10 Spooky Things Creeping Around Pardot (Account Engagement)

Every professional working with Pardot (Account Engagement) and Salesforce has experienced org terrors. Whether unexpected issues that sneak up on you or malpractice that has gone unnoticed for too long, it can cause a huge scare. Just like a horror film these are issues that will creep up, and there needs to be heroic action to resolve them.

From ghosts and villains, to “Flubber” and alien activity – we explain how to get rid of the witches’ broth of problems in your org.

1. Sync Errors

Pardot sync errors occur when a prospect record fails to sync with its associated lead or contact record in Salesforce.

Like cooking a potent witches’ broth, our Pardot database can contain data that Salesforce won’t accept – Apex CPU time limit exceeded, custom validation exceptions, field type mismatch – don’t let the witches wreak havoc with your connector sync.

2. Connected Platform Sync

Something strange in the neighborhood – who you gonna call? … No one.

The “something strange” in your Salesforce org could be a result of platforms integrated with your Salesforce – even those that have “pre-made”/“plug-in” connectors.

Keeping track of what integrated systems are doing is a chore, and even “pre-made”/“plug-in” connectors need your attention; left unchecked, they could cause a nasty data slime.

How should you tackle these monsters?

1. Enable Setup Audit Trail for the objects that are affected most by integrated systems, You can target certain fields to be logged in the history of changes.
2. Keep up to date with changes to connectors, with each release. For example, Pardot (now Account Engagement) has notified admins about upcoming sync behavior changes between Pardot and Salesforce for a key field.

3. Bad Email Addresses

Another “something strange” in your Pardot (Account Engagement) org could very well be bad email addresses. Invalid emails, abuse emails, catch-all emails – all need to be purged before taking over your healthy deliverability. Get back-up from an email verification tool before going into battle against bad emails.

4. Weird Email Opens and Clicks

​​Email opens and clicks are the basic metrics that marketers look at in their Pardot email reports. What about when the number of opens and clicks on the report doesn’t make sense? Is there some alien activity interfering?

Unless you are clued up on the potential causes, you will be stuck trying to explain these figures – and they’re certainly not caused by extraterrestrial activity.

5. Fake Opt-in

Mailability fields, and how they behave, could be the villain in disguise. Opted Out is a field found on prospect records in Pardot (Account Engagement) and is called “Email Opt Out” on Salesforce Lead/Contacts. Since Opted Out and Do Not Email were decoupled the fake opt-in phenomenon has misled innocent prospects when opting in and out of communication.

6. Duplicates

Duplicates – the records created by absent-minded users or systems that already exist in your Salesforce/Pardot database. “Flubber”, the rubber-like super-bouncy substance, will replicate and cause chaos unless harnessed. As we learned in the hit 90s film, Flubber can be used for good – the same goes for duplicates. Some records are deliberately duplicated to serve a purpose and/or in order to sync to different Pardot business units.

7. Ghost Contacts

It’s a common misconception that every Contact in Salesforce must be associated with an Account. That’s actually not the case.

Ghost Contacts can haunt your database, bemoaning the fact they don’t belong to an Account.

There can be multiple reasons why “orphaned” Contacts exist. One reason is the result of “Reverse Syncing”, when an organization decides to “switch off” the ability for the Salesforce-Pardot connector to create Lead records. Instead, Contact records will be created, which don’t always have an Account to belong to.

8. Ghost Leads

More ghosts? Unfortunately, yes.

Salesforce Leads and Accounts aren’t friends. Salesforce Contacts are associated with Accounts, whereas Leads are not. Leads exist independently – but can end up like floating ghosts.

How can you manage leads that should belong to an existing account? That’s where the Matched Lead Component comes in to save the day.

9. Lead Conversion: Disappearing Data

Again, Leads exist independently from Contacts and Accounts. Leads are converted into Contacts once they reach a certain qualification point. However, is there a vanishing act happening, where Lead data isn’t carried across to the new Contact record? Ensure that your key Lead fields are mapped with Contact fields in Salesforce. 

10. Malfunctioning Marketing Automation

Working in marketing automation can be challenging as it often involves managing multiple issues simultaneously. Being able to identify and address these problems in such a complex environment can be extremely rewarding. When it comes to understanding the intricacies of the platform, troubleshooting is one of the most effective ways to learn.

But what happens if you don’t know what is broken? All you know is that a field is not populating as expected or a thousand sync errors that have mysteriously appeared overnight! Here’s some places you can start…