Ultimate Guide: Pardot Salesforce Connector - Sync, Edit, Merge & Delete

Buckle up! Understanding the Pardot Salesforce connector and how it facilitates syncing data back and forth is an important concept to master. Especially if you want to be successful with both tools. Too often we hear stories about implementations gone wrong… thousands of records being created in Pardot with no explanation, merged records not being reflected in both systems, the list goes on.

Avoiding data integrity issues starts with taking the time to learn how integrations are supposed to work. With Pardot, there are many variables to consider when thinking about the Salesforce Connector.

Setting Up and Configuring the Salesforce Connector in Pardot

The first question… What version connector do you have? If your company just purchased Pardot, there’s a good chance you will have the v2 connector. It’s important because there are notable syncing differences between connector version 1 and 2. Depending on your version connector, you will see one of the screens below.

Below each image we defined each setting, taken directly from Salesforce documentation. Take a moment to read these and understand them, they provide the foundation to syncing behavior.

Connector v1

Automatically create prospects in Pardot if they are created as a Lead or Contact in Salesforce. With this function, Pardot creates a prospect when a lead or contact with an email address that is not already associated with a prospect is created in Salesforce. An email address is required on the lead or contact record to sync to Pardot. This setting is not retroactive, and creates prospects only for those leads and contacts created after this setting has been enabled.

If records do not have a CRM ID to match when syncing, use email address to match. This function allows the connector to use an email address as a secondary prospect-match criteria. The connector attempts to match records by CRM ID first, but uses an email address when there is no CRM ID.

Exclude Salesforce “Partner” and “Customer Portal” users from Prospect assignment. This function prevents the listing of Salesforce Partner and Customer Portal users in the CRM Username dropdown in Pardot user records.

Automatically match Salesforce users to Pardot users. This function automates matching CRM users to Pardot users for the Send from Custom CRM User feature. If a Salesforce user has the same email address as a Pardot user, the records are matched.

Connector v2

Automatically change email addresses in Pardot to reflect changes in Salesforce. When a lead or contact’s email address is updated in Salesforce, the Pardot prospect is updated to reflect the change. If this setting is not enabled, changing the email address on a Salesforce record causes the associated Pardot record to stop syncing with it. The next time the prospect syncs to Salesforce, it creates a record based on your connector preference for creating leads or contacts. The new lead or contact syncs with the prospect until the email address changes again.

Automatically delete or merge prospects if the corresponding records in Salesforce are deleted or merged. If you ‘allow multiple prospects with the same email address (AMPSEA)’ then this setting is activated by default. Also, for the Pardot accounts created after June 14, 2016, the AMPSEA and, as a result, ‘Automatically delete’, are activated by default. Here is some more information on AMSPEA if you want to dive deeper.

Allow editing of Prospect lists within CRM. This function allows CRM users to add or remove prospects from Pardot lists from within the CRM. To use this feature, add the Prospect List Membership Visualforce page to your page layouts.

Now that we know the different customizations and settings for each connector, we can begin to think about other day-to-day applications and questions.

How often does Pardot sync with Salesforce?

According to Salesforce documentation, syncing between the two systems occurs every 2-4 minutes. It’s more important to know what causes a sync though…

What causes a prospect to sync from Salesforce to Pardot

Note: Syncing a Pardot prospect to Salesforce requires a corresponding Salesforce record or the prospect must be assigned in Pardot. Depending on your connector version will determine whether the record is synced based off the CRM ID or email address.

Any record update in Salesforce will trigger a sync to Pardot.

Any of the following Pardot activities will trigger a sync to Salesforce:

Prospect Activities
- Form Submission
- Form Handler Submission
- Landing Page Submission
- Unsubscribe
User Activities
- Prospect import
- Prospect field changes (including opting out prospects via import or manually)
- Pardot campaign changes
- Changes to assigned user
- Manually syncing from the prospect record
System Activities
- Record changes that occur because of an automation rule or completion action
- Add to Salesforce campaign via automation rule, segmentation rule, completion action, or Engagement Program action
- Salesforce campaign status update via automation rule, segmentation rule, completion action, or Engagement Program action

When I merge prospects in Pardot, will it also merge the record in Salesforce?

The short answer is no. No matter your connector settings, merging a record in Pardot will not merge or delete either Salesforce record. All it does in Salesforce is associate the correct Pardot record to the specified Salesforce record. All the fields you selected during the Pardot merge, and all Pardot activities for both records will be credited to the Salesforce record you chose as the master. The other prospect record(s) are permanently deleted in Pardot and do not go tot the recycle bin.

Note: If the deleted Pardot prospect has a record in the CRM, the prospect isn’t undeleted when the Salesforce record is updated and synced via the CRM.

Will deleting a prospect in Pardot delete the synced record in Salesforce?

Absolutely not. The Pardot record is moved to the recycle bin. From the recycle bin you can restore the prospect or permanently delete. Again, the corresponding Salesforce record would still exist, but wouldn’t have a matching Pardot record.

As a side note, these are the only ways records can be undeleted in Pardo t.

What Happens in Pardot When I Delete or Merge a Record in Salesforce?

This question is probably the most common issue admins run into with the Pardot Salesforce integration. Many companies have different employees manage both systems. And it’s a pretty common task for a Salesforce admin to merge and delete records. If they don’t know what they’re doing, or don’t have help from a Pardot consultant, then they can create a real mess to clean up later!

The delete and merge settings below are only applicable if you have “Automatically delete or merge prospects if the corresponding records in Salesforce are deleted or merged” selected in your connector settings, or your account is AMPSEA-enabled (for Pardot accounts created after June 14, 2016, the AMPSEA and, as a result, ‘Automatically delete’, are activated by default). If neither of those settings are applied, then you will need to manually manage corresponding records in Pardot.

Delete Scenarios

If a record is deleted in Salesforce then the Pardot prospect is sent to the recycle bin and archived. Undeleting the record in Salesforce will result in the Pardot prospect being removed from the recycle bin and unarchived.

Merge Scenarios

This table is definitely confusing to follow. Read closely and you’ll see that merging records in Salesforce will provide better coverage when cleaning up your database. In all scenarios, Pardot handles the merged record by deleting it and unarchiving if you decide to keep it later on.

Read More: Salesforce Custom Object Syncing in Pardot

Relevant Documentation

Knowledge Base: