| What this setup delivers: Marketo remains the system for marketing automation and campaign execution. Propensity receives approved person, account, engagement, campaign, and lifecycle context; it then writes approved audiences, scores, recommendations, and status updates back to Marketo. |
1. Confirm scope, owners, and the source of truth
Before connecting, jointly define which records and fields travel in each direction. The integration should never overwrite data without a documented owner.
| Area | Primary owner | Direction | Typical purpose |
| Person profile and consent | Marketo | Marketo → Propensity | Identity, email eligibility, lead status, subscription preferences |
| Account and buying-group context | Shared | Both directions | Account fit, account ID, buying-group role and coverage |
| Engagement and campaign activity | Marketo | Marketo → Propensity | Campaign membership, activity, program response, lifecycle context |
| Intent, scoring, recommendations | Propensity | Propensity → Marketo | Account/contact scores, intent, next-best action, suggested message |
| Audience activation | Propensity | Propensity → Marketo | Static-list membership or audience flags for Marketo programs |
| Execution outcomes | Marketo | Marketo → Propensity | Delivered, engaged, converted, unsubscribed, program-status changes |
2. Prerequisites
- A Marketo administrator who can approve the Propensity LaunchPoint/partner connection and manage fields, users, and API permissions.
- A Propensity administrator who can configure the connection, mappings, sync schedules, and activation rules.
- Agreement on the initial population to sync: for example, marketable people, target accounts, selected programs, and the desired history window.
- A data-governance decision for consent, unsubscribe status, deletion requests, and the winner if a shared field changes in both places.
| Partner authentication model: Customers connect through Propensity's Marketo partner application. They should not share an individual user's password. An authorized Marketo administrator completes the connection/approval flow and grants the permissions required for the agreed sync scope. |
3. Connect Marketo to Propensity
- Start the connection in Propensity — Open Settings → Integrations → Marketo and select Connect Marketo.
- Sign in as a Marketo administrator — Complete the Propensity partner authorization or LaunchPoint approval flow for the intended subscription.
- Approve the requested access — Review requested permissions. They should match the agreed scope: people, lists/audiences, programs, campaign activity, and applicable account access.
- Return to Propensity — After authorization, Propensity confirms the subscription and runs a connection test.
- Confirm the environment — Verify that the connected subscription is the intended Marketo production or sandbox instance before enabling writeback.
4. Create and map the Propensity fields in Marketo
Create these Marketo Person custom fields in Admin → Field Management. Use the recommended API names, or document customer-specific API names in Propensity when naming standards require a prefix.
| Display name | Recommended API name | Type | Direction | Purpose |
| Propensity Contact ID | propensityContactId | String | P → M | Stable Propensity person identifier |
| Propensity Account ID | propensityAccountId | String | P → M | Links people to a Propensity account |
| Propensity Workspace ID | propensityWorkspaceId | String | P → M | Identifies the Propensity workspace |
| Propensity Contact Score | propensityContactScore | Number | P → M | Current individual score |
| Propensity Account Score | propensityAccountScore | Number | P → M | Current account-level score |
| Propensity Intent Level | propensityIntentLevel | String | P → M | Current intent classification |
| Propensity Intent Topics | propensityIntentTopics | String | P → M | Relevant topics; define a delimiter |
| Buying Group Role | propensityBuyingGroupRole | String | P → M | Role within buying group |
| Recent Engagement Summary | propensityRecentEngagement | String | P → M | Marketer-readable context |
| Suggested Message | propensitySuggestedMessage | Text Area | P → M | Approved message recommendation |
| Recommendation Generated At | propensityRecommendationGeneratedAt | Datetime | P → M | Recommendation recency |
| Propensity Last Synced At | propensityLastSyncedAt | Datetime | P → M | Operational troubleshooting |
| Important: Do not use email as the long-term Propensity identity key. Propensity Contact ID and Account ID are durable references when email or company names change. Propensity should also retain Marketo’s person ID after the first successful match. |
5. Configure inbound sync: Marketo → Propensity
| Data set | Recommended baseline | Notes |
| People | Email, Marketo person ID, name, title, company, domain, lead status, consent/subscription status, owner, lifecycle fields | Exclude non-marketable people from activation; retain status for governance where permitted. |
| Accounts | Account name, domain, firmographics, CRM/account IDs, account status | Normalize domains before matching accounts in Propensity. |
| Programs and campaigns | Program name/type, channel, membership, program status, cadence | Connects orchestration with Marketo execution. |
| Engagement | Relevant email, form, web, program, and campaign activity | Agree an initial history window; use incremental updates afterward. |
| Lifecycle and routing | Lead status, acquisition program, owner/routing fields, suppression indicators | Keep compliance and operational status owned by Marketo unless agreed otherwise. |
6. Configure outbound sync: Propensity → Marketo
- Map Propensity fields — In Propensity’s Marketo mapping screen, connect each approved value to its Marketo custom field. Do not enable a mapping without a named business owner.
- Set identity and match rules — Match people primarily by Marketo person ID when known; otherwise use email. Match accounts by normalized domain and record Propensity Account ID on related people. Log unmatched or ambiguous records.
- Choose activation output — For audiences, select a dedicated Marketo Static List, approved audience field, or program-membership mechanism. Use predictable names, such as ‘Propensity | High Intent | [Segment]’.
- Set writeback cadence — Use frequent incremental sync for priority audiences and alerts; use scheduled batch sync for broad score and enrichment refreshes.
- Protect Marketo-owned fields — Prevent Propensity from overwriting email consent, unsubscribe status, acquisition data, or other Marketo-owned operational fields.
7. Configure conflict and deletion rules
| Scenario | Recommended rule |
| Shared field changes in both systems | Use the documented source of truth. Do not default to last-write-wins for operational or compliance fields. |
| Person is unsubscribed or suppressed in Marketo | Marketo wins. Propensity must suppress the person from activation and preserve the status in sync logs. |
| Email changes in Marketo | Retain Propensity Contact ID and Marketo person ID; update email as an attribute after validation. |
| Duplicate or ambiguous match | Do not create a new person automatically. Send the record to the integration review queue with candidate matches and reason. |
| Record is deleted or anonymized | Apply the approved retention policy and propagate deletion/suppression instructions according to privacy requirements. |
8. Validate the initial two-way sync
Run the first synchronization with a controlled pilot set before enabling full production volume. Use 10–25 representative people across multiple accounts and lifecycle states.
- Validate Marketo → Propensity — Confirm pilot people and accounts appear once in Propensity with correct Marketo IDs, lifecycle status, consent state, account association, and selected engagement history.
- Validate Propensity → Marketo — Confirm Propensity IDs, scores, intent, buying-group role, and last-synced timestamp appear in intended Marketo fields.
- Validate audience activation — Add a pilot audience in Propensity and confirm the correct Marketo Static List or activation target receives only expected people.
- Validate suppression — Test an unsubscribed or suppressed person. Confirm they do not enter an activation list or receive a newly triggered campaign.
- Validate outcomes return — Trigger or observe a controlled Marketo program-status change, then confirm it returns to Propensity and appears in the account/contact timeline.
- Approve production rollout — Review counts, exceptions, field-level results, and audit logs; then expand the population and enable scheduled writeback.
9. Operate the integration
- Review sync health weekly: last successful run, records created/updated/skipped, API errors, latency, and unmatched records.
- Review activation volumes before launching campaigns; compare audience counts in Propensity and Marketo.
- Reconfirm field mappings when either system changes lifecycle, consent, account, or scoring fields.
- Maintain an exception queue for invalid emails, duplicate matches, missing domains, locked fields, and permission failures.
Customer launch checklist
| Check | Complete |
| Data owners and conflict rules approved | ☐ |
| Propensity partner connection approved by Marketo administrator | ☐ |
| Required Marketo custom fields created and mapped | ☐ |
| Initial inbound scope and history window selected | ☐ |
| Outbound activation destination and naming convention selected | ☐ |
| Pilot records validated in both systems | ☐ |
| Suppression and consent tests passed | ☐ |
| Sync health owner and escalation path assigned | ☐ |
| Production sync approved | ☐ |
Support information to provide if assistance is needed
- Provide the Marketo subscription/environment, time of issue, affected identifiers (Marketo person ID, permitted email, Propensity Contact ID, and Propensity Account ID), sync direction, sync run ID/error message, and a redacted screenshot of the relevant mapping or record state.