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Guide: Set Up Account Engagement+
Whether you are setting up Marketing Cloud Account Engagement+ for the first time or enhancing your current implementation, it’s important to tackle configuration tasks in a specific order. This guide outlines common, required tasks, but doesn’t include every configuration option. Always review the provided Salesforce Help topics and resources for more information and in-depth steps.
Two Apps?
When you renew or purchase Account Engagement, you get the Account Engagement app and the next-gen Marketing app in Lightning Experience. In addition to the B2B marketing capabilities you know, the next-gen app offers unified data foundations, expanded messaging channels, and Agentforce productivity tools.
Watch on YouTube: What’s Next for Account Engagement
1. Planning and Strategy
Gather your team to talk through your implementation needs, strategies, and tactics. This section provides some guidance about the types of considerations to discuss before you begin.
Before you start, we recommend identifying stakeholders in these roles.
- Data Manager
- Someone who understands and configures identity resolution, data streams, data model, and data graphs.
- Marketing Admin
- A marketing lead who knows what marketers need and manages your marketing assets and automations.
- Salesforce Admin
- This power user is familiar with the Salesforce Platform, and manages licenses and your CRM objects.
- Compliance Lead
- A compliance-minded thinker on your team, who guides decisions regarding how you manage consent across Account Engagement and next-gen email.
Discuss how you plan to use these apps together and which to use as your single source of truth for certain functions. As of Winter ’26, we recommend following this scenario:
- Salesforce CRM is your source for people details, including prospects, leads, and contacts.
- Account Engagement is your source for scoring and grading information.
- Data 360 is the aggregation layer that can read both data sources. Through data mapping and building data graphs, you can read available data and act on it.
- To help comply with consent regulations, you can match email consent records between the two apps.
Next, verify that you have these prerequisites in place. Current customers don't need to reinstall the package and can start at Step 2.
| Task | Location | Learn More |
|---|---|---|
1. Install the package Install the Account Engagement managed package and grant access to admins only. For new customers, this task is a prerequisite to all other configuration work. Skip this step if you already use Account Engagement. |
Don’t use the main AppExchange site. |
Help: Install the AppExchange Package for Account Engagement |
2. Verify your licenses Confirm that you have the no-cost Salesforce Foundations add-on, and a Marketing Cloud Next Growth or Advanced edition license. |
Your account executive can help you confirm or change your licenses. | n/a |
3. Protect your data Turn on the Data Protection and Privacy setting in Salesforce Setup. This setting is a prerequisite for configuring consent tools. |
Salesforce Setup | Help: Getting Started with Marketing Cloud Next |
4. Prepare for user access If you haven't already, activate Salesforce User Sync, so that you can apply Salesforce permission sets to Account Engagement users. In a new org, User Sync isn't fully active. For new customers, transfer user management to Salesforce first, and then create users and add permissions. |
Transfer management at Assign user permissions at |
Help: Transfer User Management to Salesforce Help: User Permissions in Marketing Cloud Next Help: Manage User Access |
5. Add integration permissions To move data among Salesforce apps, add the Account Engagement Connector User permission set to the B2BMA Integration User. |
Help: Assign the Connector User Permission Set |
We recommend that you don’t yet implement multiple business units. However, you can start planning your business units and data partitioning strategy now.
2. Begin Setup for Next-Gen Tools
You're ready to set up domain authentication and configure Marketing Cloud Next, so that the foundation for next-gen functionality is available for the connections that you make from Account Engagement later.
| Task | Location | Learn More |
|---|---|---|
1. Enable Marketing Cloud Next Complete the prerequisites to enable Marketing Cloud Next, including turning on Data 360. Most of these tasks initiate automatically, but you must select the data space to use for marketing. |
Help: Getting Started with Marketing Cloud Next | |
2. Deploy Marketing data streams Create and connect necessary objects and fields by deploying a collection of preconfigured data kits. |
Help: Install and Deploy Data Streams | |
3. Verify fields and mapping Open the Sales and Service data streams in Data 360, and make sure that source fields are mapped to Lead and Contact DMOs. |
Help: Create a Data Stream and Add Fields for Contacts and Leads | |
4. Authenticate an email sending domain Next-gen email sending is powered by Unified Messaging, which is different from the current Account Engagement system. Get details from the Messaging setup section, and work with your IT team to update records with your domain registrar. |
Salesforce SetupAuthenticated Domains | Help: Authenticate a Domain for Unified Messaging |
5. Verify a tracker domain To report on the activity that’s related to the links and forms you build, verify a tracker domain in Account Engagement. |
Help: Add a Tracker Domain in Account Engagement | |
6. Set up Salesforce CMS Next-gen tools store assets in CMS workspaces, which have separate settings and user roles. |
Help: Add Workspace Contributors to Marketing Cloud Next Help: Add Site Contributors |
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7. Review the Email Preference Page Your org contains a default preference page, which includes a B2B marketing subscription. You can add or remove subscriptions now or later. |
Help: Edit a Default Preference Page | |
8. Create a domain reputation warming plan After you authenticate a domain in Unified Messaging, establish your email sending reputation by creating a warming plan. |
Your implementation partner or account executive | Help: Reputation Warming |
9. Enable predictive AI features To use predictive AI features, such as Send Time Optimization and Metrics Guard, review the policies and turn them on. |
Salesforce Setup | Help: Enable AI Features |
3. Connect Data 360
Now you’re ready to set up the connections between Account Engagement and Data 360. If your org already uses the v2 Salesforce connector, skip to Step 2.
| Task | Location | Learn More |
|---|---|---|
1. Set up the Salesforce v2 connector in Account Engagement At first login, this connector is paused. To allow Account Engagement data to sync to Salesforce, verify that your connector user has the Account Engagement Connector User permission set, and unpause the connector. |
Help: Configure and Unpause the Salesforce v2 Connector | |
2. Add the Data Cloud connector To ingest and organize Account Engagement data in Data 360, add the connector in Salesforce Setup. |
Help: Configure the Data 360 Connector in Account Engagement | |
3. Deploy Account Engagement data kits Create these marketing data streams: email activity, forms, landing pages, and prospects. As you go, match the refresh schedules with your settings on the Marketing Cloud Next data streams. |
Help: Ingest Prospect Data |
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4. Map Data 360 objects Connect Account Engagement data to the Individual object that identifies people in Marketing Cloud Next. From the Contact and Lead data lake objects (DLOs), click Review, and map necessary fields to the Individual data model object (DMO). |
and |
Video: What are DLOs and DMOs? Video: Custom Fields for Segmentation (jump to 2:25) |
4. Resolve and Harmonize Data
Salesforce's next-gen capabilities are built on Data 360, which supports the ingestion and structuring of data from multiple sources. During this phase, you can decide how to relate objects and prioritize data from different sources.
| Task | Location | Learn More |
|---|---|---|
1. Add Identity Resolution rulesets Decide how to identify related person data, such as exact or fuzzy matching on name, email address, or phone number. Then, generate the recommended ruleset from the Basic Settings page. |
Help: Configure and Unpause the Salesforce v2 Connector Appendix: Merge Conflicts |
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2. Create at least one data graph Data graphs organize and provide data to the next-gen tools that you use to create dynamic and personalized content. Decide how different object data relates to the Individual object, and add those relationships to a data graph. |
Help: Set Up Personalization Features in Marketing Cloud Next |
5. Consent Alignment
When you first start sending messages with Account Engagement+, you can choose between original Account Engagement tools and the next-gen toolset in the Marketing app. The two systems manage consent differently, and must be aligned, which you can turn on as part of your implementation.
The B2B Email Consent subscription is a unified container for consent data, which saves the Prospect Email Opted Out status for all subscriptions. Over time, when consent status changes via either app, Data 360 evaluates and stores the newest data.
You can monitor progress in Data Explorer, which displays up to 100 records at a time. For greater visibility, an admin can use Data Cloud Query API.
| Task | Location | Learn More |
|---|---|---|
1. Set up consent matching To connect Account Engagement subscriptions to your default B2B email subscription, select a match option. If you don't plan to use Account Engagement builders or lists, you can skip this step. |
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2. Make a note of your settings After you understand how data is shared and stored in each app, document the configuration for future imports and updates. |
n/a | Knowledge: Understanding Consent Differences Between Apps Help: Understanding Consent Concepts in Marketing Cloud Next |
3. Import consent data To import consent data to Marketing Cloud Next, download the sample CSV file and make sure that timestamps are formatted correctly. |
6. Marketing Settings and Assets
At this point, you’re ready to move on to the settings and tasks that support your ongoing marketing efforts, such as web tracking and asset management.
| Task | Location | Learn More |
|---|---|---|
1. Configure web tracking Create site connectors, and copy the provided next-gen tracking script into the
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Help: Configure Web Tracking | |
2. Copy files to Salesforce CMS If you have any list emails or images in Account Engagement that you want to use with next-gen tools, use Copy to CMS. Review the new versions and update any formatting issues that can appear during translation. |
Help: Prepare Content for Marketing Cloud Next | |
3. Create forms with next-gen tools Unfortunately, forms aren’t copied with the other assets and must be rebuilt. For existing customers, we recommend practicing the new tools by creating one of your priority lead capture forms. |
Help: Create and Manage a Form Help: Create and Manage a Form |
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4. Share CMS workspaces To share Account Engagement assets or content repositories with other parts of your business, configure workspace sharing in Salesforce CMS. |
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5. Install analytics dashboards Review the prerequisites and install Marketing Performance. The default dashboards use the Calculated Insights you configured earlier–allow up to 24 hours for that data to appear. |
Help: Set Up Marketing Performance |
Appendix: Data Sync Alignment
Occasionally, data from Account Engagement, Marketing Cloud Next, and Data 360 can come into conflict and you must make manual updates.
GDPR: Right to be Forgotten
When you delete a prospect in Account Engagement, it isn’t automatically deleted in Marketing Cloud Next or Data 360.
After you delete a prospect in Account Engagement, a Data Cloud Architect must delete the individual record and consent data from the Profile Explorer. See Account Engagement Opted Out Sync Behavior Overview in Salesforce Knowledge.
Reacquired or “Ghost” Leads
Remember to manually remove prospect data from Data 360 when needed.
When someone whose data is already in your system submits a new lead capture form, Data 360 recognizes their email address and overwrites their consent status to Opted Out. To capture updated consent, include an explicit Opt In checkbox in every lead capture form. See Understanding Consent Differences in Knowledge.
Merge Conflicts
Account Engagement supports merging of multiple prospect records, and those updates are typically caught by the identity resolution tool in Data 360. However, this identity resolution is based on the most recent update–lower priority data can be stored over preferred field values if the lower priority fields were updated more recently.
For high-value account merges, we recommend highlighting critical records and manually verifying that the correct data is stored and that any existing consent records aren’t orphaned. See Configure Identity Resolution Rulesets in Salesforce Help.
Messaging Setup and Authentication
Managing email and tracking in Marketing Cloud Next is different from Account Engagement. Here’s an overview of important email setup and authentication terms and setup recommendations.
Email Sending
Behind the scenes, the two apps use a different email sending pipeline and present a different user experience for configuration. Here’s what to know about setting up an authenticated domain.
| In Account Engagement | In Marketing Cloud Next |
|---|---|
Who: An admin and a web administrator Where: What: Add TXT records to DNS configuration. See Implement DKIM Authentication for Account Engagement Email |
Who: An admin and a web administrator Where: What: Delegate a subdomain with your web registrar. |
Tracker Domains
Account Engagement supports configuring a separate domain for web and email link tracking, which is called a tracker domain. It’s typically a subdomain of your authenticated domain, and relies on a CNAME record. In Marketing Cloud Next, an admin must enable web tracking so that a marketer can create tracked links in the Content tab.
