Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next: What Moves
Moving from Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next: the setup steps, what you can copy, what you rebuild, and what keeps running in Pardot alongside it.
Moving from Account Engagement (Pardot) to Marketing Cloud Next usually means running both side by side: you switch Marketing Cloud Next on in the same Salesforce org, connect Pardot data through Data 360 (formerly Data Cloud), align consent, copy simple assets and rebuild everything with logic. Pardot keeps scoring and grading and runs its programs until a flow takes over.
- Salesforce's recommended model runs Pardot and Marketing Cloud Next side by side, with Pardot keeping scoring and grading; nothing has to move at once.
- Most Pardot licences include Marketing Cloud Next, but Data 360, messaging and AI usage are paid in credits, and Pardot activity ingestion costs credits too.
- Simple emails and landing pages can be copied; forms, lists, automations, tracking and the sending domain are rebuilt.
- Some setup decisions are permanent, such as Connected Campaigns, business units and deleted subscriptions, so follow Salesforce's current setup order.
- Start with a pilot on one subscription and never market to the same people from both apps at the same time.
Do You Have to Move Everything From Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next?
No. Salesforce's own setup guide for Account Engagement+ describes a model in which both apps work together, and Salesforce's B2B pages say no migration is required. You decide process by process what runs where.
The guide recommends this split "as of Winter '26": Salesforce CRM holds the people (prospects, leads and contacts), Data 360 reads both sources as the aggregation layer, email consent can be matched between the two apps, and scoring stays where it is:
"Account Engagement is your source for scoring and grading information."
If you're still deciding whether to go there at all, start with how Pardot and Marketing Cloud Next compare on features, data and cost. If you want the project planned and run for you, our Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next migration covers inventory, rebuild and go-live.
What Do You Need Before You Start?
You need a Marketing Cloud Next licence, Data 360 and the right Salesforce edition; most Pardot customers already have the licence.
- Licence: Pardot Growth includes Marketing Cloud Next Growth Edition; Plus, Advanced and Premium include Advanced Edition (Salesforce calls this Account Engagement+). The condition is Sales Cloud or Service Cloud Enterprise Edition or higher. Editions ending in "-LP" don't include it.
- Salesforce edition and interface: Marketing Cloud Next requires Salesforce Enterprise or Unlimited Edition and works in Lightning Experience only.
- Data 360: a prerequisite. Salesforce Foundations brings it at no cost; Salesforce's page "Prerequisites for Using Data 360" also asks Pardot customers to contact their account executive for access.
- Credits: usage is billed on top. Salesforce's pricing page says Pardot customers "will need to purchase Einstein Request Credits, Messaging Credits, and Data 360 Credits".
- People: Salesforce recommends naming four roles before you start: a Data Manager, a Marketing Admin, a Salesforce Admin and a Compliance Lead. The admin doing the setup needs the Marketing Cloud Admin and Data Cloud Architect permission sets.
Our Marketing Cloud Next Readiness Check confirms licence, Data 360 and consent before you commit budget.
In What Order Does Salesforce Set Up Marketing Cloud Next for Pardot?
Salesforce's guide "Guide: Set Up Account Engagement+" names six phases and says the order matters: "it's important to tackle configuration tasks in a specific order."
- Planning and strategy: roles, the source of truth per function, the Data Protection and Privacy setting (the consent tools need it), User Sync and the connector user's permission set.
- Set up the next-gen tools: enable Marketing Cloud Next and select the data space (the part of Data 360 that marketing works in), deploy the marketing data kits (ready-made packages of data streams and mappings), authenticate a sending domain, verify a tracker domain in Pardot, set up Salesforce CMS, review the email preference page, plan the domain warm-up.
- Connect Data 360: the Salesforce v2 connector in Pardot, the Data 360 connector, the Pardot data kits (email activity, forms, landing pages, prospects) and the mapping to the Individual object.
- Resolve and harmonize data: an identity resolution ruleset, which decides which records belong to one person, and at least one data graph.
- Consent alignment: consent matching, a written record of your settings, consent imports.
- Marketing settings and assets: web tracking, Copy to CMS, new forms, Marketing Performance dashboards.
Older Salesforce material, such as the getting-started guide for Account Engagement+ users, connects Pardot to Data 360 before Marketing Cloud Next is switched on. We follow the current Help guide.
Two warnings in the same guide shape the plan. The first:
"Certain settings and decisions that you make during configuration are irreversible or very difficult to change."
The second: "We recommend that you don't yet implement multiple business units."
What Can You Copy From Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next?
List emails, images, files and landing pages can be copied with Copy to CMS; for forms, Salesforce's setup guide says to rebuild them. Salesforce's Copy to CMS page still lists forms among the assets you can copy; we follow the setup guide.
Simple assets with basic HTML copy best. For the rest, Salesforce recommends a rebuild:
"It's recommended to rebuild marketing assets with custom CSS, embedded images, or merge fields"
- Landing pages: a form on the page isn't copied with the landing page.
- Folder permissions: they don't transfer to the CMS workspace, so you set up access again.
- Forms: the setup guide says forms "aren't copied with the other assets and must be rebuilt", and suggests practising the new tools on one of your priority lead capture forms.
- Setup per business unit: Copy to CMS is switched on per Pardot business unit and creates its own CMS workspace, whose name Salesforce says not to change. Only files marked CMS Compatible come across.
- Merge fields: Pardot merge fields show up in the Marketing Cloud Next email builder, "but they don't work" in emails sent from Marketing Cloud Next. Replace them before the first send.
- One direction only: "You can't use emails built in Marketing Cloud Next with Account Engagement."
After every copy, Salesforce asks you to review the new versions and fix formatting issues.
Which Pardot Data Connects Instead of Moving?
Your people stay in Salesforce: Marketing Cloud Next works on the same lead and contact records. Pardot fields and activity reach Data 360 through connectors.
Prospect Fields
Pardot prospect data reaches Data 360 through the synced lead or contact: you give the Data Cloud Salesforce Connector permission set read access to the Pardot fields that start with pi_ and add them to the lead and contact data streams. Ingesting data from the Salesforce CRM connector has been included with Data 360 since 7 August 2025 and doesn't consume credits.
Engagement History
Email activity, form and landing page activity come in through the Data 360 connector for Account Engagement. The asset records themselves (forms, links, landing pages, list emails) come through the Salesforce CRM connector's "Marketing - Account Engagement CRM" data bundle. Three conditions decide what activity arrives:
- The prospect must already be synced with a Salesforce lead, contact or person account. Activity of unsynced prospects isn't ingested, and neither are operational emails or preference page opens.
- The asset must have a connected campaign that syncs with Salesforce.
- The activity must be newer than the look-back date, which can be "up to 2 years before today".
Each ingestion "consumes Data 360 credits", based on the number of activities, and the first one "can take days or weeks". After that, Data 360 checks for new activity every hour. To remove ingested data, pause the connector and remove the data stream; moving the look-back date removes nothing.
The data also flows the other way. A published segment from the default data space can feed a Pardot dynamic list: a limited number of lists per business unit (Salesforce's sources give different maximums) and up to one million prospects per list. This needs a custom field, Account Engagement Integration ID, mapped from the contact ID. The first fill takes up to 3 hours.
Identity Resolution
Data 360 merges leads and contacts that belong to the same person into a unified individual. Salesforce's generated ruleset for Marketing Cloud Next uses the match rules Normalized Email, Lead to Contact and Device to Known, and recommends one active ruleset each for the Individual and Account objects.
For B2B, one detail matters: identity resolution keeps the most recent update, so "lower priority data can be stored over preferred field values". Salesforce recommends checking high-value account merges by hand.
What Do You Rebuild in Marketing Cloud Next?
Everything with logic: lists, automations, forms, tracking, sending setup and attribution. The table pairs each Pardot piece with the Marketing Cloud Next feature that takes over its job; the facts in each row are Salesforce's.
| In Pardot | In Marketing Cloud Next | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic lists | Segments in Data 360 | Salesforce: "similar to a dynamic list"; standard refresh every 12 or 24 hours, rapid every 1 or 4 hours on one week of data |
| Static lists | Actionable lists | "A list can contain leads or contacts, but not both." |
| Engagement Studio programs, automation rules, completion actions | Flows | One flow can combine what rules and programs did; Salesforce documents no converter |
| Forms | New forms in the Marketing app | Rebuilt, per Salesforce's setup guide |
| Pardot tracking code | Next-gen tracking script via site connectors | Switch off Pardot web tracking "to avoid data redundancy" |
| Sending domain (TXT records) | Subdomain delegated for Unified Messaging | DKIM required; warm-up plan; DNS changes take up to 48 hours |
| Tracker domain (CNAME) | Tracking domain for email links, set up in Unified Messaging | Salesforce's domain by default, or a branded one; the setup guide still has you verify a tracker domain in Pardot |
| Opted Out field and public lists | Communication subscriptions per channel (a subscription is a topic people opt in to, such as the newsletter) | Matched or imported; no consent record counts as opted out |
| Score and grade (A+ to F) | Engagement, fit and overall scores, each 0 to 100 | Pardot stays the source in Salesforce's model; Marketing Cloud Next scores retroactively once a model is published |
| Campaign Influence or Customizable Campaign Influence | Opportunity Influence | Replaces the older features; you must disable them first |
| Pardot reports and dashboards | Our suggestion: Marketing Performance dashboards, part of Marketing Cloud Next reporting on Data 360 and Tableau Next | Allow up to 24 hours for dashboard data to appear |
For the nurture row step by step, see how each Engagement Studio step maps to a Marketing Cloud Next flow.
What Keeps Running in Pardot?
Everything you don't move. Salesforce states that "B2B automation including lead scoring, nurturing, and attribution continue to run as configured", so your Engagement Studio programs, automation rules, forms and the sync with Salesforce keep working. Since Spring '26, Engagement Studio can also hand SMS and WhatsApp sends to Marketing Cloud Next On-Demand Flows (using add-on credits), so a Pardot nurture gets new channels without rebuilding the program.
How Does Consent Get From Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next?
Through consent matching or an import; without either, Marketing Cloud Next "treats any prospect, lead, or contact without a consent value as opted out by default."
- Two match types: "Public List" maps up to 100 public lists to new subscriptions; "Opted Out Field" creates one subscription called B2B Email Consent, and Salesforce advises it only if you have no public lists.
- Limits: matching supports one business unit and can take up to 48 hours. Don't import consent until matching has finished.
- Do Not Email: "The default Do Not Email field in Account Engagement doesn't track consent."
- New prospects: a prospect created in Pardot by a form, import, the API or by hand brings its Pardot status, which "overrides any existing consent history" for that email address in both apps.
- Returning leads: when a known person submits a new lead capture form, Data 360 overwrites their consent status to Opted Out. Salesforce's fix: "include an explicit Opt In checkbox in every lead capture form".
- Deletion: a prospect deleted in Pardot "isn't automatically deleted in Marketing Cloud Next or Data 360". Someone with Data 360 rights deletes the person there too.
The full walkthrough, including how Pardot opt-ins map to subscriptions, is in consent in Marketing Cloud Next for Pardot teams.
What Are the Traps When Pardot and Marketing Cloud Next Run Side by Side?
Seven documented details catch teams that run both apps.
Connected Campaigns Can't Be Turned Off
Salesforce: "You can't turn off Connected Campaigns after you unpause the connector to initiate the connection." Turn Connected Campaigns on, then connect and sync every campaign you need before the connection starts: "If you try to sync another campaign later, its related engagement data isn't ingested into Data 360."
Opportunity Influence Replaces Campaign Influence
The new attribution doesn't run next to the old models: "You must disable previous versions before you enable Opportunity Influence." If your reports run on Customizable Campaign Influence models today, decide on the switch with whoever owns those reports.
Opportunity Influence counts email and SMS clicks from 30 days before an opportunity is created until Closed/Won, credits people with a contact role on the opportunity, doesn't reflect campaign hierarchies in its revenue data, and requires the Sales data kit.
Pardot Sandboxes Can't Test the Data 360 Connection
"Account Engagement sandboxes don't support the Data 360 Connector", and they don't support email sends either. You can test Marketing Cloud Next in a Salesforce sandbox, but Data 360 isn't provisioned there by itself, and sandbox use consumes credits. A developer sandbox copies flows, business units and scoring rules, but no campaigns, subscriptions or content; content and preference pages exist only in a Full sandbox.
Some Setup Decisions Are Final
The guide's warning about irreversible settings gets concrete with business units: "After you assign a data space, marketing workspace, campaign, or brief to a business unit, you can't change the business unit." A business unit can't be edited or deleted once created, and a deactivated one can't be reactivated. Choose the marketing data space with that in mind, because the one you select applies to the first business unit you create.
Deleting a communication subscription deletes all of its consent data.
Campaigns Need Clear Lines
Both apps show every campaign. Salesforce's rules: give Marketing Cloud Next campaigns their own naming scheme and record type, manage each campaign only in the app that created it, and assign the Marketing Cloud Next campaign page layout to the Marketing app only, or the Sales and Pardot apps change too.
Don't Market to the Same People From Both Apps
Salesforce's knowledge article on consent differences says: "don't market to the same group of records in both systems at the same time."
Start With a Pilot
For moving consent, the same article says: "We recommend that you start with a pilot group of records, or a specific communication subscription." It also suggests using Marketing Cloud Next first for one isolated campaign.
What Does This Mean for Sales?
As long as Pardot scores and grades, sales sees the same numbers and letters as before. If you later move scoring to Marketing Cloud Next, the scale changes to 0 to 100 and Salesforce documents no letter grade, so agree on new thresholds for handover before the switch. Attribution changes too: Opportunity Influence credits revenue to email and SMS clicks by contacts with a role on the opportunity.
Checklist: Moving From Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next in Phases
Our checklist follows Salesforce's order, adds a pilot, and ends each phase with something you can check before the next one.
| Phase | What you do | Done when |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Decide | Name the four roles; confirm Foundations and the Marketing Cloud Next edition; decide which app is the source for people, scores and consent; list every campaign that must be connected | A written decision on what stays in Pardot and what moves |
| 2. Foundation | Salesforce's phases 1 and 2: settings, data space, data kits, sending domain, CMS, warm-up plan | Domain authenticated, data kits deployed |
| 3. Connect | Connected Campaigns on and every listed campaign synced; Data 360 connector, look-back date, Pardot data kits; identity resolution; data graph | First ingestion finished; key accounts checked by hand |
| 4. Consent | Run consent matching; document the settings; import other consent; add an explicit opt-in checkbox to every lead form | Matching complete and sample records checked |
| 5. Pilot | One subscription or pilot group; one simple email and one priority form rebuilt; new tracking script; simple assets copied to CMS | First pilot send delivered; no audience receives mail from both apps |
| 6. Expand | Move programs one at a time; decide on scoring and on Opportunity Influence; install Marketing Performance dashboards | Each moved program switched off in Pardot |
The free eBook Moving From Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next covers the setup order, a checklist and six mistakes to avoid on twelve pages you can share with your team.
Your Options: Stay, Add or Move
Pardot has no end date, so the timing is yours.
- Stay: Pardot does what you need, and Marketing Cloud Next would add cost and work without a use case. Pardot consulting that fixes scoring, sync and nurtures gets more out of what you already pay for.
- Add: you want SMS, WhatsApp or data from other systems, and Pardot keeps running beside it. Marketing Cloud Next consulting sets up Data 360 and your first campaign next to Pardot.
- Move: you want your programs in Marketing Cloud Next over time. The phases above apply, one program at a time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Does It Take to Move From Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next?
Salesforce publishes no total duration. The documented waits: DNS changes up to 48 hours, consent matching up to 48 hours, the first Pardot activity ingestion days or weeks, and dashboards up to 24 hours for data.
Can Engagement Studio Programs Be Converted Into Flows?
Salesforce documents no converter. You rebuild each program as a flow; Salesforce maps Engagement Studio triggers to wait steps, criteria to decisions and actions to flow actions.
Does My Pardot Engagement History Come Along?
Partly. The Data 360 connector ingests email, form and landing page activity up to 2 years back, for prospects synced with Salesforce and campaigns that are connected. Each ingestion consumes Data 360 credits.
Can I Keep Using Pardot After Adding Marketing Cloud Next?
Yes. Salesforce says existing automation keeps running as configured, and its setup guide keeps Pardot as the source for scoring and grading.
What Does It Cost to Add Marketing Cloud Next to Pardot?
The licence is included for Pardot Growth to Premium (not editions ending in "-LP") if you run Sales or Service Cloud Enterprise Edition or higher. Usage is billed in credits for Data 360, messaging and AI. Ingesting from the Salesforce CRM is free, while Pardot activity ingestion and Marketing Cloud Next sandbox use consume credits.
