Have a weird Pardot behavior you can’t seem to figure out? You’re not alone! At Cloudtegic, our clients come to us with all kinds of stumpers. There are several steps we go through in Pardot troubleshooting. Usually, we can quickly pinpoint issues, though some end up being the tip of the iceberg and require more extensive research. We wanted to share some of our tips with you in hopes that they can help you find the answers you need.
Here are 7 Pardot Troubleshooting Tips from Our Delivery Team!
Check the Pardot Salesforce Connector
If there is an issue with your Pardot Salesforce Connector, you will see a notification on your dashboard. This article shares some common Connector issues to be aware of. As a part of regular Pardot maintenance, checking the Pardot Salesforce Connector for sync errors should be on your list. Sync errors occur when a Pardot prospect fails to sync with Salesforce for various reasons like data formatting issues, access issues, and more.To check and clear sync errors in the Pardot Lightning App, navigate to Pardot Settings → Connectors → click the cog next to Salesforce.com → click on Sync Errors → right-click on a Prospect name and select “Open link in new tab” (this will open the Pardot Prospect in question) → go back to the sync error list, click on the blue cloud next to the Prospect name (this will open the Salesforce record in question). You will be able to analyze both the Pardot record and the Salesforce record side-by-side to determine what discrepancy might be causing the sync error. Once a resolution has been identified, edit the records to match and save it. In the Pardot record, click the “Sync with CRM” button at the top to push the sync once more. You will see a banner indicating that the sync was successful.
Use the Pardot audit tab to catch and fix incorrect visitor association changes (VACs)
In the audit tab, you’ll find a list of all recent changes on a prospect record. This is especially helpful for understanding VACs. VACs happen when cookies get confused between prospects. In the Pardot Audit tab, you will see the visitor association moving from one prospect to another – keep an eye out for this: “Type = Visitor Association Change”. VACs are an issue because activity previously associated with one prospect will now incorrectly be associated with another. In my experience, this happens most frequently when emails are forwarded among prospects, which also forwards all the tracking.To fix a Visitor associate change: Click the visitor ID. Click Remove.
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Use Pardot dynamic lists to diagnose issues among a segment of prospects
To find out how many prospects do/do not match the criteria, use dynamic lists. By segmenting your prospects based on criteria, you can understand the extent of an issue and potentially use that list to fix it via an automation rule. To create a dynamic list in Pardot Lightning, go to Prospects → Segmentation —> Segmentation Lists
Use the Pardot email rendering tool (available for Plus and above)
If you use the Pardot classic email builder, use the Litmus integration email rendering tool before sending an email. The render previews what the email looks like across most email clients and screen sizes. This testing step will also give you a subject line preview and spam analysis. I use this more to prevent Pardot issues than troubleshooting, but it’s also helpful when fixing HTML problems in an email.To use the rendering tool, navigate to the Testing tab in the classic email builder and scroll to the bottom to click New Render.
Review the error file after uploading a list
After you upload a list, it’s always a good idea to check the error file for any errors that prevented prospects from getting uploaded/updated. Sometimes errors occur in your upload. Here are some of the common ones:
- Your list contains role-based email addresses, which Pardot restricts importing and sending to by default.
- Your list contains prospects that you previously deleted and are currently in your recycling bin, and you didn’t choose the option to remove deleted prospects from the recycle bin upon import.
- Your list has field values that won’t map properly. The ones we see all the time are state and country field values different than what Pardot/Salesforce expects (abbreviated vs spelled out).
- Your list contains prospects that do not have email addresses. Prospects in Pardot must have email addresses.
Check the error file by going to Pardot Settings → Imports → scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the list to export the error file.
Check field values
If you see sync errors or have issues with prospects coming in through forms with incorrect field values, it could be due to a field value mismatch between the Salesforce, Pardot, and form fields. When a Salesforce picklist field synced with Pardot gets updated, it is not fully updated in Pardot automatically. Check the custom field in Pardot to ensure the field values are updated and the check boxes next to all the field values are ticked. Also make sure you check the box for “Keep this field’s type and possible values (for dropdowns, radio buttons, checkboxes) in sync with the CRM. Finally, revisit the pardot form field and load the default data.
Submit a support case
When you’ve tried all of the above and still don’t know what’s going on with your Pardot issue, submit a support case. If you have premier success, you’ll get a quick response from a team of internal Pardot experts. Many Pardot users don’t know where to go to submit a support ticket. Here’s how:
First, grant login access for Salesforce support. Click the question mark in the top right of your org → click Get Support → select Contact Support → click Create a Case
Still having trouble? Check out our Pardot Support Plans and hand your issues off to a pro.
Ginny Torok Duwa
Ginny Torok Duwa is a Marketing Operations Consultant at Cloudtegic. She has been in the marketing industry for 13 years, and is twice Pardot certified. She is passionate about quantifiable marketing programs and loves to help marketers prove the impact of their efforts.
