Essential Considerations for Smart List Usage in People Performance Reports

The people performance report in the Marketo Analytics reports suite is fantastic! I love how much detailed and extensive data it can provide. While Marketo mentions that it helps measure database growth over time, I’m sure users utilize it for advanced analytics, troubleshooting, and more. Check out all about it in the product documentation here.

When using smart lists as custom columns in reports, it is crucial for users to consider an important caveat: Marketo doesn’t include the report name in the "Used By" section of the smart list if it is used as a custom column in the report.

It is worth noting that Marketo also doesn’t throw an error when deleting such smart list assets. Users may inadvertently delete smart lists if they mistakenly assume they no longer need those smart lists since they are not referenced anywhere in the “Used By” tab.

For instance, in the given setup, the “Clicked Link in Early Stage Emails” smart list is added as a custom column in the report, but the report does not appear in the “Used By” section of the smart list.

“Clicked Link in Early Stage Emails” smart list added as a custom column in the report

The “Used By” doesn’t show the report

Upon deleting the smart list, the report errors out on refreshing it (snapshot below).

While this might seem like a minor issue, it can disrupt reports and necessitate a significant undertaking to recreate the deleted smart lists and add them back as custom columns in the respective reports.

A while back, I posted an idea in the community to show the People Performance Reports in the “Used By” tab of smart lists if you want to upvote it. :)

Happy Marketo’ing! 💜