Salesforce Data Cloud Implementation Steps

Implementing Data 360 (formerly Data Cloud) for Marketing Cloud Next follows Salesforce's documented order: provision Data 360, assign permission sets, enable it, connect your CRM, choose the data space, enable Marketing Cloud Next, deploy the marketing data kits, connect Pardot if you use it, generate the identity ruleset, build a data graph and set up consent before the first send.

A few decisions can't be undone. The basics are in what Data 360 is and what marketers use it for.

What Do You Need Before You Start?

A Salesforce org on Enterprise or Unlimited Edition, a Marketing Cloud Next (MCN) licence in Growth or Advanced Edition, and any Data 360 edition. Salesforce Foundations, a no-cost add-on, counts as one. Professional Edition can't get Data 360 Provisioning.

Teams on Account Engagement (Pardot) Growth, Plus, Advanced or Premium get MCN access through Account Engagement+, provided they run Sales or Service Cloud Enterprise Edition or higher; Pardot editions ending in "-LP" don't include it.

Which Org Runs Data 360?

Salesforce's implementation overview: one Data 360 can serve several Salesforce orgs for central control, separate instances per region keep data in its region, and a new org separates the admin teams. With a Data Cloud One companion connection, MCN's data kits deploy in the home org, the one that runs Data 360.

What Pardot Teams Prepare First

Salesforce's guide for Pardot customers lists these before any next-gen step: turn on Data Protection and Privacy in Setup (the consent tools need it), activate User Sync, and add the Account Engagement Connector User permission set to the B2BMA Integration User. Connect and sync every campaign whose engagement you want in Data 360 now: "You can't turn off Connected Campaigns after you unpause the connector", and a campaign synced later doesn't bring its engagement data in. The same guide warns:

"Certain settings and decisions that you make during configuration are irreversible or very difficult to change."

What Are the Steps, in Order?

The order follows Salesforce's step-by-step Help guide for Pardot customers, which enables MCN and deploys its data kits before connecting Pardot. Older Salesforce material, including the getting-started guide from early 2026, connects Pardot to Data 360 first.

Step 1: Get Data 360 Provisioned

Salesforce Foundations is a $0 add-on: "Once you add the required Foundations products, Data 360 will be automatically provisioned." The other route is the Data Cloud Provisioning licence, available in the Your Account app, which "turns on Data 360 and includes a base number of credits, storage allocation, and one default data space."

Salesforce's pages don't agree on the included credits, so check Digital Wallet and your order form. Credits, the unit Data 360 usage is billed in, are covered in Data 360 pricing and credits, explained.

Steps 2 and 3: Permission Sets, Then Enable Data 360

Salesforce's MCN setup guide: "Most tasks require a Salesforce admin (System Administrator profile) with the Marketing Cloud Admin permission set and Data Cloud Architect permission set." Older PDF guides call the latter Data Cloud Admin.

To open the MCN setup assistant, in Setup enter Marketing Cloud in the Quick Find box, then under Assisted Setup select Assistant Home. Its Basic Settings page lists the prerequisites for enabling MCN, and Data 360 comes first: "To successfully complete all of the prerequisites, you must first enable Data 360." A Data Cloud Architect does this in Data 360 Setup, reached through the App Launcher.

Step 4: Connect the Salesforce CRM

A connector links Data 360 to a source system. In Data 360 Setup, open Connectors, click New and select Salesforce CRM. Data from this connector has used no credits since 7 August 2025.

The default email channel isn't yours to create: "An admin can't create this channel. Contact Salesforce Customer Support for help." Open that case early.

Step 5: Choose the Data Space and Enable Marketing Cloud Next

A data space is a separate section of your Data 360 data, for example per brand or region. Every org with Data 360 has a default one, and segments in campaign flows must use it. Select it in Basic Settings, then enable Marketing Cloud Next. More data spaces are a paid add-on, and a new data space's prefix can't be changed later.

In Advanced Edition each business unit maps to exactly one data space, up to 150 business units, and business units need at least two data spaces. For Pardot customers, Salesforce advises: "We recommend that you don't yet implement multiple business units."

Step 6: Deploy the Marketing Data Kits

Data kits are ready-made packages of the objects, fields and data streams (one data source flowing in, such as your leads) that MCN needs. Salesforce: "Marketing data kits are required for all Marketing Cloud Next users, but the sales data kit is optional." The marketing kits are Marketing Setup Objects, Consent Objects, Flows Integration and Email Channel, plus SMS or WhatsApp kits with those add-ons.

To deploy them, open Basic Settings from Setup and click Deploy or Update in the Deploy Marketing Data Kits section.

The sales data kit brings in accounts, contacts, leads and opportunities. Salesforce calls it "the fastest path to building Identity Resolution rulesets", and Opportunity Influence requires it. Then check that the Sales and Service data streams map to the Lead and Contact data model objects, the common objects all data is mapped onto.

Step 7: Connect Pardot

Without Pardot, skip this step. With it, Help gives four parts:

1. In Setup, enter Data Cloud in the Quick Find box, open the entry under Account Engagement (Help calls it Data Cloud Integration or Data Cloud Connectors), click Get Started and add your business units.
2. In Pardot, edit the Data 360 connector, choose a Lookback Date "up to 2 years before today" and save.
3. In Data 360, deploy the Account Engagement data streams for the business unit, with refresh schedules that match your MCN streams, and map the Contact and Lead data to the Individual object.
4. Back in Pardot, open the connector and click Resume Sync.

The Account Engagement connector brings activity only, one data stream per activity type, and each ingestion consumes credits. Prospect fields take the CRM route: grant the Data Cloud Salesforce Connector permission set read access to the Account Engagement fields starting with pi_ and add them to the Contact and Lead data streams. Pardot forms, links, landing pages and list emails come through the CRM connector's "Marketing - Account Engagement CRM" data bundle.

For Data 360 segments in Pardot dynamic lists, add a custom field Account Engagement Integration ID mapped to the Contact ID. Only published segments from the default data space qualify, one dynamic list per segment; the first population takes up to 3 hours. Salesforce's Help and its PDF integration guide state different maximums for these lists per business unit.

Changing the Lookback Date later doesn't remove data; to remove it, pause the connector and remove the data stream. More on the Pardot side: our eBook Moving From Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next.

Step 8: Generate the Identity Ruleset

A ruleset is a set of match rules that decides which records belong to the same person. In Basic Settings, under Identity Resolution Rulesets, click Generate Ruleset in the Unified Individual section; the unified individual is the one profile built from all of a person's records. The generated ruleset uses Normalized Email, Lead to Contact and Device to Known as match rules.

Salesforce recommends one active ruleset for the Individual object and one for the Account object: "Maintaining two rulesets per object increases the amount that you're billed for identity resolution."

For a custom ruleset, turn off Run jobs automatically while you configure and use Run Now. The ruleset ID, up to four characters, "can't be changed and becomes part of the data model object names and API names." After an initial ingestion, identity resolution processes the new data within up to 18 hours; Run Now starts it sooner. Match rules for accounts, and what each rerun costs, are in identity resolution for leads and accounts.

Step 9: Personalisation and the Data Graph

A data graph is a precalculated view that combines a person's data from several objects. In Setup, search for Customer, open Customer Engagement, click Go to Personalization Setup and deploy it to your marketing data space.

In Data 360, build a data graph on the Unified Individual object with Individual ID, Email Address and Telephone Number, and select it under Configure Basic Personalization. Only fields in the graph are available for cross-object merge fields and dynamic content.

Step 10: Consent

MCN treats every contact without a consent value as opted out, and consent records in the CRM aren't recognised automatically.

Pardot teams have two ways to carry opt-ins over. Consent matching works in one business unit, by Opted Out Field or by Public List, and can take up to 48 hours; import no new consent records until it's done. Or import a CSV file per subscription, channel and status.

Salesforce also advises an explicit opt-in checkbox on every lead capture form. The details are in consent and Pardot opt-ins in Marketing Cloud Next.

Step 11: Sending Domain and Reporting

MCN sends through Unified Messaging, which Salesforce describes as "different from the current Account Engagement system", so the domain is set up again and warmed up. Salesforce's guide for Pardot customers places this right after the data kits; with DNS taking up to 48 hours, start it there.

Reporting is Marketing Performance Intelligence. It needs the marketing data kits plus the sales data kit, or a manual mapping of the email bounce fields. Viewers need the Tableau Next Included App Business User and Marketing Cloud Manager permission sets, data can take up to 24 hours to appear, and the app consumes Data 360 credits.

Which Decisions Can't You Undo?

Six, plus one that is expensive to change.

• The identity ruleset ID becomes part of object and API names and can't be changed.
• A data space's prefix can't be changed after you save it.
• A business unit can't be edited or deleted, what you assign to it stays there, and a deactivated business unit can't be reactivated.
• Connected Campaigns in Pardot can't be turned off once the connector is unpaused.
• Deleting a ruleset "permanently removes all unified customer data" and the history of previous runs.
• Deleting a communication subscription deletes all of its consent data.
• Changing match rules, reconciliation rules or filters of a ruleset, or mapping new fields to an object it uses, can trigger a full rerun that bills every profile again.

What Doesn't Get Ingested?

Salesforce lists what stays out:

• Activity of prospects that aren't linked to a Salesforce lead, contact or person account.
• Activity on assets without a connected campaign syncing with Salesforce.
• Operational emails and preference page opens.
• History before the Lookback Date (at most 2 years back).

Deletion has a gap too: deleting a prospect in Pardot for a GDPR request doesn't delete the person in MCN or Data 360; someone with Data 360 rights has to delete them there as well.

What This Means for Sales

Leads, contacts and owners stay as they are, and in Salesforce's recommended coexistence model Pardot stays the source for score and grade. One change needs sales leadership's OK: Opportunity Influence replaces Campaign Influence and Customizable Campaign Influence. Salesforce: "You must disable previous versions before you enable Opportunity Influence." If your pipeline reports run on those models, agree on the switch first.

Do It Yourself or Hand It Over?

An admin with the Data Cloud Architect permission set can follow these steps. The hard part is the decisions above, made before anyone has seen real data in the org.

If you're still deciding what should run in MCN, our Marketing Cloud Next consulting for Pardot teams starts with what your licence already includes. If you'd rather have the whole sequence done for you, that is our Data 360 setup for Marketing Cloud Next.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Can Set Up Data 360 for Marketing Cloud Next?

A System Administrator with the Marketing Cloud Admin and Data Cloud Architect permission sets. The Pardot steps also need an Account Engagement admin, and marketers take over at segments and campaigns.

How Long Does a Data 360 Implementation Take?

Salesforce publishes no total. Its documented waits: up to an hour for provisioning through Your Account, up to 15 minutes to enable MCN, up to 48 hours for DNS and for consent matching, up to 18 hours before identity resolution processes newly ingested data, up to 24 hours for reporting data, and days or weeks for the first Pardot activity ingestion.

Can You Test the Setup in a Sandbox?

Yes, with limits. Data 360 doesn't provision itself in a sandbox; you enable it in Data 360 Setup there. Sandbox usage consumes your production org's credits, and Pardot sandboxes don't support the Data 360 connector. An MCN developer sandbox copies flows, business units and scoring rules but not campaigns, subscriptions or content.

Do I Need the Account Engagement Connector?

Only if you want Pardot activity, such as email clicks, in Data 360; prospect fields arrive with the synced leads and contacts anyway.