Unlocking the Power of Marketo Executable Campaigns

An Executable Campaign follows the familiar structure of its counterparts but with a twist. Instead of being scheduled or activated directly, it patiently awaits its cue. This unique campaign type can only be triggered by another campaign using the Execute Campaign flow step, ensuring a seamless and orchestrated marketing effort.

With the introduction of Executable Campaigns in the May 2021 Adobe Marketo Engage product release, marketers have gained a new tool for orchestrating their automation workflows. While both Executable Campaigns and Campaign Requests involve a parent-child relationship between campaigns, there are crucial distinctions that set them apart.

But, first of all, what is a Campaign Request? Marketo request campaigns serve as callable campaigns within the workflows of other smart campaigns, acting as parent campaigns. They execute a sequence of tasks concurrently with the actions of the parent campaign’s workflow, ensuring parallel execution of tasks.

The primary divergence lies in the flow execution. In an Executable Campaign, the child or “requested” campaign must complete its execution before the subsequent flow step is initiated. This sequential execution ensures that actions within the child campaign are finished before progressing to the next step. This control over flow timing is a significant enhancement over the traditional Campaign Request feature, where timing could lead to potential issues and unpredictability in the campaign sequence.

Another advantage of Executable Campaigns is the ability to pass tokens from the parent to the child campaign. This feature facilitates data consistency and enables more dynamic and personalized campaign executions. Whether it’s for lead scoring programs or data updates triggered by specific actions, this token-passing capability enhances the versatility and precision of campaign automation.

In summary, while both campaign types offer ways to manage campaign dependencies, Executable Campaigns provide a more controlled and predictable flow execution. This feature empowers marketers to build more robust and reliable automation workflows, ensuring that each step is completed before advancing to the next, ultimately leading to more efficient and effective marketing operations.

1. To create an Executable Campaign, right-click on your desired program and choose “New Smart Campaign.”
2. Name your campaign, check the “Executable” checkbox, and click “Create.”
3. Define your Smart List and Flow as you would in any Smart Campaign.
4. When cloning an existing Smart Campaign to make it executable, remember to select the “Executable” checkbox even after naming it.