Understanding the LinkedIn Lead Gen and Marketo Integration: What You Need to Know?

LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms are a powerful tool for capturing valuable lead information, and when seamlessly integrated with Marketo, they can supercharge your lead management efforts. However, there's a little-known quirk in this integration that can affect how lead data is handled. In this post, we'll dive into this unique scenario and explain why, despite a seemingly flawless integration, some LinkedIn Lead Gen form fills might not get logged in Marketo.

The Integration Setup

Assuming your LinkedIn Lead Gen is correctly configured, and there are no errors in the Admin > Launchpoint, you'd expect that all LinkedIn Lead Gen form fills, whether from new or existing leads, would be smoothly logged in your Marketo instance. For the most part, this is true, but there's an exception that often catches users by surprise.

The Hidden Exception

The exception arises when a lead fills out a LinkedIn Lead Gen form and includes a company name. If the email address of this lead matches the email address of an existing lead record in Marketo, but the company names don't match, Marketo takes an unexpected action: it rejects the incoming lead and does not update the existing lead record's activity history with the LinkedIn form fill data.

In simpler terms, let's say, John Doe, an existing lead in your Marketo database, fills out a LinkedIn Lead Gen form, and he works at Company A. However, his LinkedIn profile lists Company B (or he fills out the form with Company B). In this scenario, Marketo will not record the LinkedIn form filled out by John Doe, leaving you without the valuable information he provided via the form.

Why Does This Happen? You might wonder why Marketo behaves this way. It's a valid question, but unfortunately, there's no immediate solution. Marketo does not have near-term plans to address this anomaly in its integration with LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms.

The reason behind this behavior might be to avoid potential data conflicts and inaccuracies. Marketo prioritizes data quality and consistency, which is why it takes such a cautious approach. It's probably due to the same reason why you can’t update the Company Name for synced records from Marketo.

What Can You Do?

While you can't change how Marketo handles these situations, there are steps you can take to minimize the impact:

1. Educate Your Team: Make sure your marketing and sales teams are aware of this exception so they can better understand the limitations of the integration.

2. Manually Verify Data: For leads with potential discrepancies between their LinkedIn information and Marketo records, consider manually verifying and updating their profiles.

3. Custom Workarounds: Depending on your needs, you may explore custom solutions or integrations to address this issue.

TL;DR: Even with flawless LinkedIn Lead Gen and Marketo integration, there's an exception: If a lead fills out a LinkedIn form with a different company name than what's in Marketo, Marketo rejects the form-fill and doesn't update their activity history. Marketo has no immediate plans to fix this. Be aware, educate your team, and consider manual checks or custom solutions to mitigate this issue.