Even with a successful integration between Splash and Marketo, it's possible to occasionally encounter sync discrepancies, as you're working with systems that process and store contact data in complex ways.

In this article, we'll walk through the basic troubleshooting steps you can take to understand why you might be seeing discrepancies between the two platforms. We'll also cover some scenarios that may arise, such as:

• My Splash event didn’t create a program in Marketo
• My Splash guests are not syncing to my Marketo Program
• Some of my guest data is not syncing from Splash to my Marketo Program
• My Splash Guest relinked to my Marketo Lead

How does Splash sync data? Should I expect sync delays?

When you configure the integration between Splash and Marketo, four actions and corresponding triggers or frequency settings determine whether the sync action occurs in real-time or batched.

Real-time actions

• Clone Program - Handles cloning Marketo programs to create new Splash events or update an existing Marketo Program.
• Create or Update Leads - Defines when to create and update Marketo leads to match Splash guests. This action is triggered by attendee status changes.

Batch actions

• Sync Lead and Program Member Data from Splash into Marketo - Frequency that Splash information syncs to Marketo. Data can be synced hourly or in 15 or 30-minute intervals.
• Pull Lead and Program Member Data from Marketo into Splash - Frequency that Marketo data pulls into Splash. Data can be pulled hourly or in 15 or 30-minute intervals.

Remember that even real-time actions might not sync immediately every time. If you notice that your data has yet to sync between Splash and Marketo, there could be a slight delay in our API queue. Don't worry – your data is in line and should sync as soon as possible.

We also suggest reviewing our API queue guidelines. For example, your team may have maxed out on your daily API call limit. For more information, see: What will happen if my team reaches our daily API limit?

Additionally, your team should consider potential limits with how much information will be sent to Marketo simultaneously. Please check with your Marketo Admin to discuss other tools that might be taking up a significant amount of Marketo API bandwidth. Marketo's support team may also be able to assist further when it comes to information on concurrency limits.

My Splash event did not create a program in Marketo

Do you already have a program with the same name? If a program exists in your Marketo instance with the same naming convention that Splash is trying to push, then Splash will not create your Marketo program. As a best practice, we recommend adding a unique string, like [event.id], to your program cloning naming convention to ensure you won't run into this.

Do you have multiple Marketo configurations in use? If so, it's possible that based on your configuration setup, Splash intentionally did not create your program. For more information on these scenarios, see: Can I set up multiple Marketo Configurations? 

My Splash guests are not syncing to my Marketo Program

Fortunately, there are a few places to find information to help you debug sync issues with your guests – the event guest list and activity log.

Use the event guest list information to help troubleshoot guest syncing issues

The event guest list provides integration and sync information about each guest to help you pinpoint sync issues. To find the Marketo Lead ID and to learn more about where and when the guest was last updated:

1. From your Splash event, click Guest.
2. On the top right, click Columns and select the Event Columns tab.
3. Search for "Marketo," select the following three columns, and save your changes.
   
   • Marketo Lead Id
   • Marketo Last Update Time
   • Marketo Last Update Source

In your guest list, you should now see the three newly added columns.

You can use the information from these columns to help debug any sync issues.

• Marketo Lead Id - associated Lead ID in Marketo for the Splash guest
• Marketo Last Update Time - the last time this guest was updated through the Marketo integration
• Marketo Last Update Source - whether that guest was last updated in Splash or Marketo
  
  • If the value is Splash, this means that the last update to this guest was made on Splash, and should have been synced via real-time or batch to Marketo.
  • If the value is Marketo, this means that the last update to this guest was made on Marketo and should have been synced via a batch update to Splash.

Use the integration configuration and activity log to help troubleshoot guest syncing issues

One of the troubleshooting tools you have available is the Activity Log, which you can find at the bottom left of your Marketo configuration. This log will display a timestamp of every program clone, guest sync, configuration edit, and Splash event update.

We can use the activity log to learn more details about what’s going on behind the scene. To start, find an example of a guest in your Splash guest list that didn’t sync properly. Then, copy their email address, event ID, and Splash Guest list status.

1. In your Marketo configuration, navigate to the section Program Channel Status Mapping. Is your guest's status mapped here? Remember that Splash will only sync over guests if their statuses are mapped.
   
2. If this is mapped properly, click Activity Log at the bottom left of your configuration for further investigation.
   
3. Open the Activity Log and use the search fields at the top to look up your guest's email address or event ID. You should see an entry for each time Splash has attempted to sync the guest from Splash to Marketo. Each entry will have a date and timestamp representing when the sync was triggered. Look for one nearest to when your guest RSVP’d in Splash.
   
   • For records queued for sending to Marketo, you can see the number of guests and which operation they've been queued for (create or update).
   • For every batch sent to Marketo (segmented by program and status), we log the sent request, which includes the number of leads to be updated, their status to be updated, and the breakdown of the number of successful or skipped records.
     
4. Click into any of these logs to see the request body and response.
   
   • The request body will show guest details (firstName, lastName, email, ID, and any other attributes that might be included in the sync).
   • The response will display the id and response status of each guest in the batch.
     
     Here's an example of the request and response body:
     
     
     
     

      

     
     You will see an Activity Log timestamp for guest data if you are using our batch or real-time sync method to send guest data over to Marketo. You won't be able to see an activity Log timestamp if there is a delay in Splash's API queue, but it should post soon.
     
     

5. Next, click on the log to see the entire payload. You'll notice some familiar data in there - including your event title, guest details, and more. You’ll also see the request body and response. The request body will show guest details (firstName, lastName, email, ID, and any other attributes that might be included in the sync). The response will display the id and response status of each guest in the batch.
   

6. You might also see an error code in the response. To learn more about the API error codes, check out Marketo's API Error Code Documentation. This will give you an idea of what is happening to help you resolve the issue.

Some of my guest's data is not syncing from Splash to my Marketo Program

You may encounter a situation where your guests are syncing, but missing a piece of information, such as "Company Name".

For this situation, you can look at your configuration setup to see if you're mapping the correct field.

In your Marketo integration, navigate to the Sync Leads section of the configuration setup. If a mapping for Company already exists, take note of the field name.

While most Splash forms use the templated "Company" question, it's possible that a user in your organization instead created a custom question with a similar field name, such as "company," "Company Name," or "Organization."

While the question ID is not surfaced in the registration form, the Splash Field Names are case-sensitive and unique in your team's Splash instance. So, if your form uses "Company Name, " you'll want to map "Company Name" in your integration setup.

Remember that Splash will not allow you to change a question's field name once the form is saved. This is to help protect your guest data.

For future events, we recommend standardizing your event program's forms by ensuring that the same questions exist across your Splash theme templates. Here are some helpful resources to accomplish this:

• Can I save my own custom question to a form for use across events?
• Managing the Form Library

My Splash Guest relinked to my Marketo Lead

When a new Splash guest has an existing Marketo Lead or an existing Splash guest’s Lead ID is invalid, when a sync occurs, you will see logs indicating that the guest has been relinked. Fortunately, no action is required and this relinking prevents duplication.

The log will indicate the number of guests relinked. To see the request and response body, click on the log. You can view these logs for Splash guests whose email already exists for a Marketo lead.

The request body displays email, old lead ID (0 indicates new Splash guest), and new lead ID.

Here’s an example of the request and response body showing a guest relink: