Salesforce have confirmed that there’ll be a change to the limits in Marketing Cloud. Many people are asking why. The key reason for this change is that Salesforce uses external providers to power its infrastructure. To democratize usage of their services, customers with lower usage shouldn’t subsidize those customers with more complex use cases or higher consumption. The key point we’d like to emphasize is that Salesforce have confirmed new limits for data retention in Marketing Cloud.
The Winter ‘25 release dates will differ based on your Salesforce instance, however, the main dates are expected to be October 5, 2024, and October 12, 2024. Here’s what you need to know ahead of the release.
Marketing Cloud Data Retention
Salesforce have updated their data retention policy for Marketing Cloud Engagement. As of January 15, 2025, subscriber and journey engagement data will be retained for a period of 180 days before it’s deleted and no longer accessible. The data retention policy has been updated to ensure that data is managed accurately and complies with regulation and data management standards.
If you need to retain your data for longer than 180 days, Salesforce suggest that you export it and store it outside of Marketing Cloud Engagement.
This process can be broadly split into three categories:
- Export tracking data using Automation Studio.
- Export tracking data for individual emails using Email Studio.
- Export data using Analytics Studio.
The following help article has more details on how you can do this:
What’s Next?
Salesforce are essentially moving towards a “fairer” way of passing the cost onto their customers. They want to avoid a scenario where customers who aren’t using much of Marketing Cloud’s services have to pay for customers who use significantly more. Plus, it doesn’t make sense to hold onto what can often be millions of rows of data – if and when historical data needs to be analyzed, it can be fetched from an external repository. While this might come as a surprise, you have the resources to plan ahead.
It makes sense for historical data to be put into an external repository and deleted after a certain timeframe. This is because not all organizations’ use cases are equal in terms of maturity. The complexity of the campaigns and data handling that’s run through a Marketing Cloud account vary, therefore the number of credits that are consumed will also vary. According to Bobby Jaina, CMO of Marketing Cloud, the more sophisticated experience will garner the greatest ROI.
Ultimately, the shift to a usage-based (i.e. pay-as-you-go) pricing model ensures fairness over usage rather than a flat fee for all sizes and types of organizations.