Connect Your Data Sources

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Connect a Marketing Cloud Engagement account.
  
• Connect Sales Cloud and Service Cloud accounts.
  
• Find information about external connectors.
  

Data Cloud Connections

Data Cloud is all about … wait for it … data. And to get the benefits of Data Cloud, you need to connect your data regardless of where that data lives. Connections to those data sources are made in Data Cloud Setup by a system admin. So even if you don’t have credentials, you’ll need to gather that information from your colleagues before you set up your sources. In this unit, we cover some Salesforce integrations and then share how you can find all the possible external integrations and connectors.

Connect Marketing Cloud Engagement

Let’s start by connecting a Marketing Cloud Engagement account. First, you should confirm a few prerequisites for your Marketing Cloud Engagement account. To complete the connection, you need to have admin access to Marketing Cloud Engagement. Your Marketing Cloud Engagement account also needs to default to the EID (the topmost parent business unit) to access each of the child business units to be used in activation.

Once confirmed, you can move forward. From within your Data Cloud account, follow these steps to connect to Marketing Cloud Engagement. 

1. From Data Cloud Setup, under Salesforce Integrations and Marketing, select Marketing Cloud Engagement.
   
2. Under Configuration, click
   

Step 1: Enter Credentials

1. To connect your Marketing Cloud Engagement account, click Manage. 
   
2. Enter your Marketing Cloud Engagement admin username and password.
   

Step 1 is done. Making progress. 

If you are having an issue connecting, confirm you are connecting to a Marketing Cloud Engagement account with admin user credentials.                

Step 2: Data Source Setup

Now it’s time to connect and configure the data bundles under Data Source Setup. Before we get too far, you should know that starter data bundles are pre-modeled standardized data sets and are available for Marketing Cloud Engagement Email Studio, MobileConnect, and MobilePush.

1. Click Manage to select data bundles to import into Data Cloud.
   
2. Select the bundles you want from: Email, MobileConnect, MobilePush, and WhatsApp. These sources are auto-selected for import, but only select the data bundles of the channels you currently use.
   
3. Click Start to confirm the bundles for import.
   

Want to know more about what data is mapped in the bundles? Check out the help documentation forthe data bundles.

Now it’s time to confirm the business units that can provide data to a Data Cloud account. 

1. Click Manage to select business units to ingest data from.
   
2. Use the arrows to add or remove business units to the Selected Business Units (BUs) field.
   
3. Click Save.
   

After configuring your data bundles, Data Cloud creates a set of automations and automation activities in Marketing Cloud Engagement Automation Studio. These automations transfer data between the two products. Make sure to tell your Marketing Cloud Engagement users that they shouldn’t alter or edit these activities.

Step 3: Business Unit Activation Setup

Step one and two are complete. Decide which business units you want to use Data Cloud segments.

1. Click Manage to select which of your available Marketing Cloud Engagement business units to activate.
   
2. Use the arrows to add or remove business units to the Selected business units field.
   
3. Click Save.
   

Once you see a 100% completion in your progress bar, your implementation is complete. Woo-hoo!

Connect Sales Cloud and Service Cloud

Ready to connect your Sales Cloud and Service Cloud accounts? The account you are logged into is pre-connected, but if you have additional orgs or a sandbox org you need to connect, follow these steps.  

1. From Data Cloud Setup, under Salesforce Integrations, select Salesforce CRM.
   
2. Click New from the Connectors section.
   
3. Select either Connect to a Salesforce Org or Connect to a Sandbox Org, then click Next.
   
4. Create a Connection Alias and then click Proceed.
   
5. Log in to the org using your Salesforce credentials.
   The login for a Salesforce production or developer org is https://salesforce.com. The login for a sandbox org is https://test.salesforce.com.
   
6. Click Allow in the Allow Access menu.
   

Your org is now available from the Salesforce CRM Connectors page.

Standard Data Bundles

After connected, you can install standard (sometimes called starter) data bundles to quickly deploy data within Data Cloud. A data bundle automatically maps Salesforce objects to the Data Cloud data model object (DMO) structure. You can also customize a bundle.

1. Under Standard Data Bundles, click the dropdown arrow for either Sales Cloud or Service Cloud and click Install.
   
2. In the data kit install window, select Install for Admins Only and click Install.
   
3. When the installation completes, click Done.
   

Learn more about Salesforce CRM connections on the help page. 

External Connectors

In addition to Salesforce integrations, there are hundreds of available connectors and integrations. Connectors allow data to be ingested and stored in Data Cloud or simply create a zero copy connection using data federation. Each type of connector requires slightly different implementation steps, so be sure to review the documentation to know what information is needed to establish the initial connection. Bookmark this page to find all the connectors and associated documentation.

What’s Next: Data Spaces and Next Steps

Now that you are connected, in the next unit we cover data spaces and other key topics you should know as a Data Cloud admin.

Resources

• Salesforce Help: Data Mapping
• Salesforce Help: Set Up Marketing Cloud Engagement Connection
• Salesforce Help: Set Up Salesforce CRM Connection
• Salesforce Help: Data Cloud: Connectors and Integrations