Marketo’s October 2023 releases: A manager’s guide

Marketo’s October releases are all improvements to existing features. Updates include improved report filtering, the ability to write Excel-style formulas in Adobe’s I/O Runtime and expanded features available with Marketo Engage’s Interactive Webinars. 

In addition to the bevy of updates Adobe continues to make to Marketo functions, it sunsetted two apps, Marketo Events and Marketo Moments. 

Modern UX report modals offer increased filtering to address common pain points

Marketo Engage’s report assets were updated to follow the Modern UX experience in early 2023. However, user feedback surfaced common complaints. Adobe is now re-rolling out the Modern UX experience for all report types, aiming to address pain points such as:

• Search capabilities to locate appropriate programs or folders that will not be cleared when navigating through options.
• An accurate representation of how many assets will be shown when the report is generated.
• Accessibility improvements with UI color contrast and removal of the “Show more” button.

Why we care. These enhancements enable users to generate reports that drill down into the data they need most. The updated UI experience simplifies the generation of complex reports.

Interactive Webinars: A viable alternative to big-name webinar providers

Adobe continues to iterate on Interactive Webinars, which already comes with a host of features encouraging users to set up webinars directly through Marketo Engage versus outside third parties. As of this October release, Adobe has developed the ability to add external co-hosts who do not need a Marketo Engage user account to co-host webinars. 

Additionally, Engage users now have access to the webinar recording and can download the .mp4 or share a direct link to the recording with anybody — regardless of whether the person attended the webinar or has a user account. 

Why we care. Webinars are an integral part of many organizations’ demand generation and educational activities. The ability to set up, market, run and then download or share the webinar recording all in one platform can save time and money. 

Adobe I/O Runtime offers a new open-source service to write formulas in Smart Campaigns

Adobe rolled out this new feature, which allows users to deploy Compute Flow to their Runtime framework. This creates a new Marketo Engage Formula field visible to all users who build Smart Campaigns. The Formula field supports Excel-style formulas and all functions available to FormulaJS. 

However, lookup or column-related functions are not yet available. Even with these limitations, if a user is used to writing formulas in Excel or Google Sheets, they will feel right at home with their ability to perform functions, like rounding up number fields, measuring the amount of time a person spends in a Lifecycle stage or take random samples to the next level by evenly distributing person records to a pool of sales owners.

Why we care. If your team utilizes I/O Runtime, you can now develop complex formulas that influence flow steps within Smart Campaigns. This process is not possible within the Marketo Engage UI by default. While there is a learning curve to implementing this tool, its benefits may outweigh the cost for teams that are more comfortable with spreadsheets than they are with Marketo Engage’s native UI.

Marketo Events and Moments discontinued

Due to low adoption, the Marketo Events and Moments apps were removed from all app stores on October 2. Apps currently installed on mobile devices may still be used but won’t be supported, so there will be no updates or bug fixes. 

If your team uses Adobe Identity to authenticate Marketo Engage, you will not be able to sign into these apps as Adobe ID is not supported.

Why we care. Since Adobe claims they have no plans to offer replacements, now is the time to search for a partner to fill in the gaps that Events and Moments may have caused within your organization. 

View the complete set of October 2023 Marketo Release Notes.

Marketo Release Notes is presented through a partnership between MarTech and MERGE’s marketing operations consultancy.