Demystifying Munchkin: The Heart of Marketo Tracking
Today, let’s go back to the basics and understand the fundamentals of Munchkin! Munchkin, a crucial element in Marketo's arsenal, is often seen as a mere black-box tracking mechanism by most. But today, let's dive deep into the core of Munchkin to uncover its inner workings.
The Munchkin cookie ('_mkto_trk' cookie) is the linchpin of Marketo's tracking system. It's created on the client side and is responsible for tracking a visitor's (known or anonymous) interactions with marketing content. Importantly, it's crucial to note that this cookie doesn't contain any lead information, nor does it store encrypted data.
The Token's Role
Munchkin cookie (_mkto_trk) value has a token component in it. This token is the key to associating a person's record with their interactions on your website. Following are different ways an anonymous record could get associated with a known record in Marketo:
Visitor Clicks on a Tracked Link: The person visits a Munchkin-tracked page with a
mkt_tokparameter in the query string from a tracked Marketo email link.Form Submission: The visitor submits a Marketo form.
SyncLead or Associate Lead Call: A SOAP syncLead or REST Associate Lead call is made to connect the Munchkin cookie with the person record via its ID (lead ID) in Marketo.
The only part of the Munchkin cookie that matters for associating it with a person's record is the token. The rest of the cookie value serves to determine the Marketo instance that receives new Munchkin events.
Here's an example of the Munchkin tracking code:
id: 561–HYG–937&token: _mch–marketo.com–1374552656411–90718The "id" contains the Munchkin ID of the instance, and the "token" is what's used to link the interaction to a specific lead.
Multiple Tokens and Deletion
It's worth noting that a single person can have more than one Munchkin token associated with their record. This can happen when the person interacts with your marketing assets across multiple devices or browsers. In such cases, Marketo logs activity data from all the sources where the Munchkin token is associated with the person record.
However, if the token (i.e., the Munchkin cookie) is deleted, Marketo will generate a new tracking cookie upon page reload. This new cookie will not be associated with the person's record unless they complete the actions mentioned earlier, such as submitting a Marketo form.
Go forth with confidence, armed with the wisdom of Munchkin. If you’re more curious, we already have Munchkin-related articles posted on Purple Me Up (just search Munchkin on the homepage)!
Happy Marketo’ing! 💜