The Case of the Missing Leads: When Static Lists and Partitions Don’t Align
It started with a simple question:
“Why aren’t these leads showing up in my static list anymore?”
I checked the obvious. The list hadn’t been deleted or renamed. The leads still existed in the database. And crucially, there was no “Remove from List” activity in the Activity Log. So where did they go?
This wasn’t just puzzling—it was frustrating. If leads disappear without a trace, it can throw off workflows.
So I started digging deeper.
The Hidden Layer: Workspaces and Partitions
In this Marketo instance, Workspaces and Lead Partitions were being used—great tools for managing visibility and access across regions, teams, or business units. But they also come with complexity.
That’s where I found the root cause.
The static list belonged to a specific workspace. I discovered that the leads, while still in the database, had been moved to a lead partition that this workspace no longer had access to. No permissions, no visibility. As far as that workspace was concerned, the leads didn’t exist anymore—so they vanished from the static list without triggering any removal activity.
Here's How You Can Confirm This in Your Instance
If you ever find yourself in a similar spot, here’s how to troubleshoot it:
Go to
Admin > Workspaces & Partitions.Find the workspace that owns the static list.
Check which partitions are visible to that workspace.
Look up one of the affected leads. On their lead detail page, check which partition they’re currently assigned to.
Compare: If the lead’s partition isn’t among those accessible to the static list’s workspace, that’s your answer.
This experience reinforced a subtle but important truth about Marketo: What a workspace can’t see doesn’t exist—even if it’s right there in the database. There’s no removal activity because the lead was never removed from the system’s perspective; it just became invisible.
So if you're using Workspaces and Partitions, it’s essential to audit regularly:
Which partitions each workspace can access
How leads are being assigned or moved across partitions
Whether static lists and smart campaigns are housed in the right workspace with the right visibility
Final Thought
The more complex your Marketo setup gets, the more critical it is to understand the architecture behind the scenes. Sometimes it’s not a broken campaign or a user error—it’s just a visibility rule doing precisely what it was designed to do.
And that’s how a seemingly “missing” lead turned into a lesson (and today’s newsletter topic :D) in Marketo design.
Happy Marketoíng! 💜