Synchronized Data Sources Best Practices

Synchronize Only Necessary Fields

Synchronize only the information necessary for your Engagement activities because the process required to synchronize more fields slows performance. We recommend no more than 20 fields per object for optimum performance. If more fields are required, limit the maximum number of fields per object to 250.

Add Fields into Your Synchronized Data Sources from the Original Source

Add fields and update rows in your Sales or Service Cloud source before you synchronize the data with Marketing Cloud Engagement. After you complete this process, add the fields within the synchronized data source in Engagement. This best practice prevents synchronizing fields with empty values and then synchronizing more values. You don’t need to refresh or pause your data sources as part of this step.

Delete Fields from Your Engagement Synchronized Data Sources First

Remove the field from your Engagement synchronized data source first before the original source. This step prevents you from including out-of-date data in your marketing activities. When you delete a field from the Salesforce source first, that data remains in the Engagement data source. You receive a warning about the lack of updates, but the most recent version of the synchronized data remains in your account.

Disconnect Your Synchronized Data Sources Connection for Sandbox Instances Only

If you refresh a sandbox instance, disconnect and reconnect your account. Don’t disconnect and reconnect the production account as part of normal business activities.

Pause Your Synchronized Data Sources Connection for Major Changes Only

You can pause your Synchronized Data Sources connection and prevent Engagement from receiving updated information. Only pause when you make significant data or architecture changes to the Salesforce source. After you complete the changes, resume the synchronization process. If the pause lasts longer than 15 days, you must refresh the data source.

Refresh Your Synchronized Data Sources Connection When Necessary

Refreshing a synchronized data source entirely clears the Engagement synchronized data extension and then repopulates the data. To avoid performance issues, only refresh when not performing any sends or automations using this synchronized data source. Any refresh performed in a multi-org environment affects all business units integrated using the same active Salesforce System user. Consider all affected business units before performing the refresh.

Use Synchronized Data Sources in Journey Events

Engagement can’t use synchronized data sources as sendable data extensions. Use a query activity to move information from a synchronized data source into a sendable data extension. Update the result of the query activity to ensure that you use the most up-to-date data.

Share Synchronized Data Sources to Business Units

To make synchronized data available at the business-unit level, use a query activity. Move information from a synchronized data source in the parent account into a shared data extension. Create the query activity that moves the data into a new data extension. Next, share that new data extension to the business unit. Update the result of the query activity to ensure that you use the most up-to-date data.

Avoid Breaking the Synchronized Data Sources Synchronization Process

Don’t rename or change the API name for the Sales or Service Cloud object included in the Synchronized Data Sources synchronization process. Renaming prevents the process from occurring.

Don’t delete the Sales or Service Cloud object used as part of the synchronization process without first pausing the object in Engagement. Otherwise, your account could continue to use out-of-date information in your marketing activities.

Don’t delete any reference ID field from a synchronized Sales or Service Cloud object included in the Synchronized Data Sources synchronization process. This step corrupts the relationships in your synchronized contact model.

If you delete fields not required by Engagement as reference IDs in your Sales or Service Cloud objects, Synchronized Data Sources synchronizes changes without errors. If your contact model requires the deleted field as a reference ID, such as an email address or mobile number, you receive an error. The Activity page logs all actions for review and troubleshooting purposes.

Plan Marketing Activities Around Data Refreshes and Large Updates

When a synchronized data source attempts to add, modify, or delete more that 600,000 rows in a minute, Synchronized Data Sources automatically refreshes the data source. This refresh ensures that all fields within that data source update accurately. This refresh process causes the associated synchronized data extension to contain no information until the refresh process completes. The amount of time necessary to complete the refresh process varies depending on the number of records to update. Ensure that you allow enough time between a bulk update of a synchronized data source and any marketing activities using the synchronized data extension. Otherwise, the marketing activity might not access any data during the scheduled performance time.

Understand How Contact Deletion Functions with Synchronized Data Sources

If you delete contacts in Engagement and a data source synchronizes before the deletion process completes, the process adds a contact record in All Contacts. This record includes an 128-bit UUID. To prevent this occurrence, delete contact records from Sales or Service Cloud before you delete them from Engagement. You can also turn off the data synchronization process for that data source. These new records include the Salesforce ID in the ID field of the synchronized data source. The _contactkey field contains the UUID-style contact key used in All Contacts.

If you stop syncing a contact in Marketing Cloud Engagement, the contact is removed from the synchronized data extensions but not from Contacts. To remove a contact, submit a contact delete request.

Understand How Formula Fields Update with Synchronized Data Sources

Formula fields contained in Synchronized Data Sources update only when an update for another field on the object occurs. Formula fields don’t trigger a change to an object or update last modified date fields. When an update occurs, Marketing Cloud Engagement evaluates and updates all synchronized formula fields for that object as necessary. These evaluations take place for every field update. For best performance, use optimized SOQL statements in synchronized formula fields.

Filter Synchronized Records to Prevent Duplication of Records

Synchronized Data Sources creates separate contact records for each LeadID, ContactID, and UserID that you synchronize from Sales or Service Cloud. You can filter records that don’t include email addresses to prevent creating duplicate entries for the same contact. Use the Record Collection buttons when you create or modify a synchronized data source to implement a filter. For example, you can eliminate imported leads that don’t have an email address, since you can’t send email messages to those contacts. You can also use Boolean values to filter records or sync records created after a specified date to include only the records that are necessary for your use case.

Some users include Apex to populate a Boolean field in Sales Cloud to control which records are synced. For example, Apex can populate a field called Marketable for all records where Email Address is NOT empty. You can then use the Boolean filter in Engagement to import only those records where Marketable equals True. Editing an object that has already been synchronized initiates a refresh for that object.

To optimize performance, we recommend that you use boolean filters exclusively when filtering large data sources. We also recommend that you avoid using date filters with large data sets.