Looking to level up and set yourself apart as a Marketo consultant? Passing the new Marketo Certified Architect exam will move you into an elite tier of Marketo users and prove to prospective clients that you know how to lead Marketo projects from conception all the way through to implementation.
The Marketo Certified Architect exam replaces the previous presentation exam that was required by Marketo to achieve this certification. According to this post in the Marketo forum, there were less than 150 Marketo Certified Solutions Architects as of December 2017 so this is definitely an exclusive club to be a part of.
Marketo released this new exam format to help with scaling and make it easier for people to become architect-certified. Since I am a Marketo Certified Expert I was part of the lucky bunch that got a sneak peek at the Marketo Certified Architect Exam in October 2021. I passed the beta test and as of September 2023, I recently passed the online renewal exam so I can share a more updated version of my experience and some areas to study before the exam.
If you are not yet Marketo Expert Business Practitioner certified then I would recommend starting with this certification first and consulting the Marketo Expert Business Practitioner Exam Guide 🙂
N.B. Since you are clearly a go-getter and want to level up, take a look at the Marketo REST API Crash Course and enroll in the course to take your automation game to the next level!
- 1 Tyron’s Experience of the Marketo Certified Architect Exam
- 2 Tyron’s Marketo Certified Architect Exam Study Guide
- 3 Marketo Certified Architect Exam Advice Summary
- 4 Marketo Certified Architect Exam FAQs
- 4.1 What are the requirements to become a Marketo Certified Architect?
- 4.2 How long is the Marketo Certified Architect exam?
- 4.3 How many questions are on the Marketo Certified Architect exam?
- 4.4 Is the Marketo Certified Architect exam online?
- 4.5 How much does the Marketo Certified Architect exam cost?
- 4.6 How many Marketo Certified Architects are there?
- 4.7 How much do Marketo Certified Architects make?
- 4.8 How do I prepare for the Marketo Certified Architect exam?
Tyron’s Experience of the Marketo Certified Architect Exam
The Marketo Certified Architect Exam guide has an “Exam Objectives and Scope” section (under the “Get Ready” tab at the bottom of the page) which lists out all the areas that will be assessed in the exam so I won’t repeat what is in this guide already but I will try to add some color from my experience taking the exam.
Unlike the Marketo Certified Associate and Expert exams, which focus on your knowledge of the Marketo platform itself, the Marketo Certified Architect exam focuses much more on strategic marketing operations thinking and the business impact of the Marketo implementation choices you make.
As such, the whole exam is tailored towards a Marketo consultant and many questions use the case study example of a company called “Unicorn” where you are asked to make certain decisions through the lens of a consultant. For example, one question I remember explicitly revolves around determining the necessary stakeholders for developing a new lead-scoring model.
From my standpoint, there was more than one applicable option that I saw listed among the 4 groups of stakeholders I was asked to choose between and this was where I made a mistake, which I repeated throughout the exam. I spent too long deliberating over which of the options it should be instead of choosing one, continuing with the rest of the exam and nailing the questions I was more confident about an answer, and then coming back to all these ambiguous questions at the end of the exam.
The second mistake I made on this question since it was the very first on the exam, was that I spent too long reading the entire case study description and trying to understand it because I thought all of it was needed for the question. However, the same description comes up again and again for other questions so you don’t need to read it all for each question you just need to be able to quickly parse the case study and find the section relevant to the question you are answering.
A lot of the other questions related to the case study ask you what initiatives should be prioritized taking into account the urgency for each initiative to be completed and how quickly they would take to complete.
Tyron’s Marketo Certified Architect Exam Study Guide
Before starting your study I recommend taking the sample test of 16 questions to get a feel for the sort of questions that will be asked. This will show you what is important when you are studying for the exam and going through the product documentation and forum posts.
Then take a look at the links in the Marketo Certified Architect Exam guide in the “Get Prepped” tab at the bottom of the page as a good starting point. Below I offer some links based on particular areas I struggled with in the initial exam and in the renewal since I did not have exposure to them in the one Marketo instance I have worked with at my company.
- Workspaces & Partitions
- Custom Objects
- Attribution
- Channels & Tags and how they influence the program analyzer and reporting
- Know the different multi-touch attribution models available
- Revenue Cycle Modeler
- Program Analyzer & Reporting
- Velocity Scripting
- Email Scripting Product Docs
- Getting Started With Velocity Scripting Forum Post
- Use Cases for Email Snippets
- Know when you should use email snippets versus dynamic segments versus velocity scripts
- Predictive Content
- Lead Assignment
- Smart Lists
- Dynamic Chat
- Email Deliverability Best Practices
If you are like me and have not had much (or any) exposure to these topics in your day-to-day work with Marketo then I would recommend taking a look at the Marketo docs linked above before the exam.
Marketo Certified Architect Exam Advice Summary
The two main pieces of advice I would give you once you are in the exam are:
- Parse the case study description for the section relevant to the question you are answering each time the case study comes up and ignore the rest of the description, you do not need to understand it all to answer the question.
- For cases where you see more than one option that looks correct for a single-select question, choose one answer, move on to answer all the other questions you are more confident about, then come back at the end of the exam to see if you want to change your answer to any of these ambiguous questions. While answering the rest of the questions on the exam you might get clues to the answers of some of these ambiguous questions.
Marketo Certified Architect Exam FAQs
What are the requirements to become a Marketo Certified Architect?
In order to become a Marketo Certified Architect, you need to have a current Business Practitioner Expert Certification.
As explained in my Marketo Business Practioner exam guide, the new business practitioner exam replaces the old Marketo Certified Expert exam. If you have never been expert certified then I recommend checking out the business practitioner exam guide linked at the top of this post to see my tips and tricks for passing the exam 😉
How long is the Marketo Certified Architect exam?
The Marketo Certified Architect exam is 100 minutes long consisting of 50 multiple-choice and multiple-select questions.
The online renewal exam is only 72 minutes long and consists of 36 multiple-choice and multiple-select questions.
How many questions are on the Marketo Certified Architect exam?
There are 50 multiple-choice and multiple-select questions on the Marketo Certified Architect Exam and you will have 100 minutes to answer them.
There are 36 multiple-choice and multiple-select questions on the renewal exam and you will have 72 minutes to answer them.
Is the Marketo Certified Architect exam online?
Yes, the Marketo Certified Architect exam is an online proctored exam consisting of 50 multiple-choice and multiple-select questions.
The renewal exam is an on-demand exam that is not proctored.
How much does the Marketo Certified Architect exam cost?
The Marketo Certified Architect exam costs $225 for all countries except India where it costs $150.
The renewal exam is free of charge.
How many Marketo Certified Architects are there?
As of December 2017, there were less than 150 Marketo Certified Solutions Architects in the world.
How much do Marketo Certified Architects make?
According to Comparably a Marketo Solutions Architect makes $164k a year.
While this salary is based on existing Marketo Certified Solutions Architects who earned this qualification by the old presentation method, this figure should serve as a good benchmark for what newly accredited architects can expect.
Another good benchmark for estimating a lower bound for Marketo Certified Architect salaries is the $93k average annual salary earned by Marketo Certified Experts.
How do I prepare for the Marketo Certified Architect exam?
At a minimum, you should prepare for the Marketo Certified Architect exam by covering the topics below:
- Workspace & Partitions
- Custom Objects
- Revenue Cycle Modeler
- Program Analyzer & Reporting
