Why Attend

As AI capabilities become central to marketing automation, the quality of your data foundation directly impacts your success. In this session, Marketo Champions will share battle-tested strategies for database hygiene, deduplication approaches, and leveraging custom objects and activities - the essential technical groundwork that enables AI to deliver meaningful insights and automation. Whether you're preparing for AI adoption or optimizing your current instance, you'll gain actionable frameworks to implement immediately.

Description

This session focuses on establishing the technical database foundation required for AI-enabled marketing automation. Learn best practices for database architecture, proven deduplication strategies, and how to strategically implement custom objects and custom activities. Our Champions will share real-world examples, common pitfalls to avoid, and frameworks you can apply to ensure your Marketo instance is structured for AI readiness and long-term scalability.

Agenda

• Introduction & the AI-Data Quality Connection

  • Why clean data is the prerequisite for effective AI

  • Overview of what we'll cover

• Database Architecture Best Practices

  • Field structure and naming conventions that scale

  • Standardization strategies for critical data points

  • Data governance frameworks for multi-team environments

• Deduplication Strategies

  • Native deduplication rules and limitations

  • Proactive vs. reactive deduplication approaches

  • Handling legacy duplicates at scale

• Smart Data Model Design: Custom Objects & Activities

  • When to extend vs. when to stay lean: the persistence decision framework

  • The nesting trap: why too many custom object relationships break UI usability

  • Transit data patterns: using temporary storage for single-campaign data flows

  • Real-world examples: What to persist (segmentation-critical data) vs. what to process and discard

  • Practical techniques for keeping your data model operationally efficient

• Q&A and Key Takeaways

Target Audience

• Marketo Users: Professionals already using or considering Marketo who want to expand their marketing capabilities.

• Marketing Operations Professionals: MOPs teams responsible for Marketo administration and data quality

• Marketo Administrators: Those managing database architecture, integrations, and technical infrastructure

• AI/Automation Adopters: Organizations preparing their Marketo instance for AI-powered capabilities

• Data-Conscious Marketers: Teams looking to improve data quality, reporting accuracy, and campaign effectiveness