How to Pass Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Consultant Certification Exam

Last Updated on September 9, 2023 by Rakesh Gupta

It has been six years since I passed the Salesforce Certified Pardot Consultant exam. In the past few months, many people reached out to me asking for guidance and a path to becoming a certified Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) Consultant.

That gives me an idea for writing a blog post on this topic. For by reading from the beginning to the end of this article, you will have a clear understanding of – and will be able to devise a plan and a strategy for – how to pass the Salesforce Certified Pardot Consultant exam.

As you are here, you may want to check out the Preparing for Salesforce Certified Pardot Specialist Certification.

So, Who is an Ideal Candidate for the Exam?

The Salesforce Certified Pardot Consultant program is designed for individuals with experience implementing the Pardot application and can explain Salesforce administration concepts related to Pardot features. The Salesforce Certified Pardot Consultant has experience with Pardot administration and configuration, and can successfully design and implement Pardot solutions that meet customer business requirements, are maintainable and scalable, and contribute to long-term customer success.

The Salesforce Certified Pardot Consultant candidate has the experience, skills, and knowledge outlined below:

Identify and understand a customer’s current marketing-to-sales strategy.
Map customer goals to Pardot features.
Design a strategy to meet customer business needs based on an analysis of key performance indicators.
Recommend automation processes to achieve business objectives.
Recommend Pardot tools and features (Salesforce Engage, Pardot Einstein) to implement marketing to-sales strategy.
Develop and recommend a data and content migration strategy.
Articulate the implications and importance of technical setup.
Analyze existing lead qualification strategy and make recommendations for translating into Pardot.
Analyze existing lead nurturing strategy and make recommendations for translating into Pardot.
Analyze existing lead generation strategy and make recommendations for translating into Pardot.
Develop and recommend a scalable way of organizing data and assets in Pardot.
Analyze data generated in Pardot reporting tools to make recommendations for system optimization.
Set up and interpret reports/dashboards in B2B Marketing Analytics.
Managing differing goals/objectives in divisions of a company using Pardot Business Units.
Understand data governance – syncing records, user management, etc.
Understand data hygiene, authorization, and organization.
Develop and administer integration between Pardot and Salesforce.
Invest time in studying the resources listed in this Exam Guide and any additional study materials provided by Pardot.

How to prepare for the exam?

The starting point for me with any exam is the Study Guide. This gives you details of the purpose and format of the exam and then a point-by-point summary of the areas that you will be tested on and how much they count towards the overall mark.

60 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions – 105 mins
68% is the passing score
Exam Sections and Weighting
- Evaluation: 17%
- Account Configuration: 20%
- Automating Business Processes: 17%
- Email Marketing: 10%
- Lead Management: 14%
- Personalizing the Prospect Experience: 8%
- Reporting, Metrics & Analytics: 11%
- Salesforce Engage: 3%
The exam Fee is $200 plus applicable taxes
Retake fee: USD 100, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
To learn more about exam details and exam objectives, browse the Salesforce Certified Pardot Consultant Exam Guide.
Schedule your certification exam here

What happens next depends on how you like to study – if you find videos the best way, the premier online training catalog has great material, including knowledge check questions to see if any of it is sticking. If you don’t have access to that, there’s a huge amount on the Salesforce channel on youtube.

The following list is not exhaustive; so check it out and use it as a starting point:

Trailmix: Prepare for Your Pardot Consultant Credential
Pardot Knowledge Base
Pardot Full Edition Comparison Chart
Automate Marketing to Businesses with Pardot Lightning App
Also, check out the Intro to Pardot video by Iman Maghroori
In the meantime, visit the Salesforce Success Events page to find the Pardot Expert Coaching session and signup for it.
Recorded webinars to learn more about Pardot.
Pardot Flashcards and Quizzes.

What you Need to Know to Smoothen your Journey

On a very high level, you have to understand the following topics to clear the exam. All credit goes to the Salesforce Trailhead team and their respective owners.

Evaluation: 17%
1. For Pardot Implementation, discovery is learning the client’s detailed requirements to design and implement solutions to meet their business goals and objectives.
2. Pardot Implementation: Process and Key Activities
  1. Prepare
    1. Discovery
    2. Account Configuration
  2. Establish
    1. Personalizing the Prospect Experience
    2. Email Marketing
    3. Lead Generation
  3. Enhance
    1. Lead Qualification
    2. Automating Business Practices
  4. Engage
    1. Salesforce Engage
3. Company & Project Alignment
  1. Statement of Work (SOW)
    1. Project Planning
      1. Project Management Tool
      2. Customized Implementation Plan
      3. Project Discovery Kickoff Call
      4. Project Review Wrap-Up Call
    2. CRM Integration
      1. Install the Pardot Connector Package/Bundle
      2. Lead and Contact Page Layouts Updated
      3. Mapping Lead Fields to Contact Fields
      4. Mapping CRM Custom Fields to Pardot Custom Fields
      5. Mapping Users and Single Sign-On
      6. Guide the setup of Salesforce Engage
    3. Technical Setup
      1. Implement Website Tracking Code to Log Visitor Activity
      2. Create Vanity Tracker Domain (CNAME) for Branded Pardot Links
      3. Implement Email Authentication for Email Deliverability Optimization
    4. Marketing Asset & Integration Setup
      1. Email Template Setup
      2. Campaign Setup
      3. Form / Form Handler Setup
      4. Landing Page Setup
      5. Automation Rule Setup
      6. Engagement Programs Setup
      7. Database Import
      8. Add-Ons & Connectors Setup
      9. Dedicated Email IP Setup
      10. Site Search Integration Setup
    5. Project Training
      1. Weekly / Daily customized training based on Project Plan
      2. Online Documentation, In-App Resources, & Group Webinars
      3. Lead training for Sales end users on how to use Salesforce Engage
  2. Company Overview
  3. Key Stakeholders
    1. Setup a kick-off call with the following people to better understand the current process:
      1. Marketing Coordinator
      2. Marketing Manager
      3. Sales Manager
      4. Consultant
      5. Webmaster
  4. Marketing Goals (short & long term)
  5. A key performance indicator (KPI) is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a business unit or organization is achieving key business objectives.
    1. Common KPIs in marketing automation:
      1. Impressions (Ads & Social)
      2. Website Traffic (Visitors)
      3. Conversions (New Prospects)
      4. Email Engagement (Opens, Clicks, etc.)
      5. Marketing Qualified Leads (Assigned Prospects)
      6. Sales Qualified Leads (New Opportunities)
      7. Revenue (Campaign ROI)
      8. Velocity (rate of change between stages in the funnel)
4. Current Solutions & Tools:
  1. Current marketing challenges
  2. Current marketing tools
  3. Current Salesforce setup
  4. Current automation processes
  5. Current marketing assets
  6. Current data sources
5. Discovery Questions
  1. Do you use a CRM? If so, How?
  2. How is the website hosted and managed? Do you use any web analytics?
  3. Which Search Engine Marketing and Online Ads do you use?
  4. What are your Emails and Lead Nurturing strategy?
  5. Are you using your website for lead generation?
  6. Do you use Landing Page at all?
  7. What is your webinar tool?
  8. Social media presence details
  9. How do you handle marketing-to-sales lead handoff?
  10. How are you measuring and evaluating your marketing success (KPIs)?
  11. How are you measuring and evaluating your sales success (KPIs)?
  12. Short-term marketing automation goals?
  13. Long-term marketing automation goals?
  14. What processes could be set up to facilitate collaboration with sales?
Account Configuration: 20%
1. Pardot is accessed through Salesforce.
2. Prepare for Your Pardot Implementation
3. How to Build a Global Marketing Strategy with Pardot
4. Technical Setup Items
  1. Review Your Pardot Health: Ch. 3 Technical Setup and Configuration
  2. Tracking Code – Copy and paste the tracking code before the close body tag on your HTML pages.
    1. Set Pardot Cookie
    2. Pardot Activity Tracking (Visitors & Prospects)
    3. Set Pardot Campaign
    4. Asynchronous – Does not impact page load
  3. Tracker Subdomain (CNAME)
    1. Benefits:
      1. Brands Pardot URLs
      2. Enables Vanity URLs
      3. It can be used with – Custom Redirects, Files, Landing Pages, Forms, etc.
      4. Common Examples:
        
        go.salesforce.com
        
        www2.gurukuloncloud.com
        
        info.rakeshkumar.com
  4. Email Authentication
    1. Benefits:
      1. Authenticates Pardot to send emails on behalf of email domain(s)
      2. Significantly increases email deliverability rate
      3. Pardot Support can support deliverability challenges
  5. IP Whitelisting
    1. Avoid having test emails end up trapped by your company’s spam filter. Have the IT team add your company’s assigned Pardot IP address to the spam filter whitelist.
  6. Product & Service Notifications
    1. Pardot sends different types of product and service notifications. Designate a different point of contact for each notification depending on organizational roles.
  7. WordPress Plugin
    1. Easily embed forms and dynamic content into your WordPress pages and posts.
  8. Custom Fonts
    1. Ensure custom fonts hosted on your domain granted Pardot permission to use your fonts on Pardot assets to ensure style consistency.
5. Database Hygiene Assessment in Pardot
6. How to Integrate Pardot with Google Ads and Analytics
7. Pardot Business Units Implementation Guide
8. How To Use Salesforce Campaigns in Pardot
9. How to Enable the Pardot Lightning App
10. Salesforce Integration – Combining best-in-class marketing automation with best-in-class CRM allows your customers to supercharge their sales process.
  1. Driving new, more qualified leads
  2. Closing deals fast
  3. Tracking the all-important ROI
11. Pardot activities that trigger a sync
  1. Prospect actions
    1. Form submission
    2. Form handler submission
    3. Landing page submission
    4. Email unsubscribe and resubscribe
  2. User actions
    1. Prospect import
    2. Prospect field changes (including opting prospects out, manually or via import)
    3. Pardot campaign changes
    4. Changes to an assigned user
    5. Manually syncing from the prospect record
  3. System actions
    1. Record changes that occur because of an automation rule or completion action
    2. Add to a Salesforce campaign or Salesforce campaign status update via automation rule, segmentation rule, completion action, or Engagement Program action.
12. Salesforce activities that trigger a sync
  1. Lead or Contact assigned user (owner) update
  2. Lead or Contact field change
  3. Creating a new Lead or Contact, if connector enabled for ‘Automatically create prospects in Pardot if they are created as a Lead
13. Pardot will sync updated data to Salesforce every 2-4 minutes.
  1. If fewer than 400 records are found, Pardot syncs associated prospects immediately.
  2. If greater than 400 records are found, Pardot adds the Salesforce IDs to a queue and processes them in batches. Standard batch processing equals 12,000 records per hour.
14. Which Record Sync
  1. Lead, Contact, and Person Accounts
  2. Accounts
  3. Opportunities
  4. Campaigns and Campaign Members
  5. Custom Objects (read-only sync)
15. Bidirectional Sync
  1. A prospect is a record in Pardot that represents an individual person. Prospects sync with leads, contacts, and person
    accounts in Salesforce.
    1. What to know:
      1. Pardot can create, read, and update lead and contact records.
      2. An email address is required for syncing.
      3. Prospects sync using Salesforce ID as the unique identifier; an email address can optionally be used as a secondary match.
        
        Pardot maintains the prospect record and updates the Salesforce ID when a lead converts to a contact.
16. Read-Only Sync
  1. Accounts in Pardot represent companies, groups, or organizations. Accounts in Pardot sync with Accounts in Salesforce.
    1. What to know:
      1. Pardot can read account objects in Salesforce.
      2. Pardot automatically syncs with accounts that are associated with syncing contacts.
  2. Opportunities in Pardot represent a potential sales deal. Opportunities in Pardot sync with opportunities in Salesforce.\
    1. What to know:
      1. Pardot can read opportunity objects in Salesforce.
      2. Pardot automatically syncs with opportunities associated with syncing contacts via Contact Roles.
      3. Contact Roles is a junction object that links to the contact and the opportunity record.
17. Limited Bidirectional Sync
  1. Prospects in Pardot can be added to Salesforce campaigns to track engagement with marketing
    programs. This creates a campaign member record in Salesforce. Campaign members are simply leads or
    contacts that belong to a campaign.
    1. What to know:
      1. Pardot can create, read, and update campaign member records and campaign member status.
      2. Pardot can also read the campaign object in order to add a campaign member to the campaign.
        
        Pardot campaigns and Salesforce campaigns are two different objects that do not sync directly by
        default; however, you can connect them* to streamline campaign management.
18. Limited Read-Only Sync
  1. Custom Objects in Pardot are used to track objects that aren’t native to your Pardot org. If you’ve purchased
    the custom object integration, you may sync with additional objects in Salesforce.
    1. What to know:
    2. Pardot can read custom objects that are directly linked to a lead, contact, or account record.
    3. Syncing too many custom object records or fields can significantly slow down your Pardot account.
    4. Sync only custom objects that are vital for your segmentation goals.
19. Basics of Pardot and Salesforce Integration
20. Salesforce-Pardot Connector v2 Implementation Guide
21. Enable Salesforce User Sync to sync users from Salesforce – When you enable Salesforce User Sync, you’ll create, update, and deactivate users in Salesforce to control access to Pardot. Ensure you review the Preparing for Salesforce User Sync items carefully before enabling; this cannot be disabled.
22. User Role
  1. A user role defines which features and data a user has access to. Choose a default or custom role when you create a user.
  2. Per user, set maximum limits on the number of:
    1. Imports
    2. Exports
    3. Email Sending
  3. Default User Roles – Pardot includes four default user roles: Administrator, Marketing, Sales Manager, and Sales. You can’t edit the default user roles.
    1. Administrator Role – Administrators can access all settings, prospect data, and modules.
    2. Marketing Role – Marketing users have control over prospect data and marketing modules, including creating lists, forms, landing pages, and sending list emails.
    3. Sales Manager Role – Sales Managers, have access to all prospect data and visitors but no marketing functionality. Sales Managers can send one-to-one emails to prospects but can’t send list emails.
    4. Sales – Sales users only have access to prospect management functionality. Sales users can send one-to-one emails to prospects but can’t send list emails. They can view, edit, and export the prospects assigned to them.
  4. Custom User Roles
    1. You can create a custom role to provide specific permissions to users. You can create a role from scratch or clone a default role and modify the permissions.
    2. Best practice – copy the user role that most closely fits.
23. High-Level Prospect Data Migration Process
  1. Inventory Data
    1. Identify data sources.
    2. Work with the client to centralize files across all data sources.
  2. Clean Data
    1. Evaluate data health & cleanliness.
    2. Remove unengaged and duplicate prospects.
    3. Check if the contact volume aligns with the number of Pardot contact blocks.
  3. Configure Fields
    1. Discuss and identify fields used for marketing
    2. Evaluate which fields need to be migrated/condensed
    3. Discuss which system of governance and validation for field values
  4. Configure Objects
    1. Not all customers need this step, as many may not use custom objects. When possible, use standard objects.
    2. Discuss and identify any custom objects needed for marketing (if any).
  5. Import Prospects
    1. Structure your data in CSV format.
    2. Import files to Pardot.
    3. Spot-check imports and review any errors.
Automating Business Processes: 17%
1. How to Use Automation Tools in Pardot
2. Build a Nurture Program with Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
3. Different automation tools in pardot
  1. Completion Actions – Trigger actions based on prospect activities.
  2. Page Actions – Trigger actions based on prospect page views.
  3. Dynamic Lists – Create self-maintaining lists based on prospect criteria.
  4. Segmentation Rules – Trigger one-time actions based on prospect criteria.
  5. Automation Rules – Trigger one-time or repeated actions based on prospect criteria.
  6. Engagement Studio – Build a series of automation based on criteria or activities designed to engage.
4. Choosing the appropriate automation tool for your needs can simplify your marketing efforts. Answer a few questions to help you decide which tool to use.
  1. Is the rule based on criteria or an action the prospect takes?
    1. Action—Use a completion action.
    2. Criteria—Go to step 2.
  2. Is it one-time automation?
    1. Yes—Use a segmentation rule.
    2. No—Go to step 3.
  3. What is the goal?
    1. Update a list—Use a dynamic list.
    2. Action based on criteria—Use an automation rule.
5. Completion rules allow you to automate actions right from a marketing element. You can add completion actions to forms, form handlers, custom redirects, emails, and non-image files.
  1. Executes every time the action is completed.
  2. Execute only for prospects – not visitors
  3. Execute in the order listed.
  4. Not retroactive. This only applies to future activities. Will not execute for:
    1. Anonymous visitors
    2. Image files
    3. Filtered activities
6. Automation rules let you perform one-time or repeated actions on prospects that meet certain criteria.
  1. Continuously evaluate new or updated prospects against rule criteria.
  2. Retroactively evaluates all existing prospects.
  3. The matched prospect will only apply actions once. Prospects can’t unmatch.
    1. Check the Repeat Rule box to allow multiple matches, and configure your repeating rule settings.
7. Dynamic lists are rule-based lists that automatically update when a prospect’s data changes. Membership is refreshed constantly.
  1. Prospects matching criteria are added to the dynamic list.
  2. If the prospect no longer matches the criteria, they will be removed from the list.
  3. Can be added to the Email Preference Page
  4. Visible only if criteria matched
  5. It cannot be CRM visible.
8. Segmentation rules run once and allow you to either create a list of prospects or run specific segmentation actions.
  1. Unlike automation rules, segmentation rules don’t run continuously. Segmentation rules run once and match only the prospects that meet the rule’s criteria when the rule runs.
9. Monthly Inactive Automations (Automation active and no prospect updates in >30 days) Report
  1. Up to five most recently inactive:
    1. Engagement Programs
    2. Drip Programs
    3. Dynamic Lists
    4. Automation Rules
10. Engagement Studio
Email Marketing: 10%
1. Pardot Send List Emails
2. How to Enable the New Pardot Email Builder
3. Email markeitng involved
  1. Authentication & Deliverability
    1. Email Authentication
      1. A single most important step to avoiding spam filters (complete ASAP).
      2. Authenticates that Pardot has permission to send emails on behalf of the sender domain.
      3. Commonly accepted standards are SPF, DomainKeys, and DKIM.
      4. Involves the IT department in adding TXT records to the domain’s DNS.
    2. IP Warm Up
      1. All IPs start out “cold” and need to be “warmed” by gradually increasing sending volume.
      2. Warming prevents red flags and allows you to avoid spam monitors.
      3. Start with your best and most active lists.
      4. Avoid starting with old lists (>1 year).
      5. Look for any initial issues that may arise, including high bounce rates (>10%).
    3. Compiling Clean Lists
      1. Never send to purchased lists.
      2. Use active or confirm opt-ins.
      3. Make opt-outs easy and fast.
  2. Design & Content
    1. HTML
      1. Enhanced aesthetics
      2. Extensive design options
      3. Higher engagement rates
      4. Email open tracking
    2. Plain text
      1. Higher deliverability rates
      2. Consistent rendering
      3. Lacks email open tracking
    3. Image-to-text ratio
    4. Unsubscribe and/or Email Preference Page
    5. Clear Call-to-action (CTA)
      1. Placement (Above the fold)
      2. Design (Color/Image)
      3. Convey value (Keep short)
      4. Indicate Urgency
  3. Testing & Optimization
    1. Internal Testing Methods
      1. Test Lists – Experience firsthand a live simulation of the prospect email experience:
        
        Rewritten tracked links
        
        Variable tags populated
        
        Replicate the “From” user
      2. Individual Emails – Manually type the email address to receive the test email.
        
        Prospect record not required
        
        Receive both HTML & Text proof versions.
        
        No link tracking or populated variable tags.
      3. Rendering Tests – See how emails look across various clients and browsers.
        
        Email rendering
        
        Subject line preview
        
        Spam Analysis
    2. External Testing Methods
      1. A/B Testing allows you to change elements in your email, segment your recipient list into a test audience and a winning audience, and use the email’s engagement data to automatically determine and distribute the winning email.
  4. Sending
  5. Tracking & Reporting
4. Focus on optimization:
  1. Automate and simplify your day-to-day tasks
  2. Gather data and make more effective long-term decisions
  3. Better understand your audience
5. For a high bounce rate, 10% or more:
  1. Scrub/update your database to ensure email addresses are correct and current.
  2. Perform a permission pass to re-opt in older prospects.
  3. Set up an automation rule to clear out unengaged prospects regularly.
6. To increase your CTR, consider:
  1. Experiment with the shape/size/color of your Call-to-Action (CTA).
  2. Move your CTA above the fold.
  3. Include only 1-2 links in your email (CTR drops significantly after 3).
7. Email Sent – Your Pardot email is marked as ‘Sent’ once Pardot has:
  1. Cleaned your recipient list
  2. Formatted variable tags
  3. Rewritten your links to be trackable
8. Email Delivered – Your Pardot email is marked as ‘Delivered’’ once the email server has:
  1. Verified the recipient’s email address
  2. Checked your email for common spam triggers
  3. Successfully placed your email in the recipient’s mailbox
Lead Management: 14%
1. Lead Qualification
  1. The process of evaluating a prospect’s interest in your company and readiness to purchase.
2. Lead Assignment
  1. The process of sending a qualified prospect to your sales team for further evaluation.
3. Custom Redirects
  1. Banner ads on third-party sites to track a banner ad explicitly and see how many individuals access it.
  2. Social sharing to track a link on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., posted from any social tool.
  3. Custom redirects can point to pages or files that you do not host.
  4. Optionally, completion actions can be applied to identified prospects.
4. Files
  1. Images and resource files for use in marketing assets, such as emails, forms, and landing pages.
  2. The file size is limited to 50MB per file.
5. How to Use Pardot Forms and Landing Pages
6. Forms vs. Form Handlers
  1. Use forms or form handlers to gate content and/or collect information about visitors and turn anonymous visitors into identified prospects.
  2. Forms are created and managed directly in Pardot.
    1. Progressive profiling
    2. Dependent fields
    3. Invisible Bot Protection
    4. Display thank you content
    5. Not for collecting sensitive data
  3. Forms handlers allow you to bring information being collected in external forms into Pardot.
    1. Maintain current lead flow
    2. Support custom front-end editing
    3. Sensitive data
7. Layout Templates
  1. Controls how elements display in Pardot Forms and Landing Pages.
  2. Editing Tabs
    1. Layout: HTML & CSS Styling
    2. Form & Site Search: Substitution Logic
  3. Variable Tags
    1. %%content%% = Text & Form
    2. %%description%% = SEO Meta Tags
    3. %%title%% = Landing Page Title
  4. Content Regions
    1. Use content regions to lock the template’s styling down and only allow users to edit certain areas of the landing page, like the title, images, or links.
    2. Landing Page layout templates do not support repeatable and removable content regions.
  5. Styling
    1. The outermost containing element control styling:
    2. If you have a form by itself, it will use the layout template for that form.
    3. If you have a form on a landing page, the landing page template will take precedence over the form’s.
    4. If you place a form on a landing page using the landing page builder, it won’t use a layout template.
8. Landing Page
  1. A specific page is typically reached after clicking a link or advertisement. Presents a streamlined path designed to elicit a specific action by the visitor.
  2. Content Layout Options:
    1. Existing HTML: Use layout templates
    2. WYSIWYG Editor: Use stock templates
Personalizing the Prospect Experience: 8%
1. Why Personalize the Prospect Experience?
  1. Businesses that personalize web experiences see an average 19% increase in sales.
  2. Personalized marketing emails receive 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click-through rates.
2. Content Marketing
  1. Content marketing is creating helpful, relevant content and hosting it on your site or third-party sites to bring in qualified prospects who are looking for information to address their pain points and needs.
  2. Content can include:
    1. Social Media
    2. Blogs
    3. Infographics
    4. White Papers
    5. Videos
    6. eBooks
    7. Case Study
3. Content should be relevant to where your prospects are in the funnel.
  1. Brainstorm what content in each stage might look like (Medium and topic):
    1. Top (Lead Generation)
      1. Any of the following content is suitable for buyers at this stage:
        
        Educational white papers
        
        Tip sheets and checklists
        
        Videos
        
        Infographics
        
        Blog posts
    2. Middle (Lead Nurturing)
      1. Any of the following content is suitable for buyers at this stage:
        
        Recorded webinars
        
        Case studies
        
        ROI calculators
        
        Industry reports
        
        Data sheets with product information
        
        Product- or ROI-focused white papers
    3. Bottom (Acquisition & Expansion)
      1. Any of the following content is suitable for buyers at this stage:
        
        Implementation and support information
        
        Buyer’s guides
        
        White papers/one-sheeters
4. The following are popular ways your client can frame business value to prospective buyers.
  1. Improve customer experience
  2. Increase efficiency
  3. Reduce operational costs
  4. Educate Prospects
  5. Increase revenue
5. Personalizing the Prospect Experience in Pardot
  1. How?
    1. Segmentation
    2. Variable Tags
    3. Dynamic Content
  2. Where?
    1. Email
    2. Web Pages
    3. Forms
6. Segmentation Strategies
  1. Product Interest
  2. Location
  3. Stage
  4. Lead Quality (Score & Grade)
  5. Webinar Status (Registered / Attended)
  6. Event Status (Registered / Attended)
  7. Opportunities Status (Open, Won, Lost)
7. Use variable tags to populate user and account information, and personalize messages by including information taken from recipients’ records. Pardot comes with the standard prospect, account, and user variable tags.
  1. Based on:
    1. Prospect field: %%field_id%%
    2. Account fields: %%prospect_account.field_id%%
    3. User fields: %%user_field_id%%
  2. Limitations:
    1. Variable tags will not populate if the relevant field does not have a value.
    2. No custom fields with ‘Record and display multiple responses’ enabled.
    3. No Opportunity or Custom Object fields.
    4. Variable tags in Landing Pages populate inconsistently.
    5. Use Advanced Subject Composer to include variable tags in subject lines.
8. Dynamic Content – Allows you to display certain HTML content on your emails or web pages based on a prospect’s score, grade, prospect default fields, or prospect custom fields.
  1. Variations based on prospect field:
    1. Score
    2. Grade
    3. Prospect Default Fields
    4. Prospect Custom Fields
    5. Limitations:
      1. Only 1 variation criteria

Reporting, Metrics & Analytics: 11%

Pardot offers reports that are specific to your Pardot content and connectors. If you use the Pardot Lightning App with Salesforce, you also have access to Salesforce reports based on Salesforce objects.
Good for customers looking for a simple way to report on marketing automation performance with minimal configuration.
1. Pre-Built
2. Limited filters
3. Limited customization
4. Built-in visual representations
5. Found under the Reports tab
A campaign Performance report provides a high-level overview of a campaign’s overall health compared to other campaigns in an interactive graph.
Lifecycle Report combines marketing and sales data to profile funnel health.
1. Pipeline: Stage volume and percentage of change
2. Velocity: Average transition time between stages
The webinar report shows registration and attendance details for your connected webinar services.
A Conversions report shows visitors who have converted to prospects and their score, conversion point, and source referrer information.
When a visitor or prospect clicks a link to a Pardot-hosted file, the click is recorded in the File Statistics table. You can filter the table by tags and date range.
When a visitor or prospect clicks a custom redirect, the click is recorded in the Custom Redirect Statistics table. You can filter the table by tags, campaign, and date range.
Pardot Campaigns VS Salesforce Campaigns
1. Use Pardot for:
  1. You need to report on marketing assets or connected apps
  2. You want simple, ready-to-use reports that don’t require customization
  3. You want to glean more insights into your Prospect table
2. Use Salesforce When:
  1. You need a more in-depth reporting solution
  2. You want to customize your reports for specific user roles
  3. You want to combine Pardot and Salesforce data
An Engagement History Dashboard is powered by CRM Analytics and gives sales and marketing users the power to explore and visualize important data. Embed an Engagement History Dashboard component on campaign, account, lead, contact, person account, or opportunity records. The dashboard shows widgets that are tailored to each type of record.
1. Available for Campaign Record Home
2. Analytics Embedded App ViewOnly PSL required view
3. Dashboard details
  1. Most recent 90 days of data
  2. Data is refreshed every 8 hours after the initial data load
  3. Only connected campaigns
  4. Only synced assets
  5. Data cannot be manually refreshed
4. Assets & activities included
  1. List email – Click, Open
  2. Form – View, Success
  3. Form handler -Success
  4. Landing page – View, Success
  5. Marketing link – Custom URL Click, File View

A submission is when a visitor or prospect completes a form and submits it to Pardot. A conversion is a specific type of submission during which an anonymous visitor provides an email address and converts it into a prospect.

If your form is on a Pardot landing page, submissions, clicks, errors, and other metrics appear on the landing page report. Metrics do not appear on the form report.

View a single form’s report to get detailed information about its performance. From the Forms Statistics table, click the name of the form that you want to view details for.

METRIC	DEFINITION
Total Views	The total number of times your form has been viewed. Includes multiple views from the same visitor.
Total Submissions	The total number of times the form was successfully submitted.
Submission Rate	The percentage of the views that led to a form submission.
Total Errors	The total number of times a form error prevented a submission.
Error Rate	The percentage of views that led to an error.

The Form Handler Statistics table provides high-level statistics for your form handlers.

The Email Bounce Report contains soft and hard-bounced email addresses from all types of emails sent from the past year. The at-a-glance KPIs at the top of the report reflect the unique emails sent and breakdowns of delivered vs. bounced emails and hard vs. soft bounces.
B2B Marketing Analytics Implementation Guide

Salesforce Engage: 3%
1. How to Use Pardot Salesforce Engage
2. Salesforce Engage lets marketing share its content with sales to boost your company’s selling power. Sales reps can use marketing-approved email templates to contact prospects at the right moment and track the effectiveness of the messages in Salesforce.
3. Salesforce Engage Core Capabilities
  1. Engage Campaigns
  2. Engage Alerts
  3. Engage for Gmail and Outlook
  4. Engage Reports
4. Use Engage Campaigns to send 1:1 or 1:many emails directly from Salesforce.
  1. Marketing can publish approved templates, or users can draft their own messages.
  2. Users can add prospects to marketing-powered nurture campaigns.
5. Users can send their own 1:1 tracked emails from Gmail and Outlook. Send emails and view prospect insights right from your usual email client. Best when sending quick 1:1 messages (versus 1:many emails sent via Engage campaigns).
  1. Gmail: Add prospects to nurture and send published Pardot email templates.
  2. Outlook: Send Salesforce email templates via Lightning for Outlook.
6. Engage Alerts can notify users in real-time when prospects engage with marketing content.
  1. Alerts are visible on mobile and desktop.
  2. Users can filter to prioritize high-value notifications.
  3. Users directly monitor the success of their Engage Campaigns with easy-to-read reports:
    1. Delivered
    2. Opens
    3. Clicks
7. Users can use engage reports to evaluate Engage campaign performance.
  1. Users can view their own results for 1:1 or 1:many emails for templated and non-templated sends.
  2. Managers can see cumulative results using team reports, which populate based on Salesforce role hierarchy.

Conclusion

If you have basic experience with all the above topics, passing the exam will be a cinch, and you will be able to earn the much-coveted Salesforce Certified Pardot Consultant certification exam! However, if you do not have enough experience (6-9 months) with the Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) and plan to become a Certified Pardot Consultant. I suggest you draw a 6-9 months plan (finish the above Trailhead to prepare for it).

I hope that you find these tips and resources useful. If you put the time and effort in, you will succeed. Happy studying, and good luck!

Formative Assessment:

I want to hear from you!

Have you taken the Salesforce Certified Pardot Consultant exam? Are you preparing for the exam now? Share your tips in the comments!

3 thoughts on “How to Pass Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Consultant Certification Exam”

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Stacy Schuler

October 10, 2022 at 7:58 AMs Reply

I think this is a great article that would help someone trying to pass the Pardot Consultant exam! I passed that exam in May, and would add to the above list that Business Units and also B2B Marketing Analytics were also heavily hit on the exam, so I would recommend being familiar with those 2 additional areas as well. There is a YouTube Pardot Consultant bootcamp that is also a GREAT resource! Good luck to all!
1. Rakesh Gupta
  
  October 10, 2022 at 8:21 AMs Reply
  
  Congratulations Stacy! Thanks for your suggestion; I’ve updated the blog to add the suggested topic. 😊