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Synchronized Data Sources in Contact Builder
Synchronized Data Sources in Contact Builder bring data from Salesforce into Marketing Cloud Engagement. At defined time intervals, they synchronize data from your Salesforce account, including data schemas and relationships previously established in your Salesforce CRM account.
Prerequisites for Synchronized Data Sources
To use Synchronized Data Sources, your account must use Contact Builder and Marketing Cloud Connect (version 5). Contact your account executive to turn on Synchronized Data Sources.
Make sure that you have an active Salesforce System User account and that you know the password.
When integrating multiple business units in your account, use a single integration user for up to five business units.
To decrease system load, implement your Sales or Service Cloud org and wait for the data to populate before setting up your Synchronized Data Sources.
Synchronization and Synchronized Data Sources
Use information from Sales Cloud and Service Cloud sources as part of your marketing activities.
- Personalize content with up-to-date information from multiple sources.
- Create dynamic content based on information from multiple sources.
- Import additional information from Salesforce custom objects.
- Track synchronization progress by using an activity log and Contact Builder.
To minimize timeouts and support more consistent performance and stability while synchronizing data, limit each refresh cycle to six synchronized objects at a time.
Multi-Org and Synchronized Data Sources
When using Synchronized Data Sources, a single active Salesforce system user can connect to multiple Engagement business units. Each business unit that connects using the same active Salesforce system user integrates by using the same data model. That integration makes sure that the integrated business units receive the same data synchronized from Sales Cloud and can access that data for use in marketing activities. Actions that update a data source, such as adding or removing a field, reflect in all business units integrated with the Salesforce system user.
Because these actions can affect multiple business units, be aware of the implications of any data source change in a multi-org environment. In a multi-org environment, we support up to five business units with the same tracking user. Using more than five business units can degrade and negatively impact the servers.
Time Zones and Synchronized Data Sources
Synced data and time information changes to United States Central Standard Time (CST) when it’s stored in Engagement. For example, a birthday stored as 09/29/2019 00:00 AM in Sales Cloud in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) changes to 09/28/2019 07:00 PM in Marketing Cloud.
Records in synced data extensions always appear in CST, regardless of the time zone set for your user in other parts of the Engagement app. Use an offset when you manipulate date and time information that’s synced from Sales Cloud to Engagement.
- Implement Synchronized Data Sources in Contact Builder
Implement Synchronized Data Sources in Contact Builder. - Create Synchronized Data Sources in Contact Builder
After you integrate Marketing Cloud Connect and link a data source in Contact Builder, your synchronized data source appears in the Data Sources section. This process takes some time to complete. - Edit Synchronization Settings
Edit synchronization settings in Contact Builder for a previously configured data source. You can filter how often synchronization occurs and filter the record collection. Editing an already synchronized object causes a refresh for that object. - Interact with Synchronized Data Sources
Before you add a data source to Contact Builder, configure the original data source and allow changes to synchronize to Marketing Cloud Engagement. You can’t import data to a synchronized data source from Contact Builder. - Disconnect Synchronized Data Sources
To disconnect synchronized data sources, disconnect Marketing Cloud Connect. As part of this process, Synchronized Data Sources removes all synchronized data extensions, the Contacts attribute group, and the synchronized data source. Only disconnect these tools when necessary, because data is removed from Marketing Cloud Engagement, which can disrupt your marketing activities.
