Tag: salesforce

How to Automatically Assign Salesforce Leads to Campaigns

Posted on by David Hecht

First published Sep 7, 2017, overhauled 2025

 

Assigning Leads to Salesforce campaigns is essential to measuring your marketing effectiveness, and comparing the response rates and ROI of your different channels and marketing efforts.

 

The Bad News

Like other messy data in Salesforce, duplicate leads and out of date opportunities, most of us use Campaigns inconsistently, or not at all.

(Not you, of course, you are amazing and your Salesforce processes are perfect 🙂)

When we forget to create Campaigns for every marketing effort, for example using Campaigns just for events (which is quite common), there is an incomplete picture of marketing effectiveness in Salesforce.

If you are using Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) in addition to Salesforce, you have some automation options, but you also have some new challenges (sync anyone?)

 

Good News?

There are a number of tools which can automatically assign (and some even automatically create) Campaigns in Salesforce, to keep your Campaign data more organized and complete.

Read on for 5 options on how Salesforce Leads can be automatically assigned to Salesforce Campaigns, and the pros and cons of each.​

 

1 – Campaign Tracker

2 – Web-to-Lead Forms

3 – Data Import Wizard

4 – Add to Campaign Button

5 – Salesforce Flow

1 – Campaign Tracker

The CloudAmp Campaign Tracker app for Salesforce helps capture source, keyword and campaign information in your leads. New leads in Salesforce can be automatically assigned to up to 2 different Salesforce Campaigns, based on the First and Last touch utm_campaign values in each lead.

 

Just enter a utm_campaign value in a single field on each Salesforce Campaign you create, and if a new lead has a matching value in one of its CloudAmp utm_campaign fields, it will be auto-assigned to that Campaign. 

Automatic Salesforce Campaign Assignment based on UTM campaign values.

 

You can also have Campaigns automatically created, if a lead comes in where no Campaign exists that has a matching utm_campaign value (optional feature that can be toggled on or off).

CloudAmp "Allow Campaign Creation" checkbox setting to automatically create Salesforce Campaigns.

By making sure that Campaigns are automatically created based on new leads with utm_campaign values, you can more easily ensure a complete picture of your online marketing efforts is represented in Salesforce.

 

All you need to do is view the reports / dashboards to see which Salesforce Campaigns were auto-created by CloudAmp, and update their information as needed. Any leads coming in from that Campaign will already be members of that Campaign.

CloudAmp Scorecard

Pros

  • Easy to implement
  • Assigns new leads to up to 2 campaigns automatically
  • Auto-creates Campaigns (optional)
 Cons

  • Requires app installed in Salesforce
  • To be fully automated, utm_campaign parameters are needed in your campaign URLs
  • Additional $249/month cost

 

2 – Web-to-Lead Forms 

 

Salesforce’s Web-to-Lead functionality is a great way to get leads directly into Salesforce. And Salesforce Campaigns provide useful data on what happened to the leads and contacts produced from various marketing activities.

 

Besides making sure inquiries don’t fall through the cracks by using web-to-lead functionality with Salesforce, any additional data you can add to your website forms can help your business. Source and keyword data can be added in through an app like our Campaign Tracker, and one easy addition is to hard-code a particular Salesforce Campaign value in your web-to-lead forms.

 

By including the ‘Campaign record ID‘ from Salesforce in a hidden form field, incoming Leads are automatically linked to the desired Campaign upon submission.

Identifying the Salesforce Campaign ID in a URL

This is mainly useful if you have many landing pages that are specific to certain advertising campaigns, but you can do it with your standard “Contact Us” form. Here’s how:

 

  1. Create a Campaign in Salesforce (or go to an existing Campaign) and copy the ID from the URL
  2. Add the following hidden field to your web-to-lead forms, replacing the value with the ID you just copied.

 

<input type="hidden" name="Campaign_ID" value="701Hu000002VAdkIAG">

 

These instructions assume you are using the HTML Salesforce provides in its Web-to-Lead form builder, but it should work (with some modifications) on any form that posts leads into Salesforce.

 

For more information, see the Campaign ID section in our guide Which Form or Web Page did a Salesforce lead come from?

Web-to-Lead Scorecard

Pros

  • Easy to implement
  • Can be added to most forms
  • No additional cost
 Cons

  • Each campaign needs its own form and web page
  • Miscategorization possible (if visitors from other campaigns find the page)
  • Lack of flexibility

 

3 – Data Import Wizard

 

When importing Leads or Contacts into Salesforce using the Data Import Wizard, you can specify a Campaign to associate the imported records with. This allows for bulk addition of records to a Campaign during the import process. 

While this is not technically an automated process, it does update records in bulk, and is how most marketing people using Salesforce add leads and contacts to Campaigns today.

 

To use the Salesforce Data Import Wizard to add Leads or Contacts to a Campaign:

 

  1. Prepare a CSV file for import, either from a template you create or a Salesforce Report you export (for existing records that you want to update with Campaign membership)
  2. Navigate to a Lead or Contact list view
  3. Click the “Import” button top right
  4. Go through the import wizard
    1. Choose the Lead object
    2. Choose whether to import new records, update existing, or both
    3. Select how to match records (Salesforce ID is best if you are updating existing)
    4. Check the box to “Assign leads to campaigns”
    5. Select your CSV file
    6. Check mapping to see if any fields mapped incorrectly or not mapped
    7. Import!
    8. Review any error messages (if matching via Email or Name, duplicate records will produce frequent error messages)

CSV file for Salesforce Data Import Wizard

If you develop a process and a CSV template, then the Data Import Wizard can be used effectively on a regular basis to keep Salesforce records up to date with their Salesforce Campaign membership.

Data Import Wizard Scorecard

Pros

  • Supports Contacts in addition to Leads
  • Update up to 50,000 records at a time
  • No additional cost
 Cons

  • Not automated
  • CSV template with Campaign IDs and other fields required
  • Errors possible with data mapping or record matching during import

 

4 – Add to Campaign Button

Salesforce provides a way to add all the records in a Salesforce report or list view to a Campaign. 

Salesforce Add To Campaign button

While this is not technically an automated process again, it does give you the ability to add Leads or Contacts to a Salesforce Campaign in bulk. Simply click on the “Add to Campaign” button on a lead or contact report or list view, and complete your member status selections.

 

To use the Salesforce “Add to Campaign” action button to add Leads or Contacts to a Campaign:

 

  1. Create a report or list view of the data you wish to see
  2. Select the records you wish to add to the Campaign
  3. Click the “Add to Campaign” button
  4. Confirm your settings
    1. Campaign
    2. Member Status
    3. Update or Overwrite Member Status
  5. Submit

Salesforce Add to Campaign options

List views are how most of us view records in Salesforce, so this can be a useful place to add Campaign members from. With Salesforce reporting however there is even more flexibility. So adding Campaign members from a Salesforce report means you can do more complex filtering, including using related object fields.

Add to Campaign Button Scorecard

Pros

  • Supports Contacts in addition to Leads
  • Allows more advanced filtering
  • No additional cost
 Cons

  • Not automated
  • Potential for errors when preparing the report filters
  • Need to manually select records

 

5 – Salesforce Flow 

Salesforce administrators with expertise using the Flow feature can create flows that will automatically assign Leads to certain Salesforce Campaigns when they meet specific criteria.

Salesforce Flow for assigning leads to campaigns.

While Salesforce Flow is a powerful tool for automation in Salesforce, it does require advanced Salesforce knowledge less experienced administrators may not have. Flows also need to be carefully tested to make sure that they do not interfere with other Salesforce automations or data.

 

Depending on your use case, Flow may be the best option, as they can handle the automation of many things in Salesforce, not just Campaign assignment. But for your initial implementation, as well as any future changes that need to be made, you will most likely be relying on IT or Salesforce consultants.

Salesforce Flow Scorecard

Pros

  • Allows advanced logic
  • Can automate additional actions after Campaign Assignment
  • No additional cost
 Cons

  • Difficult to implement
  • Needs to be set up and tested by experienced Salesforce Administrator
  • Updates need to be made by Salesforce Administrator

 

Learn More About CloudAmp

If you want to have your leads automatically assigned to Salesforce Campaigns based on their source and campaign information, then check out the CloudAmp Campaign Tracker.

CloudAmp also provides hands-on setup and Salesforce assistance, included with our app subscription. And we are always happy to answer questions free of charge, so don’t hesitate to reach out.

 

Top 13 Mistakes Companies Make Using Salesforce

Posted on by David Hecht

 

Here at CloudAmp we love Salesforce, it’s all we’ve been doing since 2011. But it’s fun to make a snarky list of all the classic blunders organizations and Salesforce admins make!

(And of course, I have never made any of these mistakes personally.)

Let’s dive into the top 13 missteps, shall we?

 

1. Not Using Leads

Why bother creating leads when you have a magic process that qualifies an astounding 100% of your prospects, so they go into Salesforce as Contacts.

By not using leads you are missing out on one of the most basic parts of Salesforce’s data model – the conversion of leads to Accounts with Contacts and Opportunities. Missing these conversion events from your database means a lot of Salesforce’s built in functionality around sales cycles, seeing what lead sources don’t convert, and the Opportunity pipeline won’t be available for reporting in your org.

 

2. Over-Customizing the Platform

Why use standard features when you can create a labyrinth of customizations? Maintenance nightmares and upgrade headaches, here we come!  

Be sure when you are trying to customize Salesforce that the field or feature does not already exist — or there isn’t a pretty good substitute where you could update the picklist values or use an existing object. New team members who know Salesforce, and any poor new Salesforce admin are going to have a rough onboarding experience.

Google, AI, and Salesforce Trailhead are your friends so you don’t reinvent the wheel.

 

3. Ignoring Data Quality

Who cares if the data is outdated, duplicated, or incomplete? It’s not like Salesforce is your company’s system of record, and decisions are based on accurate information or anything.

While every Salesforce Org has dirty data, it’s easy to let it get out of hand. Going back in 5 years and trying to clean it up is going to be harder than putting some duplicate rules in place, or implementing some of the many tools available to help with this universal problem. And training your team on some data input standards can be helpful in some cases too.

 

4. Validation Rule Abuse

Why not create a validation rule for every conceivable scenario? Users love being bombarded with error messages for the slightest misstep.

Like most powerful features in Salesforce, Validation rules should be used sparingly — really only when necessary. For those things that are important to your business to validate, craft clear error messages so your users know how to fix their input errors. And be sure to TEST, since Validation rules are an excellent way to block automated processes elsewhere in Salesforce.

 

5. Beware Required Fields

Nothing says efficiency like forcing users to fill out every single field, even when it’s irrelevant to their task.

 

Is a field required because someone thought it was important five years ago? If it doesn’t matter to a current process or business need, let it go. And before making a field required that was not required before, make sure that requiring a value in a field that may currently be blank in 1000s of records does not break some existing integration or process inside Salesforce.

 

6. Overcomplicating Page Layouts

Cram every possible field and related list onto a single page. Users enjoy scrolling through endless information to find what they need.

We’ve all seen the endless scrolling Salesforce screens, with hundreds of fields, sometimes without clear section groupings. Create different page layouts for different roles in your organization, so they see just the data that is important to them. Periodically evaluate fields, and remove the unused ones from page layouts.

 

7. Disabling a User

Oh, you deactivated a user without checking if they own reports, automations, or records? Enjoy the treasure hunt to fix all the broken things!

 

When people leave your organization, their Salesforce logins should be disabled immediately. But before doing so, make sure to check their user is not running any important scheduled jobs, or assigned a critical system function like being the Default Case Owner or Default Lead Owner. 

 

8. Overcomplicating Flows

Why keep it simple when you can design flows that no one can decipher? Overloading flows with hard-coded logic and skipping subflows ensures updating can be a nightmare.

Flow are amazing tools in Salesforce, but are already complicated, so try to remove as much complexity from your flow designs as possible. When you need to tweak the logic in future, or diagnose a conflict between two flows, you’ll be glad you strove for simplicity initially.

 

9. Misusing Record Types

Create a record type for every minor variation, turning simple processes into a maze of confusion.

Record types are a powerful tool, but their ability to create complexity means they should be used sparingly. Use record types to show different picklist values, and page layouts for record creation, to different users. Consider whether a simple page layout would handle what you are trying to achieve.

 

10. Going Live without Testing

Why waste time testing when you can let your users be the beta testers… in production… during a critical sales period?

 

Testing can be a pain, but even having a basic plan in a spreadsheet for putting some new implementation or feature live can really save you a lot of headache. Make sure you at least run through some basic user testing, to make sure Salesforce is working as expected, and no data is missing or incorrectly updated.

 

And if you are moving from a separate system to Salesforce, a great idea is to run Salesforce in “test mode” for a bit, and compare results from the two systems to make sure they match before going live with Salesforce.

 

11. Not Using Sandboxes

Who needs a safe testing environment when you can unleash chaos directly in production? Nothing says “living on the edge” like breaking your live org in real-time!

 

Related to testing, Salesforce Sandboxes give you a safe space to install new apps or try new configurations. While approximating your production environment can be challenging, Salesforce Partial and Full Sandboxes do a pretty good job if you have access to them.

 

Not everything can be approximated in a Sandbox. CloudAmp for example works fine in a sandbox but test data is a poor substitute for understanding how it works compared to real tracking data in your leads. Still, no one is ever sad they started in a sandbox.

 

12. Neglecting User Training

Assuming everyone will magically know how to use Salesforce without any guidance? Brilliant strategy for ensuring confusion and low adoption rates.

Nowadays it is easier than ever to supplement your internal Salesforce process documentation with self-guided Trailhead Trails, where you have pre-selected relevant Trailhead modules for the team to learn about the parts of Salesforce that are important to them. Investing in some training and orientation can go a long way, especially with users new to Salesforce.

 

13. Poor Change Management

Introducing a new system without careful planning, testing, and communicating changes and benefits to your team? Fantastic way to breed resistance and confusion. 

Change management sounds like a scary compliance topic, but it could be as simple as having a short written policy on updating Salesforce, and sending emails to your team with an overview each time changes are made. More involved plans and testing in Sandbox can be helpful for larger projects, where you want to be sure you don’t break any Salesforce existing functionality.

 

Avoid these pitfalls, and your Salesforce experience might just be a tad less chaotic.

 

What’s not a mistake? Using CloudAmp

If you are using Leads (see #1) and want to know which marketing campaigns or sources your best leads come from, then check out the CloudAmp Campaign Tracker.

 

It will help you understand which keywords convert to opportunities, add valuable utm parameters to your leads and contacts, and even show you which pages of your website a lead viewed before filling out the form. There’s a 30 day trial and we help you get it set up.

 

 

Marketing on Salesforce for Beginners

Posted on by David Hecht

 

New to Salesforce? Here’s 8 things for marketers to get started.

 

Are you new to Salesforce and responsible for Marketing at a small company or nonprofit?

Do you need to figure out Salesforce and how to manage leads from Google Ads and other campaigns at the same time?

Well, you are not alone. For more than a decade, CloudAmp has specialized in helping marketers at small or mid-sized organizations figure out how to use Salesforce to manage their marketing and leads. People like you!

 

Here are our top 8 recommendations to get you oriented with Salesforce and tracking your leads:

 

1. Understand Salesforce Basics

  • Familiarize yourself with Salesforce’s core objects: Leads, Contacts, Accounts, and Opportunities
    • Understand how a single Lead record is converted to become an Account with a related Contact (and optionally an Opportunity)
    • If there are Sales people in your company, try to find out any processes they are using for their work in Salesforce (good luck!)
  • Explore the Salesforce App Launcher, and check out some different apps
  • Check out Salesforce Reports to get a sense of your existing data. Save a few as Favorites (click the star top right) to easily return to.

2. Get Learning with Trailhead

 

đź‘Ť NOTE:

Many trailhead modules for marketers will reference Account Engagement or Marketing Cloud, which are add-on products and unnecessary for most SMB marketers. This is an unfortunate source of confusion in Trailhead, which is otherwise excellent. Focus on Salesforce Sales Cloud basics to get started.

 

3. Set Up Web-to-Lead Forms

  • Salesforce’s Web-to-Lead functionality is an included feature that captures form submissions from your website directly to Salesforce leads
  • Create custom fields for your business (if needed), and add them to unique forms if needed
  • Learn more with our Ultimate Guide to Salesforce Web-to-Lead Forms

4. Customize Your Lead Management

  • Update Lead Page Layouts to show the standard and custom fields you need, while hiding unused fields. You can also have different page layouts for different user roles.
  • Automate Lead Assignment by setting up assignment rules to route leads to the right sales reps or queues.
    • Set up customized email replies to new leads with Lead Auto-Response Rules and Email templates.
  • Customize your Lead Source field values to make common sources selectable.
    • Note that your web-to-lead forms can create leads with any Lead Source value, whether or not it is listed as a drop down field value.

5. Understand Email Options

  • Salesforce has Email Templates that are sent by system automations like the Lead Auto-Responses referred to in the previous section, and they can also be sent by your sales and service users.
  • You can receive email notifications for important events in Salesforce, such as a new lead coming in from a campaign (and CloudAmp can help with this!)
  • Salesforce has a number of Email Integrations, including connections with email platforms like Outlook and Gmail, which allow users to work with Salesforce records directly from their email.
    • Salesforce Email-to-Salesforce gives you an email address that will automatically log inbound emails directly to Salesforce records, attaching emails to leads or contacts automatically. A similar feature for Service, Email-to-Case, creates support Cases from emails.

6. Leverage Reports and Dashboards

  • Understand Existing Leads:
    • Check out how “Lead Source” is populated for your existing leads, and what views / queues are currently in use to understand leads
    • See what reports exist already or create your own reports to understand lead volume, stages, and conversion rates.
  • Build a Dashboard:
    • Create a new dashboard to include your favorite reports on. Dashboards are a great way to understand trends and update multiple graphs at the click of a button
    • Include key metrics like lead volume, conversion rates, and campaign ROI.

7. Set Up Campaign Tracking

  • Use UTM Parameters:
    • Tag Google Ads URLs with UTM values to capture campaign data in Salesforce.

      Use a tool like the CloudAmp Campaign Tracker to capture UTM information for new leads so they have their UTM Campaign, Medium, Source and keywords automatically associated.
  • Use Salesforce Campaigns:
    • Link Leads and Contacts to Salesforce Campaigns representing your various marketing efforts for response tracking and ROI analysis.

8. Connect Salesforce and Google Ads

  • Integrate Salesforce with Google Ads:
    • Use Google Ads’ built-in Salesforce integration to sync Salesforce leads, converted leads, and opportunities (also known as offline conversions) to Google for ad optimization and bidding automation.
    • Learn more in our guide How to Connect Salesforce and Google Ads

That’s it for our top 8 items Salesforce beginners who are responsible for marketing should consider. Of course, there are tons more capabilities in Salesforce, as well as add-on apps like CloudAmp and others. 

But by following these steps, you should be able to get a good understanding of Salesforce, and set your organization up for marketing success with the basic marketing building blocks in place.

Questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out!

 

 

List: Top 20 Salesforce Sales Cloud RevOps Features

Posted on by David Hecht

 

Salesforce’s original platform, Salesforce Sales Cloud, offers many features for RevOps, sales / marketing, and Demand Generation.

No matter what you call it, when it comes to generating leads and closing revenue there are a number of useful tools in the core Salesforce product, as we covered in detail in our Marketing on Salesforce without Marketing Cloud guide.

Here are our top 18 included RevOps features in Salesforce, with 2 new AI features (extra $) thrown in as a bonus.

1. Leads

Salesforce Leads are records of potential customers in Salesforce. They can be prospects who may or may not have shown interest, but aren’t yet qualified.

 

2. Contacts

Salesforce Contacts are individuals at an Account, and what a Lead becomes when it is qualified and converted. Hopefully you have multiple contacts at each Account.

 

3. Accounts

Salesforce Accounts are the profiles of companies or organizations that your business interacts with. You can have multiple types of Accounts: customers, prospects, partners, competitors and more.

 

4. Opportunities

Salesforce Opportunities are Sales deals tracked through different stages of the sales pipeline. They can be won or lost, open or closed, an initial sale or an expansion opportunity.

 

5. Campaigns

Salesforce Campaigns track how marketing campaigns impact revenue, as well as analyze marketing ROI. Leads and Contacts can be assigned to multiple campaigns, including whether they responded or not.

 

6. Contact Roles

Salesforce Contact Roles identify the roles of Contacts involved in specific Opportunities. Define influencers, decision makers and more for each particular opportunity.

 

7. Campaign Influence

Salesforce Campaign Influence tracks how marketing campaigns impact opportunities and revenue. Different attribution models can be defined, including First Touch, equal weight, or Last Touch.

 

8. Web-to-Lead Forms

Salesforce Web-to-Lead captures lead information directly from your website forms into Salesforce. Choose from standard and custom fields and generate form code in minutes. See our Ultimate Guide to Salesforce Web-to-Lead Forms for more.

 

9. Email Templates

Salesforce Email Templates allow you to create formatted emails for easy communication with prospects and customers. Email templates can be sent by your sales and service users, as well as by automations in Salesforce.

 

10. Quick Text

Salesforce Quick Text are short canned responses that can save time in emails and chats. Quick Text is easy to add in Salesforce’s communications workflow.

 

11. Email Integration

Salesforce Email Integration offers connections with email platforms like Outlook and Gmail. Users can view, edit, and add Salesforce records directly from their email, and relate their emails and events to Salesforce records.

 

12. Email to Salesforce

Salesforce Email-to-Salesforce gives you an email address that will automatically log inbound emails directly to Salesforce records, attaching emails to leads or contacts automatically. A similar feature for Service, Email to Case, creates support Cases from emails.

 

13. Mass Emails

Salesforce Mass Email allows you to send bulk emails to lists of leads or contacts. While limits on volume and deliverability make most companies choose 3rd party email tools, for certain applications Salesforce mass email can be useful.

 

14. Lead Assignment Rules

Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules allow you to automate the distribution of leads to the right sales reps based on criteria that you set.

 

15. Lead Auto-Response Rules

Salesforce Lead Auto-Response Rules allow you to send automated email responses based on your email templates when a new lead is created.

 

16. Linkedin Lead Gen

Salesforce Linkedin Lead Gen connects Salesforce to Linkedin advertising forms, allowing you to map fields and automatically create new leads in Salesforce based on Linkedin forms.

 

17. Reports and Dashboards

Salesforce Reports and Dashboards are powerful tools for analyzing and reporting on your organization’s performance. Reports and Dashboards automatically show the latest data from Salesforce, eliminating the need to manually update spreadsheets.

 

18. Sales Forecasting

Salesforce Sales forecasting provides insight into projected sales, based on your team’s open Opportunities. Opportunity amounts, target close dates and estimated likelihood of winning inform the pipeline forecast.

 

19. Einstein Lead Scoring

(New, additional cost)

Salesforce Einstein Lead Scoring uses AI to prioritize leads based on conversion likelihood, using your businesses lead conversion patterns that it detects using machine learning.

 

20. Agentforce Sales Development Representative (SDR)

(New, additional cost)

Salesforce’s Agentforce SDR Agent can engage with prospects 24/7, answering basic questions and scheduling meetings based on CRM and external calendars.

 

 

How to Connect Salesforce and Google Ads

Posted on by David Hecht

If you track Leads and Opportunities in Salesforce’s Sales Cloud, you can link your Google Ads account to import your conversions from Salesforce into Google Ads. This will help you better measure how your online Google Ad spend is generating offline conversions and revenue, as well as allow Google to optimize your advertising using Salesforce Opportunity data if you choose.

 

If you are using the CloudAmp Campaign Tracker to attribute advertising campaigns to your leads, you are already capturing the key that connects the two systems – the Google Click ID, or Gclid. In that case the setup is much quicker and easier than it would be otherwise, and you can skip to section 3, Salesforce Configuration Steps. Otherwise, read on.

 

đź–™ Note:

Even if you are not using CloudAmp, these steps will help you connect Salesforce and Google Ads. Whether you use different Salesforce lead attribution software, or plan to have your web developer capture the Gclid with custom website form code, the basic steps are the same.

 

In this guide, we’ll show you how to set Salesforce to import conversions into Google Ads. Topics include everything from tagging on the Google side, to your Salesforce setup, all the way to using the conversion data in Google.

 

  1. Enable Auto-tagging in Google Ads
  2. Capturing the Gclid In Salesforce
  3. Salesforce Configuration Steps
  4. Link Salesforce and Google Ads accounts
  5. Understanding Conversion Data
  6. Using Salesforce Conversion Data in Google
  7. External Resources

Enable Auto-tagging in Google Ads

Your first step in connecting Salesforce and Google ads is to make sure Google is adding the Gclid parameter to your ad URLs, a process known as “auto-tagging”. This setting may already be enabled, since it is required for connecting Google Ads to Google Analytics, as well as for Google Ads website conversion tracking. But it’s best to make sure, as without the Gclid parameters, the rest of this configuration won’t work.

What is a Gclid?

When someone clicks on a link in one of your Google Ads, your website will see the Gclid, or “Google Click ID” value in the incoming URL. The Gclid is a unique, long string of letters and numbers that identifies the particular ad a visitor clicked on in Google’s system.

 

When that visitor submits a form on your web site, and creates a Lead in Salesforce, the CloudAmp Campaign Tracker automatically adds that Gclid to the lead record. If you use a different technology to capture UTM and other url parameters, you may be able to get the Gclid a similar way.

 

When a Lead is converted, and creates an Account, Contact and Opportunity, the Gclid follows along to the Contact, as well as to the Opportunity (once you have completed the setup below).

 

Google Ads will then periodically check Salesforce, to see if any of the Opportunities with Stages (as you configure during the setup) are associated with the unique Gclid IDs. If so, it will count those stages as conversions attributed to that particular Google Ad click.

 

How to Turn On Auto-tagging in Google Ads

 

Enabling auto-tagging in Google Ads is easy. Once you are logged in to your Google Ads account, simply do the following:

  1. Click Admin from the left side menu
  2. Click the Account Settings tab
  3. Click the Auto-tagging section
  4. Select “Tag the URL that people click through from my ad.”
  5. Click Save

 

Auto-Tagging Considerations

Auto-tagging is simple to enable, but there are a few situations where it may cause issues. If you have special redirects on your web site, be sure they can handle long parameters, as the gclid value can be up to 100 characters long.

In addition, some websites are not compatible with auto-tagging because they do not allow arbitrary parameters in URLs. Occasionally web servers rewrite the case of incoming URLs to all lower case letters as well, which won’t cause errors but can throw off the tracking data, since gclid values can contain both uppercase and lowercase letters. Both of these situations are pretty rare, but if you have any issues during testing, you might check with your web developer.

 

Manual Tags and Auto-Tagging

 

In the past it was not recommended to enable auto-tagging if you also had manual tags (like utm parameters) in your Google Ad urls. This was because in certain cases it could result in duplicate or conflicting tracking data, but that issue has been largely resolved. 

 

Many customers today use both auto-tagging and manual UTM tags, since manual UTM parameters are required for systems like CloudAmp to capture data into Salesforce, as well as providing a tracking data source independent of the Google ecosystem.

 

Note: If you are using both manual tags and gclids via auto-tagging, on the Google Analytics side there is a setting to “Allow manual tagging (UTM values) to override auto-tagging (GCLID values).” That way your manual UTM tags can override but be supplemented the values from the gclid at the same time. 

 

If you are using Google Analytics for conversion tracking, you may wish to have that setting disabled. That way, Google Analytics will pull its internal values from the Gclid, rather than using the manual UTM tags. The manual tags will still be available for reporting in Salesforce via CloudAmp or other systems, but there won’t be any potential for conflict (such as the default medium of cpc being overridden to a value from your manual utm_medium tag). For more details, check out Google’s documentation, since Google Analytics is a whole different topic, outside the scope of this guide to connecting Google Ads and Salesforce!

 

Capturing the Gclid In Salesforce

If you have developed custom code to populate UTM parameters and other source data in your Salesforce web-to-lead forms, then you should ask your web developer to begin capturing the GCLID value as well. Google provides some sample javascript code in its documentation for how to “Edit your website to collect and save the click ID.”

 

For most marketers, your marketing attribution software should be able to automatically capture the GCLID. Since CloudAmp publishes the Campaign Tracker software for Salesforce, which automatically captures the GCLID (as well as other advertising IDs, like Microsoft’s MSCLKID), we are going to provide instructions based on our own app.

 

First install the CloudAmp Campaign Tracker in Salesforce, and add the tracking script to your website footer. Setup can normally be done in minutes, depending on your ability to update your website. For a quick overview of the process, see our Quick Start Guide.

Once the Campaign Tracker is up and running, you can test to make sure the GCLID parameter is successfully showing up in Salesforce. No need to click on one of your ads, you can use our spreadsheet template download to generate test URLs, and then add a test GCLID parameter at the end of any URL in this format:

 

&gclid=9949435394i5322urwiehr

 

So a test URL format would be similar to:

 

https://www.yoursite.com?utm_campaign=CampaignOct23&utm_medium=PPC&utm_source=Google&utm_id=Goog_04&utm_content=Adgroup3&utm_term=Keyword3&gclid=9949435394i5322urwiehr

 

Once you have submitted a test lead or two, check Salesforce. You should see the value from your URL in either the “First gclid” or “Last gclid” field on the new lead:

 

Salesforce Configuration Steps

Now that you are successfully capturing the GCLID in new Salesforce leads, it is time to add the field required by Google for linking to Salesforce. Using CloudAmp, we’ll just map the CloudAmp GCLID field to the field that Google is looking for in its integration.

 

1. Add GCLID field to Salesforce Opportunity

  1. Click on the Gear Icon and select Setup
  2. Go to Object Manager and select Opportunity
  3. Click Fields & Relationships on the left side
  4. Click New and then select Text to create a custom field with the Field Name “GCLID” (in all capital letters, without the quotes). 
    1. The “Field Label” can be anything you want.
    2. Set the field length to 255 characters.
    3. Make this field read-only so your users don’t accidentally alter it.

2. Check the Opportunity History Tracking

 

  1. Click Set History Tracking button top right
  2. Enable field history tracking for the “Stage” field.

3. Map Campaign Tracker Lead Fields to the New Opp Fields

 

  1. Go to Object Manager and select Lead
  2. Click Fields & Relationships on the left side
  3. Click Map Lead Fields button top right
  4. Click Opportunity in the center to the right of Account and Contact columns
  5. Scroll down to First Gclid. Select the GCLID field you just created in the right hand column
  6. Click Save at the bottom of the page

 

Link Salesforce and Google Ads accounts

 

Note: In early 2024, the “Linked Accounts” page under Admin was moved to “Data manager” under Tools. Google consolidated capabilities in their Ads Data Manager, which is a data import and management tool that lets you bring your customer data and activate it in Google Ads.

Connect Salesforce Opportunities to Google Ads

 

  1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
  2. Click Tools from the left side menu
  3. Click Data Manager on the left side.
  4. Click the + Connect Product blue button
  5. Choose Salesforce as your data source
  6. Select the SObject (Saleforce object) that you wish to import data for, such as Opportunity
  7. When the source fields from Salesforce appear, Edit the Field Mapping
    • Ensure GCLID_c field that you created earlier in Salesforce is mapped to the gclid field in Google Ads
    • Ensure the change_timestamp is mapped to the conversion_event_time in Google ads (this is why the history tracking was enabled in earlier setup steps)
    • You can also map optional fields, such as Amount

 

Once your Data Manager Connection is set up above, you can create multiple Conversion Actions related to your Salesforce milestones

 

Connect Salesforce Leads to Google Ads

 

With the setup above, you will be able to associate Opportunity stages with conversion actions, but not Lead Status. (This setup uses a GCLID field on the Opportunity, pulling from a CloudAmp Gclid field on the Lead to make setup easier).

You can also create a connection using the Google Ads Data Manager to pull in Salesforce Leads, so you can have conversion actions based on Lead status changes.

 

  1. Set up the connection to Salesforce leads in the Data Manager, in the same way that Opportunities were set up
  2. Under Goals, click the +New Conversion Action button
  3. After selecting your data source, choose a conversion action
  4. Select one of the SObjects you have already created a connection to (Lead or Opportunity)
  5. To set up a Lead, select the cloudamp__gclid__c field to match to the gclid in Google Ads
  6. Select the change_timestamp field from Salesforce, where values might change, and history tracking is enabled on that field
    1. In this example below, make sure that Field History Tracking in Salesforce is enabled on the First Gclid field on the Lead object.
  7. Name the connection, and set the import schedule.

 

 

Understanding Conversion Data

 

Once you have connected Salesforce and Google Ads, you can review the history of successful imports from Salesforce to Google, and view the conversion data.

  1. Log into your Google Ads account, and click the Goals icon .
  2. Click Conversions.
  3. Click Summary.
  4. You can hover over the titles at the top of each column to see a definition of that conversion action.

 

You may see other Conversion Goals you have previously set up, such as Google Analytics goals if it is connected to Google Ads, or other systems. The Salesforce conversions will be shown under the Conversion Source = Website (Salesforce.com) or Website (Import from clicks)

There are a number of columns in the Conversions view that will show Cost Per Conversion, Conversion Rate, and more data.

 

Under the Attribution menu item, you can drill down to individual Salesforce conversions, to see the source Campaign and even keywords.

 

Using Salesforce Conversion Data in Google

 

On the Salesforce side, you can use Google Ad data, such as utm campaign and keyword values, to make decisions about where to allocate budget. For example, if you see that keyword 1 is driving the bulk of your Closed Won deals, while keyword 2 produces lots of leads that do not convert, it might be time to increase the budget for keyword 1 clicks (and potentially cut keyword 2, if it is producing unqualified leads).

 

When we now move to the Google side, you can see this in your imported data, and allow Google Ads to use it for optimization.

 

One thing to note is that Goals set as secondary actions are not visible in your campaigns, but simply live on your goals page for monitoring and observation.

Primary or secondary actions included in a custom goal and selected at the campaign level will be reported in the “Conversions” column.

 

We recommend making your Salesforce data Primary so you can see the conversions, and you may also wish to create multiple goals — one for Closed Won deals, and other Goals for earlier stages during the sales process or even Closed Lost deals.

 

Get Help from CloudAmp

 

As you can see, there are many options to connect Salesforce and Google Ads, and a number of different ways it can be configured. If you need assistance setting up the GCLID integration with Salesforce, and optimizing your Google Ads with Salesforce lead and opportunity conversion data, CloudAmp can help.

 

Not yet a CloudAmp customer? The CloudAmp Campaign Tracker is an affordable monthly subscription, and has a 30 day no obligation trial so you can test it out in Salesforce. To get more data about your Leads in Salesforce, including full source attribution and page view data to prove ROI and improve your marketing, contact us for more information today.

 

External Resources

 

About Google Ads Conversion Import for Salesforce

Link Salesforce and Google Ads accounts

Import conversions from Salesforce

Understand your conversion tracking data

About the “Data manager” page and Product Linking

 

 

 

Marketing on Salesforce without Marketing Cloud

Posted on by David Hecht

Most Salesforce customers use the original Sales Cloud (Leads, Accounts, Contacts, & Opportunities). And while the add-on Marketing Cloud is a powerful product with a lot of benefits in terms of automation and scale, it is not a fit for all organizations using Salesforce.

 

Some of the reasons that organizations using Salesforce Sales Cloud may choose not to purchase Marketing Cloud include the following:

 

  • Budgetary limitations
  • New to Salesforce and want to implement basics first
  • Marketing team not in place or just one person
  • Email marketing software already in place or part of another system
  • Target audience not receptive to frequent marketing messages (eg. technical buyers)

 

The good news is, Salesforce Sales Cloud already has a number of capabilities to drive your Sales and Marketing. And for the gaps that you may find, a wide variety of affordable apps exist on the Salesforce AppExchange.

 

To give you an overview of how you can manage your marketing on Salesforce, with or without Marketing Cloud, we’ll be covering the following topics:

 

  1. Sales Cloud vs. Marketing Cloud
  2. Salesforce Campaigns
  3. Salesforce Lead Management & Forms
  4. Track Your Advertising in Salesforce
  5. Website Activity Tracking in Salesforce
  6. Salesforce Email Marketing

 

 

Sales Cloud vs. Marketing Cloud

First off, let’s define the differences between Salesforce’s Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud products, to explain how they work together, and be sure you understand the differences!

 

The Salesforce Clouds (Sales, Service, Marketing, and Commerce) are standalone, meaning they can be used separately and independently. But they can also be connected to share data across the different capabilities of each cloud.

 

Sales Cloud is the most common, and what many people think of when they think of Salesforce. “Salesforce Classic” you might think of it as, the one that started all the way back in 1999.

Both Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud track leads along their journey to become your customers. Sales Cloud has a lot more features to create and manage customers and revenue, including forecasting and pipeline management. In addition to the Leads, Accounts, Contacts and Opportunities that everyone knows, it can manage Contracts, Products and Quotes as well, for managing the full sales cycle. 

 

Sales Cloud does have lead generation capabilities as well, including web-to-lead forms that post leads from your website into Salesforce, lead assignment rules, autoresponder emails and more.

 

Salesforce Sales Cloud vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud:
Functional Areas Comparison

Salesforce Sales Cloud Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Lead Management Lead Scoring and Analytics
Account Management Lead Nurturing (Journey Builder)
Contact Management Email Marketing Tools
Opportunity Management Social Media Integrations

 

Marketing Cloud is made up of several different products. The main Marketing Cloud product can send a LOT of email to consumers. Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, formerly known as Pardot, has more nurture and automation features, for longer B2B sales cycles. It is good for large scale email drip campaigns, where you send a series of automated emails to leads or customers based on various criteria such as demographics, behavior and communications preferences.

 

Marketing Cloud also has a number of features to help with Account Based Management (ABM), including tracking website activity and scoring a prospect’s engagement level with content. While it is possible to use some Marketing Cloud features without Salesforce Sales Cloud, the full capabilities of the product are only available when it is integrated with Salesforce. It would be safe to say that most Salesforce Marketing Cloud customers are also purchasing Sales Cloud.

 

 

Salesforce Campaigns

While many people might use Campaigns with Marketing Cloud, Campaign records are actually part of Sales Cloud. Campaigns can be a powerful tool to use with Leads and Contacts, as well as Prospects in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (fka Pardot).

 

You can use Salesforce Campaigns to create target audiences, and track responses and engagement. Both Leads and Contacts can be members of the same campaign, making it a good way to unify a marketing effort across groups of records which are normally separate in Salesforce.

 

Here is an overview of how you use Salesforce campaigns:

 

Create Campaigns

Creating Campaigns in Salesforce is easy, and you can define a lot or a little bit of information about each campaign, depending on your requirements.

 

  1. In the Salesforce App Launcher, select Campaigns.
  2. Enter a campaign name.
  3. Select the Active checkbox if you’re ready to roll out the campaign.
  4. Select the type of campaign (advertising, event, etc.).
  5. Select the status of the campaign.
  6. Enter a Start Date and an End Date.

 

There are other fields you can fill out, such as budget, should you choose. After saving, you can start to add people (leads and contacts) to the campaign.

Add Members to Campaigns

You can make Leads and/or Contacts members of a campaign, to send them emails, track whether they have responded, and more. Campaign members can be made up of both Salesforce leads and contacts, which is one of the useful features of Campaigns.

 

  1. Click Add Leads or Add Contacts
  2. You can also select Manage Campaign Members to import CSVs of Leads or Contacts
  3. For each Member, you can choose their Status when you add them
  4. Click Save

Members can also be added to Campaigns directly from a Lead, Contact, or Account record, or from list views on those objects.

 

Auto Assign Leads to Campaigns

You can have your website forms automatically assign leads as members of a particular Campaign when they are created in Salesforce. Just add a hidden field that passes the Campaign ID to Salesforce.

For more information, see the “Automatic Campaign Assignment for Leads” section of our blog post, “Which Form or Web Page did a Salesforce lead come from?”

 

 

Salesforce Lead Management & Forms

Salesforce Sales Cloud includes Web-to-Lead functionality, which gives you form code to place on your web site and collect leads. Some customization and styling with CSS is required, but Salesforce web-to-lead forms work well for getting prospect information into Salesforce.

How to Create a Web-to-Lead Form

You can generate HTML code for a form that will create Leads in Salesforce when your website visitors or prospects fill it out. Just follow these general steps, and then send the resulting code to your web developer.

 

  1. Go to Setup, type Web-to-Lead in the Quick Find box, then select Web-to-Lead.
  2. To enable or change Web-to-Lead settings, click Edit.
    1. There are various settings such as the Salesforce user that is shown as creating the leads from the form, as well as other settings. Consult the full Salesforce documentation for details on all the web-to-lead setting options.
  3. Click Save.
  4. To create a form for your website, click Create Web-to-Lead Form
  5. Select fields you want to include.
    1. You can include custom fields that you have previously created in Salesforce, such as information relevant to your product or service.
    2. Don’t include too many fields though — requesting more than a few key bits of information will reduce your number of leads.
  6. Copy the final code to send to your web designer or developer.
  7. Click Finished.

 

Salesforce Web-to-Lead Form Alternatives

Some Salesforce customers prefer to use third party form programs, such as FormAssembly or Gravity Forms. These options offer some additional functionality, and provide an online interface to make updates to the forms without needing to get your web developer involved each time. 

 

However, Salesforce web-to-lead is included as part of your standard Salesforce subscription, and does the job for most purposes. You can even capture information specific to your organization, by creating custom fields in Salesforce and adding them to your web-to-lead form. And you can keep using web-to-lead with Marketing Cloud Account Engagement via the Pardot form handler functionality, or use the Pardot forms instead.

 

Linkedin Advertising Leads

If your business uses Linkedin Lead Gen ads, you can set up a connection to Linkedin, where the leads submitted in your advertising come straight into Salesforce. This functionality is included standard in Salesforce Sales Cloud, but it does require Salesforce Web-to-Lead to be enabled.

 

  1. Go to Setup, type Linkedin in the Quick Find box, then select Linkedin Accounts.
  2. Connect your Linkedin account that has access to your LinkedIn ad accounts and company pages.
  3. Go to Lead Gen Fields in the Setup area.
  4. Under Map Form Data, choose the Salesforce lead fields to receive data from LinkedIn
  5. You can configure other settings as well.
  6. Test! (Fill out a form on one of your Linkedin ads)

Lead Assignment Rules

Sales Cloud also includes a feature to automatically assign new leads to users or queues, where users can grab them. For complex Sales territories, there are a variety of Salesforce AppExchange apps that can help assign leads, but out of the box you can have them assigned to a user or queue based on data that exists in any of the lead fields.

 

  1. Go to Setup, enter Assignment Rules in the Quick Find box, then select Lead Assignment Rules 
  2. Click New to create a new rule entry. For each rule, there are 3 areas you can set:
    1. Order – Number the rules in the order you would like them to run, when they evaluate a new lead
    2. Criteria – specifies the field and values that should match  in order for that assignment rule to be triggered.
    3. User – specifies the user or queue that the lead is assigned to

There are a variety of other settings and use cases that can be set up for this powerful Salesforce Sales Cloud lead management feature.

You can also configure related Lead Auto-Response Rules in a similar fashion, to send an automated email to new leads.

 

Pro tip: you can create a Delete queue in Salesforce, then use Lead Assignment Rules to filter out junk leads that escape your spam filters into that queue. If you don’t have any email notifications configured for the Delete queue, and filter leads owned by that queue out of your lead views, these junk leads will be far less bothersome, and will be easy for your Salesforce Administrator to clear out the delete queue periodically using Mass Delete Leads functionality.

 

Track Your Advertising in Salesforce

There is some marketing functionality within Salesforce Sales Cloud, but it doesn’t go terribly deep into lead enrichment or source information. The good news is, some of this functionality can be added through Salesforce partner applications on the Salesforce AppExchange very affordably.

 

Our CloudAmp Campaign Tracker, for example, can show you how your best leads found you, including campaigns, keywords, and which pages on your website a lead viewed.

 

If you are spending money on Google Ads or other online advertising, knowing which ads are producing your best leads can help you drive more sales and cut any ineffective campaigns. 

Ad Tracking for Salesforce

Marketers often find that some keywords or types of ads can produce a lot of leads, but some types of those leads will not convert to sales. This issue can be both more pronounced and harder to discover with B2B products or services, where the conversion to a paid customer may take 3 to 6 months or more. In this scenario, tracking the detailed sources of your leads in the Salesforce Sales Cloud is essential, so you can connect the offline sales, and know which online advertising produces the most conversions to revenue.

 

With an add-on Salesforce app like the CloudAmp Campaign Tracker, you can add many data points to your Leads and Contacts, such as the following:

 

  • Lead type (Campaign, Organic, Referral or Direct)
  • Campaign UTM parameters
  • Referring Site / Source
  • Keyword / Search Phrase
  • Ad click ID (Gclid / Msclkid)
  • First and Last visit information
  • What pages were viewed on your web site

 

Because this advertising data comes right into your Leads in Sales Cloud, it can be quickly used by both marketing and sales team members. Sales users can understand the products or services a lead may be interested in by viewing their path through your web site, as well as their search phrases that triggered an ad.

 

Marketers or Sales Operations users can view aggregate campaign data in Salesforce, to identify keywords that may be driving high volumes of leads that don’t convert. Sometimes the target audience for those ads is off, or there could be confusion with a keyword having multiple meanings to different audiences. 

 

Eliminating waste in online advertising is not to be underestimated — it can be a quick path to improving results, when budget is reallocated from underperforming to better performing campaigns.

Call Tracking for Salesforce

There are also Salesforce apps such as RingDNA and Call Tracking Metrics, which can both provide your business with a Salesforce integrated internet based phone system, while at the same time helping to track advertising results from phone calls.

 

These systems can dynamically display unique phone numbers on your website landing pages that are tied to particular campaigns or keywords, and sync that data to Salesforce when leads are created. 

 

Salesforce connected phone apps have a number of other features that can improve your sales team’s productivity as well, such as predictive dialing, automated emails and voicemails, and more.

 

 

Website Activity Tracking in Salesforce

Knowing which pages a Lead or Contact in Salesforce viewed on your website can be critical in understanding buyer intent. And the good news is that this is not just a feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, it is also available through lower cost add-on apps for Sales Cloud.

 

By combining the power of CloudAmp and Salesforce Sales Cloud, you can see the pages that a Lead or Contact viewed on your site — how they entered your site, which products or services they looked at, and which form they filled out to contact you.  All the website activity data is shown in a related list right on the Salesforce record.

There are also a variety of indicators that can help your team understand where a prospect is in the funnel, such as viewing a pricing page, or multiple return visits to your website. Each session can be viewed, with time stamps and page URLs to make understanding the signals easier.

 

You can even set follow up tasks for your sales reps based on website activity, or add leads to a campaign based on them downloading a certain piece of content. While it does not solve every challenge of understanding prospect behavior, it can give you an easy starting point for how to engage with a prospect.

 

 

Salesforce Email Marketing

While Salesforce Sales Cloud is not technically email marketing software, it does have a number of capabilities for sending emails that are built in. It may not give you all the features of a system like Marketing Cloud, or of standalone email marketing software like MailChimp or Campaign Monitor, but it is worth understanding its capabilities and whether they would work for your purposes.

 

Salesforce Sales Cloud includes the ability to send mass emails, email templates, and ways to create automations, but they are subject to some limitations. Its functionality for individual Sales or Service users to send single emails to customers is considerably more advanced, as this is core functionality of Sales Cloud.

 

Mass Emails

You can send mass emails from Salesforce, though the amount is limited to 5000 per day. Additional quotas may be available if you are relaying email through your own mail servers or Google Gmail / Microsoft Office 365 mail servers.

 

There are also some limitations to the data you get back. Email Opens can be tracked in most cases, but you will not be able to see click throughs on an individual basis.

 

If you are regularly sending mass emails, such as a monthly email newsletter to thousands of customers, you should consider using a third party email marketing application. You will have fewer restrictions around email quantities, and are likely to find the analytics that most email services provide to be valuable.

 

But Salesforce Mass Emails can be quite convenient, since you can select “Send List Email” from Lead or Contact list views at the click of a button.

Automated Emails

In addition to the Lead Auto-Response Rules covered above, to schedule automated emails in Salesforce Sales Cloud, using Flow automation is generally recommended. While flows are very powerful, they would typically require your Salesforce Administrator to configure, especially if you wish to do a drip email campaign (also known as a marketing automation journey). 

 

That can be implemented in Salesforce, but it would be a fairly advanced setup. Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot) would likely be a better solution if you want to send lots of automated email journeys, and give your marketing team the ability to easily configure and update them.

Salesforce Sales Cloud does have other features that were used for sending automated or scheduled emails, such as Workflows and Process Builder, but those features are being phased out. At CloudAmp we do use Workflow email notifications to send internal emails, such as information on new leads or closed deal celebrations to the team.

 

Email Templates & Quick Text

Salesforce does have email templates that are useful for sending pre-written and formatted emails from Salesforce, either to individual customers or mass emails. There is not a drag-and-drop editor, like most Email Service Providers offer, so often you might need to build an email template externally, convert it to HTML, and then upload it to Salesforce.

 

Another nice feature of the Salesforce Sales Cloud email toolset is Quick Text. These short blurbs can be inserted into any email using a button, and help make your team more efficient, as well as keeping replies or wording more standardized across your company.

 

Quick Text can be organized into folders by category or topic, giving your team easy access to pre-written responses. This feature is generally used in Sales or Service situations however, and not as frequently as a marketing tool.

Email Hygiene

Salesforce Sales Cloud does provide Bounce Management, to show you when an email address has bounced. It also has an Email Opt-Out field, which can be checked when you wish to exclude a Lead or Contact from future emails.

 

Unfortunately Salesforce does not have an unsubscribe function that can be added to the bottom of emails and allow customers to unsubscribe on their own. Your team would need to check the Email Opt-Out field manually when requested by your customer, or build additional functionality using a form to process unsubscribes. Unsubscribe functionality is another reason to consider a third party tool for mass email marketing purposes.

 

Conclusion

If you’ve made it this far, you can see that there is a lot of marketing functionality included in Salesforce Sales Cloud, as well as a number of add-on apps to extend functionality. Marketing Cloud is a good solution for many Salesforce customers, but its functionality isn’t a necessity or fit for all customers. And at the very least, it is worth understanding the breadth of marketing functionality within Salesforce Sales Cloud, so you can make a good decision on what tools to use, with or without Marketing Cloud.

 

Learn more about CloudAmp

Not yet a CloudAmp customer? If you want to have more data about your Leads in Salesforce, including full source attribution and page view data to prove ROI and improve your marketing, contact us for more information today.