Account Engagement (Pardot)

Pardot consultants, for the platform Salesforce now calls Account Engagement

The InHouse Marketers is a B2B marketing operations consultancy that implements, migrates and runs Salesforce Pardot for the marketing ops teams that own it. Salesforce has renamed the platform Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, and both names mean the same product. The published work is three migrations with Pardot on one side of the move.

What does a Pardot consultant do?

A Pardot consultant builds and repairs the automation rules, completion actions, dynamic lists, Engagement Studio programs, scoring and grading, and the Salesforce connector that make up an Account Engagement org. The InHouse Marketers has published three migrations with Pardot on one side of the move: a HubSpot to Pardot migration for a security services client, several Pardot instances consolidated into one Marketo instance for a web solutions client, and a move from Pardot onto Odoo.

The two names

Pardot, Account Engagement, and which one to use

Salesforce renamed the product. Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is the current name for Pardot, and nothing about the platform changed with the name: automation rules, completion actions, dynamic lists, Engagement Studio, score and grade are the same constructs they were. Salesforce documentation carries both names.

This site writes Account Engagement (Pardot) because both names are in daily use. Buyers search for a Pardot consultant, admins say Pardot in standups, and the Salesforce setup menu says Account Engagement. Our track record rows say Pardot, which is the name the work was delivered under.

Delivered work

The Pardot migrations on the record

The record holds one move into the platform and two out of it, described by sector because clients are never named. Each write-up link reads as the pair a buyer searches for. The full list of 15 engagements sits on the migrations track record.

three published migrations with Pardot on one side
Move	Sector	What it involved
PardottoMarketo	Web solutions	Several separate Pardot instances consolidated into one Marketo instance after a run of acquisitions — workspaces and person partitions per acquired organisation, and a sequencing decision about which instance moved first. Pardot to Marketo migration
HubSpottoPardot	Security services	System analysis first, then a written plan of exactly what needed migrating. The operational programs were the work; HubSpot workflows split across automation rules, completion actions and Engagement Studio. HubSpot to Pardot migration
PardottoOdoo	sector not published	The same shape of problem as the HubSpot move: a platform with no native equivalent of scoring, grading or Engagement Studio, so the logic has to be rebuilt in the tool’s own constructs rather than carried across.

The model

Three constructs with no counterpart elsewhere

Most of the cost of moving into or out of Account Engagement sits in these three. Each one is a decision taken before the build, and each is expensive to revisit afterwards.

Score · grade

Two dimensions, where other platforms have one

Account Engagement separates score for behaviour from grade for fit, rendered as a letter and number grid. HubSpot holds one score property covering both. Marketo ships one numeric score field and no grade, so a move to Marketo means building fit as its own field. On the security services engagement, behaviour stayed as score and firmographic fit became grading criteria, which meant first agreeing what fit means for that buyer. That conversation was slower than the build.

Why the operational programs are the hard part What replaces Pardot scoring and grading in Marketo

Automation rules

A cap on how many can be active at once

Account Engagement limits the number of active automation rules, which is the fact that makes a one-for-one rebuild from another platform fail. On the HubSpot move, one long branching workflow became a stack of automation rules, one per pattern, with a naming convention so the next person can find them. Lifecycle stage was pushed to the CRM, where sales could see it and where it was not competing for rule headroom.

Why the automation models differ HubSpot consultancy

Campaign · first touch

One campaign per prospect, set at first touch

A prospect carries a single Account Engagement campaign, fixed at first touch. Anything arriving from a platform that keeps more than one source value per person has to be reduced to one before the import, and the values that lose go into fields nothing overwrites later. Subscription types become a preference page and dedicated suppression lists, and under GDPR that is settled before the first send.

Data and consent, in full

Salesforce connector

The sync is where this platform goes wrong silently

The sync user

A permission missing from the sync user shows up later as a partial sync, with no error raised on the day it starts. Check the Salesforce sync user’s field-level security on every field the platform reads or writes. Custom fields created after the profile was made are where it is usually missing.

The cutover

On the consolidation of several Pardot instances into one Marketo instance, the connector was cut over one business unit at a time, and whichever instance moved first fixed the connector configuration, sync user, field mapping and routing that the others had to fit.

Campaign member status is the other sync check worth running early. Where the mapping from program status to Salesforce campaign member status is wrong, campaign attribution is wrong for everything downstream of it. Both checks sit in the sync integrity area of the audit checklist, and the connector cutover is written up in the Pardot to Marketo migration write-up.

Before anything changes

What the audit opens in an Account Engagement org

eight checks from the marketing automation audit checklist, chosen because they name this platform or the sync behind it. Each one names the object to open, so they need an admin login and a Salesforce login that can view the sync user’s profile in Setup.

Field fill ratesFor every field (Marketo field, HubSpot property, Pardot prospect field), count the records holding a value and note when it was last written. Few values and no recent writes make a field a candidate to retire. Database health
Duplicate person recordsIn Marketo and Account Engagement, count duplicates by email address, including the same address in different casing, and note which system created each copy. HubSpot keeps one contact per email address, so there, look for the same person under a second address. Database health
Behaviour and fitCheck whether one score field is carrying both. Account Engagement separates score (behaviour) from grade (fit); Marketo ships one numeric score field and no grade, so fit has to be built as its own field. Lead routing and scoring
Pardot dynamic listsCompare each dynamic list’s member count with what its criteria were meant to catch. One loose rule can pull in far more of the database than anyone intended. Programme structure
Tokens and hardcoded linksCheck cloned program folders for token inheritance, and emails for hardcoded URLs where a program token (Marketo) or a snippet (Account Engagement) belongs. Programme structure
Sync user field-level securityCheck the Salesforce sync user’s field-level security on every field the marketing platform reads or writes. Custom fields created after the profile was made are where it is usually missing. Sync integrity
Campaign member statusCheck the mapping from program status to Salesforce campaign member status on every program that syncs to a campaign. When it is wrong, campaign attribution is wrong for everything downstream. Sync integrity
The tracking scriptConfirm Munchkin, the HubSpot tracking code or the Account Engagement tracking code is on every page, including pages built outside the CMS. Pages without it drop out of source data while every report still runs. Reporting accuracy

Boundaries

What we will not do in an Account Engagement engagement

Each of these gets agreed to in a sales conversation somewhere and then found to be untrue during the build, so each is said here first.

Rebuild a HubSpot score as one Account Engagement score. Scoring models are not portable between platforms: a two-dimensional profile and engagement grid does not map onto a single score field, and behavioural decay is modelled differently in each platform. Account Engagement splits score for behaviour from grade for fit, so collapsing a single HubSpot score property into score alone throws the grading model away. The fit definition is agreed with marketing before anything is built.
Rebuild automation rules one-for-one. Account Engagement caps the number of active automation rules. A rebuild that copies the structure across from somewhere else hits that cap, and the refactor then happens under time pressure instead of at the design stage.
Promise that source properties survive. A prospect carries a single Account Engagement campaign, set at first touch. A platform that keeps several source properties per person does not survive that model intact, so decide which one becomes the campaign before the import.
Carry email engagement history across. Activity history mostly stays behind: opens, clicks, form fills and page views remain in the old platform, so every report or scoring rule with a lookback window restarts at cutover. Prospect records, field values and list membership can be recreated. Tell whoever owns the dashboards before go-live.
Start the build while the surviving Salesforce org is undecided. Partition assignment, lifecycle, routing and sync error handling all sit downstream of which org survives. Until that is settled we open the long-lead DNS and sandbox tickets and the consent review, and hold the build.
Claim a platform nobody here is certified in. The certifications are Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot, Salesforce, Account Engagement (Pardot), Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Oracle Eloqua. If you run Dynamics 365, Klaviyo or anything else, say so on the first call and we will tell you whether we have worked in it.

Questions

About Account Engagement engagements

Is Pardot the same thing as Marketing Cloud Account Engagement?

Yes. Salesforce renamed the product, and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is the current name for Pardot. It is the same product with the same constructs: automation rules, completion actions, dynamic lists, Engagement Studio, score and grade. Salesforce documentation carries both names, and so does this site, because buyers search for Pardot and admins still say it.

Can you migrate a scoring model directly between platforms?

No. Scoring models are not portable between platforms: a two-dimensional profile and engagement grid does not map onto a single score field, and behavioural decay is modelled differently in each platform. Port the intent and leave the point values behind: re-derive the model from conversion behaviour you can see, rebuild it with the destination’s own constructs, and agree the thresholds with sales before anything routes on it.

What happens to source properties when you move into Account Engagement?

A prospect carries a single Account Engagement campaign, set at first touch. A platform that holds several source properties per person, such as HubSpot with its original and latest source, does not survive that model intact. Decide which value becomes the campaign before the import, and move the rest into fields that nothing overwrites later.

Does Account Engagement hold duplicate prospects?

It can. The audit counts duplicates by email address, including the same address in different casing, and notes which system created each copy. Check the distinct values in Country and State in the same pass: several spellings of one place means no automation rule is normalising them on create and update.

What does the Salesforce connector need before a Pardot migration?

Three things, in order. The sync user’s field-level security on every field the platform reads or writes, because custom fields created after the profile was made are where it is usually missing. A dated sandbox refresh commitment from the CRM team, which runs to that team’s own release calendar. And a cutover plan that moves one business unit at a time instead of the whole org at once.

How is Account Engagement work priced?

One of four ways: a fixed price for a defined scope, hourly for consultative or variable work, a monthly retainer for ongoing operations support, or a quarterly retainer for strategic programmes. Discovery calls and the initial system audit are free. How many automation rules and Engagement Studio programs are live, and how many Salesforce orgs the instance syncs to, set most of the scope.

Last updated 24 October 2026

Running Account Engagement?

Bring the automation rule count

How many automation rules are active, how many Engagement Studio programs are live, and which Salesforce org the connector points at. Those three numbers shape the whole scope.

Discuss a Pardot project Use the audit checklist

Marketo consultancy HubSpot consultancy HubSpot to Pardot migration Pardot to Marketo migration How we run a migration