Pardot (MCAE) · Admin track
The Pardot Admin's six-section playbook
For the person who owns the platform's day-to-day health. Salesforce connector, user management, deliverability, list hygiene, escalation paths.
Section 1
Admin model + access
Roles
Admin, Marketing User, Sales Manager, Sales User. Admin sees everything. Custom roles available on Advanced+.
SSO
Use Salesforce SSO. Pardot-only users are a deprecation risk; provision every user through Salesforce wherever possible.
Business Units
Advanced ships limited multi-BU. Premium ships 100+. BUs do not share assets — folder discipline matters.
Audit log
Account → Audits. 90-day rolling, exportable. Filter by user before opening any "who changed what" investigation.
Section 2
Salesforce connector health
The connector is the most fragile thing you own. Check it weekly, instrument it monthly.
- Connector user license: dedicated Salesforce user, not a person. Standard CRM + Pardot license, never expires, no MFA.
- Sync errors queue: Account → Connectors → Salesforce → View Sync Errors. Clear weekly. The top three errors are usually field-type mismatches, validation rules, and duplicate-detection blocks.
- Marketing Data Sharing: if enabled, prospects can be filtered by SF Account fields. Treat the criteria as production code — version it externally before changing.
- Sync queue depth: a healthy connector clears the queue every 2 minutes. If it's lagging, you have an Apex trigger or a validation rule fighting the connector.
Gotcha: Reassigning the connector user mid-flight orphans the queue. Always pause sync, swap user, verify with a test prospect, resume.
Section 3
List + segmentation hygiene
- Dynamic list limit: 200 criteria per list. Hitting the wall means your scoring or grading logic should absorb the complexity, not the list.
- Naming convention: [BU]_[Source]_[Status]_[Name]. Without convention the list nav becomes unsearchable inside two quarters.
- Folder strategy: mirror the marketing-program structure, not the audience structure. Audiences move; programs persist.
- Email recipient lists vs Engagement Studio lists: EM lists update at send time. ES lists update at step time. The lag matters for time-sensitive sends.
Section 4
Deliverability + send governance
Send IP
Shared IP by default. Dedicated IP via Premium tier or add-on. Dedicated is only worth it above ~250k sends/month.
SPF / DKIM
Authenticate every sending domain. Pardot generates the DKIM keys; your DNS team adds the records. Re-verify quarterly.
DMARC
Start at p=none with reporting. Move to p=quarantine after 30 days of clean reports. Never push directly to p=reject.
Throttle
Pardot does not natively throttle. If you need to pace, use Engagement Studio with timed delays — never blast 50k in one send.
Bounce monitoring
Reports → Email Reporting → Hard bounces. Anything above 2% on a single send is a list-quality red flag.
Section 5
Top gotchas
Prospect-to-Lead sync timing: New prospect → SF Lead can lag 1–3 minutes. Sales should never expect real-time. Set expectations in the routing SLA.
List Email vs Auto-Responder: Two different send objects with two different opt-out behaviors. Auto-responders bypass marketing suppression — verify before using on cold lists.
Recycled emails: Pardot treats a returning email as the same prospect. If the human at that email is now a different person, your behavioral score is wrong.
Completion Action sprawl: There is no central index. Build a quarterly audit spreadsheet listing every form, file, and page with its completion actions. Without one, the system becomes a haunted house.
Section 6
Escalation playbook
- Sync issue, single prospect: Force sync from the prospect record. If still failing, check Apex governor limits on the Lead/Contact triggers.
- Sync issue, account-wide: Open a Salesforce support case under "Account Engagement" with the trace ID from the sync error log. Include the connector user, the time window, and a screenshot.
- Deliverability dropping: Run MCAE Optimizer first. Check SPF/DKIM. Pull last 30 days of Spam Complaint reporting. If nothing surfaces, escalate to Salesforce deliverability team — they have visibility you don't.
- Engagement Studio acting weird: Pause the program before troubleshooting. Edits during a live program have order-of-operations rules — read them before changing live logic.
- Anything else: Trailblazer Community → Account Engagement group. MVPs there will diagnose faster than Tier-1 support most of the time.
Pardot (MCAE) · Consultant track
The Pardot Consultant's six-section playbook
For the person scoping, designing, and shipping Pardot work. Discovery, build patterns, scoring/grading design, reporting design, migration patterns.
Section 1
Discovery questions before quoting
- What edition of Salesforce? Enterprise minimum for Pardot's deeper sync. Professional limits custom field mapping.
- How many SF business units do you run? Determines if you need Pardot Advanced or Premium.
- How does sales receive leads today? Round-robin queue, named-account routing, geographic. Determines how complex your Automation Rules will be.
- Where do forms live? Pardot-hosted = Pardot Forms. Site-hosted = Form Handlers. Mixed = both, and that's fine.
- What is the scoring/grading philosophy? If they can't answer, your first deliverable is a workshop, not a build.
- Who reports out of Pardot today? If the answer is "nobody," half your work is reporting setup, not automation.
Section 2
Build pattern decisions
When to use Engagement Studio
Multi-step journeys with branching logic. Triggered by list entry. Edits during runtime have rules.
When to use Automation Rule
Always-on, fire-once-per-prospect logic. Lead routing, scoring updates, list moves. Cheaper than ES for simple triggers.
When to use Completion Action
One-time response to a single asset interaction. Form submit, file download, page view, email link click. Easy to author, hard to audit.
When to use Segmentation Rule
One-time backfill or re-segmentation. Builds a static list. Use sparingly — Dynamic List usually wins.
Section 3
Scoring + grading design
- Score = behavior: opens, clicks, form fills, page views, file downloads. Range 0–500 by default. Decay over time prevents stale "hot" leads.
- Grade = fit: A through F driven by Profile criteria (title, industry, company size) + Match criteria (geography, account tier). Build the profile before you build the automation.
- MQL definition: threshold on BOTH axes. Common pattern: Score > 50 AND Grade > C. Single-axis MQLs leak hot-but-bad-fit leads to sales.
- Multiple scoring categories (Plus+): separate scores for product, content type, intent. Lets you route "product-interested" leads differently from "content-curious" ones.
- Einstein Lead Scoring (Advanced+): predictive model. Validate against historical conversion data before turning on; the model needs a year of clean history to be useful.
Section 4
UTM + custom redirect hygiene
Pardot's tracking depends on rigorous UTM discipline. The platform won't enforce it — you have to.
- Custom Redirects: use for every off-Pardot link in every email. Tracks click, fires completion action, supports A/B URL rotation.
- UTM convention: utm_source=pardot, utm_medium=email|sms|paid, utm_campaign=[campaign_id], utm_content=[asset_id]. Pick the convention before launch, document it, train sales ops to enforce.
- SF Campaign field mapping: map UTM parameters to Salesforce Lead/Contact fields so the data survives the Pardot-to-SF sync.
Section 5
Reporting design
- Standard Pardot reporting: good for tactical email/list metrics. Limited at the funnel-attribution level.
- B2B Marketing Analytics (Advanced+): the funnel attribution layer. Requires CRM Analytics fluency to author dashboards. Assume one senior analyst.
- Custom reports in Salesforce: any Pardot-sourced field can be reported on in SF if the connector pushes it. Build the Salesforce report first if your audience lives in SF dashboards.
- Connected Campaigns: turn this on early. It's the bridge between Pardot Campaigns and SF Campaigns, and once it's on, retro-attribution is much easier.
Section 6
Migration patterns
Entering Pardot
From a different MAP: export prospects with all custom fields, score, grade, unsubscribe status, last-engagement timestamp. Import to Pardot in batches by source list. Suppression list MUST go first.
Exiting Pardot
Export from Account → Exports. Use the Prospect export with all fields. Engagement history is NOT exportable in one shot — build a script against the API for the engagement_id history.
Cutover sequence
Step 1: stand up the target MAP. Step 2: backfill suppression. Step 3: backfill core prospects. Step 4: rebuild top 5 high-value programs. Step 5: switch tracking script. Step 6: parallel-run for 30 days. Step 7: decommission.
Rebuild rule
Don't try to lift-and-shift programs. Rebuild every program in the target's native idiom. Lifted programs accumulate technical debt; rebuilt ones absorb improvements.
HubSpot · Admin track
The HubSpot Admin's six-section playbook
For the person who owns the portal. User management, the marketing-contact toggle, property hygiene, workflow management, integration health, the gotchas that move the bill.
Section 1
Admin model + access
Roles
Super Admin (root), then permission-set role packages. Build custom roles for narrow scopes — "Email Author Only," "Workflow Reviewer." Don't grant Super Admin loosely.
SSO
SAML SSO available on Enterprise. Required for SOC2-regulated tenants. Provisioning via SCIM also Enterprise.
Teams
Logical grouping for ownership and reporting. Required for Partitioning on Enterprise. Set up teams before workflows — workflow ownership defaults to the user, not the team.
Audit log
Settings → Security → Activity log. 90-day default. Enterprise has 1-year retention. Export weekly if you have SOC2.
Section 2
Marketing contacts — the billing toggle
This is the most expensive setting in the portal. Get it wrong and your renewal goes up at the next contact tier.
- Marketing vs non-marketing: every contact has a Marketing Status. Marketing = eligible to receive marketing email. Counted against your contact tier. Non-marketing = free.
- Set the default: Settings → Objects → Contacts → Set as marketing contact by default. Most portals should set this to OFF.
- Promote-only-when-needed: add workflow logic to set marketing contact = true only on MQL or form fill, not on any contact creation.
- Renewal point: contacts are de-counted at the renewal date. Mark non-essential contacts as non-marketing in the 30 days before renewal to lock in the lower tier.
Gotcha: Importing a list with the "Set as marketing contact" toggle ON will flip every contact in the import. One uncareful import can raise the bill for the year.
Section 3
Property hygiene
- Naming convention: [domain]_[purpose]_[type]. Example: marketing_mql_date. The convention scales further than any folder structure.
- Default properties first: exhaust HubSpot's defaults before creating customs. Lifecycle Stage, Lead Status, HubSpot Score are well-instrumented out of the box.
- Property history: on by default for important properties. Settings → Properties → individual property → enable history if missing. Required for audit and debugging workflows.
- Calculated properties: Pro+. Use for derived metrics (days since last engagement, lifetime value tier). Cheaper than a workflow.
- Deletion is one-way: deleted properties are gone, including history. Archive first; delete only after 90 days.
Section 4
Workflow management
Re-enrollment
Off by default. Turn on only when the workflow should repeat for the same contact. Common bug: re-enrollment on a lead-routing workflow causes duplicate task assignments.
Suppression
Use Suppression Lists on every send workflow. Catches unsubscribes, hard bounces, do-not-mail lists in one shot.
Timing
Workflows fire on trigger evaluation, which runs every few minutes. Don't assume real-time. For sub-minute SLAs, use Webhooks + Operations Hub.
Versioning
Pro+ has Workflow History (revisions). Always check history before debugging "why did this fire."
Quotas
Workflow action limits scale with tier. Hit them and the workflow silently pauses — instrument with email-on-failure to monitor.
Section 5
Integration health
- Salesforce sync: Settings → Integrations → Salesforce. Inclusion list controls who syncs. Field mapping is bi-di by default; flip to one-way for sensitive fields.
- Operations Hub (separate Hub): programmable triggers, scheduled webhooks, data sync to other tools. Pay for it if you have any non-CRM integration; the time savings dwarf the cost.
- App Marketplace check: before building a custom integration, search the marketplace. 1,500+ pre-built; the integration you're scoping is likely there.
- Webhook endpoints: outbound webhooks are workflow actions on Pro+. Inbound webhooks are Ops Hub. Don't confuse the two.
Section 6
Top gotchas
Active vs Static list confusion: "Active" = updates automatically. "Static" = snapshot. Pardot's word for "Active" is "Dynamic" — train the team explicitly on the inversion or you'll have wrong-list incidents.
Deduplication: HubSpot dedupes by email address. Different email = different contact, even if same human. Operations Hub adds rules-based dedup.
GDPR/CCPA Delete: Use Privacy Delete (right of erasure), not regular delete. Privacy Delete permanently removes and prevents re-import of the email.
Smart Content fallbacks: Always set a fallback. Smart Content without a fallback shows nothing when no rule matches. Empty paragraphs in production email look like a bug — they are.
HubSpot · Consultant track
The HubSpot Consultant's six-section playbook
For the person scoping, designing, and shipping HubSpot work. Discovery, Hub-bundling, workflow patterns, scoring design that replaces Pardot grade, reporting design, migration patterns.
Section 1
Discovery questions before quoting
- Which Hubs do you need? Marketing alone, or Marketing + Sales + Service + Content + Ops? Bundling matters — the Suite is often cheaper than the sum.
- How many marketing contacts will you have at month 12? Drives tier and contact-tier pricing. Forecast the growth curve, not just today's number.
- Do you have a CRM you're replacing or coexisting with? Replace = HubSpot CRM is the source of truth. Coexist = budget two-way sync engineering and a data-stewardship role.
- Where do your forms live today? HubSpot Forms vs Non-HubSpot Forms (DOM-watched) determines your tracking and attribution strategy.
- What is the lifecycle-stage model? If they can't draw it, your first deliverable is a workshop, not a build.
- Who will own attribution? HubSpot ships rich attribution; if no one in the buyer's org will own the report, it will collect dust.
Section 2
Hub bundling decisions
Marketing alone
Defensible if Sales lives in Salesforce or another CRM with strong adoption. Budget the SF integration as a separate workstream.
Marketing + Sales
The default for teams replacing Pardot + a basic SF org. The CRM is included free; the upgrade unlocks pipeline, sequences, meetings.
Suite (all hubs)
For teams consolidating their whole stack. Best price-per-Hub, but assumes the team will actually use Service and Content. Don't sell what won't get used.
Ops Hub
Add when there are 3+ data sources to keep in sync, or when workflows need programmable steps (custom code actions, scheduled triggers).
Section 3
Workflow design patterns
- One workflow, one purpose: never combine "send the welcome series" with "route the lead to sales" in one workflow. Split for legibility.
- Lifecycle stage transitions: always set Lifecycle Stage via workflow, never manually. Manual edits don't fire downstream workflows.
- Branch logic: use If/Then branches liberally — they're free and audit-friendly. Avoid nested workflows triggering other workflows; the debug story is painful.
- Suppression by default: attach every marketing-email workflow to your global suppression list.
- Test enrollment: always test with a dummy contact (you can use your own email + a plus-tag) before going live. Use the workflow "Re-enrolling" toggle deliberately.
Section 4
Replacing Pardot's grade
HubSpot has no native A-through-F grade. Build the equivalent as a custom score property.
- Create: Settings → Properties → Contact → Create property → Score. Name it ICP Fit Score (or similar; the convention matters).
- Build the rubric: positive points for matching ICP criteria (industry, company size, title pattern, geography). Negative points for disqualifiers (competitor, student email, freebie hunter).
- Bucket into letter grades: a separate workflow translates score ranges into a text property ICP Grade (A: 80+, B: 60–79, C: 40–59, D: 20–39, F: <20). Reports and sales handoff use the letter, not the number.
- MQL = score AND grade: set the MQL workflow to fire on HubSpot Score > 50 AND ICP Grade IN (A, B). Same shape as Pardot's MQL, expressed in HubSpot's tools.
Section 5
Reporting design
- Default dashboards first: Marketing Performance, Sales Performance, Service Performance. They cover 80% of stakeholder questions out of the box.
- Custom Report Builder (Pro+): the workhorse. Cross-object reports (contact + deal + custom object) in a single canvas.
- Attribution reports (Pro+): first-touch, last-touch, U-shape, W-shape, full-path. Pick a model with the buyer and stick with it for a year. Switching models mid-stream breaks trend analysis.
- Snapshot lists: create a static list at month-end. It's the only way to retroactively count "MQLs in May" if the lifecycle rules change after the fact.
- BI export: Operations Hub or the Reporting API. Export to a warehouse for analyst-grade work — don't try to make HubSpot the BI tool.
Section 6
Migration patterns into HubSpot
From Pardot
Export Prospects with all fields, score, grade, unsubscribe, last-engagement timestamp. Bulk-create as Contacts in HubSpot via the Import tool. Map Pardot Score → HubSpot Score. Map Grade → ICP Grade (or custom score). Engagement history doesn't survive the lift — accept that.
From Marketo / Eloqua
Same shape as Pardot. Marketo's "Programs" map to HubSpot Campaigns + Workflows. Eloqua's "Programs" map to Workflows.
Suppression first
Always import suppression and unsubscribe lists BEFORE any marketing contacts. One missed unsub will get you a CAN-SPAM complaint and break domain reputation.
Phased cutover
Step 1: stand up HubSpot. Step 2: import suppression. Step 3: import contacts. Step 4: rebuild top 5 programs as Workflows. Step 5: install HubSpot tracking script. Step 6: parallel-run for 30 days. Step 7: decommission Pardot.
Don't lift-and-shift
Rebuild programs in HubSpot's idiom. Lifted programs accumulate complexity; rebuilt ones absorb improvements and use platform-native features (Smart Content, Personalization Tokens) you'd never have used in Pardot.