How to QA Marketing Ops

MarTech systems (and the humans that manage them) are imperfect. Proactively finding errors is often an overlooked (or deprioritized) responsibility in a MOPs manager job description. Here are the checklists and dashboards I use to QA marketing ops and ensure everything works as designed.

In this post:

Why do I need to QA marketing automation and ops?

Databases are usually big/old, with years of dupes and small typos clogging up automation. Similarly, old MAPs (with multiple admins) usually contain hundreds of cross-referenced automation workflows that can go haywire. And Sales reps and campaign managers often – let’s be real – carelessly import data and screw things up.

So it’s our job as admins to clean up the mess. And you should have a plan for:

Monitoring sync errors between MAP and CRM every week
QAing forms for field values/formats, hidden UTM fields
Ensuring UTMs are used consistently and correctly
Reviewing lead sources and opp sources every month
Consistently using naming conventions
Confirming key prospect data is synching
Flagging leads that are being ghosted

If it sounds like a lot to remember, it is. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Don’t worry, I have checklists and a Salesforce dashboard to help!

At the very least, commit to QAing pipeline blockers

“Pipeline blockers” should be the top priority when QAing marketing ops and automation. Some of these are such blockers, they should be checked daily because they prevent reps from working hot leads. I’ve noted them in blue throughout this post.

Daily MOPs QA Checklist

Common daily Marketo things to check include:

Records have an Acquisition Program
Records have an Acquisition Date
Leads have a Lead Source
Leads have a Funnel Stage
Your org’s specific important reporting and process fields
Handraisers are all MQLing (or getting a response from a person somehow)

My preferred way to manage this is to create a report folder in Marketo and simply run these checks daily. You can even send yourself alerts.

Weekly MOPs QA Checklist

On a weekly cadence, you’ll want to catch less urgent mistakes, but also notice trends:

How did emails perform? Are there any outliers? A big dip could indicate deliverability issues that may need attention.
Are MQL alerts triggering correctly?
Has anyone not synced to SFDC?
Is anyone not getting routed by tools like ChiliPiper?
Clear any one-off sync errors between the Marketo and Salesforce and make note of persistent errors that may require automation revisiting.

Use a dashboard to QA your marketing database

I prefer to QA campaign data and the Sales funnel within a MOPs Salesforce dashboard:

Head over to this post for an explainer of each report, including:

Contacts with Inactive Owners
Orphaned Contacts
MQLs with Inactive Owners
MQLs Missing Campaign Source
MQLs Missing Status Details
Stuck MQLs and Stuck MQLs by Owner
Unconverted Leads
Marketing Sourced Opps Missing Campaign
Campaigns Created Last 10 Days

Prevention is the best medicine

As you do QA, you may notice repeat offenders. Instead of constantly cleaning these up, create more preventative processes and workflows. Here are our tips:

Header image from giphy