On 21 February 2019, Safari announced in their release update that they would cap the duration all persistent client-side cookies can stay in your browser. These are non-session cookies created via Javascript. Soon after this announcement, other major browsers like Chrome and Firefox followed. The update limited a lot of opportunities within Marketo Engage's use cases.
Early January of this year however, they announced a work-around that increases both usability and functionality.
What happened? How did this affect Marketo users?
Marketo Engage's Munchkin code uses these kinds of cookies to track visitors. A visitor who lands on one of your webpages for the first time will be tracked as an anonymous person record. Gathering lead score, interest, ... all (relevant) subsequent web activity on that browser will be tracked towards that cookie. A visitor can be associated with or turn into a known record or lead through:
- Filling out a Marketo Engage form
- Visiting a Munchkin-tracked page through a tracked email link
- Going through a custom application that associates the lead through an API call
However, after 7 days, the Munchkin cookie will be wiped and you would have to re-associate the visitor, requiring tedious and user-unfriendly workarounds in several important situations like preference centers, web personalisation and more.
The solution is finally near!
The team working on Marketo Engage hasn't been idle though. They will implement a new web service to allow Munchkin cookies to be set in a different way, so they can bypass the 7-day expiration.
This means less tediousness and a better user experience for marketers and customers alike!
A few examples of cases where the experience will improve:
- Where dynamic content and web personalisation now only work for the first 7 days after the lead goes through one of the channels mentioned earlier, with the workaround you will be able to see the personalised content until you wipe the cookies yourself.
- Landing pages that live organically on the web will be able to use form pre-filling and progressive profiling. Great for events and webinar subscriptions!
- Lead Scores will be more accurate because the lead can be tracked properly, which means better, more accurate nurture streams, Marketing Qualified Leads and Sales Qualified Leads.
So... when?
With the January 2020 platform release, Marketo Engage users who have opted in to the Munchkin beta will begin to receive roll-outs of the new web service. After all of the beta-users have received the solution, the roll-out to the rest of the Marketo Engage users will begin mid-to-late February.
By the end of March 2020 all users can expect to have the solution ready to go.
In case you have a question related to this topic or anything else Marketo Engage or marketing automation in general, our chatbot Fabio is there for you! You can find him in the bottom right corner of this page.
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