Why You Should Upgrade: Pardot Lightning App Installation, Setup and Configuration

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When the Pardot Lightning App initially came out it was tough to make a case for longtime admins to use the new interface. At the time, the additional effort to upgrade to the Lightning App just wasn’t worth it. As new Lightning specific releases came out it made the subsequent switch more justifiable.

pardot salesforce engagement history dashboard

Why you should enable the Pardot Lightning App

First off, keeping your Pardot account up-to-date with new feature releases is important in it’s own right. It’s always recommended to implement them when they come out. That said, let’s run through some of the main highlights on why upgrading to Pardot Lightning is worth it…

Connected Campaigns

For a long time admins had to manage campaigns in Salesforce and Pardot. Not only do connected campaigns allow for campaign management entirely within Salesforce, but they also offer many reporting improvements.

Business Units

Another long sought-after feature request was the ability to manage different business units within Pardot. Previously, admins would have to use two different Pardot accounts and configure selective syncing rules from within Salesforce. Although this won’t be relevant to everyone, for those who manage orgs with different business units (ex. AMER versus EURO) it’s a game changer.

Snippets

Managing content across multiple places can be cumbersome. For example, imagine having an email campaign promoting an event. Suddenly event information changes and you need to update it across multiple emails. With snippets you can create reusable content, assign it to a campaign and then start using it across many assets.

B2B Marketing Analytics

With powerful pre-built dashboards that consolidate Pardot and Sales Cloud data, you can quickly explore data, understand the impact of marketing on revenue, and take instant action to drive marketing results.

pardot b2b marketing analytics

Handlebars Language (HML)

Salesforce has been using HML for quite some time, so it was only a matter of time when Pardot would switch over, not if. Keep in mind HML is native to Salesforce Lightning Templates, otherwise you’ll need to upgrade. The main benefit is being able to use conditional content statements. For example, let’s say you wanted to use your recipient’s first name in your email greeting, “How is your day going Dan”. If you don’t know the recipient’s first name there is an option in Pardot to select a global default like “friend”, which would change the line to say “How is your day going friend”. With handlebars you can solve this using a conditional #if, which would all for Pardot to re-write the whole first sentence instead of just the recipient first name field value. That would look something like “Are you having a good day”, which would allow for a more personalized greeting.

How to Setup the Pardot Lightning App

We recommend following the Pardot Lightning App Implementation Guide, which will provide the most up-to-date instructions directly from Salesforce.

Some important considerations to keep in mind before upgrading:

  • Lightning Experience must be enabled in Salesforce.
  • You must have a Pardot account with a configured Salesforce connector.
  • Salesforce users must be mapped to Pardot users to access the app. Salesforce recommends enabling Salesforce User Sync before enabling Pardot for Lightning.
  • Pardot and Salesforce have separate authorization and sharing models. Data is shared via the Salesforce-Pardot connector, via the connector user. Therefore, Pardot only have access to the same Salesforce data that the connector user has access to.
  • After enabling the Pardot Lightning App, it’s reccomended to remove the Pardot Classic App from Salesforce as to not confuse users.
pardot lightning app builder

Other than the added features listed above, there really is no functionality difference… although I’m sure some hardcore Pardot users have uncovered gaps in the two platforms.

Relevant Documentation: