How Hidden Fields Work

Hidden Fields let you capture and submit data without input from the user. One common usage is to capture the source, medium, or campaign that led to a Form submission.

Types of Data Captured by Hidden Fields

• Static values (same for all submissions of that form)
• Existing values from your customer lists
  • If your contacts access the form from a link in an Act-On email, you can automatically capture any value from the list that you used for sending
• UTM parameters that were present in the URL when the customer submitted the form
  • In addition to the standard UTM parameters (source, medium, campaign, etc.), you can capture any other URL parameter that you'd like
  • In the example URL below, you could capture any of the bolded values using Hidden Fields:
    

    https://mktg.example.com/testform?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=email&color=blue&shape=circle&preferred_day=Thursday

  • If you create different links to your form with unique parameters (eg. 'form.com?answer=yes', 'form.com?answer=no'), you can track these link clicks invisibly in a Hidden Field field to reduce the number of visible fields on your form!
    
    

Instructions

Add a Hidden Field in Labs Forms

1. Navigate to Content > Forms and create or edit a Form.
2. Drag a hidden field block onto the Form.
3. Enter the Label to use for the field.
4. Choose what type of data to capture:
   • To capture a URL parameter in the field, select Grab URL Parameter and enter the parameter name
     • All URL parameters are in the format 'name=value' (eg. 'example.com?color=blue') – enter the name ('color') here to capture the corresponding value ('blue')
   • To record a static value for all form submissions, type it in the Static Value box
   • To record a personalized value based on the contact's information, click the magic wand icon and choose the personalization field
     Remember - This field will record personalized data only if both of these are true:
     
     • The contact accessed the form via a link in an Act-On email message
     • The personalization field you selected was present in the list you used to send that message
5. Enter the Field Name and Column Name for this form submission data.
6. Click OK.

Classic Forms

Add a Static Hidden Field

1. Go to Content > Forms > Forms tab >Form Manager > Form Type > Classic Forms (check box).
   Select a Classic Form to edit or create a new classic Form (Create form (top right) > Additional options > Build a Classic form > Create).
   
   
2. In Layout, scroll down to the bottom, hover over End of Form Fields, and click New:
   
   
   
   
3. Click Hidden Field, and click OK:
   
   
   
   
4. Once the field is inserted, select the proper Data Field Name by clicking the cylinder to the right and selecting from your standard field names. You may also simply type in the desired field.
   
   
5. In the Data Field Value field, input the value you would like to populate for each submission (e.g., you may have a Data Field Name of 'Lead Source' and a Data Field Value of 'Web Registration Form' for all form submitters):
   
   
   
   
6. Click Submit.
   
   
7. Click Finish.
   
   
8. Click Save.
   
   

Add a Personalized Value

Follow the steps above but in Step 5 in the Data Field Value area, insert a personalization field that corresponds exactly to the Column name in the list you will send to via an Act-On message. For example, if you would like to insert the Customer ID field from a particular Marketing list, insert the Data Field Value of:

{{Customer ID}}

When adding the form link to your message, be sure to use a Marketing list with the corresponding Column name and select the Prefill option for the form link.

Capture Query Strings in Classic Forms

Please see this guide for instructions.