7 Things That Trip Up New Account Engagement (Pardot) Admins

September 26, 2023
Pardot Admin, Salesforce Ben | The Drip

Whether you’re an accidental admin or you’ve been tasked to take over an existing Account Engagement (Pardot) instance, the first few times on this Salesforce tool can be confusing and frustrating.

This is especially true if you keep running into issues and errors when it feels like you’re doing everything right and you don’t even know where to start troubleshooting – add to that, all the different terminology that is tripping you up. Trust me, I was in those shoes just over a year ago!

Here’s a list of issues you’re most likely going to encounter when you’re first starting your Account Engagement (Pardot) journey, and what to look out for when you’re trying to resolve them.

1. Account Engagement Prospects Not Being Created in Salesforce as a Lead

If a prospect exists on Account Engagement but you’re not able to find them on Salesforce as a lead or contact, you should check if the prospect meets the sync prerequisites:

The prospect has been assigned to a user in Account Engagement, either manually, through a completion action, or by using an automation rule.
The prospect is NOT flagged as ‘Do not sync to CRM’.
A prospect, user, or system activity on the prospect has triggered the sync.
The prospect does not have any sync errors.

READ MORE:
Pardot Sync Errors: Solve Your Salesforce Connector Sync Error Queue

2. Field Updates Getting Overwritten Upon Prospect Sync (or Not Syncing at All)

Firstly, when a value keeps getting overwritten, it is likely that you have set the other system as the master.

For example, in Salesforce, you change the industry from “Engineering” to “Aerospace”, and upon sync, it gets changed back to “Engineering”.

To investigate or resolve this, check the field’s Sync Behaviour. Here, you can decide which system will be the master, with the following options: options will be “Use Account Engagement’s Value”, “Use Salesforce’s Value”, or “Use the most recently updated record”.

*In this case, since “Use Account Engagement’s value” is selected, the master for that field is Account Engagement.*

Note: The Salesforce-Account Engagement connector will choose to have some data over having no data. So, even if a field is blank on the “master” system, the filled field will enrich the blank field upon sync.

READ MORE:
Ultimate Guide: Pardot Field Sync Behavior & Null Value Sync

However, if any field updates on Salesforce are not syncing back to Account Engagement (or vice versa) at all, then it is likely because of sync, which could be:

The connector user has no permission to read or edit the field: To successfully sync values to or from Salesforce, the Account Engagement connector user must be able to view and make changes to the field. You can check the field-level security settings under Setup → Object Manager → Object (Lead, Contact, Account, or Opportunity) → Fields & Relationships > Field (the field that isn’t syncing) → Set Field-Level Security.
Field type mismatch: For example, if the field on Salesforce is a numbers field, it will not accept text values from Account Engagement.
Account Engagement field value not accepted by Salesforce
During a sync, the values from Account Engagement need to match any requirements on Salesforce such as character limits and mandatory field requirements. For picklists in Salesforce that are restricted to a set of acceptable values, the values on Account Engagement need to match them, too.

*Ensure the “Use pre-defined values (for checkboxes, radio buttons, drop downs, and multi-selects” option is selected and the field type is kept in sync with Salesforce.*

Incorrect field mapping: Since Account Engagement lists the field API name (instead of the label), it is common to accidentally map the incorrect field, especially when they have similar or unclear names. Note: If the field you are looking to map is missing, check that it has not yet been used by another custom field. Then, click on the circular arrows beside the “salesforce.com Field Name”. It will pull all the currently available fields into the dropdown list for your selection.

READ MORE:
Pardot Custom Field Mapping with Salesforce: The API Field Name Trap

3. The Automation Rule is Not Working as Expected

Other than checking the matching rules and actions, ensure that the Automation Rule has been unpaused, especially if you’ve just created or made changes to it. Yes, you will need to resume the rule each time.

Note: You will also encounter a time delay, as Account Engagement (Pardot) sends information every 2-4 minutes to Salesforce, meaning that automation rules don’t run immediately after they have been activated. You can also check the “Audits” tab on prospects to see whether the prospect has been picked up by the rule.

4. Salesforce Campaign Cannot be Referenced in Account Engagement

Campaigns are an essential tool in Account Engagement as almost every asset needs to be assigned to a campaign. Connected Campaigns are a great way to ensure that the necessary engagement metrics are through to Salesforce, allowing greater visibility to your team on the prospect’s activity and campaign performance!

If you’re not able to reference the Connected Campaign on Account Engagement, it is likely because:

The campaign status is not set to “In Progress”.
The campaign end date has passed.
The campaign is not marked as “Active”.

READ MORE:
Pardot (Account Engagement) Connected Campaigns: Set Up Steps + Tips

5. Changes to Emails on the Classic Email Builder Not Saving

How many tabs do you have open now on your browser? Chances are, it’s more than one, even if you’re on the same website. But, when it comes to editing emails using the classic email builder in Account Engagement, do not keep more than one window open.

This particular email builder leverages an autosave function, which is usually a great way to ensure that all your changes are recorded correctly. When you have two windows open and you’re only editing in one window, the unused window will end up overriding any change you make.

Very few things are more frustrating than being sure that you’ve fixed that typo or changed an image on the email, only to have the changes reverted even when you’re not doing anything. The moral of the story? Close your tabs!

Note: This issue does not happen in the Lighting Email Builder, because it does not have an autosave feature.

6. Segmentation List Cannot be Found

You’ve figured out how to build an email in Account Engagement (Pardot), you’ve made sure that you’ve only kept one window open, and now you’re ready to send it out. The problem? You can’t seem to find your desired segmentation list in the sending tab when trying to send emails from the Classic Email Builder.

There are two possible reasons for this:

The segmentation list is marked as an “Email Test List”: When selecting this option, it indicates to Account Engagement that this list will be exclusively used for internal tests on how the emails will render before they are sent to your prospects.

The segmentation list is archived: In this case, not only will you not be able to use it for email sends, but you will also not be able to add prospects to the list.

7. “Duplicate” Tabs on Account Engagement

Think you’re seeing double, with Campaigns and Account Engagement Campaigns, or Reports and Account Engagement Reports? Well, you’re not. They are different tabs.

Here’s a brief description of each of them:

Campaigns: This is where you’ll find campaigns in Sales Cloud, and once you’ve enabled Connected Campaigns, this is where you will mainly go to manage the Campaign’s details. Under Campaign members, you can only see the contacts and leads who have interacted with the campaign or have been added manually to the campaign.
Account Engagement Campaigns: This is where you’ll find campaigns in Pardot, and after enabling Connected Campaigns, this tab is mainly read-only. But, you can still add tags to the campaign, or add it to a folder. This is the only place where you can add a prospect to the campaign or view them if they do not exist as a Contact or Lead on Salesforce.
Reports: This is where you’ll find all Salesforce reports that you have access to.
Account Engagement Reports: This is where you’ll find reports specific to your Pardot content and connectors, including reports on campaigns, conversion rates, lifecycle funnel, and the performance of any of your marketing assets.

Summary

There’s no denying that it can be confusing when you’re first learning to use or administer Account Engagement (Pardot).

Hopefully, this list helps you avoid some common mistakes or things that I was confused by when I first started using Account Engagement. Now you can move on to leveraging the power of Account Engagement for your businesses!

READ MORE:
10 Pardot (Account Engagement) Terms That Trick New Users

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