Being able to extend the Salesforce data model with your own objects is a selling point. By creating your own objects, you can create and relate the records your business needs to store.
Pardot custom objects are the way you sync data from Salesforce objects to use the data in Pardot for segmentation and automation. Despite the name, custom objects in Pardot can mirror not only Salesforce custom objects but standard objects too (except those objects synced via the Salesforce connector for Pardot: Lead/Contact/Person Accounts/Accounts/Opportunities/Campaigns).
When planned for correctly, Pardot custom objects can supercharge your marketing automation and open more use cases. Pardot custom objects are available for Pardot (Account Engagement) Advanced and Premium customers, and as an add-on for Pardot Plus.
This guide is designed to give you a run-down on Pardot custom objects. It’s easy to mistake all custom objects to be as powerful and flexible as Salesforce custom objects. While upgrading, and adding, custom objects for Pardot has been worthwhile for many organizations (having worked with some myself), I would say: Don’t be dazzled, do your research before you buy. This post will help you start that.
Why Use Pardot Custom Objects?
- Custom Objects are key to your business, eg. the delivery team use a ‘Project’ custom object in Salesforce, which the marketing team want to leverage for onboarding campaigns.
- Salesforce Industry products: you use one of the industry managed packages developed by Salesforce eg. Financial Services Cloud.
- Managed packages: your organization uses a managed package on top of Salesforce core products (like a skin that covers the org) – these are the use cases I have worked with.
- Want to run Pardot in a more ‘B2C’ like way, eg. introducing ‘products*’ or ‘assets’ into Pardot to cater to more transactional buying cycles.
(NB: products are not related to account records, which will require some customisation of the standard data model…proceed with caution). - You want to use the Vidyard to Pardot integration.
Even though Pardot Custom Objects have valid use cases and happy customers, accounts that use them are fairly rare. The next section of this guide may shed some light on why that may be.
What Pardot Custom Objects Can and Can’t Do
This capability comparison table is perhaps the most important section of this guide! This will demystify custom object functionality before you or your technical team waste time pursuing technically impossible requirements.
| CAN | CAN’T |
|---|---|
| Create 4 custom objects in Pardot (if you need more, your object schema and sync volume will need to be looked at by a Pardot Product Engineer) | Edit custom object record in Pardot (they are read-only). ! Perhaps the biggest misconception of all, you won’t be able to use Pardot automation or Prospect activity (eg. Form submissions) to update custom object records. |
| Sync Salesforce custom objects that have a relationship to Contacts, Accounts or Leads in the CRM data model (you need at least 1 lookup field). | Pardot custom objects can’t be ‘Pardot-only’; the custom object must exist in Salesforce. |
| Use all custom object fields in Pardot automation rules/segmentation. The fields will sync to Pardot automatically when they are created in Salesforce. | Custom objects can’t be used in Engagement Studio directly, but I discuss a simple workaround later in the post. |
| Sync frequently: updates are synced automatically from Salesforce to Pardot (every 10 minutes). | Fields cannot be used as merge fields for personalisation using HML. |
| Use Pardot reports for custom objects - BUT look to B2B Marketing Analytics (knowledge required). | |
| Salesforce custom object records created before the object was created don’t sync to Pardot automatically. You will need to manually sync these as part of the setup process (see 'Checklist for Setting Up Pardot custom objects’ later in this guide). |
Pardot Segmentation Using Custom Objects
Let’s look at how you can use custom object in Pardot, starting with segmentation.
You can use custom object criteria in:
- Dynamic Lists
- Segmentation Rules
- Automation Rules
You always start with the criteria for narrowing down which prospects you want. Use the criteria “Prospect custom object”, which gives 3 options: related, not related, related with properties.
‘Related’ simply asks, does the lead/contact have any X records related to it?
‘Related with properties’ allows you to introduce more criteria to get very specific with who you want to target. You could think of it as creating a new rule group – it works the same way:
Pardot Automation Using Custom Objects
As I mentioned in the previous section, you can use the “Prospect custom object” criteria in Automation Rules. This means that the actions you can take based on a custom object are:
Note: I have removed the actions not applicable, as segmenting by custom objects automatically assumes that the Prospect exists in Salesforce, has been assigned already.
- Add/Remove Prospect To List
- Add To CRM Campaign
- Adjust Prospect Score
- Adjust Prospect Score For Scoring Category
- Allow Deleted CRM Lead Or Contact To Recreate From Pardot
- Apply/Remove tags
- Change Profile Criteria
- Change Prospect Custom Field Value
- Change Prospect Default Field Value
- Change Prospect Profile
- Clear Prospect Field Value
- Create Salesforce Task
- Increment Prospect Field Value
- Notify Assigned User/Notify User
- Send Prospect Email
It’s worth noting that custom objects can’t be used in Engagement Studio directly; a workaround is to use dynamic list (or automation rule + static list) as a rule step:
Also, using many Automation Rules will mean you will accelerate towards your account limit very quickly.
Administering Pardot Custom Objects
Find Pardot Custom Object settings under ‘Pardot Settings’ in the Pardot Lightning App. This is what the scaled down interface looks like:
(As they are read-only objects, there is not much customization you need to do here!)
Checklist for Setting Up Pardot Custom Objects
Here are some steps you should go through to create a Pardot Custom Object – there is more to the process than you may initially think!
Note: if the custom object exists in Salesforce already, skip to point 3.
- Design your object schema/data model: will records of the Salesforce custom object be related to either Contact, Lead or Account records? You need at least 1 lookup field to the custom object. You can open up the Salesforce object schema to guide you for the context of your own org.
- Create the custom object in Salesforce. Remember you need at least 1 lookup field to Contacts, Leads or Accounts. The custom object must be visible to the Pardot connector user (read-only at the minimum) and the lookup field’s field-level security also has to be read-only at the minimum.
- Pull a report of all custom object records, including record ID, related lead/contact ID, and date/time created.
- Create the custom object in Pardot. Make a note of the date/time. (If you don’t see your Salesforce custom object in the dropdown selection, re-read steps 1-2).
- Manually sync custom object records from Salesforce to Pardot that were created before the date/time you created the Pardot object.
- Choose which fields you would like to ‘Display in table’. These will appear on the Custom Object tab on the Pardot Prospect record.
- By going into the custom object’s settings, you will see a ON/OFF switch like interface.
- Using Pardot custom user roles? You will need to grant access to Pardot custom object/s (if you are using standard user roles – Administrator, Marketing, Sales Manager, Sales – then access is added automatically).
- Set up any segmentation/automation required.
Do bear in mind that these steps are guidelines. If you are unsure, I suggest you seek the help of a Pardot Consultant before you begin the process.
Summary
Being able to extend the Salesforce data model with your own objects is a selling point. By creating your own objects, you can create and relate the records your business needs to store – and Pardot custom objects enable you mirror that extensibility for your marketing automation.
This guide is designed to give you an unbiased point of view on Pardot custom objects, so that you are clued up on why you would use custom objects, how they can be used in segmentation and automation, and most importantly, their limitations!
When planned for correctly, Pardot custom objects can really supercharge your marketing automation and open up more use cases – just do your research before you upgrade or purchase the add-on!
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