Engagement Studio vs Flow: Nurtures in MCN
How each Engagement Studio step maps to a Marketing Cloud Next flow, what has no equivalent yet, and when to keep your nurture running in Pardot.
Engagement Studio stays in Account Engagement (Pardot); Marketing Cloud Next builds nurtures as flows in Salesforce Flow Builder. Most steps have a counterpart: triggers become Wait Until Event, rules become Decisions, waits and most actions keep their job. Score, tag and assignment-rule steps have no flow element, and running programs keep working when you add Marketing Cloud Next.
- Adding Marketing Cloud Next doesn't switch off Engagement Studio: Salesforce says existing programs keep running, so no deadline forces a rebuild.
- Salesforce encourages keeping Engagement Studio for promotional email nurtures, and since Spring '26 a program can hand leads and contacts to a flow; only programs you want fully in Marketing Cloud Next are rebuilt by hand, with no converter.
- Score, tag and assignment-rule steps have no flow element, and Salesforce's setup guide keeps Pardot as the source for scoring and grading when both run.
- Flows cost more than the licence: Salesforce says Account Engagement customers buy messaging, AI usage and Data 360 credits for Marketing Cloud Next.
- Start with one simple flow, such as the newsletter, for a pilot group, and don't market to the same people from both systems at the same time.
What Is Engagement Studio, and What Is a Flow in Marketing Cloud Next?
Engagement Studio is the nurture builder in every Pardot edition. A flow is the automation in Marketing Cloud Next (MCN), and one flow can do the work of a program plus the automation rules around it.
For a step-by-step guide with wait times, limits per edition and five example programs, read our Pardot Engagement Studio guide.
A program works on Pardot prospects and, in Salesforce's words, has "three basic types of steps: trigger steps, rule steps, and action steps." Where programs and automation rules overlap, our comparison of automation rules and Engagement Studio sorts them out.
An MCN flow runs on Salesforce records such as leads and contacts, with Data 360 (formerly Data Cloud) underneath for segments, engagement data and consent. Each flow belongs to exactly one campaign. The flow type decides when a flow starts; Salesforce names five:
| Flow type | When it starts |
|---|---|
| Audience flow | On a schedule, once or as often as every hour, for a segment, list, campaign members or records that meet criteria; it can republish the segment right before it runs |
| Automation event-triggered flow | When someone acts, such as submitting a form; within about 15 minutes |
| Activation-triggered flow | When an activation is published, for example to Google Ads; from every 10 minutes to every 24 hours, depending on the segment |
| Broadcast flow | When an API request, Apex call or another flow starts it |
| On-demand flow | When an API request or Apex call starts it, for urgent messages such as an order confirmation |
Nurtures mostly use the first two.
Our comparison of Pardot and Marketing Cloud gives the wider picture.
Does Flow Replace Engagement Studio?
No. Adding Marketing Cloud Next leaves Engagement Studio and every running program in Pardot as they are. You decide program by program whether a flow takes over.
Salesforce's getting-started guide for Account Engagement+ users even encourages teams to keep using "their tried and tested Engagement Studio programs" for promotional email nurtures. Flows are for SMS, WhatsApp, transactional messages and automation shared with service or B2B commerce.
Since the Spring '26 release (February 2026), a program can send leads and contacts to a flow, so a nurture reaches new channels without a rebuild. A program you want fully in MCN is rebuilt by hand: Salesforce documents no converter.
Once you send people from a program into a flow, the same guide recommends Marketing Cloud Next reports for them over Pardot reports.
How Does Each Engagement Studio Step Map to a Flow?
Most steps map one to one, but the flow type decides which elements you get; several that Pardot teams rely on work only in audience flows.
Salesforce's key concepts page gives the short version: completion actions and automation rules become event-based triggers, decisions and actions; Engagement Studio criteria become decisions; and a wait step "roughly equates to an activity trigger".
| Engagement Studio | Marketing Cloud Next flow | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Start: recipient lists | Audience flow (segment, list, campaign members or record criteria) | Once or recurring, as often as every hour |
| Start: a form's completion action adds the prospect to the recipient list | Automation event-triggered flow | Runs within about 15 minutes; the standard event covers Marketing Cloud Next forms only |
| Send Email | Send Email Message with a communication subscription | Only people opted in to that subscription receive it |
| Send Operational Email | Send Email Message with a transactional purpose | Consent checks for transactional email are off by default |
| Add to or remove from list | Add to / Remove from Actionable List | A list holds leads or contacts, never both |
| Change prospect field value | Update Records | Changes the lead or contact |
| Create Salesforce task | Create Records | Same result |
| Notify user, assign to user or queue | Notify User, Assign to User, Assign to Queue | Audience flows only; since August 2026 also the Marketing Completion Actions action (needs Salesforce Foundations) |
| Add to Salesforce campaign with status | Create Campaign Member | Audience flows only; Salesforce documents the campaign as input, no status |
| Trigger: email open, link click, form | Wait Until Event | Sits right after the step it watches, with a timeout path; link waits use Any Link |
| Rule (up to five conditions) | Decision | Outcomes are checked in the order listed |
| Wait X days | Wait for Amount of Time, Wait Until Date, Wait for Conditions | Can resume at a set time of day in a time zone |
| End step, or removal from the recipient list | End of path, plus up to 10 exit rules | Exit rules are checked at the start and each time the flow resumes after a pause |
| Repeating program | Recurring audience flow | As often as every hour |
| Test tab | Email preview and test send; checks when you activate; sandbox | Sandbox use consumes credits |
| Report cards, CSV export | Flow Reports; On-Canvas Insights | On-Canvas Insights need Advanced Edition |
| Running programs: 20 (Growth), 100 (Plus), 200 (Advanced, Premium); up to 300 steps each | Active flows: 500 (Growth), 750 (Advanced); 50 versions per flow | The limits count different things |
| No A/B test of paths | Path Experiment | Advanced Edition, up to 10 paths |
| SMS or WhatsApp step | Send to Flows action hands off to an on-demand flow | Since Spring '26; uses add-on credits |
For link-click waits Salesforce says "dynamic links and links with merge fields are unsupported", so a program waiting on a personalised link needs another signal. Exit rules are evaluated "each time a user starts a flow or resumes a flow after a pause": a contact who meets one mid-path leaves at the next wait.
What Has No Equivalent in a Flow?
Salesforce's list of flow elements for marketers has no element to adjust a score, apply or remove tags, assign to a group, run an active assignment rule or call an external action. Some Pardot triggers also have no ready-made event.
Scores and Grades
MCN has its own scoring model: engagement, fit and overall scores, each from 0 to 100, calculated in Data 360 and applied retroactively. Salesforce documents no letter grade like Pardot's A+ to F. Salesforce's setup guide keeps scoring in Pardot: "Account Engagement is your source for scoring and grading information." Decide that question before you rebuild a program that adds points.
Triggers Without a Standard Event
Salesforce's Automation Event Library lists email opens, link clicks and bounces, form submissions, record changes and SMS, WhatsApp and RCS events. It has no event for custom redirect clicks or file downloads. Trailhead adds that the form event counts "not for every form on an external website", so a program fed by a Pardot form has no ready-made event to start a flow.
The documented route is a form rebuilt in MCN, as Salesforce's setup guide recommends. Other behaviour, such as website visits, can become a custom event built from an engagement signal on Data 360 data; those custom events need Advanced Edition.
What Does the Same Nurture Look Like in Both?
A guide follow-up needs about the same steps in both, but the flow forces two decisions up front: flow type and subscription.
In Engagement Studio
- Recipient list: a dynamic list of prospects who downloaded the guide.
- Send Email: follow-up 1.
- Trigger: Email Link Click on follow-up 1, up to a max of 3 days.
- Yes path: Notify User, then Add to Salesforce campaign with the status Responded.
- No path: Send Email: follow-up 2, then wait 7 days.
- Rule: Industry is Manufacturing. Yes: the manufacturing case email. No: the general one.
As a Marketing Cloud Next Flow
- Audience flow on a segment of leads and contacts who downloaded the guide, recurring daily. It has to be an audience flow: Notify User and Create Campaign Member don't exist in event-triggered flows.
- Send Email Message: follow-up 1, with the subscription that covers this content.
- Wait Until Event: Email Link Click on follow-up 1, Any Link, timeout after 3 days.
- Event path: Notify User, then Create Campaign Member for the guide campaign. Check how the member status gets set before reports rely on it.
- Timeout path: Send Email Message: follow-up 2, then Wait for Amount of Time: 7 days, resuming at 9:00.
- Decision: Industry equals Manufacturing, with one Send Email Message per outcome.
- Exit rule on a data graph attribute such as lead status Qualified, so sales-ready leads leave at the next wait.
People without an opt-in for the chosen subscription get no promotional email from this flow. How your Pardot opt-ins fill that subscription is covered in consent in Marketing Cloud Next.
What This Means for Sales
In Pardot, a nurture can notify the assigned user and adjust the score sales filters on. In MCN, the Notify User and assignment elements work only in audience flows, and scores run from 0 to 100 with no documented grade. If Pardot stays the source for scoring and grading, sales keeps seeing the same Score and Grade. If MCN scoring takes over, agree with sales on the number that marks a hot lead before any flow branches on it.
When Should You Keep Engagement Studio Running in Pardot?
Keep a program in Pardot when it works and depends on something a flow can't do.
- It adjusts scores, applies tags or runs assignment rules that sales relies on.
- It's fed by Pardot forms or landing pages you don't plan to rebuild.
- It reaches prospects who aren't synced to Salesforce. MCN works on Salesforce records, not on Pardot prospects, and Data 360 only takes in activity from synced prospects.
- It waits for custom redirect clicks or file downloads, which have no standard event in MCN.
- It only needs SMS or WhatsApp added: Send to Flows hands people to an on-demand flow, which "consumes add-on credits for SMS or WhatsApp messages."
A program that stays in Pardot can still use Data 360. A Pardot dynamic list can pull in a published Data 360 segment from the default data space: a limited number of such lists per business unit (Salesforce's sources give different maximums), up to one million prospects each. Updates follow within an hour of a segment refresh.
Don't run the same people through both at once. Salesforce's advice to Pardot customers: "don't market to the same group of records in both systems at the same time"; start with a pilot group or a single communication subscription.
When Is a Flow the Better Place for a Nurture?
A flow earns the rebuild when the nurture needs something only MCN has, or when one flow can replace a program and the automation rules that grew around it.
Path Experiment tests up to 10 versions of a path in Advanced Edition; Salesforce calls results with fewer than 300 people per path inconclusive. Decisions can use Data 360 data once a data graph is set up; Salesforce calls one necessary for personalising flow decisions. In Advanced Edition, a decision can also branch on the AI Engagement Score or Engagement Frequency.
Know the running cost first. Salesforce's Pardot pricing FAQ says Account Engagement customers using MCN "will need to purchase Einstein Request Credits, Messaging Credits, and Data 360 Credits", and segments behind audience flows use Data 360 credits when they publish.
Your Options
Stay. Your programs run in Pardot and nobody needs SMS, path tests or Data 360 decisions. Doing nothing is a valid outcome. Pardot consulting tidies programs and scoring where they are.
Add. You want the first flows next to your running programs, starting with the newsletter and a pilot group. Marketing Cloud Next consulting gets you the setup, the first flows and a list of which programs stay.
Move. You want most nurtures in MCN. Read what moves from Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next, then hand us the rebuild as a Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next migration, every program tested before it goes live. The one-pager "Engagement Studio to Flow: A Translation Guide" is free on our eBooks and one-pagers page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Flow Replace Engagement Studio?
No. Salesforce says existing programs keep running when you add Marketing Cloud Next; you choose which ones to rebuild as flows.
Can I Convert an Engagement Studio Program Into a Flow Automatically?
Salesforce documents no converter; each program is rebuilt by hand. Since February 2026 you can keep the program and have it send leads and contacts to a flow instead.
Can Engagement Studio Send SMS or WhatsApp Messages?
Yes, since Spring '26: the Send to Flows action hands people to an on-demand flow in Marketing Cloud Next, and the messages use paid add-on credits.
What Replaces an Engagement Studio Trigger in a Flow?
The Wait Until Event element. It sits right after the step it watches and has a timeout path for people who don't act.
