Upgrading Starter and Pro Suite Customers to Data Cloud Consent

What is changing with how consent data is stored?

In Winter ‘25, if you are a Starter and Pro Suite customer with a paid org, you will be upgraded to an enhanced consent model for marketing that unlocks new features currently available in Marketing Cloud Growth Edition. 

With the enhanced consent model, you can manage your customer consent data more easily. Keep track of your customer communication preferences for multiple marketing channels with subscriptions, which you can manage via a simple interface. You can also bulk update consent status for an email address and use a Flow control to update consent status from a form. 

How will my experience change?

A new Consent tab will be added in the Marketing app horizontal navigation bar to manage these added capabilities. Also, a new Consent Request option will appear in Flow Builder for form-triggered flows. 

After the upgrade, marketing sends will check consent status exclusively from Data Cloud. Due to these changes, you should no longer use custom features that are written to the Communication Subscription Consent object for marketing sends. Instead, use the consent status flow control to automatically update consent status data.

To review consent data, create a Data Cloud report and select the Communication Subscription Consent report type. If you previously used custom reports on Communication Subscription Consent, they’ll no longer be accurate.

Why is this change happening?

In addition to the new features, this enhanced consent model allows for more flexibility across multiple Contact or Lead records with the same email address. The consent model also works with customizations in Data Cloud that are available with Professional Editions and above. You’ll now have a seamless path to scale your customer base and unlock the full features of Data Cloud.

How does this affect my current or upcoming campaigns?

There’s no direct impact to ongoing campaigns. After the change, Data Cloud captures all consent data for your campaigns and reports. If emails sent before the change included an option to opt out, your customers will be redirected to an unsubscribe link or page that writes to Data Cloud. 

When is this change happening? How do I know everything is working?

The change will occur in Winter ’25. Winter ‘25 features and enhancements are available starting in September 2024. About one month before the release, if you have the System Administrator profile, you can expect an email and an in-app notification for the upcoming change.

If there are any issues during the transition, you’ll see an in-app error message and receive an email. You will still be able to send campaigns, but you will not get full access to the improved consent data tools. For further assistance, contact Salesforce Support. Learn how to contact support. 

What action do I take?

After the upgrade, stop using Data Loader to write directly to the Communication Subscription Consent object. You should also stop using any custom scripts to update consent data or repurpose them to use the consent status flow control.