fields saves time and reduces errors.
- Better Insights: Capturing user IDs allows for more granular analysis and better decision-making.
- Enhanced Attribution: With IDs like GA Session and Bizible Visitor, you can track user journeys more accurately.
- Seamless Integration: GTM acts as the bridge between your website, Marketo, and analytics platforms, creating a unified data ecosystem.
Conclusion
This case study highlights how Google Tag Manager can be effectively used to capture user IDs and integrate them into Marketo forms, enabling businesses to streamline their data collection and enhance their marketing efforts. By implementing this solution, you can link anonymous user behaviors with identifiable lead records, providing deeper insights for personalization, campaign attribution, and sales alignment.
The approach outlined in this guide not only ensures compliance with privacy regulations but also establishes a scalable and efficient process for capturing user data. Whether it’s improving lead scoring accuracy, optimizing retargeting strategies, or gaining a better understanding of the customer journey, the benefits of this implementation are far-reaching.
By leveraging tools like GTM, analytics cookies, and custom JavaScript, organizations can create a seamless bridge between web analytics and marketing automation systems, empowering teams to make data-driven decisions. This case study serves as a practical example of how thoughtful integration can transform marketing operations and drive meaningful results.
For tailored support or to learn how you can implement similar strategies for your business, contact the Hive Digital Team today. Let us help you unlock the potential of your marketing data.
