Knowing Your Marketo Fields

A healthy database is the key to all your marketing initiatives, planning and execution. Until you know what fields are available and how to use them, you can't make the most of Marketo. In this post, I explain the different categories, types and limitations of fields available in a Marketo database.

Types of Fields

1. Marketo Standard fields: come out of the box with a new Marketo instance.
2. System Managed fields: non-editable standard fields managed by the Marketo back-end.
3. Custom fields: create these directly in Marketo when standard fields don't fit.
4. Fields Synced from CRM: created as a result of the CRM (SFDC) sync.

Field Data Types

A data type is a particular kind of data item, defined by the values it can take or the operations performed on it. Marketo's data types include: Datetime, Email, Float, Integer, Formula, Percent, URL, Phone, Textarea, String, Score, Boolean (previously Checkbox), Currency, Date, and Reference.

Data type limitations

• Boolean: only "true"/"false" (stored as 1 or 0).
• Float: decimals up to the hundredths place; rounds to the nearest hundredth; max value 10,000,000,000.
• Integer: between -2,147,483,647 and 2,147,483,647.
• String: letters, numbers and special characters; limit 255 characters.
• Text Area: limit 65,535 characters.
• Date: formatted "MM/DD/YYYY"; Datetime: "MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS".
• Email: must be a properly formatted email; URL: "http://" auto-appended if missing.

Knowing these categories, types and limits helps you keep a clean, well-understood Marketo schema as your instance grows.