Real Time Pardot (Account Engagement) Automation Rules Retired – What’s Next?

March 2, 2023
Salesforce Automation, Salesforce Ben | The Drip

Run automation rules in real time are scheduled for retirement in all Pardot (Account Engagement) editions in June 2023. This was announced as part of the Spring ‘23 release.

Automation rules have been serving as the ‘go to’ automation in Pardot (Account Engagement) for a long time. They are the automation type with the most broad coverage and versatile choice of actions. However, one setting called “Execute in Real Time” is being phased out, and will no longer be available come June. This guide will explain why this setting is being retired, and what the alternative is for processing prospects automatically when there are multiple criteria to consider.

Why Are Real Time Automation Rules Being Retired?

At first, our assumption was that these were taking up too much processing power in accounts. Think about all the moving cogs inside your Pardot (Account Engagement) account, whirring away at any one point – it’s a lot!

However, Salesforce have explained that the reason behind this is quite the opposite – that the “Execute in Real Time” setting has no additional value:

“[It’s] a legacy option developed before the decision to exclusively support the Salesforce connector. It was designed to provide a way to prioritize automation rules when syncing with legacy CRM connector options. With the full support of the Salesforce connector, this functionality offers no additional value.”

– Source: Salesforce Help

If the setting is redundant, then it makes sense to remove altogether – one less thing for us to learn, consider, and have other users ask questions about!

To add more context to the quote. Salesforce used to support connectors to different CRMs, namely SugarCRM, NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics. These were inherited as part of the Exacttarget acquisition in 2013. You can see why Salesforce made this move – not only to double-down their attention to improve a single connector, but also for the obvious competitor interests. In fact, I remember this happening mid-2017 (the article has since been archived).

Disable Real Time Automation Rules

While not essential, you can begin deselecting the setting for any automation rules that use it. I say it’s not essential, because come June, the setting will simply be removed.

You can deselect the setting for each individual automation rule (the setting has moved to the bottom of the edit page), or for multiple rules using the table action dropdown on the automation rule list view and select Disable Real Time Automation (source: Salesforce Help).

What’s Next?

How can you ensure that prospects are being processed in line with multiple criteria, and having actions applied to them?

Conditional Completion Actions

You may already be using conditional completion actions. This is a type of Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) automation that fires each time a prospect makes an activity on a marketing asset. Being conditional, you add actions that fire when ‘if prospect is X, then do Y’ or ‘if field value is X, then do Y’ (without using conditional groups, Pardot just does whatever ‘Y’ is each time).

Engagement Studio Complex Rules

Another option are complex rules steps in Engagement Studio. By leveraging these, you can take segmentation within Engagement Studio further by adding more criteria to narrow down prospects, followed by an action step.

The benefits here are that the flow and branching logic is mapped out in a visual format, stitching together email sends and the other actions that make up a prospect’s journey.

Summary

While Run Automation Rule in Real Time is scheduled for retirement in all Pardot (Account Engagement) editions in June 2023, there really is nothing to be concerned about.

The “Execute in Real Time” setting no longer adds any value. While this change is not essential, you can begin deselecting the setting for automation rules. Instead, leverage conditional completion actions, which allow for conditional automation based on prospect behavior, or complex rules steps in Engagement Studio, which enable users to add more criteria to narrow down prospects and take segmentation within Engagement Studio.

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