Your Daily Pardot Checklist

As an Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) freelancer working across multiple client instances, I’ve developed a consistent set of checks I perform each time I log in. While each client setup is unique and the frequency of logins can vary there are a few key areas I always review to stay on top of performance, deliverability, and data hygiene.

Here’s my go-to daily Pardot login checklist:

1. Form Activity

• Check Form Submissions

  • Review new leads or entries submitted via Pardot forms.

• Review Completion Actions

  • Ensure associated completion actions are firing correctly.

• Monitor for Junk Submissions

  • Identify any spam or junk entries that slipped through.

  • Take appropriate action to clean or block as needed.

2. New Prospects

• View New Prospects

  • Filter for Set desired timeframe (e.g., Today, Yesterday or Past 7 Days).

  • Look for any irregularities in the list.

• Identify Source of Prospect Creation

  • Pardot created prospects, through Pardot assets will have a Last Activity Date

  • Salesforce created prospects (new Leads/Contacts) won’t have a Last Activity Date

    Note: This method depends on whether Pardot sends comms on lead/contact creation.

• Investigate Unusual Trends

  • If there’s a spike in created records, do a deeper investigation.

3. Sync Errors with Salesforce

• Monitor Pardot-Salesforce Connector

  • Check for any sync errors between Pardot and Salesforce.

  • Resolve issues preventing leads or contacts from syncing properly.

• Review Field Mapping

  • Look for any recent changes that may have caused field mapping issues.

  • Ensure all mapped fields are syncing correctly.

Monitor Email Sending & Deliverability

• Check Sent Email Reports

  • Review recent email sends.

  • Look at key metrics: open rates, click rates, and bounce rates.

• Identify Issues with Deliverability

  • Look for high hard bounce or unsubscribes and spam complaint rates.

  • Investigate potential issues with list quality.

• Review Scheduled Emails

  • Confirm all scheduled sends are correct.

  • Ensure nothing unexpected is queued for sending.

5. Campaign Performance

• Review Campaign Engagement

  • Check engagement metrics in both Pardot and Salesforce.

  • Prioritise high-activity campaigns and/or new campaigns for detailed review.

• Validate Campaign Attribution

  • Ensure leads are being correctly attributed to the appropriate campaigns.

  • ⚠️ Note: Attribution cannot be changed after an email send., so if you have a series of emails scheduled and you notice one went out associated to the incorrect campaign, there’s nothing you can do to change the asset association, but you can use this to check other emails scheduled to go.

6. Check Active Engagement Studio Programs

• Review Program Statistics

  • Ensure emails within Engagement Programs are being delivered successfully.

  • Check for engagement

• Look for Program Errors

  • Identify any steps that are stuck, paused, or not functioning as expected.

• Confirm Recent Additions to Lists or Segments

  • Validate that dynamic list logic is working correctly.